Heads in Beds Magazine

The Only Hotelier Publication Dedicated to Driving More Bookings To UK Hotels

Heads in Beds Magazine February 2014

Is your front desk draining

cash?

L

ast month my well publicized experiment drew in lots of attention. It demonstrated that 100% of the independent hotels we tested were losing money on the front desk.

If you missed it, here’s what we did. Annetta called 20 independent hotels at random explaining she was

Inside this month P.6: 14 Digital Marketing Trends

looking for a room next weekend and whether the hotel could accommodate them. She then ended the call after a few minutes of conversation explaining that she had a few more hotels to call and she would call back if she decided to book.

The startling results demonstrated that…

P.10: Mark Perl - The Impeccable Host!

P.15: Facebook Ads P.18: Google PLUS

1 hotel is losing money by not answering the phone AND not responding to the voice message Annetta proceeded to leave.

1 hotel is losing money by being too busy to stop and chat to an interested customer, hastening Annetta to call back later.

18 hotels are losing money by spending 3-4 mins explaining why their hotel is a great place to stay but FAILING to take some information from Annetta and follow up. fi

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Just to be clear – a warm enquiry landed on their business that day, not one hotel took the initiative to proactively turn that warm enquiry into a sale.

Of course what should have happened is for a) each hotel offer to send some more information across via email and captured the email and phone from Annetta b) the email should have contained the promised extra info, along with an added-value offer with a deadline to take Annetta off the fence c) that email should have been followed up with a phone call a couple of days later, asking if Annetta had made a decision, and if the email was received.

Now I’m not claiming to offer any entrepreneurial brilliance here, no hightech, state-of-the-art business wizardry. Just plain old common sense that could be costing your busy four or five figures worth of income every year.

Because you see, what 18 of these hotels have done is left Annetta’s business to chance.

They’ve hung up, hoping she’ll book.

THIS IS A BIG PROBLEM.

Almost every independent hotel I speak with wants more direct business – well ignore all the marketing strategy, forget the social media scheduled postings, do away with the fancy revenue management forecasting system – if you want more direct, commission-free, high margin bookings in your hotel, make sure your staff are standing over the phone with a tightly knitted net ready and waiting to capture the important information of the important callers who are on the verge of booking with you.

If you suspect this is the case in your hotel – plug the hole right away because without question its costing you considerable 4-figure sums every year.

Capture every sale and have a great month!

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Quotes su m o f Su cce ss is th e eated re p s m a ll e ffo rt s – y out. d a y in a n d d a

Robert Co llie

r

n ’t ex pe ct C u st o m e rs d o T h e y d o e ct. y ou to be pe rf f ix t hin g s ex pe ct y ou to w ro n g. wh e n t h e y g o

Donald Po rt British Airwer, V.P. ays

s d o n ’t Ex ce lle nt f irm ce – o n ly e lle n be li e ve in ex c p ro ve m e nt in co n st a nt im ch a n g e. a n d co n st a nt

Tom Peters

New to the Hotelier Library this month...

I

t’s been a busy month for The Hotelier Library – the UK’s most comprehensive resource for independent hoteliers.

Have a good dig round some of the interviews and webinars and my personal favourite this month is the “FREE Direct Bookings Blueprint”. We created this after “the experiment” was conducted. It showcases

the 8-steps to driving more direct bookings for free toy your hotel.

Some of these steps could have an immediate effect – I’m talking a few hours.

Others may take some time to have an impact. I strongly urge you to spend 15-20 mins reading through, asking yourself some tough questions where you need to.

THIS MONTH’S NEW MEMBERS

A very warm welcome to the newest members of the Hotelier Circle!

Lucy Nelson

Philip Lomax

John Greggory

Adriane Willings Sarah Bevens Frank Smith

Jessica Anderson Bob Sillings

Tim Kilsworth

Paul Lemmings Olivia Purchase Tom Carey

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Contents Page 5 Heaven & Hell Manchester’s best B&B & London’s Worst Hilton Page 6 Hotel News Review 14 Digital Marketing Trends and what Groupon did next

Page 8 Wow Moment of the Month If you have a Car Park, you’ll want to give this one a go Page 13 Direct Bookings Q&A Page 14 Ridiculous Reviews Page 15 Have You Tried…

Facebook Ads – the lowdown on driving

bookings through Facebook PPC

Page 18 Business Lesson of the Month Why you’re wasting money by not having a VA Page 18 Google PLUS The lowdown on Google’s social network

PAGE 10

THE BIG INTERVIEW

Former Hotelier turned best-selling author Mark Perl talks about Impeccable Hosting.

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Page 20 Google Affluent Traveller report Page 22 Hotel Quiz Page 23 Your action List Page 24 Next month

P.8

Heaven & Hell

Heaven

Ivy Mount Guest House If you’re looking for a wonderful example of brilliant social media marketing, I urge you to follow @ivymount3335 named as “Manchester’s Best B&B”. I’ve been following owner Paul’s small B&B just outside Manchester’s city centre for some time now and the impact social media is having on his business is clear. With 9,139 followers this 12-bedroom property has surpassed itself in its ability to get the most from the communication channel of Twitter.

What I found more impressive however is his use of himself to promote the property. His Twitter handle image is of himself looking very welcoming.

His 160 character description explains that “I love my job” and when you pop over to the website the video on the front page is simply of him showing off the benefits of choosing his hotel. It’s simple and superb.

Look out for this video in a WOW TV episode soon, it’s a wonderful example of simple marketing executed brilliantly with personality come across in spades.

Hell

A Hilton in London I’ll be vague on this one – it has to do with their events business.

One day a few months ago, I conducted a few meetings and televised interviews and wanted a nice room to film and entertain in. This particular Hilton was in the ideal location so I decided to book. The buying process was a little disjointed but all in all I had minimal complaints. On the day, the staff were literally useless. All but one of my guests mentioned (without any prompting) how ruddy-well miserable the front desk staff were. I had to continually ask for refreshments that had been pre-ordered and no one popped in to see if everything was going ok.

The above is pretty bad that’s not what I’m interested in. What concerns me more than any of the low-paid part-time staff that didn’t do their jobs to the best of their ability, is the full-time, wellpaid sales staff who’s job it is fill those rooms. I spent a total of £700 with Hilton that day – more than most of their guests do one in stay. My office is based in London – they know this from the invoice – so the likelihood of me

buying again is quite high. To this day I have not had a thank you, I have not had been added to any email for recent clients – worse still: no one has emailed or called asking me if I would like to book again!? Now it could be that they are just busy and don’t need the business but on the basis that my booking was made a few days before arriving and there was plenty of availability, I find it very unlikely. This Hilton have failed on three levels: 1) terrible service 2) no appreciation of my custom 3) no attempt to get me spend again.

It’s worthy of some careful thought this point – if you fail on one of those three you’re unlikely to get a repeat sale.

Bedroom Filler Fact If you own or run a small hotel, your ability to convey personality is wonderful asset that should be exploited. If you were looking for a B&B in Manchester who wouldn’t want to buy from the charismatic chap who loves his job!?

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Hotel News Review HOTELMARKETING.COM LAST MONTH FEATURED THE TOP 14 HOTEL MARKETING TRENDS ACCORDING TO NET AFFINITY. IF YOU MISSED THE ARTICLE, IT’S WELL WORTH YOUR CONSIDERATION: 1. Continued Growth of Mobile: Mobile Hotel Bookings will continue to grow stronger throughout 2014, with a prediction that 50% of direct online bookings will be made via mobile devices by 2017. Source: Daily Travel News"

2. Engagement through Video: Video usage is growing at a fast pace. In 2013, 81% of online travel bookers consulted videos before purchasing products.

Source: The 2013 Traveller, Eye for Travel" 3. Not Provided Keywords: Currently 80% of google searches are recorded as 'not provided' keywords. By Q1 2014, it is predicted that Google will encrypt 100% of keyword searches- Say goodbye to organic keyword data.

4. Customised ReMarketing: 96% of people who visit a website leave without converting.

Remarketing allows you to target these people & bring them back. 2014 will see more customised remarketing audiences.

Source: The Moz Blog 5. OTA'S v Direct Bookings: Travellers are hit with 20+ sites before they make a booking decision. For 2014, Meta-search, social media & a strong brand website will provide great opportunity in competing with OTA’s & gain more direct bookings.

6. Meta Search: Today we are witnessing an explosion of meta search travel sites and features. For 2014, Meta search marketing should be included in hoteliers’ efforts to shift share away from the OTAs to their online direct channels.

7. Semantic Search: In 2014, Search will develop further with Semantic Search, which seeks to improve search accuracy by understanding searcher intent & the contextual meaning.

8. Google Carousel for Hotels: The Carousel is currently live in Europe for location & events based searches, 2014 will bring the google carousel for hotel related searches (already live in the USA)" 9. The New Multi-Screen World: 2014 is the year of multi-screen marketing, with travellers moving across devices to complete bookings.

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looking at the start of Groupon moving away from its daily deals and closer to competing with Booking.com or Expedia for customers’ business.

As it grows - which it undoubtedly will – the importance of driving more direct bookings increases. In the Hotelier 11. Growing Importance of Google Plus: Google Plus will be the social network for Library, we’ve just posted a report of ‘8 steps to driving more direct bookings’.

SEO growth during 2014 - evolving into Check it out. google carousel, local searches and “Marketers are losing patience with google now".

Social Media”…

I laughed out loud when I saw this. The 12. Deeper use of Analytics: Google article went on to talk about how Analytics Improvement’s released in marketing professionals from across the recent months should see marketers getting deeper into analytics during 2014" travel industry are not achieving the desired results from social media.

It reminded me of a saying by a chap 13. Website Site Speed: Site speed has called Nigel Botterill – one my business always had some effect on search engine results however it’s rumoured that 2014 will idols. He calls it Bananarama Fever – referencing the famous line “It ain’t what see site speed having a more significant you do, it’s the way that you do it – that’s effect on your search engine rankings. what gets results.”

Rather then losing patience with social 14. Geo-Targeting: Geo Targeting is set for media – and I know some members fall into huge growth throughout 2014. The hotel this camp – I would strongly recommend industry needs to see the potential with you acknowledge that there are many hotels this targeted marketing method. who making a killing from social media. If they can do it, why can’t you? Well you can GROUPON ADDS 20,000 HOTELS TO but it means studying what they’re doing.

ITS GETAWAYS MARKETPLACE Identifying why they’ve made it so effective and So it looks like Groupon implementing things wants a slice of the everyday until it works for you. bookings pie, having There’s no magic recently acquired last formula, just learning minute booking platform from the best and good Blink recently. While this old fashioned doing. new service is only going to Because believe me, when be available in the US and you get it right, it’s worth it!

Canada, we could be 10. Social Media Marketing: 2014 will be the year to increase website traffic via social media. Search engines are favouring social media sites within search results more than ever before"

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WowMoment

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of the Month

I

f your hotel is not centrally located and has a car park used by most guests; pay attention to this WOW Moment, because it represents an opportunity to WOW your guests before they’ve even walked through the door.

First point: when your customer is booking, ask them if they wish to use the car park during their stay; if so, what is the registration number plate of the car they will be arriving in. Some guests may be booking way in advance, or plan to rent a car and won’t necessarily know this information.

That’s ok; just don’t make it a mandatory field throughout the booking process.

Second point: collate and print out the names and the corresponding registration numbers of the guests who will be arriving each day. Make

sure this is listed alphabetical order in terms of registration number.

Third point: hand that list to the concierge or at reception. This works best when you have a CCTV camera showing cars entering the car park.

When the designated member of staff sees a car entering the car park, he/she quickly identifies the name of the guest who the car belongs to. They head into the car park and greet the guest with the following sentence: ‘Good afternoon Mr

WOW MOMENT 16

CAR PARK GREETI N

G

Hamadache, welcome to Made Up Hotel, can I help you with your bags?’

No guest will ever expect this and it is one of the most powerful demonstrations that: a) You’re a switched on hotel b) You put the guest first c) Your staff are exceptionally helpful and friendly.

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BIG interview

The

Mark Perl, former Hotelier turned best-selling author This month’s BIG interview is with the wonderfully charismatic Mark Perl. A former hotelier and hospitality GM himself, Mark’s the author of two critically acclaimed books The Impeccable Host and The Impeccable Planner. The premise of these useful titles is to equip corporate hospitality buyers and hosts with the structure to knowhow to ensure that an ROI is derived from it. Having been on both sides of the hotel industry fence, we delve a little into Mark’s experience to uncover just what independent hoteliers can be doing more of to grow their businesses.

MARK FROM YOUR TIME IN THE INDUSTRY, WHAT DO YOU PERCEIVE THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY TO BE? IS IT FALLING BEHIND? IS IT DOING GREAT? WHAT IS THE CONSENSUS? I think that in the last 10 to 15 years things have moved on at a

tremendous pace in the industry.

There has been a huge amount of change and obviously the emergence of social media and online has made everything much more frenetic.

From my experience the biggest change that has been impacted has been the margin, and I think everybody is struggling, everybody is crying, everybody is feeling pressurised and I think that takes itself not only to the margins that companies are able to yield out of it but it is also the salaries of the people are working inside of it all of which are being crushed and it is having an effect from top to bottom.

WHAT ARE THE COMMON MISTAKES YOU SEE HOTELS MAKING WHEN IT COMES TO SELLING EVENTS AND CONFERENCES? Well I have been on both sides of

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this. I have been on the side from the operators point of view, so back in the day when my hair was the same colour as yours, I used to be General Manager of the Catering at Sandown Park Racecourse – 26 days racing, enormous function rooms for the balance of the year. General Manager for Wembley Conference and Exhibition Centre which at the time was the largest conference and exhibition centre in London and various other venues both here and abroad so I can see it from an operators point of view some of the mistakes that the operators were making but my experience now on the other side where I am booking rooms, I am booking events, I am booking training, is I find the whole experience has started to become very electronic focused. So everybody is focused on developing a fantastic website and

developing brilliant systems where you can tick this box or you can tick that box, and everything is about the electronic communication and in fact, I don’t know, most people must admit in their social conversations that everything is so call centre focused that our joke today is I wish I could get to speak to a human being and in booking events I find a tremendous amount of work is done – five or six emails – on form filling, and that is not a nourishing thing for me as a client and in the end it actually becomes a little bit frustrating.

So I think there are a few things; they have got to step out of the business and say right what is it that we have been doing and be very, very clear on the current state of play and be very honest.

They should look and say what am I doing now and am I happy with the results? Because the first sign of madness is repeating what you have been doing and expecting a different result to come out of it. So this about working in the business and working on the business, this is the moment when you have got to step out and work on the business.

WE ALL KNOW THAT THERE IS AN AWFUL LOT OF MONEY IN CORPORATE HOSPITALITY WHEN YOU GET THE RIGHT CLIENTS WHO ARE WILLING TO SPEND BIG. WHAT CAN INDEPENDENT HOTELS BE DOING MORE OF TO WIN A SLICE OF THAT CORPORATE PIE? Interesting. I think if you go and look at the independent hotels there are a lot of fantastic facilities out there and they are empty, so I think that there is this moment where they have got to realise what have they got to do differently. I see a lot of people doing the same as they have always done which means they are probably getting less of what they have got already.

SO MANY OF OUR MEMBERS ARE INDEPENDENT HOTELIERS. HAVING BEEN IN THEIR SHOES AND NOW STEPPED AWAY FROM IT IS THERE ANY ADVICE YOU COULD OFFER THAT HINDSIGHT HAS HELPED YOU SEE? I think there is a lot of working in the business and it is hard and it is long and I think that advantage and gain can be had in literally blocking time in the operators diary, in the hoteliers diary – it’s a hard life - to be able to step out from the business and work on the business and when I say work on the business so much has changed in the last 10 years I would ask each person the rhetorical question what have you been doing every month to

sharpen your saw? What have you been reading to sharpen your saw on internet marketing, on social media, on relationship development, on service orientation, on new ways of doing the business? What have they been reading? What training?

Ask an individual when was the last time they spent money on themselves for self-development and whether that is buying a book and taking the time out to read it and then consider it and then implement it.

I had a phone call this week from an American businessman.

In my book The Impeccable Host I have a guarantee which is very simple – if you don’t think you get what it says on the cover I will give you your money back and I will give you your postage as well, so I get a phone call from a guy in America who used the book and did a turnaround $9 million – I am in shock and he wanted to pick up the phone to tell me and he said I could have sent you an email, I could have done this or I could have done that but I just wanted to tell you that I implemented. So here is a guy, a Managing Director of a fragrance company based in New Jersey who not only took the time to read the book but now is taking the time to implement.

So I would look at the hotelier and say how many books do you read in a year? When was the fi

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last time you took time to read and book and then that essential trickle down that comes from new understanding, a new insight – you have to give that a moment to percolate and then to be able to say with that new insight how can I bring that insight into my business and turn it into pounds, shillings and pence? What can I be doing differently in the way I handle my staff, in the way I handle my business, in the way I handle my marketing, in the way I handle my clients, in the way I handle my delivery? So let them be honest and say to themselves when was the last time they did that and they are so busy running the business, and you know there is a difference between working hard and working smart, and I think they need to find time every night to block time out.

MARK HOW IMPORTANT IS DELIVERING A WOW EXPERIENCE TO THE LONG TERM SUCCESS OF A HOTEL IN THE UK? Me personally as a traveller – I do a lot of international travel and I travel up and down the highways and byways of the UK a lot delivering training, delivering talks, master of ceremonies events so I am all over the place and the wow factor is the thing that makes the difference.

At the end of the day if

someone is on my agenda as the traveller – I don’t want to be away from home, I don’t want to be away from my wife, if you have got dogs I don’t want to be away from my pets, if you have got children I don’t want to be away from my children so the travel bit makes us successful but it is not where we want to be so the important thing is are you on my agenda? How are you making me feel? How are you wowing me and that can be when I am… often I am doing a talk in London and doing something the next day in Manchester three and a half hours away so I finish the talk in London, schmooze the client in London for a bit, do a bit of networking and maybe have a little drink and then battle in the traffic and three and a half hours later I am tired and I want to have a shower and sharpen myself again to get going the next day whether it is for a business meeting, a presentation, whether I am doing training, whatever it is that

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I am doing and it is exactly the same for other business people.

The difference is how do you make me feel from the moment I check in. Some of those experiences are okay and in fact most of the experiences are okay and very, very few of them are the wow but it is the wow in the moment of advocacy with Twitter, with Facebook, with LinkedIn, with Trip Advisor – it is the wow that will go up onto those platforms and then the really bad experience because actually people think… hotels and other service providers think that by giving good service that is enough to stimulate advocacy and it is not. The wow experience, the over and above, the extra mile, the cherry on top of the cream – I expect cream on my cake but are you providing me with the cherry? It is only the cherry that I am going to talk about and if it is not the cherry I am going to talk about it is going to be the fingernail that I actually found, so it is the one extreme or the other. Good service is not enough to be able to generate the right advocacy that you need so I think the wow experience is everything.

For more information about The Impeccable Host and Mark Perl’s services, visit www.MarkPerl.com

Q&A

Direct Bookings are hard to come by - Adam answers your questions about OTAs and TripAdvisor Business Listings. If you have a question you’d like featured, simply email: wow@wowguest.com I’m paying far too much commission to the OTAs. How can I get more direct bookings?

There’s really only TWO ways to drive more direct bookings – via your telephone and via your website. What this month’s experiment (see front page article) has shown is that most independent hotels are not doing enough to secure bookings on the phone. Which is bonkers, because you’d be partially forgiven for not getting your website doing what it should due to tech problems, cost, lack of know-how etc. But if you’re missing phone calls, or answering phone calls but haven’t got the time to chat to a warm prospect or, as the experiment illustrated, not capturing key customer information that will allow you to follow up – then you have to ask yourself how much do you want more

promote special offers.

TripAdvisor prices the listing based on the size of your hotel and location of it. I’ve seen Business Listings priced between £200 per year all the way up and including £10,000 per month. You really need to look at how much TripAdvisor want to charge you, then estimate how much extra zerocommission business you could potentially get from it and go from there. What I will stress however is that it is certainly worthy of consideration – driving I’m thinking about buying more direct business to a a TripAdvisor business hotel is right up there on listing – is it worth it? the priority list of most Really good question that, and sadly the best answer I hoteliers I speak with and the prospective leads don’t can offer is “it depends”. come much warmer than TripAdvisor business listings allow you track and those actively checking you measure traffic on your TA out on TripAdvisor – my advice is that if the page, as well importantly allowing you to stick a link numbers add up: go for it – fish where the fish are. to your website and direct bookings? Make sure you have right procedures and briefing inplace because that little black box that rings in the front desk is worth £THOUSANDS to you, and in most cases, it’s losing hoteliers money.

For my “FREE Direct Bookings Blueprint” – take a look in the Hotelier Library. This guide provides the “8 Steps” to deriving maximum direct bookings into your hotel.

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Ridiculous Reviews

This month, we’ve collated some cracking guest reviews proving that you just can’t please everyone, and there are people working in our industry who really need a career change!

y ou h a n g o s u o y t a g utin e r st a rts sho viou r, a n d t h e n wh e n g a n a m t h ig be h a uty n t a n d the d t h reate nin g in h it la p w k m c o c a b a t o y o u r d oo r u sly ca ll o ma ke t o d u ll n a in a c t h n u o o in c y e o t n n e e ph o r him Hon e stly, wh wit h a mo bil n e ce ssa ry fo y y o ll b a e ll re e it b a is e, ice d u ri n g t h e s e n ds h rv e k s o o st u p t h e p h on h e e st h t fa the e phon e off ct t h at wa s fa n I you lea ve t h e? d a ir ntin u e his t to fu rt h e r co whole st a y.

e.

p y h e h t e v e li Don’t be

I’d rath er slee p on th e st re et

This is by far the worst pla ce I’v e sta yed in. I fou nd a cat’s pa w in my pillowca se. Also ha d ch est of dra we rs wit h no dra we rs in the m, a cu pboa rd wit h no ba ck, a double bed the size of a ha mmock ma de of con crete.

ive s n e p x E d n a l u f Aw s a wfu l a n d

ta ble wa in g T h e cook for ou r th e en d of th e bor t A y. lit a on rs pe la ck ed e were a ll lookin g w s a ce en ri pe ex cookin g mp ta il down h e shot sh ri ttin g a cross th e ta ble hi d 3 of u s in th e h ea a n d h e th re w a yea r lo bster ta il at a 3 ied. old so h a rd sh e cr reat!

Ou r se rver wa s G We will n ever go ba ck to this pla ce a ga in!

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Facebook Ads

Have you tried...?

F

acebook Ads are just about the most cost effective CPC (cost per click) ads available, are extremely targeted and are a great way to build your database of Facebook fans, email addresses and traffic to the website.

Setting up a campaign will take 10-15 mins.

STEP 1:

identifying the right types of ages groups, gender, professions and interests.

STEP 5:

SET YOUR BUDGET You are in control – start off slow and build up. Also set your campaign end date – start off with a week with a £5 daily budget you know you’re only going to be spending £35 max.

CHOOSE YOUR GOAL Choose from any of the following

STEP 2:

UPLOAD IMAGE Facebook specifies the recommended image size for your ad.

STEP 3:

WRITE YOUR AD HEADER, SUBTITLE AND URL Make it specific and congruent with your desired outcome.

STEP 4:

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Having a PA is sanity, Business Lesson of the month:

S

ome weeks ago I found myself in a conversation with a friend who was asking why I have a PA. He’s a good mate, and was giving me some stick about it being to do with vanity, to make myself feel important. Whilst he was having a laugh with me, I could sense an element of

truthful suspicion behind his banterful comments.

The truth is, every hotelier should have a Virtual Assistant.

If you need convincing, consider this‌ Next month you have 50 HOURS of free time where you could lock yourself in a room working solely on driving your

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business forward.

Imagine: twelve and a half hours every week or roughly 2 hours a day spent learning and implementing the stuff that could drive your business forward. Spent plugging the leaks and holes that are currently losing you business and a lot of money. Spent building the

not vanity. relationship with your current and existing guests so they feel compelled to return and tell all their friends about your hotel.

If you had 50 hours this month could you bring just two, maybe three new guests into the hotel from all the changes you’d make and all the things you’d learn, and all the relationships you’d strengthen and cement?

If you made a REAL commitment to making just £500 from 50 hours of work dedicated solely to working ON the business, not IN it, could you do it??

I’d wager a hefty sum that 50 hours of uninterrupted work dedicated to growing your hotel business would yield a considerable amount more than just £500, wouldn’t you?

Well that’s broadly what a good Virtual Assistant will cost you to take all the admin off your desk, all the

BL usiness ESS O THE M N OF ONTH

investment that reaps handsome returns, provided I do the right things that will grow my business and stuff that as a hotelier or take it forward.

GM you know you My challenge to you this shouldn’t be doing. month therefore is this: Last month, my PA Annetta billed 50 hours of When you find yourself doing a laborious task admin including: which could be easily briefed into someone else; Bookkeeping a task that doesn’t Invoice chasing necessarily require your Email responding expertise to complete, stop Social media posting yourself. Stop yourself Stationery ordering dead in your tracks, and Travel purchasing consider how much more Pay Slip organizing Amongst countless other beneficial this time could be promoting the hotel and odd jobs…

That freed up 50 HOURS strengthening the relationship you have with of my time to work on my your current guests. business – grow our Visit a freelancer website membership numbers, serve our current members like Peopleperhour.com more personally, plan and (where I found Annetta) and search for virtual strategise for the coming assistants. Start small, months, learn and write a small brief and try it. implement current trends I guarantee in the short that are working for others. to medium term it will pay My PA isn’t a cost in my for itself ten times over. business, she’s an 020 8088 0125 wowguest.com adam@wowguest.com Heads in Beds Magazine 17

Google Plus Report IN BRIEF

BIG benefit is enhanced SEO. Become more active on Google and you’ll get more traffic to your website.

THE STATS

300 million monthly active users worldwide l 20 million unique mobile monthly users l 1.5 billion photos uploaded every week l Websites using the 1 button generate 3.5 times more traffic from Google than websites that don’t have the 1 button installed l

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FEATURES

GOOGLE LOCAL As a local business, you have the option to set up a Local Business or Place type of page. Choosing to be a local business allows travelers to post reviews and recommendations as well as Zagat ratings. This is important because the reviews will show up on Google Maps and Google Local Search and has an impact on your search ranking. The good news is that if you have lots of positive reviews, you are easier for guests to find on Google.

GOOGLE HOTEL FINDER Google Hotel Finder makes it easy for people to compare and book hotels by grabbing its data from different sources over the Internet, like Google Maps or Google Local. Fill in your Google Local page with all the appropriate info, and Google Hotel Finder will use this information in that attracts new followers. your listing, making your property Think of the +1 button as a “Like” or a easier to find! recommendation. Adding +1 buttons to your website and blog articles makes it CIRCLES Google allows you to segment the people easy for people to recommend and share your content. Once they +1 one of the you follow into Circles. This is great for articles from your web page, it will businesses because you can create immediately show on their Google profile. hyper-targeted groups of followers, to whom you can share unique content with. Adding the +1 button to your site improves your website traffic; websites For businesses, you can only add using the button generate 3.5 times more followers to your circles after they have traffic from Google than websites that added you. This makes it all the more don’t have the button installed. important to develop an engaging page

ADAM’S SUMMARY

Maybe you’re thinking the same as me about Google+ - do we really need another one to worry about!? Believe me, I don’t like knowing I have another page to manage and post content to but it really comes down to the clarity of your goals and how much you want to achieve them. Personally I am on a mission to spread the great support and advice offered by the Hotelier Circle as far and as wide across the industry as possible, recruiting 1,000 independent hotelier members this year. Do I like having another social media page to manage: no. Will it bring me closer to my target of 1,000 members? Yes. Will it help raise the profile of your hotel and drive more traffic to your website? Yes. So, what are you waiting for?

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Google Report Last month Google did you a HUGE favour‌ They released a report full of valuable insights about the way in which affluent travellers make their booking decisions.

The full report is available to view in the Hotelier Library but here’s the key points:

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Hotel Quiz

1

At which hotel chain will you find fitness suites complete with pools in every single one of its properties?

2

Which hotel has the largest front porch in the world?

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At which famous hotel did writer Oscar Wilde scoff at the idea of plumbed in hot and cold water when he stayed there in March 1893 saying “what is it good What is a traditional for? If I want hot water, I’ll Japanese-style inn call for it.” called?

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At which hotel did John The Holiday Inn hotel Lennon and Yoko Ono group came from give an interview totally naked which country? from under the sheets?

Which London hotel featured in Which historic hotel is located 20 feet from the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets rim of the Grand Canyon? and Batman Begins?

This hotel is located on the border of Britain's What is the second largest National name of Park, Snowdonia in Wales, the tallest hotel in what is its name? the world?

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Answers: 1. Four Points by Sheraton 2. The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan US. Its front porch measures 660 feet and is lined with white rocking chairs 3. The Savoy, London 4. The Hotel Sacher, Vienna 5. The El Tovar 6. Ty'r Graig Castle Hotel 7. A Ryokan 8. The United States 9. St. Pancras International Renaissance Hotel 10. J W Marriot Marquis Hotel formerly the Emirates Park Towers. It measures 355.35 m or 1, 165.84 feet; just 85 feet shorter than the Empire State Building.

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Your

Action List

I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hereby acknowledge that the super useful, practical information provided in this edition of Heads in Beds will be utterly useless if I don’t do something about it. I therefore will be doing the following this month: Signed: Deadline: What I plan to implement:

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Next Month Petra Clayton, Director, Custard Communications After 18 years in hospitality marketing, including roles as Director of Marketing at the Institute of Hospitality and Loyalty and PR Manager at P&O Cruises, Petra went on to launch boutique marketing, PR and communications agency Custard Communications in 2007 which is one of biggest in

the industry today.

Petra is pretty much the go-to woman when it comes to nailing down your hotel’s core messaging and we’ll be asking her how independent hoteliers can boost their businesses by getting their proposition just right.

NOT JOINED THE HOTELIER CIRCLE YET?

The Hotelier Circle is on a mission to help independent hoteliers cut through the waffle and put more heads in beds. We believe that the best practical support, advice and guidance should be available without a stupidly large price tag.

Join today for just £45 per month with no commitment, no contract, just bundles of great content, support and advice from the industry's finest.

Join today at wowguest.com