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<p>While the ultimate goal on a hotel website is to drive bookings, there is more behavioral data available in Google Analytics that can help a hotelier make better marketing decisions than looking at just that one item. In this episode, the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast discusses their top 3 GA goals and explains why you should be paying attention to them too.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h2><span class="search-result-link"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/crisis-management-resources-for-hotels-master-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List</a></span></h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/997882963&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=true&amp;show_comments=false&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=false" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:<b> </b></p>
<p>ORIGINAL ARTICLE:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="OWtzQemlCv"><p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/3-most-important-google-analytics-goals-for-hotel-websites/">The 3 Most Important Google Analytics Goals for Hotel Websites</a></p></blockquote>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="&#8220;The 3 Most Important Google Analytics Goals for Hotel Websites&#8221; &#8212; TravelBoom" src="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/3-most-important-google-analytics-goals-for-hotel-websites/embed/#?secret=4ma5EkRM2t#?secret=OWtzQemlCv" data-secret="OWtzQemlCv" width="500" height="282" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></p>
<p>Here are our top 3 Google Analytics goal suggestions:</p>
<h2><b>1 &#8211; Bookings</b></h2>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Even though you are (hopefully) recording ecommerce transactions, setting up a goal for those transactions allows you to create a funnel visualization that can show you the steps from room search through confirmation.</li>
<li aria-level="1">See set up instructions in the full blog post here: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/3-most-important-google-analytics-goals-for-hotel-websites">https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/3-most-important-google-analytics-goals-for-hotel-websites</a></li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>2 &#8211; Entrances to the booking engine</b></h2>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Why would you want to set up a “conversion” as entrances to the booking engine? It’s because not all traffic is created equally. By using a booking engine entry goal, you can quickly assess what traffic sources/entry pages/device type/geo location, etc. are at least getting visitors to the engine.</li>
<li aria-level="1">This goal setup would be similar to how you set up the booking goal, using the “Destination” goal, and determining the page URL that is being passed to Google Analytics when you enter the engine.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I recommend coupling this data with a segment of these same people. Once the segment is applied, you can then see by sources/entry pages, which ones convert best and worst IN the engine. Using both parts of the funnel can give you insight as to the visitors’ journeys.</li>
<li aria-level="1">See images and analysis information in <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/3-most-important-google-analytics-goals-for-hotel-websites">the full blog post</a></li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>3 &#8211; All form submissions</b></h2>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Whether it’s email sign-ups, contact forms, group/events RFPs, or any other form you have on the website, you’ll want to track it as a goal. Setting up these goals can be tricky. Sometimes using the “Destination” setup makes sense and is simple, and other times you may want to use the “Event” setup. In an ideal world (I have yet to see a single client do this), you should assign a real value to the goal completion.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Depending on how these forms are built, you may or may not end up at a “thank you” page when a submission is complete.</li>
<li aria-level="1">See full details of how to set up these different scenarios in <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/3-most-important-google-analytics-goals-for-hotel-websites">the full blog post</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>CAVEATS</b></h2>
<p>1 &#8211; In all goal scenarios, your numbers may not be exactly accurate. A goal conversion will count only once per session. Therefore, if one person makes 2 transactions in the same session, you would see 2 transactions in your ecommerce data, but 1 booking goal conversion.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>2 &#8211; If you are reading this in 2023, all of this is probably out of date, and you should look for another article on conversion goals in GA4.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>Wrapping it up</b></h2>
<p>Goals should not be overlooked as a critical part of your Google Analytics data and website analysis. However, don’t fall into the “the more, the merrier” trap. Instead, determine what is truly an important conversion on the site, vs. a behavior you’re interested in tracking.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>========================</p>
<h2><b>In The Newsaroos:     </b></h2>
<ul>
<li><b>Google Fined In France Over Hotel Star Rankings<br />
</b><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/15/google-slapped-in-france-over-misleading-hotel-star-ratings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/15/google-slapped-in-france-over-misleading-hotel-star-ratings/</a></li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.</p>
<p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/downloads/">IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE</a></p>


Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 178 – Top 3 Google Analytics Goals For Hotel Websites

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<p>During the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, competition is going to be tough. There will likely be less demand and you’ll have to work harder to get people to visit your site. One of the items that should be on everybody’s to-do list right now is to improve your website’s conversion rate. In this episode, we cover some simple things you can implement today to help catch more direct bookings and ensure that you don’t let people bounce away to the OTAs or to your competitors.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h2><span class="search-result-link"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/crisis-management-resources-for-hotels-master-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List</a></span></h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/983681350%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-eZnd2948gpx&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=true&amp;show_comments=false&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=false" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:<b> </b></p>
<h2>How Do I Optimize My Conversion Rate?</h2>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Conversion Rate Optimization begins with understanding the funnel and page flow.
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Understanding your site visitors and their needs throughout the funnel
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">Different pages have different goals. For instance, the goal of your homepage is to nudge the user further down the funnel to, let’s say, a rooms page.
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">The goal of the rooms page is to nudge the user further down the funnel to selecting an individual room.</li>
<li aria-level="4">The goal of the individual room page is to nudge the user into the booking en gine.</li>
<li aria-level="4">The goal of the booking engine is to get the user to purchase.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="3"> When you look at pages of your site as different parts of the funnel you can begin to understand what a user wants during that particular part of their purchase cycle.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="2">Getting Customers Into The Proper Part Of The Funnel
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">This is the art of matching searcher intent. If someone reaches your site through paid ads by searching for a particular keyword, the landing page experience needs to give them exactly what they were looking for.</li>
<li aria-level="3">Let’s say you’re running ads on “Two Bedroom Oceanfront Condos”. Your landing page for that ad needs to feature everything about your two-bedroom condo offerings. It needs to show off the room, the view, the amenities, and even the deals available for booking that room. If you’re sending someone searching for Two Bedroom Condos to your homepage, you&#8217;re probably sacrificing a lot of conversions.</li>
<li aria-level="3">Equally as important to matching the searcher intent is nudging that prospective guest to the next logical part of the funnel, which, in this case, would be the booking engine so they can book your two-bedroom oceanfront condo.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Okay, I Understand My Funnel. What’s Next?</h2>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Next, you must identify which pages on your website currently have the highest conversion rates and which pages to do not.
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Your conversion rate of a page may not always be a purchase. It could mean increasing clicks from a page to another page or even increasing the number of phone calls.</li>
<li aria-level="2">Check out the blog post for detailed instructions on viewing page flow and conversion rates in Google Analytics.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="1">Now that you know which pages are converting well and which ones are not, it’s time to understand why.
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">This is where we begin to use user testing and screen recording tools like Microsoft Clarity.</li>
<li aria-level="2">Observe how users are interacting with your top converting pages as well as the pages that cause the most exits from your site.</li>
<li aria-level="2">Make a list of differences. What is different about the imagery, the copy, CTA placement, CTA messaging, etc?
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">What facets of your top converting pages can you add to your worst converting pages?</li>
<li aria-level="3">Is there additional information you could add to poor converting pages that users may be seeking elsewhere?</li>
<li aria-level="3">Is there a clear next action for the user to take to lead them into the next logical step of the funnel?</li>
<li aria-level="3">Do you have pages that draw a lot of traffic but do not convert into a purchase? How can you turn those site visitors into purchasers?
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">Does it make sense to send them into the booking engine straight away or does it make more sense to push them to another piece of content or page that will help make them a purchaser?</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>I Think I Know What Could Improve Conversion Rate. What’s Next?</h2>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Testing &#8211; The Key To Conversion Rate Optimization
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">CRO is an iterative process and it requires goals.
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">The Tests
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">Ensure you are making one change at a time. If you’re testing a bunch of new items on a page you won’t know what caused the results you are seeing.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="3">Goals
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">Annotate when a change is made, what the specific change was, and what you intend to accomplish with the change.</li>
<li aria-level="4">Provide an ample amount of time so you can generate enough data to make a statistically significant comparison from the day you made the change to a previous period and the previous year.</li>
<li aria-level="4">Your goal doesn’t always have to be directly related to a purchase. Your goal could be reducing the number of exits of a given page, increasing clicks from a page to another page or even increasing the number of phone calls.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="3">Analysis
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">Did the change accomplish your goal? Were there other unintended consequences?
<ul>
<li aria-level="5">Did your change cause a significant change in rank, CTR, page load speed?</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>What Are Some Conversion Rate Optimization Tactics?</h2>
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">
<h3>Page Experience Tactics</h3>
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">1. Make your pages load faster!
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">Nothing kills conversion rates more than slow pages. Users are getting so accustomed to getting what they want instantaneously that if your site is loading slow they will leave and go to an OTA that isn’t slow.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="3">2. Making calls to action more obvious
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">All too often we find hoteliers that are so familiar with their site and they know exactly what to click to get to the next step. That’s not always the case with the prospective guest who is visiting the site for the first time. Watching Microsoft Clarity recordings can shine a light on how users are interacting with a page and if they are scrolling around and looking for a way to move to the next step. This can be as simple as using thumb-friendly buttons rather than text links.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="3">3. Reduce The Number Of Steps Required To Make a Purchase (Generally Speaking)
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">After you have made the path to conversion obvious for the user you should now be thinking of expediting the process by reducing the number of steps required to purchase. Things like auto-populating fields have proven to work well. Be sure you are not asking for more data than you need during the purchase process. Remember, you will have other opportunities to gather additional information after the guest has booked.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="3">4. Create open lines of communication
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">Whether this is a live chat option, or simply adding a clickable phone number strategically throughout the site, make it easy for guests to contact you.</li>
<li aria-level="4">A good example of this is including a clickable phone number to a group or wedding reservation specialist rather than requiring a user to fill out a long RFP. Keep in mind when you do this you will need to consider how you will keep track of those calls so you know if this test actually helped improve the conversion rate.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="3">5. Anticipate the contextual questions and answering them
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">The types of questions, doubts, and concerns that occur are mostly predictable throughout the conversion funnel. For example, when a guest is initially searching, they care about their prerequisite checklist such as free wifi, whether or not breakfast is available and if it’s included. As they get closer to pulling the trigger on a reservation, their questions may turn towards the risk factors, such as whether their credit card data will get stolen or what are the ramifications if the guest changes their mind.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="2">
<h3>Psychological tactics</h3>
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">1. Create a sense of urgency
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">This is one of those proven tactics that not enough hotel websites utilize. There is a reason that every infomercial uses this tactic. It works. Making people feel like they would have to spend more if they don’t book now can have a major impact on your conversion rate. This tactic can be deployed throughout the journey from countdowns in your ad copy, to a matching countdown timer on the website, all the way through to the booking engine.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="3">2. Fear of Missing Out
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">Very similar to creating a sense of urgency, FOMO is a psychological tactic that can greatly improve conversion rates. Adding simple text to your booking engine such as “Only 2 rooms left” can nudge the user into booking now rather than putting it off for another day or two.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="3">3. Adding Reviews and Images as Social Proof
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">We talk about this tactic often and that’s because it can greatly improve conversion rates. When your site visitors see others enjoying time at your property they are more likely to book with you too. Tools like Flip.to allow you to embed positive social media posts from your guests right into your site for prospective guests to see.</li>
<li aria-level="4">You should also have reviews of your property on your site as well. We know how important reviews are to prospective guests and having them on your site reduces the chance that users will leave to read reviews elsewhere.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="3">4. Reinforce Value
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">Don’t lose potential guests by making them question their purchase decision. Your booking experience should include all of the perks &amp; discounts they are getting by booking now.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="3">5. Acknowledge and address fears
<ul>
<li aria-level="4">Now, more than ever, people are afraid of many things. Be aware of what those are and don’t be afraid of talking about them in a proactive and reassuring way.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<h2><b>In The Newsaroos:     </b></h2>
<ul>
<li><b>Wyndham Hotels &amp; Resorts Joins with Rover to Make Pet-Friendly Travel Easier for New Pet Parents<br />
</b><a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wyndham-hotels--resorts-joins-with-rover-to-make-pet-friendly-travel-easier-for-new-pet-parents-301217138.html">https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wyndham-hotels&#8211;resorts-joins-with-rover-to-make-pet-friendly-travel-easier-for-new-pet-parents-301217138.htm</a></li>
<li><b>Google Merging Broad Match Modified Keywords into Phrase Match</b><br />
<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-expands-phrase-match-to-include-broad-match-modifier-traffic-345874">https://searchengineland.com/google-expands-phrase-match-to-include-broad-match-modifier-traffic-345874</a></li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.</p>
<p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/downloads/">IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE</a></p>


Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 177 – Secrets To Optimizing Your Hotel Website Conversion Rate

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<p>At Fuel, we know a thing or two about mobile apps. Our Fuel Mobile App and Digital KEy software has been deployed to dozens of hotels for more than five years and we’ve been selling the system like hotcakes since COVID hit. During that time, we’ve learned quite a bit about the features that guests want and the tactics that help drive more revenue to the properties. In this episode, we discuss some of the must-have functionalities that you need to consider as you look to recover in 2021.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h2><span class="search-result-link"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/crisis-management-resources-for-hotels-master-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List</a></span></h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/983660557&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=true&amp;show_comments=false&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=false" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:<b> </b></p>
<p>Visit <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/five-reasons-you-can-expect-hotel-apps-to-be-required-in-2021/">fueltravel.com/blog/five-reasons-you-can-expect-hotel-apps-to-be-required-in-2021/</a> for the full article on why 2021 is the year your hotel should adopt a mobile app.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>1. Improved Guest Relations</b></h2>
<p>Hotel owners and operators know that when you have happy guests, they tend to come back to see you more often.  Any amenity, marketing effort, or technology should work to serve that goal.</p>
<ol>
<li>A Personalized Experience</li>
<li>Touch-Free Convenience</li>
<li>Easy One-to-One Communication</li>
</ol>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>2. Drive More Incremental Revenue</b></h2>
<p>A savvy hotelier knows that the hotel room is not the only purchase a guest makes, it’s the “first” purchase a guest will make.  Leading the guest down a multiple-conversion path before, during, and after their stay will drive incremental revenue that will help you realize your largest possible RevPAR.</p>
<ol>
<li>Pre Arrival Upgrades</li>
<li>On Property Purchase Opportunities</li>
<li>Late Check-Out and Extended Stays</li>
</ol>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>3. Direct Revenue From Advanced Bookings</b></h2>
<p>Properties that have rolled out an app are seeing approximately $100,000 in passive annual bookings.  These are bookings that have come in simply from a guest having the app on their phone.  Properties that are proactively communicating with guests are seeing significantly more annual revenue.  2020 was a very difficult year, and despite this we have seen direct app revenue growth year over year.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>4. Mobile Apps Are A Touch-Free Solution</b></h2>
<p>Touch-free and contactless have been hot buttons for all of 2020 and the demand by guests to limit person-to-person contact is not going away any time soon.  Just like grocery pickup, working from home, and streaming new movies; we all have found out how awesome it is to bypass the check in line and go right to our hotel rooms.</p>
<ol>
<li>Express Check In</li>
<li>Digital Key</li>
</ol>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>5. Hotel Apps Allow You To Bypass The Traditional Web</b></h2>
<p>In summary, one of the most valuable aspects of an app is that it is outside of the typical web experience meaning you can engage with guests on a more personal level and ways that would never be possible online.</p>
<ol>
<li>No competition from OTAs or Competitors</li>
<li>No additional costs to drive direct bookings from paid clicks or commissions</li>
<li>Ability to proactively reach out to past guests</li>
<li>Ability to create a frictionless shopping and booking experience through saved payments and personal information.</li>
</ol>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>More information about how a mobile app can lead to success for your property:</p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-155-10-reasons-that-your-hotel-needs-a-mobile-app-and-10-must-have-features/">https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-155-10-reasons-that-your-hotel-needs-a-mobile-app-and-10-must-have-features/</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/mobile-app-digital-key/">https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/mobile-app-digital-key/</a></li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<h2><b>In The Newsaroos:     </b></h2>
<ul>
<li><b>RobinHood Breaks The Biggest Rule Of Branding<br />
</b><a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90599456/with-gamestop-robinhood-broke-the-biggest-rule-of-branding">https://www.fastcompany.com/90599456/with-gamestop-robinhood-broke-the-biggest-rule-of-branding</a></li>
<li><b>Google’s alternative to third-party cookies open for advertiser testing in Q2 2021<br />
</b><a href="https://searchengineland.com/googles-alternative-to-third-party-cookies-open-for-advertiser-testing-in-q2-2021-345599">https://searchengineland.com/googles-alternative-to-third-party-cookies-open-for-advertiser-testing-in-q2-2021-345599</a></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">“Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) … effectively hides individuals ‘in the crowd’ and uses on-device processing to keep a person’s web history private on the browser</li>
<li aria-level="1">The FLoC model by Google claims to protect the privacy of the individual but still allows advertisers to see data from the collective.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Google says, “Our tests show that advertisers can expect to see at least 95% of the conversions per dollar spent when compared to cookie-based advertising.”</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.</p>
<p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/downloads/">IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE</a></p>


Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 176 – Is 2021 The Year Of The Mobile App?

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<p>We released the latest findings of version 11 of the Fuel Consumer Sentiment Leisure Travel Study a few weeks ago. Original findings: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-covid-19-consumer-sentiment-study-volume-11/">https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-covid-19-consumer-sentiment-study-volume-11/</a></p>
<p>After reviewing the results, we decided that we needed to take a look at the data segmented by those who said they have traveled during the pandemic and those who have not. Here are the biggest takeaways:</p>
</div>
<h2><span class="search-result-link"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/crisis-management-resources-for-hotels-master-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List</a></span></h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/973878475&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=true&#038;show_comments=false&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=false"></iframe></p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:<b> </b></p>
<p><b>1 &#8211; Do you plan to get a coronavirus vaccination?</b></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">55% of those who had already traveled voted yes vs. 75% who have not</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b>2 &#8211; Do you plan to travel during the upcoming holiday season?</b></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">94% of those who have not already traveled voted no vs. 75% who have</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b>3 &#8211; In 2021, assuming cases are dropping and vaccines are being distributed, when will you likely BEGIN PLANNING your next trip?</b></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">32% of people who have traveled said they would start planning in January, and was by far the most popular answer.</li>
<li aria-level="1">For those who haven’t traveled, the answers were much more evenly distributed, with April taking the top spot with 14% of votes.</li>
<li aria-level="1">When asked about booking their next trip, the answers were very similar, with January being most popular for those who have traveled, and April for those who have not.</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b>4 &#8211; In 2021, assuming cases are dropping and vaccines are being distributed, when will you likely TRAVEL for your next trip?</b></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Those who have traveled leaned significantly heavier to the first 6 months of the year, with June being the peak, accounting for 17% of responses.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Non-travelers’ responses look more like a bell curve, with increases beginning in April, peaking in May with 12% of responses, and tapering throughout the rest of the year. 2022 or later is nearly as popular as May and June, with 11% of responses.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Travelers</b></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-8860" src="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/booking-intent-current-travelers-300x194.png" alt="" width="300" height="194" srcset="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/booking-intent-current-travelers-300x194.png 300w, https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/booking-intent-current-travelers-1024x661.png 1024w, https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/booking-intent-current-travelers-768x496.png 768w, https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/booking-intent-current-travelers.png 1274w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p><b>Non-Travelers</b></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-8859" src="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/booking-intent-non-travelers-300x195.png" alt="" width="300" height="195" srcset="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/booking-intent-non-travelers-300x195.png 300w, https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/booking-intent-non-travelers.png 512w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p><b>5 &#8211; In 2021, do you expect your travel budget/# of trips/vacation days to increase, decrease, or remain the same as it was in 2019?</b></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">In all 3 questions, those that have traveled had a majority of votes for not changing, and more votes for taking/spending more than less. For those who haven’t traveled, less than half voted for unchanged habits and a higher percentage of spending/taking less than more.</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b>6 &#8211; The next time you travel, which of the following would you want the property to communicate to you prior to your stay?</b></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Those who have not yet traveled voted for updated cleaning protocols and local mask requirements as their top choices, with more than 80% of votes each.</li>
<li aria-level="1">For those that have traveled, the open status of local restaurants was #1, with 73% of votes, followed by mask requirements and cleaning protocols, each with under 70% of votes.</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b>7 &#8211; How likely are you to book a trip in the next x number of days?</b></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">65% of people who have not traveled said they would <b>definitely not</b> book a trip in the next 30 days, vs. 28% who have traveled</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b>8 &#8211; On a scale of 0 &#8211; 5, how will the following vaccination scenarios increase your likelihood of booking a vacation within six months? (0 = No Impact, 5 = Dramatically Increase)</b></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">44-47% of people who have already traveled said that the vaccine would have <b>no impact</b> on their likelihood of booking a trip vs. 20-27% for those who have not traveled.</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b>9 &#8211; Pick the top 3 reasons that would prevent you from staying at a hotel right now.</b></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">More than 35% of people who have already traveled said that nothing is preventing them, and was the #1 choice, closely followed by the “have already traveled” choice. Budget concerns came in at #3, with 25% of votes.</li>
<li aria-level="1">For those that didn’t travel, fear of interaction with guests was the resounding top response, with nearly 50% of votes. The next 3 responses were all fear-related (air, room, common areas).</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b>10 &#8211; How soon will you be willing to make the following trips? (distance from home)</b></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Even those who have not traveled voted at 41% within 1 month to travel within 1 hour from home. All other distances were drastically reduced.</li>
<li aria-level="1">66% of those who traveled voted for an hour within 1 month, 53% for 2 hours, and 42% within 3 hours.</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><b>11 &#8211; Which of the following would most likely persuade you to book a future vacation during the coronavirus outbreak?</b></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">70% of those who have traveled wanted flexibility to change. Interestingly, those who haven’t traveled still voted for flexibility as their top response, with more than 50%. However, more than 40% also said they could not be persuaded to book a trip now.</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>========================</p>
<h2><b>In The Newsaroos:     </b></h2>
<ul>
<li><b>DuckDuckGo Passes 100,000,000 daily searches:<br />
</b><a href="https://searchengineland.com/duckduckgos-focus-on-privacy-minded-users-pushes-it-past-100-million-searches-in-a-single-day-345462" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://searchengineland.com/duckduckgos-focus-on-privacy-minded-users-pushes-it-past-100-million-searches-in-a-single-day-345462</a></li>
<li><b>Yelp Launches “Health and Safety” ratings for businesses<br />
</b><a href="https://searchengineland.com/yelp-launches-health-and-safety-measures-community-feedback-feature-345340" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://searchengineland.com/yelp-launches-health-and-safety-measures-community-feedback-feature-345340</a></li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.</p>
<p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/downloads/">IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE</a></p>


Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 175 – 11 Key Differences Between Pandemic Travelers and Non-Travelers

<div class="sc-type-small">This is a back-to-basics episode where the Fueligans discuss 21 tangible tactics that your hotel can implement today. We break the ideas down into categories and go through them in detail. Whether you want to improve your website guest experience, revisit your approach to content, or simply sharpen your pencil on your advertising spend, this episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast has you covered.</div>
<h2><span class="search-result-link"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/crisis-management-resources-for-hotels-master-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List</a></span></h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/968123323&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=true&amp;show_comments=false&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=false" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe><br />
SHOW NOTES:<b> </b></p>
<p>Here&#8217;s our hotel marketing t0-do list for 2021:</p>
<h2><b>Website</b></h2>
<ol>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Do a Monthly Usability Check</b><b><br />
</b>Go through your website and booking engine experience on your mobile device and make a monthly booking, with a real card, to audit the actual customer experience. Google will begin mobile-view indexing in 2021.  Your phone (or mobile emulation) should be your primary way of viewing your site &#8211; like it is for your guests.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Do a Coronavirus Audit</b><b><br />
</b>View your on-site experience through COVID glasses.  What amenities should be changed to work with a more socially-distancing guest?  What signage or processes can you put in place to instill a safe and sanitary environment.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Identify and Fix Your Content Gaps</b><b><br />
</b>Add a keyword search to your website to learn where you have content gaps and fix them by creating new content based on the searched terms.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Provide Accessibility Information</b><b><br />
</b>Add an accessibility page to your site that lists all of the accessibility features your property has to offer</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Continue To Monitor the Site for Accessibility Issues</b><b><br />
</b>Use a tool such as <a href="https://wave.webaim.org/">WAVE</a> or a paid system such as PowerMapper to check your site for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance. Consider hiring a company like InclusiveWeb to do a manual audit and frequent scans. Pro Tip: in many cases, ADA compliance work can be tax-deductible. Contact<a href="https://www.inclusiveweb.co/"> Inclusive Web</a> for more information on this.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Evaluate Your Booking Engine Options</b><br />
No matter how good your website is, a poor booking engine experience may be hurting your conversions. Is your booking engine within your domain? Does it look like the rest of your site? Is it tracking all the things? Now is the time to evaluate this critical piece of your tech stack. (Episode 131 – <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-131-is-it-time-to-re-evaluate-your-booking-engine/">Is It Time To Re-Evaluate Your Booking Engine?</a>)</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Check That Your Analytics Is Working Properly</b><b><br />
</b>Audit your analytics tracking, both on your site, and all ongoing campaigns. Is your entire site tagged correctly, with attribution passing to your analytics system? Are your form submissions being tracked? Is ALL of your paid marketing tagged in a way that is easily identifiable and segmentable in your analytics system? Is anyone stealing attribution? #attributiontheftisreal</li>
</ol>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>Content and SEO</b></h2>
<ol start="8">
<li aria-level="1"><b>Speed Up Your Site</b><br />
Google is rolling out Page Experience as a ranking factor in May. Get your site “up-to-speed” before you start losing rankings to your competitors with similar content but faster sites. (Ep. 160 &#8211; <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-160-googles-latest-ranking-signal-marks-a-new-age-in-seo/">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 160 &#8211; Google&#8217;s Latest Ranking Signal Marks A New Age In SEO</a>)</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Revisit Your Stale Page Titles and META Descriptions. </b><br />
They probably haven’t been updated in years. Test new page titles that will set you apart from the SERP competition and entice users to click. This can help increase your CTR and possibly even rank. Consider adding COVID-related terms regarding safety and cleaning protocols.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Audit Your Old Content. </b><br />
Do you have blog posts you haven’t updated in over a year? We bet there is some new information you could add to those posts to spruce them up for the new year. You can republish them and share them on social media.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Add More internal links</b><br />
While you are refreshing your old blog content see if you have new posts that you could link to or link from your newer posts to this refreshed content.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Encourage Shares of Your New Content</b><br />
When you create new content, make sure you are thinking about sharability/linkability. Don&#8217;t create content just to create content. You should be creating content that your audience will want to consume and share. Your content should also be useful enough that other sites like DMOs would want to share and link to it.</li>
</ol>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>Data &amp; Communication</b></h2>
<ol start="13">
<li aria-level="1"><b>Organize Your Data Collection</b><br />
As third party cookies become less and less usable, first-party data will be key to connecting with your past guests and others who are familiar with your brand. (Ep. 165 &#8211; <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-165-how-to-prepare-for-a-cookieless-world/">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 165 &#8211; How To Prepare For A Cookieless World</a>). Collect info about your guests to create a complete guest profile. Not only their email address but also when they booked, when they stayed, who they stayed with, why they traveled, etc. You also need to know why someone provided information. Was it a requirement or are they looking for more information about your property? You should tailor email and remarketing campaigns to serve the appropriate information at the right time to generate new bookings.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Survey Your Database</b><b><br />
</b>Survey your guests and ask them when they will feel comfortable traveling, what is preventing them from booking, what they want to hear about, etc., and use the data to create content that addresses the specific findings. See Fuel’s<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-covid-19-consumer-sentiment-study-volume-11/"> sentiment studies</a> for question ideas.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Use Social Proof To Encourage Bookings</b><b><br />
</b>Record conversations with the guests that are currently coming and ask them why they are traveling and how safe they feel, use the footage on your site and on your social channels to show non-travelers that it can be safe to travel. Pro Tip: Evaluate the<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fflip.touel-covid-19-consumer-sentiment-study-volume-11/"> Flip.to </a>platform and learn how you can use UGC to encourage people to travel.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Check Your Touchpoints</b><b><br />
</b>Review your welcome, confirmation,b  and pre-arrival emails and update them with relevant coronavirus information. Pro-Tip: keep them updated with real-time information about the local area.</li>
</ol>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>Advertising</b></h2>
<ol start="17">
<li aria-level="1"><b>Make Sure Your Not Wasting Budget On Unnecessary Keywords</b><b><br />
</b>Schedule a monthly review of your Search terms report in Google Ads and add negative keywords to eliminate unqualified searches or remove keywords that you’re wasting money on (or make sure your agency is doing it)</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Update Your Audiences</b><b><br />
</b>Adjust your targeting to focus on drive markets and/or markets that are still able to visit your property based on travel restrictions. This is also ideal for hotels with limited budget. (<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/guide-to-targeting-drive-markets/">A How-To Guide For Targeting Drive Markets</a>)</li>
</ol>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>MISC</b></h2>
<ol start="19">
<li aria-level="1"><b>Be Prepared To Be Agile With Your Rates and Offerings</b><b><br />
</b>Keep a close eye on your rates.  We expect guests to book closer in and a real-time revenue management strategy is more important now than ever (insert COVID catchphrase) In addition, as the coronavirus pandemic evolves, the packages and offers you are promoting may need to shift to cater to the audience expectations.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Allocate Time To Building Partnerships</b><b><br />
</b>Create new partnerships with local businesses and/or leverage old partnerships in new ways. Can you combine your efforts to reach a larger audience and provide more value? Bonus: This can be a great way to get links to your hotel’s website.</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Keep Educating Yourself and Your Team</b><br />
Keep an eye on the broader market and news trends.  Today’s hoteliers are going to need to be more nimble and able to quickly adapt and capitalize on fast-moving trends.  Especially on the web things can change in an instant. For instance, your Parler marketing strategy is now out the window&#8230;</li>
</ol>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>========================</p>
<h2><b>In The Newsaroos:     </b></h2>
<ul>
<li><b>Sandals Resorts Offer Free COVID Testing</b><br />
<a href="https://www.travelweekly.com/Caribbean-Travel/Sandals-Beaches-resorts-offering-free-Covid-testing?ct=hotels" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.travelweekly.com/Caribbean-Travel/Sandals-Beaches-resorts-offering-free-Covid-testing?ct=hotels</a></li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.</p>
<p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/downloads/">IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE</a></p>


Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 174 – 21 Tactical Hotel Marketing Things To Do In 2021

<div class="sc-type-small">
In this episode, the Fueligans break down the latest consumer sentiment study data and discuss the impact that a vaccine is going to have on leisure travel in 2021. While we&#8217;re not out of the woods, there are many positive signs that recovery may be closer for many properties than we may have previously thought.</div>
<h2><span class="search-result-link"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/crisis-management-resources-for-hotels-master-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List</a></span></h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/963548869&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=true&amp;show_comments=false&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=false" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:<b> </b></p>
<p>Check out Volume 11 of the Fuel Leisure Travel Sentiment Study:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="Yi4AwiPgr5"><p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-covid-19-consumer-sentiment-study-volume-11/">Fuel COVID-19 Consumer Sentiment Study Volume 11: Will a Vaccine Bring Back Leisure Travel?</a></p></blockquote>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="&#8220;Fuel COVID-19 Consumer Sentiment Study Volume 11: Will a Vaccine Bring Back Leisure Travel?&#8221; &#8212; TravelBoom" src="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-covid-19-consumer-sentiment-study-volume-11/embed/#?secret=JoA0B5VIzk#?secret=Yi4AwiPgr5" data-secret="Yi4AwiPgr5" width="500" height="282" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></p>
<p>========================</p>
<h2><b>In The Newsaroos:     </b></h2>
<ul>
<li><b>Hoteliers prep for industry’s ‘race’ to ramp up<br />
</b><a href="https://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/306380/Hoteliers-prep-for-industrys-race-to-ramp-up" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/306380/Hoteliers-prep-for-industrys-race-to-ramp-up</a></li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.</p>
<p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/downloads/">IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE</a></p>


Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 173 – Will a Vaccine Bring Back Leisure Travel?

<div>
<div class="sc-type-small">
<div>
<p>As we close on an unprecedented year of turmoil, the Fueligans take time to reflect on the things that we’re thankful for during the past 12-months. Despite the numerous challenges our industry has faced, there are so many things to be thankful for and hopeful for as we look forward to 2021.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h2><span class="search-result-link"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/crisis-management-resources-for-hotels-master-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List</a></span></h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/949431196%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-HjmIOhcuIMl&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=true&amp;show_comments=false&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=false" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:<b> </b></p>
<h3><b>Pete&#8217;s List<br />
</b></h3>
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Finding efficiencies in our businesses and reducing waste
<ol>
<li aria-level="2">from duplicative software and wasteful spending we were able to save money</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li aria-level="1">Recognizing the value of each individual guest
<ol>
<li aria-level="2">We all became boutique hoteliers</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li aria-level="1">Software and Automation Improvements
<ol>
<li aria-level="2">Being able to do more with less and utilizing the tools are our disposal to make the most of our efforts.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li aria-level="1">Looking forward to:
<ol>
<li aria-level="2">Seeing the things I am thankful for in 2020 become the most powerful tools at our disposal.  Most importantly continuing to see the marketing/operations silos being broken down and people working closer together to grow their business.</li>
<li aria-level="2">Getting to know my coworkers/clients better in a more human sense.  We’ve all learned to be more compassionate with each other, more flexible, and more transparent.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><b>Melissa&#8217;s List<br />
</b></h3>
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Transitioning from Adobe Analytics to Google Analytics
<ol>
<li aria-level="2">Saved clients a ton of money</li>
<li aria-level="2">A ton of agita in the short-term, but the right thing to do long-term</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/crisis-management-resources-for-hotels-master-list/">Fuel Consumer Sentiment Study</a>
<ol>
<li aria-level="2">Having our finger on the pulse of leisure travelers throughout the pandemic was invaluable</li>
<li aria-level="2">Sharing this knowledge with our podcast listeners, and other channels like HSMAI and “This Week in Hospitality Marketing.”</li>
<li aria-level="2">BONUS FOR WOMEN &#8211; Women in Hospitality and Travel-Tech on LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/whtt/">https://www.linkedin.com/company/whtt/</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13730672/">https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13730672/</a></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li aria-level="1">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast
<ol>
<li aria-level="2">What else can I say about this? I like to think that this podcast has helped many, many of our listeners get through this pandemic by learning some actionable strategies, and keeping on top of hot topics and trends.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li aria-level="1">Looking forward to:
<ol>
<li aria-level="2">Can’t pick just one thing. Getting back to the office to see my Fueligan crew, traveling, eating at restaurants, clients with full hotels</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<h3><b>Phil&#8217;s List<br />
</b></h3>
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Guest Communication Has Improved
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">The crisis made hotels aware that they need to be active in guest communication.</li>
<li aria-level="2">It seems obvious but many hotels weren’t doing a good job of this pre-2020</li>
<li aria-level="2">COVID restrictions and new policies that HAD to be communicated were communicated. I think many hotels learned that there is real value in reaching out to guests before they visit.
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">I hope this translates into increased communication of things to do, property info, nearby events, etc even after the pandemic passes.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="1">Hospitality Industry Learned to be Hospitable Again
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Though some of this was done out of fear of bad reviews we did see some hotels transform from solely caring about P&amp;L to truly caring and being empathetic to their guests.</li>
<li aria-level="2">We saw tons of hotels allow for flexible and/or free cancellation which seemingly has become the industry norm.</li>
<li aria-level="2">We saw hotels offering discounts and free stays to frontline healthcare workers</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="1">Many hotels began using tactics that will be effective even after we return to “normal”
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Preventing cancellations by offering upgrades, new dates, vouchers, etc</li>
<li aria-level="2">Outreach to cancelled guests through phone &amp; email</li>
<li aria-level="2">Remarketing was used for the first time by many hotels to target cancelled guests and guests who reached the booking engine but didn’t book.
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">Messaging promoted safe travel but in the future we can get more creative</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="2">Specifically targeting certain markets especially drive markets for weekend getaways.</li>
<li aria-level="2">Schoolcations/Workcations</li>
<li aria-level="2">Partnerships with other local businesses</li>
<li aria-level="2">Cross-training employees.. was out of necessity but now hotels should realize that there is real benefit</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="1">What I’m Looking Forward To In 2021
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Other than the travel industry rebounding???</li>
<li aria-level="2">I’m looking forward to hoteliers continuing Guest Communication, keeping hospitality at the forefront and being empathetic to guests, and using their newfound marketing tactics in new ways</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><b>Stuart is Thankful for:</b></h3>
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">The value of relationships, including spending more time with my family, getting to know my clients and partners on a whole new level, leading on people in tough times and supporting them when they needed a helping hand.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Recognizing the importance of education and sharing knowledge with the world. This has been a year where we had to reevaluate everything, throw out our playbooks, and try things we’ve never considered in the past. The work that the Fueligans did on our podcasts and sentiment studies didn’t just shape our strategies but they made a real impact on the entire community.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Appreciating the fundamentals and being more deliberate has been the only way to survive the decrease in demand. Learning to fill our bowl of rice one grain at a time as opposed to the scoops we could generate in the past has been eye-openning and will shape our strategies for years to come. Even when demand picks up, we are better equipped to use deliberate tactics to curate the right audience and drive the right business.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I am wishing for the successful rollout of the coronavirus vaccine and hope that the hospitality industry sets the standard in vaccination adoption and positive sentiment. It is the single best path toward recovery.</li>
</ol>
<p>========================</p>
<h2><b>In The Newsaroos:     </b></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.travelpulse.com/news/entertainment/disney-world-reportedly-adding-digital-masks-to-ride-photos.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.travelpulse.com/news/entertainment/disney-world-reportedly-adding-digital-masks-to-ride-photos.html</a>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Disney wasn’t allowing maskless riders to purchase photos</li>
<li aria-level="1">They are now adding masks digitally so all rider photos are available for purchase</li>
<li aria-level="1">There is something to learn here… Disney wants to normalize mask wearing on their rides. Hotels can take a page from their book and update their photography on their website of guests wearing masks inside the hotel.
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Can accomplish the goal of normalizing masks and shows that masks are required inside</li>
<li aria-level="2">Makes potential guests feel like other guests are taking safety precautions (eliminating “fear of other guests” like we saw in our study)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.</p>
<p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/downloads/">IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE</a></p>


Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 172 – 3 Things We’re Thankful for and 1 Holiday Wish

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<div>
<p>During these tumultuous times, it’s important not to neglect your fundamentals. One of the pillars of effective Search Engine Optimization is backlinks. In this episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, the Fueligans discuss some specific tactics that you can deploy today in an effort to maximize your backlink profile and raise your search engine rankings.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h2><span class="search-result-link"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/crisis-management-resources-for-hotels-master-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List</a></span></h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/949408381%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-yDKMpBgZVLP&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=true&amp;show_comments=false&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=false" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:<b> </b></p>
<p>Original post:</p>
<p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/10-ways-to-identify-link-building-opportunities-for-hotels/">https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/10-ways-to-identify-link-building-opportunities-for-hotels/</a></p>
<h3>1. GOOGLE ALERTS</h3>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Using <a href="http://www.google.com/alerts">Google Alerts</a> is one of the best ways to find out who is mentioning topics relevant to your business.</li>
<li aria-level="2">Free. Simple setup</li>
<li aria-level="2">You can set up different types of Alerts
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">For example, you could set up alerts for video content around a certain topic. You could offer the video creator a secondary text resource that they could link to that has additional information that would supplement the video content.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>2. BRANDMENTIONS</h3>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Offers a new tool called <a href="https://brandmentions.com/brand-tracker/">Brand Tracker</a></li>
<li aria-level="2">Prices start at $99/mo but they are currently offering a free trial.</li>
<li aria-level="2">Similar to Google Alerts but with way more features.
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">Shows mentions over time</li>
<li aria-level="3">Offers a performance score that takes into account shares and domain influence</li>
<li aria-level="3">Shows social mentions</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>3. COMPETITOR LINKS</h3>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Requires paid tools but can be very effective.</li>
<li aria-level="2">We like to use Moz’s link intersect report which allows us to enter two or three competitor domains.
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">This tool then shows which sites are linking to all of those competitor sites.</li>
<li aria-level="3">If they’re linking to multiple competitor sites they should probably be linking to you too.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>4. FINDING BRAND OR URL MISSPELLINGS</h3>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">There are tools to help you find common misspellings of your brand name. (<a href="http://tools.seobook.com/spelling/keywords-typos.cgi">http://tools.seobook.com/spelling/keywords-typos.cgi</a>)</li>
<li aria-level="2">If you put your domain (example: fueltravel with no spaces) and get the common misspellings</li>
<li aria-level="2">Then enter those into an excel sheet. In the next column put your TLD. In our case it’s .com</li>
<li aria-level="2">Concatenate those columns and then enter into a backlink checker you can find sites that tried to link to you but made a mistake. You can then reach out and try to get them to update the link</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>5. USING SEARCH OPERATORS</h3>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Old school tactic but still very effective &#8211; Link: <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/search-operators">https://moz.com/learn/seo/search-operators</a></li>
<li aria-level="2">In a search bar type inurl:(your keyword) to find sites that have your target keyword in their URL</li>
<li aria-level="2">In a search bar type intext:(your keyword) to find sites that have your target keyword on their page</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>6. USING DIRECTORIES</h3>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">First, you should have your UNAP (URL, Name, Address, Phone) submitted to local listing directories.</li>
<li aria-level="2">You can also use directories to find linking and partnership opportunities.</li>
<li aria-level="2">My example in the blog post is a resort in Salt Lake City would want to go to a directory like <a href="https://www.hotfrog.com/">HotFrog</a> and search for Ski Rental companies in Salt Lake City. They could offer a useful piece of content for the ski rental company to link to or they could get in touch with ownership and create a partnership as the official ski rental company for the hotel. This will almost certainly get that ski rental company to link to the hotel website from their site.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>7. MONITOR SOCIAL MEDIA</h3>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Tools like <a href="http://www.socialmention.com/">SocialMention.com</a> (free) and BrandMention’s Brand Tracker can help you monitor mentions of your brand and your top target keywords.</li>
<li aria-level="2">You can also piggyback on the tactics listed above. When you’re creating lists of opportunities through Google Alerts, Brand Mentions, Competitor Links, Search Operators, &amp; directories, you should also be clicking on the Social Media links on their websites and following your targets so you can start creating a relationship via social media.</li>
<li aria-level="2">Once you find out who is talking about you, your niche, or your target niche, you can reach out directly. Connect with them. Interact with them. Establish a relationship with those interested in your business and you could possibly earn links from them in the future.</li>
<li aria-level="2">This is perfect for implementing <a href="http://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/is-youtility-the-future-of-marketing/">Jay Baer’s “Youtility” tactic</a>. Monitoring social media will allow you to see if someone is asking a question that your brand can answer or solve, go help that person!</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>8. BRAND24</h3>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">If you are focusing on twitter, or just want to see who’s tweeting about the things you care about, <a href="https://brand24.com/">Brand24</a>. Brand24 lets you stay on top of what’s being said about you on twitter by letting you track tweets about your name, brand, product, or hashtag.</li>
<li aria-level="2">Side note: Brand24 will give you web mentions so you can find news articles or other mentions across the web that mention your brand.</li>
<li aria-level="2">They do offer a paid version which has many more capabilities.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>9. FOLLOWERWONK</h3>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li aria-level="2"><a href="http://followerwonk.com/">Followerwonk</a> will allow you to dig deeper into your twitter following.</li>
<li aria-level="2">With followerwonk, you can find people to connect with, compare twitter accounts to identify overlaps and target new influencers.</li>
<li aria-level="2">Seeing things like day of the week and time of day people are talking about your brand will help you understand the best times to try and get your content in front of your audience and hopefully some links.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>10. YOUR VENDORS</h3>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Saved the best for last</li>
<li aria-level="2">Generate lists of your operational and marketing vendors</li>
<li aria-level="2">Operations
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">may include housekeeping services, security firms, telephone systems, valet services, food &amp; beverage, cleaning supply companies, in-room amenities (soap/shampoo/coffee/etc.)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="2">Marketing/Software
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">PMS, CRM, marketing agencies, booking engines, radio advertisements, billboards, print,</li>
<li aria-level="3">Tend to be more savvy and may want something in return</li>
<li aria-level="3">Create your very own case study about how that vendor improved your revenue/occupancy/OTA reliance/etc</li>
<li aria-level="3">Sometimes a simple testimonial is sufficient.</li>
<li aria-level="3">Present to your marketing or software vendor and you&#8217;re almost certain to get a link back to your hotel’s website.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<h2><b>In The Newsaroos:     </b></h2>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land, “We’re aware of this incident and are monitoring it closely and are continually working to keep the information on Maps safe and accurate.”</li>
<li aria-level="1">Our advice:
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">Know who has ownership and access to your GMB profile.</li>
<li aria-level="2">If you ever receive a request to manage or to transfer ownership from an unknown person, you should decline the request. The rights to own or manage a Business Profile can only be granted if the verified merchant accepts the request or the requester proves their affiliation with the business.<b>Google My Business Listings Are Being Hijacked. Make sure you aren’t a victim (Ep 171)</b><br />
<a href="https://searchengineland.com/hijacked-google-my-business-listings-appear-to-be-a-growing-problem-343737" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://searchengineland.com/hijacked-google-my-business-listings-appear-to-be-a-growing-problem-343737</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>Man nearly goes to prison for a bad review (Ep 170 &amp; 171)</b><br />
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/world/asia/thailand-review-american-apology.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/world/asia/thailand-review-american-apology.html</a></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Wesley Barnes, the American guest, publicly apologized on Friday for his blunt online reviews of the Sea View Koh Chang resort in Thailand. In exchange, the hotel promised it would drop the complaint that led the authorities in Thailand to file criminal defamation charges against him.</li>
<li aria-level="1">In Thailand, criminal defamation charges can result in a prison term of up to two years. Mr. Barnes had already spent two days in jail after his arrest on those charges last month before posting bail.</li>
<li aria-level="1">After issuing an official apology and stating that the claims he made were untrue, the hotel dropped the charges</li>
<li aria-level="1">There is a lot of criticism of the hotel for even bringing the charges as it could definitely deter people from traveling to Thailand and especially to the Sea View resort</li>
</ul>
<p><b>ReNewsaroo &#8211; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/world/asia/thailand-hotel-tripadvisor-jail.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/world/asia/thailand-hotel-tripadvisor-jail.html</a> </b></li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.</p>
<p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/downloads/">IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE</a></p>


Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 171 – 10 Tools & Tactics To Identify Backlink Opportunities

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<div>
<p>Buckle up, folks. Google Analytics as you know it may be on its way out and will soon be replaced by Google Analytics 4. This completely new product is not an evolution, it is a complete re-architecture of how analytics works. If you’re not informed, you may miss out on a major opportunity for your business.. In this episode, the Fueligans breakdown everything you need to know about the new platform and give you advice on how to navigate the changes.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h2><span class="search-result-link"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/crisis-management-resources-for-hotels-master-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List</a></span></h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/949382359&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=true&amp;show_comments=false&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=false" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:<b> </b></p>
<p>If you have access to a Google Analytics account, you probably received an email from Google near the end of October entitled, “Welcome to the future of Google Analytics.” In it, it said, “we&#8217;re introducing a new, more intelligent Analytics experience that delivers the essential customer insights you need to be ready for whatever comes next. Get started today with just a few clicks.”</p>
<p>You’re probably wondering what this is all about and how it affects your current Google Analytics. Wonder no more.</p>
<p>This is a NEW version of Google Analytics that they have now named GA4 (previously App + Web while in Beta). Why 4? Believe it or not, there have been 3 previous core measurement protocols before this release. The new GA4 is where Google has been spending all of its analytics resources recently. It IS the future for Google from an analytics perspective.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>How is Google Analytics 4 Different from Universal Google Analytics?</b></h2>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">GA4 is completely separate from the “old” Universal Analytics. It will have its own Google Analytics property within your account,</li>
<li aria-level="1">Google claims that we will be able to better track users across multiple devices</li>
<li aria-level="1">This data collection will be free from any cookie issues (listen to the episode on <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-165-how-to-prepare-for-a-cookieless-world/">how to prepare for a cookieless world</a> for more info on why this is important.</li>
<li aria-level="1">It is built with machine learning to automatically find insights from the data (we’ll see about that).</li>
<li aria-level="1">It has a completely new UI, with an incredibly powerful reporting interface. One that is nearly on-par with Adobe Analytics’ Analysis Workspace. The new reporting abilities will allow you to drill down into all depths of your data.</li>
<li aria-level="1">There is a drag and drop interface that allows you to build out custom reports.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">That said, for an average Google Analytics user, this is going to be quite overwhelming. It is not nearly as intuitive as the current reporting interface.  For example, there is no landing page report.</li>
<li aria-level="1">There is no traffic threshold for sampled data, but there is a maximum of 500 unique events (for the free version).</li>
<li aria-level="1"><b>Bounce rate is gone!</b> Instead we have engagement rate/time.</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><b>Great, so let’s get this new, shiny analytics reporting going!</b></h2>
<p>STOP. NOT SO FAST. Let’s look at some repercussions.</p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">This is an entirely new implementation of your website. When Google said, “Get started today with just a few clicks,” they blatantly lied.
<ul>
<li aria-level="2">The ONLY data that will magically appear in your GA4 property when you upgrade are: pageviews, downloads, outbound clicks</li>
<li aria-level="2">Every single other thing that you have already set up tracking for in Universal Analytics has to be set up again, through event-based tracking.
<ul>
<li aria-level="3">Instead of pre-defined types of “hits” like pageviews, ecommerce, and timing, GA4 uses events, along with parameters. These are completely customizable.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li aria-level="1">This will be NEW data &#8211; no retroactive data will carry over into this new property.</li>
<li aria-level="1">There is no such thing as a “view” with these properties. That means that you can no longer have a “raw,” “testing” and “live” view of your data. It also means you can’t have a different view that filters out certain IPs, or focuses on part of your website, or a million other reasons you would have multiple views set up.</li>
<li aria-level="1">There are very limited filters</li>
<li aria-level="1">No query parameter exclusions</li>
<li aria-level="1">There are bugs being fixed and new features being rolled out very quickly right now. eCommerce tracking was just enabled! Cross-domain tracking was just enabled!</li>
<li aria-level="1">There is no API, though it does connect to BigQuery and Google Data Studio</li>
<li aria-level="1">It integrates with Google Ads, but not Google Search Console</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Soooo….What Should You Do?</b></h2>
<ul>
<li>We DO NOT recommend jumping into the deep end of the pool with GA4 right now. The idea of spending hours and hours of implementation time right now, to possibly have to redo that in the near future as more features come out is not appealing. Additionally, <b>you will be dependent on your booking engine provider to provide a solution in order to track revenue.</b></li>
<li>We DO recommend setting up the new GA4 property with the bare-naked tracking. This will give you the opportunity to get familiar with the new reporting interface and play around with all of the advanced features.</li>
<li>DO start thinking about an implementation plan</li>
<li>DO NOT stop collecting data in your existing Google Analytics property. It is NOT dead&#8230;yet. There is no harm in running both UA and GA4 in parallel. At the moment, there is no information about when or if Universal Analytics will stop being supported and/or sunsetted. We assume that this will happen at some point.</li>
<li>DO Be on the lookout for a full blog post on GA4 including fun screenshots in the very near future.</li>
</ul>
<p>Send your feedback to info@travelboommarketing.com</p>
<p>========================</p>
<h2><b>In The Newsaroos:     </b></h2>
<ul>
<li><b>Man nearly goes to prison for a bad review (Ep 170 &amp; 171)</b><br />
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/world/asia/thailand-review-american-apology.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/world/asia/thailand-review-american-apology.html</a></p>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Wesley Barnes, the American guest, publicly apologized on Friday for his blunt online reviews of the Sea View Koh Chang resort in Thailand. In exchange, the hotel promised it would drop the complaint that led the authorities in Thailand to file criminal defamation charges against him.</li>
<li aria-level="1">In Thailand, criminal defamation charges can result in a prison term of up to two years. Mr. Barnes had already spent two days in jail after his arrest on those charges last month before posting bail.</li>
<li aria-level="1">After issuing an official apology and stating that the claims he made were untrue, the hotel dropped the charges</li>
<li aria-level="1">There is a lot of criticism of the hotel for even bringing the charges as it could definitely deter people from traveling to Thailand and especially to the Sea View resort</li>
</ul>
<p><b>ReNewsaroo &#8211; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/world/asia/thailand-hotel-tripadvisor-jail.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/world/asia/thailand-hotel-tripadvisor-jail.html</a> </b></p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.</p>
<p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/downloads/">IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE</a></p>


Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 170 – Is This The Death of Google Analytics?

<div>
<div class="sc-type-small">
<div>
<p>Every hotelier knows about the conversion funnel: potential guests enter your site, shop for a room, and make a booking. BAM! That guest just made it through your conversion funnel and you’re a great marketer who deserves a pat on the back.</p>
<p>That thought process is flawed and in this episode, the Fueligans prove to you that if that’s your perspective of the conversion funnel, you are losing guests and revenue every single day. We are also going to show you how to optimize the rest of your conversion funnel and how to better communicate to your marketing team your true conversion rate.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h2><span class="search-result-link"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/crisis-management-resources-for-hotels-master-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List</a></span></h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/930316528&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=true&#038;show_comments=false&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=false"></iframe><br />
SHOW NOTES:<b> </b></p>
<p>Original Article: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/wake-up-your-post-booking-conversion-rate-is-costing-your-hotel-money/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/wake-up-your-post-booking-conversion-rate-is-costing-your-hotel-money/</a></p>
<p>Send your feedback to info@travelboommarketing.com</p>
<p>========================</p>
<h2><b>In The Newsaroos:     </b></h2>
<ul>
<li><b>Marriott Announces New Day Pass, Stay Pass and Play Pass Packages (episode 169)<br />
</b><a href="https://www.travelpulse.com/news/hotels-and-resorts/marriott-announces-new-day-pass-stay-pass-and-play-pass-packages.html?utm_source=RockCheetah+Hospitality+Update&amp;utm_campaign=b445699949-rhu-273-20201030&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_f0eb611cba-b445699949-500666378" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.travelpulse.com/news/hotels-and-resorts/marriott-announces-new-day-pass-stay-pass-and-play-pass-packages.html?utm_source=RockCheetah+Hospitality+Update&amp;utm_campaign=b445699949-rhu-273-20201030&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_f0eb611cba-b445699949-500666378</a></p>
<ul>
<li>42% of survey respondents say they would consider working from a hotel guest room</li>
<li>The Day Pass version of the program allows travelers to check-in starting at 6 a.m. local time and check out by 6 p.m., with access to Wi-Fi, food and drinks and additional spaces in the hotel.</li>
<li>The Stay Pass combines a Day Pass for work with an overnight stay, while the Play Pass is for those seeking to work while getting away.</li>
</ul>
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<p>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
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<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.</p>
<p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/downloads/">IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE</a></p>


Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 169 – Is Your Post Booking Strategy Costing You Biggly?

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<p>Ladies and gentlemen, 2021 is going to be an exciting year and the budget battles are just starting to heat up. Departments claiming stake to budgets, vendors are jockeying for position, and accounting is demanding POs.</p>
<p>In this episode of the podcast, we’re going to pit the Fueligans against each other to pick the five most effective ways to spend your hotel marketing budgets and one thing you can absolutely cut.</p>
<p>Welcome to the podcast, you can grab a whole seat… but you’ll only need the edge!</p>
<p>Here’s the scenario, you’re the marketing director for the Old Timey Hotel and budgets are tight. You only get to spend your money on five items and because you’re at the Old Timey Hotel, your departments are siloed and operations have their own budgets.</p>
<p>And here’s the twist, because you did such an awesome job with your brand PPC campaign over the past few years, that is already included. What five items are you spending your budget on (not counting brand PPC). What is one thing you spent money on in 2019 and 2020 that you are going to cut?</p>
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<h2><span class="search-result-link"><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/crisis-management-resources-for-hotels-master-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click Here For A Crisis Management Resources For Hotels Master List</a></span></h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/916685257&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=true&amp;show_comments=false&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=false" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe><br />
SHOW NOTES:<b> </b></p>
<p><b>Stuart’s List:</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Guest Experience &amp; Advocacy</li>
<li>Content</li>
<li>CRM</li>
<li>Super fast, mobile-friendly, ADA compliant website with a kick-ass CMS that handles all of the technical SEO stuff and seamlessly integrates with a mobile-first booking engine that utilizes psychology to reduce friction and nudge people through the booking funnel. Oh. And analytics.</li>
<li>Strategic Partnerships</li>
</ol>
<p>Chopping Block: Generic display advertising or anything that steals attribution</p>
<p><b>Pete’s List:</b></p>
<ol>
<li>An Amazing CRM System.  Invest the money in a great CRM that will give you multi-touchpoint tools to target your guests.  This should be your focus to spend the rest of your marketing budget the smartest way possible.</li>
<li>Site Improvements and Focusing on Gen 2 Mobile-first sites</li>
<li><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/services/hotel-meta-search/">Hotel metasearch</a>, such as GHA, TripAdvsior, etc.</li>
<li>Make the most out of your local DMO/Chambers/CVBs and partnerships</li>
<li>SEO &amp; Local listing optimization</li>
</ol>
<p>Chopping Block: Direct Mail</p>
<p><b>Britni’s List:</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Communication &#8211; email, multiple touchpoints, offers, nurturing your data (I liked Pete’s better).</li>
<li>Mobile-first Booking Engine &#8211; just do it.</li>
<li>GHA, TripAdvisor, non-brand PPC &#8211; always be testing</li>
<li>SEO (especially content).</li>
<li>Photography and website updates</li>
</ol>
<p>Chopping Block: Facebook Ads &#8211; specifically promoted posts and like campaigns.</p>
<p><b>Phil’s List:</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Promotion of On-property improvements
<ol>
<li>read your reviews and understand your property’s shortcomings.</li>
<li>After improvement, you need to respond to reviews that criticized what you’ve fixed</li>
<li>Photograph your improvements and promote on your website, social, email, etc</li>
<li>Include Recently Renovated in your search ad copy</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Page Speed Improvements
<ol>
<li>Whether it be a new site, or drastically improving your existing site by focusing on<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-160-googles-latest-ranking-signal-marks-a-new-age-in-seo/"> Core Web Vitals</a> improvements, this needs to be a priority before it becomes a ranking factor</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Switch to a better booking engine
<ol>
<li>Preferably the Fuel Booking Engine, but your booking engine should at least check off what was covered in<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-131-is-it-time-to-re-evaluate-your-booking-engine/"> Episode 131</a>
<ol>
<li>Does it provide the analytics you need?</li>
<li>Is it a good user experience?</li>
<li>Does it support you and your business?</li>
<li>Does it play well with other platforms?</li>
<li>Will your current engine get you sued?</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Non-Brand PPC
<ol>
<li>Budget for exploratory campaigns like display remarketing, discovery campaigns &amp; video. these will generate lower returns but are great for awareness. Using a non-last click attribution model can help give a better idea of true awareness</li>
<li>This doesn’t need to be exclusively on Google. If you have a visually stunning property you may want to test some PPC ads on platforms like Pinterest.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Employ someone to focus on first party data
<ol>
<li>They should be creating a collection plan
<ol>
<li>what to collect, where to collect it, know why it’s being collected</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>they should be in charge of organizing &amp; segmenting the database
<ol>
<li>a central location to house full guest profiles for both marketing and operational use</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Securing this data
<ol>
<li>Keeping only what you need and keeping it secure</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Distributing necessary data to appropriate teams.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Chopping Block:</p>
<ul>
<li>Like Ads on Facebook
<ul>
<li>There are many more important things to focus on than paying to build a social media following.</li>
<li>There are free ways to do this that can be more effective.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Send your feedback to info@travelboommarketing.com</p>
<p>========================</p>
<h2><b>In The Newsaroos:     </b></h2>
<ul>
<li><b>Justice Department charges Google with multiple violations of federal antitrust law</b>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/20/google-antitrust-doj-lawsuit/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/20/google-antitrust-doj-lawsuit/</a></li>
</ul>
<p>========================</li>
</ul>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a> or info@travelboommarketing.com.</p>
<p><a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/downloads/">IN ADDITION TO THE PODCAST WE HAVE A BUNCH OF WHITEPAPERS AND STUDIES YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE</a></p>


Hotel Marketing Podcast

Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 178 – Top 3 Google Analytics Goals For Hotel Websites

Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 177 – Secrets To Optimizing Your Hotel Website Conversion Rate

Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 176 – Is 2021 The Year Of The Mobile App?

Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 175 – 11 Key Differences Between Pandemic Travelers and Non-Travelers

Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 174 – 21 Tactical Hotel Marketing Things To Do In 2021

Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 173 – Will a Vaccine Bring Back Leisure Travel?

Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 172 – 3 Things We’re Thankful for and 1 Holiday Wish

Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 171 – 10 Tools & Tactics To Identify Backlink Opportunities

Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 170 – Is This The Death of Google Analytics?

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 169 – Is Your Post Booking Strategy Costing You Biggly?

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 169 – Is Your Post Booking Strategy Costing You Biggly?

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 168 – 5 Things To Invest In And 1 Thing To Cut From Your 2021 Marketing Budget

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