Think Tank 2013

The Monday 29th of April was a great day with a lot of new information & innovative ideas that make us thinking about new business opportunities.

 You will find hereafter a presentation that highlight the part of the day that I enjoyed the most: the 3D printer. I see this new tool as a revolution in many industries, and overall in detached items markets such as automobile industry and toys industry.

Also, companies like IKEA could also be worried. As Obama said:"The 3D printer could revolutionize the way we produce almost everything". 

 I think that this will certainly have a bad impact on employment, machines replacing humans. In a long term view, these machines will be able to create very quick many products at a low price and with a good quality enough.

 The future of this 3D printer is limitless. In Japan for example, future parents can already get a 3D model of their foetus for around 1200 euros.

 Another application of the machine shows us the unlimited potential of the printer. Indeed, some scientists succeeded in reproducing organs using a 3D printer.

 In a short term view, 3D will let industrials to create and deliver products more and more personnalized that customers ask, with a small cost and very quick.

 It will also open new markets and will close others, by letting almost everybody that can create a 3D model, to become a manufacturer.

Ritz Carlton Analysis

Webinar 2013

Question 1





As it is explained in the Webinar, we saw that customers reviews are closely linked to the demand and to the revenue of a hotel.
Indeed, if the increase of positive guests feedbacks reach 1%, this imply an increase the demand for the hotel by 13,5 %. It could also imply an increase by 1% of the RevPar of the hotel.


Question 2

The revenue management has changed a lot in 20 years.
They mention in the webinar the fact that before there was no transparency, so that the job of a revenue manager was quiet easy.
Nowadays, this position should integrate the marketing & sales aspect to create and to keep demand.
That is to say that this position has to be more strategic and analytic, in relationship with the executive committee.

Question 3

The QPI (Quality Penetration Index) is an index showing your hotel's guests review performance in comparison with the competitor's performance.
It is actually a ratio : QPI = Global review index of my hotel / Average Global review Index of competitors.

The four principles for an open world

Question 1: The net generation (answer number D)

Question 2: To publish his data and to hold the GoldCorp Challenge (Answer number B)

Question 3: He means that activities like Wallstreet almost brought down capitalism, implying that the cost of doing radical changes is sensitively under the one of staying where we are.

Question 4: Transparency is about making available to everybody the access of information , whereas sharing refers to giving up assets.

Question 5: The power becomes decentralized (Answer number B)

Question 6: The age of networked intelligence (answer number E)

Question 7: To demonstrate his four principles, he uses the example of the starling birds near Edinburgh  which are coming in 'murmuration'. The goal of this is to protect the birds from predators. For the best interest of each bird, they must collaborate together to create a collective power- just like in the human world. Furthermore, he refers to the fact that in this murmur, there is leadership and not only one leader.

Hotel Amour : Reputation Action Plan

Hotel amour content from MarieGodard

Phrase it picture

Focus on ASAT

1) What is ASAT? Give 3 non-traditional examples.

ASAT is an abreviation for Any Screen Any Time. It refers to the fact that device users can access the content they are looking for any time and any where, through all kind of screens.

One illustration of the term is the example on the plane when we see the following writting: "Could you please shut off your book?"
Another one is the example of the car where we can see that you can link your mobile device to the dash board, and a third one is the fact that you could plug your mobile device on a running machine, accessing therefore all your mobile 's applications ans so on.

2) What is meant by mobile enhanced experience?

A mobility enhanced experience concerns the fact that you can access all kind of information anywhere through any screen. For expample, we will talk about a mobile enhanced experience when a lot of touch points caracterize the customer decision journey. The customer is guided through their choice by many elements and all day long access wherever they are.

3) How could a hotel provide a mobile enhanced experience?

Hotels can use many tools to provide to their customers a mobile enhanced experience.

First of all, I do think that working through the SoLoMo concept can create a mobile enhanced experience.
Indeed, working with DISMOIOU app for example, allow customers to share information about your hotel and can be a decision maker for them.

Using the tool Twitter Vine, in which you can insert short videos, is also a very good way to enhance mobility experience. Hotels could put some video showing some guests feedback or interviews about the hotel, or also put a video of a staff member to attract customers.
By using Vine, hotels could also insert some "phrase it" in it.

4) List the customer journey digital touchpoint

The scenario number one is talking about the different steps that a customer experiences to make a booking for a trip. The digital touchpoints are the followings:

- An advertisment on TV
- A tourism advert
- Website through mobile

Hotel Groups' Digital IQ Comparison

Comparing hotel groups’ digital iq from MarieGodard

Weekly article: Digital Marketing Strategies

Max Starkov is President & CEO of HeBS Digital (Hospitality eBusiness Strategies, Inc.), the hospitality industry’s leading Internet marketing services and strategies consulting firm. Max is a recognized "thought leader" in Internet marketing strategies in hospitality and is a frequent guest speaker and presenter at industry events and conferences.

Max received the prestigious HSMAI “Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales and Marketing” honor for 2008.”

He has spent his entire professional career in hospitality and travel. He has an extensive Internet marketing experience. He co-founded and served as CEO of three eBusiness companies: Travelbreak.com 1995-1999 (#3 in traffic after Priceline), WhaleMedia.com 1999-2001(Winner of the coveted Microsoft RAD Award for hotel online booking systems), and HeBS (since 2001). Under Max’s leadership, HeBS Digital has pioneered many of the "best practices" in hotel Internet marketing and direct online distribution, and has won many prestigious awards for its groundbreaking website design and Internet marketing campaigns.

Currently Max is serving on the HSMAI Digital Marketing Council, the highest hotel internet marketing authority in the country, commissioned to monitor and educate HSMAI members about the emerging trends and innovations happening in hotel digital marketing universe.

Max has written numerous reports, industry research, and published articles in major travel and hospitality publications.

Please have a look on one of his very interesting and useful latest article, intitled "The Smart Hotelier’s 2013 Top Ten Digital Marketing Resolutions", published on the 4th of January 2013 on hospitalitynet.org:

Click here to read the article

Case study: Coca- Cola & Dismoioù (Team Work)

Please check also these links of Marie and Alexandra

Weekly article: SoLoMo

What does SoLoMo mean? Well, it means “Social Local Mobile”. Basically, it’s when a tourist with nothing but a bottle of water and a Smartphone, consults the social networks as soon as he/she arrives in a new location.  It’s a simple way for tourists to obtain information about activities in their area and for tourism professionals it’s an efficient way of letting the tourists know that they are there, and happy to welcome them! SoLoMo, which is half-way between technological word-of-mouth and a marketing technique, has become a “must”. 

Here is an article explaining the benefits of SoLoMo for the users & all the professionals:

Click here to have a look on the article

Dismoioù & Coca Cola

           
                                          

Coca-Cola Company using SoLoMo App: Dismoiou?

BLYNK

http://www.blynk.it/

Capabilities :

Blynk is a company that creates dedicated applications for hotels.  Blynk iHotel provides hospitality solutions to improve the guest experience by offering an interactive platform.

Indeed, thanks to the application, clients can discover the hotel and its services but also interact with the staff. They can for example order room service, be in direct relation with the concierge or address all kind of requests.  In terms of management this tool allows hoteliers to have a better control of the stay experience and to revolutionize and modernize their offer. They adapt to customers needs and habits in terms of new web navigation and on mobile devices.

For the customers: 

·         Hotel services: booking, spa, restaurant, pool..

·         Concierge

·         Shopping

·         Special offers: get information about the discounts of the hotel but also after the stay

·         Notification: about their requests and reservations status…

·         Other features:  weather, laundry, wake up call, express check out

For hotels: 

·         Fast and easy set up

·         Live update

·         Customizable design

·         Track guest requests

·         Smart advertising

·         Real time resorts and statistics

·         Increase REVPAR

·         Optimize workforce

·         Improve work organization

Costs :

Blynk provides four different packages at different prices.

 

For each packages, different options are suggested:

- Setup & Usage

- Hotel CMS

- Hotel Marketing

- Guest experience

Different prices are setup according to the hotel inventory.

Example: for a hotel of more than 101 rooms, the package "Pro Unlimited" is requested at $299 per month and includes all the options above.

We can say that the prices are very attractive.

Impact:

Beyond the simple booking engine, the application is a real Customer Relationship Manager. It can durably increase the hotel bookings & revenues as clients have a simplest access to services. Blink will also improve employee’s way of working and thus their productivity and the quality of service.

The application will perfectly fit to hotels that are familiar with new devices and technologies like W hotels or Mama Shelter.

Personally, I would register to this website if the hotel is a big one (more than 100 rooms) because it will incredibly increase the quality of service and because the cost is not really high.

Crowdsourcing: Increase Direct Bookings (Team Work)

      

      In collaboration with Marie Charbonnier, Jessica Robles, Valentine Follin- Arbelet, here are our 4 best ideas in order to increase Direct Bookings.   

• Optimize your presence online

-          Well designed and attractive website

-          Good referencing

-          Online community (social media)

-          E-reputation (tripadvisor)

-          Online booking (platform, links..)

-          Get free or charged direct links to your website on bloggers, tourism offices..

• Pricing strategy

-          Differentiate from other channels (distribution channels) by including for the same price more services ex : BB , museum, chocolate, transports….

-          Create attractive  and originals packages  adapted to all kind of clientele

-          Promotions

• Facilitate booking process

-          Different options for the payment

-          Train the staff to be welcoming and able to inform the guests

-          Be reactive on the phone, per email…

• Create a strong relationship with your guests

-          Create loyalty program to encourage direct bookings

-          Organize events and contests to create a first connection with guests or to reinforce the relationship with your customers

-          Satisfaction surveys

Direct booking optimization for independent hotels

Hotel websites linking to reviews

September 24, 2012

By Hugo Martín, Los Angeles Times

The online review of the Best Western hotel in Eagle Rock started with a critical headline: "Very poor quality, will never stay here again." What is surprising is that the review was posted on a link found on the hotel's own website. Best Western International, one of the world's largest hotel chains, announced last week that it had redesigned its website, adding links to reviews submitted by guests to the website TripAdvisor. The move marks a trend in the hotel industry.

Analysis of the article :

Best Western Hotel in Eagle Rock, after they announced some modifications on their official Website by including a link to reviews posted by guests to the Tripadvisor Website.

I found this article very interesting as it is very actual : it is about a new tendancy concerning Hotel’s marketing actions, using social media in their strategy to inform, to promote and to increase their sell’s volume.

This article shows very well the importance of being very carefull with every social media. Otherwise, as explained in the article, it could have a very deep and negative impact for hotels. It is all about choosing the optimal use of all social media trying to take advantage of those sites, and not to be penalize instead.