Social Media Engagement has been a challenge for Hotels when it comes to Revenue Mangement. Distribution through Social Media channels can be complex without the proper strategies in place.
Revenue Management to this point have been utilized in the pricing of perishable products. Hotels implemented Revenue Management to predict customer demand and optimize available price.
The term Revenue Management refers to a business practice designed to optimize the revenue potential of an asset through all market conditions. It is important to note that yield management principles remain as a fundamental component of revenue management and several conditions must exist for it to apply.
(1) information on the different pricing options was made available,
(2) a substantial discount was given in return for cancellation restrictions,
(3) reasonable restrictions were imposed in exchange for a discounted rate, and
(4) different prices were charged for products perceived to be different. In all cases, there was a deviation from the reference transaction, but respondents viewed the change as acceptable.
The principle for Hotels to be successful with yield management, it must practice it in such a way that customers view the transactions as fair. If a hotel operates in a manner considered unfair, it risks alienating its customers.
Over the years, Hotel Operators has implemented automated strategies for improved insight and allow them to optimize revenue potentials.
Some Key Performance Indicators that been tracked has been:
- Online ratings
- Occupancy
- ADR – Average Daily Rate
- REVPAR – Revenue Per Available Room
- Units Sold
- Customer Satisfaction
Revenue Management is evolving because of new technology and information flow.
- New business intelligence data, reports and methodology will emerge to the point where decision making will become more challenging because of the volume of information available.
- Revenue optimization in hospitality will become more quantitative vs. qualitative. Manual record-keeping and report preparation will diminish and will be replaced by dashboards and automated decision support technologies.
- Distribution will continue to become even more complex than it is today as new business models emerge to fill specific customer needs.
Revenue Management meets Social Media
Social Media provide Hotels the opportunity for real-time, two-way communication, communication with consumers at a point of need and the potential to build awareness, reputation, and business.
Although these opportunities have been documented in the media and across various Hotel-oriented blogs and websites, many Hotels don’t have a structured foundation for evaluating the potential of Social Media for Revenue Management.
There are two foundational principles of Social Media for Revenue Management:
- Information
- Time
Online information flow today is typically categorized in;
- Inbound
- Outbound
Inbound flow for Hotels can arrive from sites like;
- YouTube
- TripAdvisor
- OTA
- Blog
Outbound flow for Hotels will represent the same channels as the Inbound.
Inbound flow represents the opportunities that consumers present by sharing their thoughts on the various services they get in contact with that is relevant for your Hotel.
Outbound flow represents the response Hotels provide to the Inbound flow.
Social Media actions that matter
No doubt with Social Media your audience plays a key role. But what we experience is that many Hotels here wants to just grow their audience and post relevant content. And then implement Key Performance Indicators in their Revenue Management tools just to see little to no return from their efforts. For many, this will send a signal that Social Media is not providing a sustainable return for their efforts.
This is where we see many brands and Hotels don’t yet understand the mechanism of Social Media. Everyday Social Media communities discuss topics that relate to your Hotel brand, either directly or indirectly.
They will discuss these topics with or without your permission. And most discussions happen outside of your Social Media channels. Your job is to find new creative ways to draw this audience to your Hotels channels and engage with them there.
To do this you must know how to find this audience, and how to engage with them where you find them first.
And brands that succeed on Social Media focus on community engagement and thought leadership.
Engagement and thought leadership appears to be the tricky parts that worry many Hotel brands. Because when we look at the principle of Social engagement and thought leadership it is not designed to bring in revenue.
Social Media gives consumers and employees an unprecedented ability to use their voice to gain credibility, influence, and power within the organization – for better or for worse.
The modern consumers have made it clear that they want brands to interact with them on Social Media. Still, we experience many are not doing so. And often we experience that they don’t know what to do with Social Media Metrics.
The simple secret that turns Social Media into a new customer gateway for Hotels
We know that engagement and thought leadership worries many Hotel brands. But this is not where you should start.
It all starts with awareness and Social Listening.
Start with prioritizing Social Listening. if your goal is to grow your brand awareness, you should think beyond your brand and toward your industry. Experienced content marketers already know about the importance of reaching beyond promotion and toward thought leadership.
Begin by examining the marketplace for trends, challenges and opportunities for something that could become the foundation for an engagement and thought-leadership campaign.
Identify both short-term and long-term consumer concerns. This allows your Hotel to get a better view of how you best can add new values to the customer experience. The consumers overall customer experience will reflect their happiness factor.
Start then work on a theme and come up with a real crisp point of view. The mandate for your Hotels Social Media task team is to develop a clear, digestible and actionable point of view, and to do so, it must engage the right people across the Hotel team and making sure they all are aligned.
Engagement is a principle that must come from within the Hotel brand, then it will engage and grow within communities and take actions that are aligned with your engagement and thought-leadership campaign.
An engagement and thought-leadership campaign requires stepping out of the comfort zone and looking the future, and that can be scary. Finding points of view require that your Hotel team collaborate, and identifying the right people and aligning them around perspectives is challenging, but when you find your voice, everything falls into place quickly.
With Social Media, proper and timely response is crucial. Make sure you create an engagement strategy. You will find all types of comments, from concerns to praises, comparisons, and general Hotel industry discussions. Create templates that allow you to be strategic about the best response to each type of comment.
Keep Calm and make changes
With Social Media, we are all bombarded with information in real-time and at lightning speed. Don’t let this be the roadblock that prevents your Hotel to take the proper actions. Hotels that build a strategy from within and put in place a Social Media task team will be better prepared to meet these challenges.
Keep calm and start embracing the new opportunities that now is available for your Hotel.
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT AND FACEBOOK ADVERTISING FOR HOTELS
Facebook Native Advertising will help Hotels redefine the customer experience. Take advantage of new innovative strategies that will improve your Hotels ROI.
FREE access to our Hotel Social Media Community – Get more insights and training about Facebook Native Ads for Hotels!
Our Social Media Management team has refined these processes to help Hotels. Contact us today to learn more.
Join our Free Hotel Social Media Community on Facebook for more in-depth insight.
Try something new it will magnetize your Hotel!
Be flexible and identify new ways to make guests happy.
As guest behavior and pattern continues to evolve, expectations will continue to rise. Navigating these changes can be challenging. Learn more about how we can help your Hotel.
About the author
Are Morch is the founder and owner of Are Morch – Hotel Marketing Coach. Get more from Are on Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Pinterest | Instagram| Podcast
