Being in a remote area of Australia, I know the importance of being an active member of the community our accommodation business is in. The people in our neck of the woods help to deliver a great experience to my clients. From the local cafes to the tour operators, we all rely on each other to ensure our businesses survive …
Getting onto Social Media and Conquering Your Fears
When I started getting my business on Social Media I started at zero. No likes, no followers, nothing. I knew that would change eventually as more people found the business online. When I look back where I started I know it wasn’t getting used to the technology or settings things up that scared me, it was putting myself out there. …
Sustainable Experiences: Giving Guests What They Want
The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has declared 2017 the year of sustainable tourism for development, and as such it’s little surprise that upwards of 65% of global travellers indicate they plan to stay at an eco-friendly hotel in 2017. Or that another traveler poll shows high value placed on ‘sustainable travel’ and ‘reducing environmental impact’. As what people …
The Backlash Against Fake Review Culture
The Internet is littered with opinions. From forum comments to Youtube diatribes to Yelp reviews, separating fact from fiction is challenging; and if you’re in the hospitality industry, this deluge of opinions can have particularly serious implications for your business. One estimate says that around 90% of consumers check online reviews before committing to a purchase. This (among other …
Virtually New Vacations: The Rise of Virtual Reality in the Travel Industry
Technology has given people the ability to interact with far-away environments from the comfort of their own lounges. In the tourism industry, Virtual Reality allows prospective vacationers research options and a ‘pre-experience’ to investigate potential holiday spots, from room tours and online destination tours, through to fully immersive holiday experiences. Leading VR creators YouVisit Studios is providing access to the …
If You’re Not Online, You’re out of the Race
Having an online presence should be your top priority in 2017. Studies show that between 70-80% of people research a company online BEFORE visiting the small business or making a purchase with them. In the tourism industry, this is an incredibly important factor to ensure you have high occupancy rates with your accommodation. Listed below are four free and paid …
5 Ways Your Hotel or Park Website is Letting You Down
Everyone’s had the experience. You’re planning a vacation, you’ve got your dates locked down and then you find the perfect place to stay. You eagerly click onto the property’s website only to be confronted by slow load times, broken links, blank pages, dysfunctional widgets and mobile incompatibility. These are all examples of a website flunking at its primary purpose. …
Hospitality Trends: The Social Messaging Gold Rush
Research shows that social messaging is one of the fastest growing behaviors online today. This should come as little surprise with WhatsApp, Wechat, Viber and Facebook Messenger coming to dominate how much of the globe communicates. Look at the daily active user (the lifeblood of any application) totals for any of these platforms and you’ll find them consistently outperforming social …
Why Airbnb Might Not Be as Much of a Threat to Small Hotels as You Think
Airbnb is everywhere. The company, which allows users to rent residential properties from people in most cities has gone mainstream. A few short years ago and this disruptive startup was on the outside, mostly unknown to the world. Times have changed. As of this writing, Airbnb has amassed some truly impressive statistics. An estimated 700,000 hosts in 191 countries, 2.3 …
Inspiring Guests on Social Media
Social media revolutionised marketing, and the hospitality marketing game changed right along with this revolution. One of the key ingredients to hospitality marketing in the age of social media is user-generated content (UGC). This is essentially anything posted firsthand from a customer. It’s unlikely you need any convincing of UGC’s value, but here are a few snippets regardless. According to …