Hotel Brand Management

So this is the first one. There are two things that I am passionate about Hotels & Marketing; that’s what this blog will be about. I am a senior at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. I have worked in large beach resorts, urban chic hotels, timeshare properties, and small Inns. At those properties I have created promotional material, worked in co-branding projects, implemented standard operating procedures to standardize the brand internally, and managed my own projects.

Why talk about hotel brand management and marketing strategy? There’s a lot that can be done to improve it. Once I heard that your only marketing strategy is the one the consumer sees. When it comes to hotel marketing strategies, rarely do you see one that does not look like all the other ones. For a long time, hotel marketing (at the corporate level) has become a cat & mouse game, where one brand will implement a strategy and everyone else will simply copy it (especially at upscale & higher hotel brands). Be it the bed wars, the loyalty program wars, or another replicable strategy. This only makes the brands blur in the consumer’s mind.

At least that’s how I see it, I might be wrong, but I plan to find out if I’m not.

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Social Media + Hospitality

A recent study by The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University constitutes one of the first pieces of empirical research on the effect social media has on hotel purchasing decisions by different market segments. The report titled How Travelers use Online and Social Media Channels to Make Hotel-choice Decisions takes a snapshot of the rapidly changing field of how consumers gather information and make their decisions regarding travel purchases, based on responses of 2,830 recent travelers. This report is particularly helpful in that it gathered findings based on the guest's market segment and reports how a channels importance varies according to the stage in the decision process. "Business travelers often use the hotel recommended by their company, although many of them use search engines or online travel agents for their hotel search. Recommendations of friends and colleagues are less important to business travelers than they are to leisure travelers

Seven Weeks of Modest Occupancy Growth for US Hotels

Weekly US Hotel Demand Update: Week-ending May 20th was the 7th straight week of modest occupancy improvement; at 35%, up from a low of 21% on April 11th. Despite the increase, this is still a 70% RevPAR decline vs last year. April closed out with the worst RevPAR decline ever, down 80% in the US. Driven by declines north of 90% at Upper Upscale & Luxury properties. Top 25 markets continue to be heavily impacted. Finally, on the development front, the pipeline has peaked, with a number of projects on early stages moving to abandoned or postponed. Originally from LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andres-orta-travels_us-hotel-performance-results-april-2020-activity-6672148618444701697-FUlL

United Airlines' loyalty program worth $22B

United Airlines values its loyalty program at $22B, Skift reports. Opening the secret box to the industry's most valuable assets... its loyalty member audience and point currency. As the travel landscape changes, companies will have to look at ways to leverage their loyalty program members as an addressable audience in new ways without eroding trust. Not since Air Canada sold (and then bought back) its loyalty program, have we had such a public view of the revenue-generating power of loyalty. United's program generated 12% of the airline's total revenue in 2019, you bet that number will be much higher in 2020, and they will be looking for ways to continue to grow that number. Important to note that hotel companies have turned to their loyalty programs as for financing as well, by pre-selling points to their credit card partners. Both Hilton and Marriott have presold close to $1B dollars each. Will we start valuing travel companies by the size of their loyalty program

HOSPITALITY BRAND

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