Mobile Travel Market Becomes Stronger

A New Mobile study on the Travel Market

A new mobile travel study reveals, travelers want to use their phones to check flight times and to book flights and hotels. But, above all, it is applications that offer an insight into their destination: weather reports, how to ask for coffee, restaurant reviews.

The Mobile Travel report, a new study by independent media agency Total Media, has revealed the impact of mobile web usage on the travel sector. In particular the study has identified how consumers use mobile in the planning process and what they really want from their mobiles when they travel.

The Mobile Travel report identified that less than 10% of men and even fewer women use their mobile phones to update their Facebook and Twitter profiles once they are on holiday. When also asked what they would be interested in doing in the future on a mobile phone whilst on holiday, most were not interested in using Facebook or Twitter. Instead people much prefer web services that connect them with other consumer recommendations and services that make their trip easier.

People want to use their phones to check flight times (around 18% of 16-to-24 year olds) and to book flights and hotels (15% of 16-34 year olds). But, above all, it is applications that offer an insight into their destination: weather reports, how to ask for coffee, restaurant reviews. More than 15 per cent of people in the 16-to-44 age profile are interested in an app for this purpose.

Falling roaming fees and tariffs have had a significant effect on our use of mobiles on holiday with 60% of women sending a text, 27% sending a MMS and 55% phoning home (compared to 47%, 24%  and 50% for men respectively).

Traditional forms of mobile communication, unsurprisingly, still lead when people plan their holiday; texting friends to ask their opinion (45% of 16-to-24-year olds) or phoning a friend for their opinion (42% of 25-to-34 year olds). But this is changing fast.

Mobile is no less of an inspiration device than a booking tool, with 14.7% of 16-to-24 year olds using the mobile internet to look for ideas and 11.2% of 25-to-34 year olds downloading a holiday-related app. Just under 13% of 16-34 year olds check travel prices and over 12% search for travel information using their mobiles.

Interestingly, men are twice more likely than women to use mobile internet, be it searching for the best price or downloading a travel app.

It is important to note however that the movement from traditional activities like voice and text to data driven web services is anything but uniform. There is a huge regional bias in adopting mobile for travel planning; a massive 20 per cent of people from the capital used their phone for travel ideas; less than 2 per cent did from the North East.

Growing importance of Mobile Travel Apps

Total Media’s Mobile Travel report found that the majority of consumers would rather download a sponsored, travel related app just to get it for free (44%). The huge demand for sponsored apps provides a massive opportunity for brands. Free to the user, perhaps, but it is an excellent way for established brands to both cement their position in the market and engage with new customers in a fresh manner.
The paid for demand is also significant. Many consumers would pay, either one off (19%) for unlimited access or on a pay per usage basis (37%). This also shows that it does have the potential to be a new line of revenue, as well as a new route for communications. Interestingly, the people most likely to pay are younger consumers. For example, nearly 30% of 16-24s would pay a one off cost for an application guide book, whilst only 10% of 65+ would consider it.
Nick Oram, Managing Director, Total Media said: “Mobile is now a mainstream channel for travel brands and they need to embrace it, whether it’s through optimising a site for mobile usage, developing apps that provide holiday inspiration or sponsoring successful ones. The fact that older consumers are more attracted to the free, sponsored apps and young people will actually pay for valuable online content opens up a huge opportunity.”

He adds: “Destination companies of all types – hotels, restaurants, museums – must start to engage with real time and geographic mobile services. They should encourage reviews, buy advertising and engage with reviewers in an open way. This will increasingly define how people make decisions while on holiday. It is early days, but the opportunity to take the lead is massive.”

Total Media’s Mobile Travel Report is based on online self completion surveys carried out by 1,375 consumers over 16 years and who had travelled in the last 12 months. The research was carried out by Lightspeed research UK.

ITA Software: Kayak, Expedia and Other Travel Sites Ally to Block ITA Google Deal…

Several popular online travel companies are joining forces to oppose Google Inc.’s proposed $700 million purchase of ITA Software Inc., the leading provider of flight data, saying the deal would give it too much sway over the travel sector.

Expedia Inc., Kayak.com, Sabre Holdings and Farelogix Inc.—which operate half-a-dozen leading online travel sites—are forming a coalition called FairSearch.org to persuade the Justice Department to block Google’s latest deal.

The companies are also launching a lobbying blitz on Capitol Hill, making the case to members of Congress that the deal would allow Google to dominate the online air-travel market by giving it control over the software that powers many of its rivals in the travel search business.

Google responds that buying the service will help it provide more useful information to consumers when they search for flight data.

But opponents of the deal worry that Google could limit access to ITA’s software, which is used by many of the flight-comparison sites operated by the members of the newly formed coalition. Expedia also runs Hotwire and TripAdvisor. Sabre runs Travelocity, while Kayak runs SideStep in addition to Kayak.com.
Separately, Microsoft Corp. has also opposed the deal in conversations with Justice Department investigators and lawmakers. Its search engine, Bing, relies on data from ITA to power travel searches.
Overall, ITA’s software handles about 65% of direct, online air-travel bookings for airlines, the company says. ITA declined to comment.
Opponents of the deal also highlight what they say is Google’s power over an ever-expanding array of businesses as it reaches into sectors from broadband Internet to mobile telephony and now travel. They cite figures from Experian Hitwise showing that Google is the source of more than 30% of all search engine traffic to online travel sites—and could direct that traffic its own way.

“Google has tremendous power in the search market, and it gives Google the ability to steer users in directions that are best for Google,” Expedia’s counsel, Thomas Barnett, said in an interview. “All of that would ultimately end up harming consumers.”

Mr. Barnett blocked Google’s proposed advertising deal with Yahoo Inc. when he headed the Justice Department antitrust division during the administration of George W. Bush.

Not everyone in the $80 billion online travel sector opposes the deal. Some, such as Priceline, Travelport and Orbitz, have offered qualified support. Airlines have generally remained cagey about the deal. But some have signaled their concern privately, saying they haven’t received assurances they have sought from Google.

Google says its purchase of ITA won’t allow it to corner the market on travel searches. It points to several other companies that provide airline travel data and says it doesn’t plan to sell tickets itself. Google also promises to honor all of ITA’s existing contacts.

“When a user is searching on Google for a flight, we’d like to provide a more useful answer in the form of flight results, just as other search engines do today,” said Adam Kovacevich, a Google spokesman. “We plan on building flight-search tools that will drive more traffic and potential customers to airlines’ and online travel agencies’ websites, and so we’ve been encouraged by the support this deal has received from the online travel industry.”

Rivals say that Google’s promises are hollow. They say that no other company can replace ITA’s service and that Google hasn’t committed to renewing their contracts or passing along any upgrades. They also fear that Google could analyze their use of ITA’s data to gain an insight into their own proprietary systems for competitive reasons.

“We have raised those concerns with both ITA and Google separately through multiple requests,” said Robert Birge, chief marketing officer of Kayak. “Those requests have been explicitly denied, signaling their intent.”

The online travel companies question why, if it doesn’t intend to keep ITA’s data to itself, Google decided to buy the company instead of simply becoming another client. Google says the purchase will allow it to more fully integrate ITA’s data, creating more innovative products that will benefit the consumer.

The Justice Department is conducting an extended antitrust review of the deal, which was unveiled in July.

source : Wall Street Journal

New Twitter Advertising Model

How Your Hotel can improve is visibility with New Twitter…

Everyone has heard about New Twitter’s move into the paid advertising services. This week’s announcement that hotels will be allowed to pay to have their posts lead search results on the popular social media platform launched hundreds of news items and more than +1,000 blog posts per hour…

Discover the New Twitter in video…

New Twitter : Big modifications for your hotel’s business…

1. The Acceptance of Advertising: New Twitter’s core demographics are familiar with paid online advertisements… Twitter’s approach to advertising has so far been one of the more transparent and open to feedback we’ve seen in the social media space…

2. Advertising Alone Won’t Do the Trick: Promoted tweets are no silver bullet. They, and whatever future developments roll out in the months ahead, are but one instrument in a symphony of Twitter engagement tools. Used in coordination with sustained, value-driven engagement, they will certainly help to amplify messaging (think about promotion or special offers or last minute deal…)

3. Tailor Your Advertising with New Twitter: Hotels Marketers need to step up to the plate and take it upon themselves to create value-driven Twitter ads. Sit down and think about how content is used and shared on Twitter, and, importantly, what makes a Tweet (paid or not) successful.

What is Google Instant?

How can Google instant increase your direct sales ?

Last week, Google released Google Instant. You have to adapt to this change if you don’t want to lose many website visitors. In this post, we’ll explain what Google Instant is and you’ll learn what you can do to benefit from the change.

Google Instant is Google’s new way to display search results while the user is typing the query. In fact, Google tries to complete the query during the input, like Twitter.

For example, when you enter “room in Athens” then Google will display the results for the keyword “direct room reservation in paris, cheap room reservations in paris, room reservation near champs elysees…” because Google Instant thinks that this are the most likely queries.

How Google Instant drives traffic

What does this mean for your hotel website?

It’s very likely that the search behavior of searchers will change. Until now, people had to think to refine their queries. With Google Instant, surfers get suggestions while they are typing and many of them will select one of the suggestions. That means that some search terms will get many more searches than before while the number of searches for other terms will decrease.

So, how your hotel can get more visitors with Google Instant search???

Google Instant automatically completes the search query of a user while typing. Google uses the keywords of Google Suggest to complete the query. That means that the keywords that Google Suggest uses will get even more traffic than before. For that reason, your web pages should be optimized for the keywords that Google suggests.

You have to optimize your new web pages for these keywords… If you don’t do this, you’ll miss a lot of traffic! Do not change pages for which you already have high rankings or traffic. Optimize new pages of your website for theses new keywords. The more pages of your website you optimize, the better.

Google Instant is not a new ranking algorithm. It’s a new way in which Google displays the search results for you potential Customers.

Facebook is going live with ‘Facebook Places’

Today, Facebook launched their newest product, called Facebook Places, on their Facebook Live channel.

Places helps users share where they are, where their friends are, and to discover new places around them. With features like notifications when friends are near and integration with partners such as Gowalla, Foursquare, Yelp and Booyah, the product provides a whole new layer to the experience of sharing places.

The Facebook Live channel, serves as the central online space to hear Facebook announcements, watch press events, take part in live chats with Facebook engineers & special guests and to watch the annual f8 developer conference.

It also incorporates Facebook’s real-time Live Feed technology to facilitate interactions between the viewing audience and the speaker.Livestream CEO Max Haot had this to say regarding the launch of Facebook Live: “We are proud to be the official live streaming partner for Facebook Live and to help Facebook extend its events at Facebook HQ to the broader online community.”

I hope so…

A new way to make more reservations

The free application allows travelers to search for popular hotels, restaurants and attractions, as well as find the cheapest airfares available. The application is available in 13 different languages, giving travelers around the globe a localized TripAdvisor experience.

“Our iPhone app gives people in 20 countries and 13 languages a new way to access the more than 35 million traveler reviews and opinions available on TripAdvisor,” said Steve Kaufer, founder and CEO of TripAdvisor. “Now, travelers can find a great hotel, restaurant or attraction and book a cheap flight whether they’re at home or on the go.”

The new TripAdvisor iPhone application, which replaces Local Picks in the App Store, uses the iPhone’s GPS capabilities to allow travelers to search for nearby hotels, restaurants and attractions. With the tap of a finger, users may sort by rating, distance and price. Travelers can also send in reviews while they’re on the road and their experiences are still fresh.

Additionally, travelers can use TripAdvisor Flights, the site’s flight search engine, to find the cheapest airfares using their iPhone. They can shop a comprehensive selection of flight choices across the most popular online travel agencies and airlines.

TripAdvisor’s free application is available to iPhone and iPod touch users in 20 countries across North America, Europe, South America and the Asia-Pacific region beginning today on the App Store.

May 07, 2010 | Hospitality Industry

Why do only 4% of negative reviews on TripAdvisor get a response? Does the fact that reviews are often anonymous and directed at travelers rather than hotels let us off the hook? Or are hoteliers even paying attention? Consumers certainly are.

As a hotel manager, when a guest comes to the front desk to register a complaint, do you: 1) look busy; 2) skulk out the back door; or 3) handle the matter personally?

Not that difficult a question, is it? Then why do only 4% of negative reviews on TripAdvisor get a response? Does the fact that reviews are often anonymous and directed at travelers rather than hotels let us off the hook? Or are hoteliers even paying attention? Consumers certainly are. Reviews are playing an increasingly important role in booking decisions. Some would say that online reviews deserve even more time than internal surveys, as the feedback is just as (if not more) valuable, and the impact is public.

According to TripAdvisor, a property’s response to criticism can have more influence on traveler decisions than the criticism itself. Hoteliers have a chance to redeem themselves, yet the vast majority chooses to remain silent, willfully allowing reputation and business to suffer. Granted, not all review sites allow hotel responses. Online travel agencies posted three times as many hotel reviews than traveler review sites last year, yet whereas Expedia and Hotels.com allow responses, Priceline and Travelocity don’t, effectively shutting hotels out of the conversation.

Given their influence on booking decisions, it’s a safe bet that soon all OTAs will allow hotel responses. It’s time for hoteliers to make more time for monitoring and responding to public feedback. Here are some tips for responding to reviews to minimize damage and cast your hotel in a more positive light. Each property will have a different approach, so I recommend answering these questions on your own and compiling the results into a brief strategic plan.

Should I respond to all reviews?

You should respond to any feedback that is damaging to your hotel’s reputation, even if simply to acknowledge the issue and apologize. An unanswered complaint leaves travelers to draw their own conclusions, as in “I guess it’s true” or “The hotel doesn’t care”.

Respond to positive reviews occasionally to show you’re listening, to express appreciation and to reinforce the positive, but don’t feel obliged to reply to each one. Travelers read reviews for advice from other travelers, not for a succession of gloating responses from hotel managers. That said, your advocates deserve proper reverence. If the host site permits, send a private note of thanks and flag their profile to acknowledge them in person on their next stay.

Bad response: “It is with tremendous joy that I read your most gracious remarks regarding our cherished employees, who take immense pride in pleasing our valued guests …”

Good response: “Thank you for your wonderful remarks, which I have shared with our staff. We are thrilled to hear that you enjoyed your stay, and look forward to welcoming you back soon.”

Who should respond?

Given their influence, online reviews should be handled at the highest level and disseminated at all levels. It’s okay for a verbally gifted middle manager or executive assistant to draft responses, provided they’re approved by—and addressed from—a senior manager. As a rule I discourage hotel owners from responding. They have too much at stake and aren’t always as diplomatic as managers.

Bad response: “How dare you insult my bootifull hotel! I spit on your mother’s grave!”

Good response: “We welcome all constructive criticism, as it helps us to get better.”

When should I respond?

The sooner the better. The longer a complaint is left to fester, the more business it will drive away. But first thoroughly investigate the incident, draft a reply, sleep on it, delete all threats and curses, and have it reviewed by a highly literate and judicious colleague.

If your property rarely receives reviews, negative reviews will have a longer shelf-life, which makes monitoring and responding even more important. If you receive frequent reviews, regular responses are necessary to keep them up front and center—ideally on the first page. To stay on top of reviews I recommend a reputation management tool like Revinate (whom I consult for), which will scour the web for mentions of your hotel on all social media platforms and deliver a daily summary to your desktop.

Bad response: “I would have appreciated it if you had brought this issue to my attention while a guest rather than two years later.”

Good response. “You will be happy to know that, as a result of guest feedback like yours, we have implemented the following changes …”

What should I say?

A poorly worded response risks making things worse, whereas a well executed response will prompt readers to conclude that, despite unfortunate circumstances, management cares and is on the ball. Thank the reviewer, acknowledge positive comments first, and apologize. Explain what you’ve done to fix the problem—or why it can’t be fixed. Readers will be put off by stock replies, and a few changed words won’t fool them, so tailor each response. Never offer compensation, as it might encourage more complaints.

Bad response. “Let’s try to avoid hyperbolizing, shall we, as in ‘worst hotel experience EVER!’ Yes, we dropped the ball, but we got slammed that morning and two employees called in sick.’”

Good response: “Clearly we were not performing to our usual standards that morning, and for that I sincerely apologize. I have reviewed your feedback in detail with our restaurant manager.”

The former general manager of Opus Hotels, Daniel Edward Craig is a hotel consultant and the author Murder at the Universe and two other hotel-based novels. He also consults Revinate, a social media solution for hotels. Visit http://www.danieledwardcraig.com