2012 Digital trends: What lies ahead for the hotel and lodging industry

by Frank Reeves

The past year has seen the growth of all things digital in the hotel industry as we have become ever more social online, developed an addiction to the group buying concept of Groupon and Living Social, seen the emergence of the personalized web, and we continue to watch and wait for mobile commerce to truly take off.

With the pace of digital change more accelerated than ever before, so too has our behavior and expectations as online consumers. The challenge for today’s hoteliers will be possessing the flexibility to change and adapt quickly as well as the ability to constantly learn and apply new found knowledge. Avvio’s focus is continuous innovation to exploit these new platforms as opportunities for growing hotels’ direct business. Information, exploration and strategy are the key to unlocking the potential of what these new digital developments have to offer the hotel industry.

I’ve noted a few areas for hoteliers to consider for the year ahead.

1. eCommerce on Social (Social Commerce)

The introduction of iframes within Facebook has made fully integrated e-commerce (or Social Commerce) common place. This development has given the Facebook user the comfort, confidence and security to purchase within the Facebook environment. The opportunity in Facebook alone reaches over 155 million in the United States. Social commerce is now a reality and the hotels that invest in growing their communities and keeping them engaged will triumph as the winners in the social hospitality world.

It’s essential to create a social media policy for your business before you create your social strategy, which should be implemented in phases; measuring your successes at each step. See conversions from social by adopting a ‘sharable-content’ philosophy and encourage interaction and bookings through social channels.

2. The science of user experience and conversion.

A recent study by iPerceptions reports that while web visitors still find price important when booking accommodation, they place a growing value on website effectiveness and a seamless booking experience. Google too are moving towards measuring engagement and penalizing poor usability and high bounce rates with lower search rankings. Usability and conversion is a science to the OTA’s who spend huge sums in this area to study test and monitor their conversion progress.

Therefore, creating a website and booking experience that is intuitive from start to finish needs to be a priority. A usability audit on your hotel’s brand site and booking process is as a good place to start.

3. Mobile Commerce

According to Comscore, over 5 million use mobile for travel services which is up 46% since March 2010, this means your hospitality business needs to optimize for this customer . It is also widely speculated that Google will soon rank mobile optimized sites higher to users searching on mobile devices.

On-the-go mobile users want information that is fast, bite-sized, relevant to their needs and easily found through search. Consider what information you provide and the usability of this for the customer as well as where mobile advertising sits in your online marketing budget. While booking volumes still remain low,some channel shift is expected and mobile is now a part of a hotel’s marketing plan.

4. Group Buying Sites

The strength and rapid growth of group buying sites over the last year has seen the likes of Groupon make an average of $3.5 million every three days. The average group buying site consumer is incredibly deal hungry, they are flexible on date and location, and they don’t have a preference over their location or the hotel.

This customer typically has low brand loyalty and is price-focused so caution is required if hotels venture into offering deals. The key being to to capitalize on the new audience, encourage reviews and entice them into your social media community; ultimately to encourage them to visit you again.

5. Google tools are becoming a dominant force in travel.

Google tools are fast becoming a dominant force in travel, with the newest addition, Google Hotel Finder, currently in experiential mode and only available to US hotels. Google Hotel Finder gives users a clean, uncluttered and intuitive tool to search , group and book hotels in a Google Maps based format.

For more information on how to optimize your Google Hotel Finder listing please read our recent recent blog post: Google Hotel Finder and what it means for your hotel.

Google +1 is a serious attempt by Google to break into social media and spells interesting times ahead in the area of Search and Social. The anticipation of Google’s business profiles this autumn, promises to bring advantages to business that are found wanting in Facebook and will certainly impact search.

Right now, your hotel should add the +1 button to your website and the person responsible for your social media should become familiar with a Google +1 personal account to ensure you are ready for the arrival of the business profile. Read our recent blog for more information on Google plus and what you should know.