News & Stories

Hamburg. How do hotel groups cope with social media? After Ritz-Carlton in the last edition, the German resort travel group Travel Charme Hotels from Berlin shows today how to approach the subject in everyday life, how much effort is necessary and the importance of social media networks in their marketing mixture. The German hotel group is one of the most active groups on the internet. The centralised management still controls everything, but this will change soon. The intensive work with the online evaluation portal HolidayCheck offered access to the new scene. However, the proximity to the customers is increasing. For the staff this means: They have to change their way of communicating as well.

Hamburg. How do hotel groups cope with social media? In two case studies in today's and next week's edition, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and then Travel Charme Hotels describe how they approach the subject in everyday life; how much time and staff they spend on the subject; and the importance of social media networks on their marketing mix. In the Travel Charme report, we will provide hints for the usage of social media too. - About Ritz-Carlton: since 2009, the luxury hotel group has strategically found its way into the social media. The president already twitters PR effectively; however, the first step is to concentrate only on Twitter and Facebook for the time being. Turnover increase is not the main goal but getting to know the guests' wishes better.

Hamburg. The number of members of the social media networks has exploded in the last three to four years. YouTube, Xing, VZ networks, Sevenload, Flickr, Facebook and the micro blogging service Twitter have gained hundreds of millions participants all over the world. The mere exchange of vacation pictures and private banalities in these networks is over. A growing number of businesses have already recognised the opportunities of "social marketing" and use the networks to set up and maintain customer relations. New opportunities are also emerging for the hotel industry. The experiences of American hoteliers and experts prove: success in social media is not a question of the budget. Future researchers already regard the new web world as independent "cultural space" and "new democracy". A summary of "dos & don'ts" for social media.

Munich/Norwalk. As of now, the tourist-oriented Kayak search engine headquartered in Connecticut, USA, is taking over swoodoo, a flight and hotel search engine from Munich. This was announced by both companies yesterday.

Palma de Mallorca. Four days ago, the new portal opened. Spontaneously, it renegotiates hotel rates due to "customer pressure". At first, it will only concentrate on the Balearic Islands. But by the end of this year, the team wants to negotiate with hotel managers from all over Europe for its online customers.

Nuremberg. The IHA industry report 2010 "Hotelmarkt Deutschland" confirms: Hotel portals book most of the guests in Germany. Nearly every fourth hotel booking is carried out via internet portals.

Bremen. Thirteen small logos adorn the prizeotel website forming an impressive bookmark. The logos represent 13 channels through which the one-year-old budget design hotel in Bremen communicates with its friends and guests and ultimately generates bookings. Managing Director, Marco Nussbaum considered online distribution and social media in the conception of the 2-star hotel. He will terminate the agreement with the last classic distribution partner in summer of this year. The marketing and distribution policy of the 127-room private hotel in Bremen is crystal clear and unimposing. The founder of prizeotel explains the policy in detail in this article. Marco Nussbaum prefers to move in the web community than to chase guests on the golf course. "The hotel industry should say goodbye to its hybrid target group orientation and any attempt to utilise all possible distribution channels. Only this way will it be possible to regain sovereignty over rates and their own content!" he says. And he does exactly this.

Munich. Social media have been the subject of much hype and have given rise to many new and open questions, not only for those working in the hospitality industry. In many other sectors too, social media are making inroads. Like all business transformation processes, Web 2.0 has increasingly become the subject of questioning with respect to benefit and return on investment. For lack of concrete figures, the public discussion often focuses strongly on beliefs, opinions and claims. Are social media then just for school children, students and people with too much free time on their hands? Or do they provide special benefits for the hotel industry with an opportunity for increasing revenues, profits and guests?

Brussels. A new idea is helping to increase occupancy and revenues: Rent day rooms! Now, they have their own online booking platform.The first large chains are already on board.

Salzburg. For the first time, the internet platform Tiscover has presented its "online tourism trends" for Austria's current winter season. Already, 800,000 Austrians book at least a part of their holiday/trip on the internet. Over the past three years, the share of Austrians doing so has doubled. Tiscover is owned by the German online company, HRS.