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2012 Meetings Market Trends Survey Mar 12, 2012: More than 800 meeting planners share their opinions on how 2012 will shape up for the industry
These are important insighs, even if your hotel does host meetings but is affected by market trends

How 'Fresh' is Your Hotel Website? Mar 12, 2012: Every year, Google makes more than 500 updates to its search algorithm. The most significant update in 2011 was the Google Panda Update, now in version 2.5, which made most hotel websites obsolete by introducing very strict requirements for content, interactivity, and page download speeds. This required sites to generate engaging and unique website content (as opposed to bland, old and tired content) that would intrigue users and increase the site’s 'stickiness'.

April-June Unique Holidays 2nd Quarter Mar 11, 2012: These lists include ideas that could be used for special promotions, celebrations or non-traditional events at your hospitality business.
These calendars show monthly, weekly and daily events.
Creativity is important and you want to stand out and be remembered!

Targeting Ancillary Revenue Growth in a Feasible Way Mar 9, 2012: As ancillary is ancillary, not the core business - the guiding principle is that as long as the ancillary products can add value to customers and bottom line with marginal revenue out weighing total marginal costs involved, it’s a good product to offer and core business will be beneficial”. Is it the right way of assessing ancillary revenue today?

How To Find The Hotel Social Media Superfans in 3 easy steps Mar 9, 2012: With Social Media there has evolved a new expression for the ideal customer. This expression is Superfans. Who are they? Where are they? Why should Hotels connect with them?

They are the customers that get completely involved with your brand, and will go out of their way stay with your Hotel Brand. Up until now Hotels has used their reward programs to identify these customers.
Social Media brings us closer to these customers. And we now have a great new tool to identify their wants and needs. Read on for details

Is Your Hotel Innovative or Just Another Commodity? Mar 8, 2012: For several years, I have been cautioning hotel owners and managers to be creative and inspirational in their hotels. The dangers of consumers selecting hotels on the basis of primarily price has continued to increase, and the reality of many hotels becoming a commodity is very real. This short piece from Fast Company Editor Robert Safian offers some excellent insights.

Dr. John Hogan, CEO HospitalityEducators.com

9 Hot Facebook-Marketing Tips for Small Business Mar 7, 2012: OPEN Forum - Social Media for Business 2012
Learn which social media tools are best for your business, whether or not you should buy Facebook fans and much more.
Read more

U.S. Travel, on the Power of Face to Face Mar 5, 2012: Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, spoke recently at the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Leadership Conference, and addressed the issue of whether social media would hurt the meetings industry.

Understanding Your Customers: Segmentation trends and Group vs. transient Mar 3, 2012

Jan Freitag, Senior VP, Global Development, STR and
HotelNewsNow.com columnist provides specifics on how to measure the market segment bases that are likely to help you succeed in 2012 and the future.

Group versus transient

Creating a Culture of Innovation Mar 2, 2012: An interview with David Kester, Chief Executive, Design Council. To foster a culture of innovation, managers must look outward to identify consumers' problems and spark ideas for solving those problems. They must also ease employees' fear of change.

A Simple and Often Overlooked Way to Increase Business. Mar 2, 2012: Are you working to increase the group and/or convention business at your hotel?
Not every group limits their hotel usage to large convention hotels and in fact, many larger groups look to offer a range of property types, amenities and pricing options. Smaller groups often elect to choose different types of properties as they work to build or maintain attendance.

Indispensable: How To Become The Company That Your Customers Can't Live Without

Building customer loyalty today requires far more than good service, competitive pricing and attentive sales contacts. In the rapidly changing global market, avoiding the dangers of becoming a commodity is reaching critical stages of reality.