Much of the hotel industry suffers from the fact that anyone with sufficient experience to run a hotel is unlikely to have been born in the 'Internet Generation', and yet 55% of bookings are said to originate online, creating a 'knowledge gap'.
However, the conductor of the orchestra does not need to know how to play the instruments, and so it is with Online Marketing, as with every other section of the hotel, it comes down to;
- What are we going to do?
- Who is going to do it?
- What are the results?
Because Online Marketing is seen as a new specialist field, it tends to be buried and forgotten in the day to day panic of servicing customers. This is all the more reason why a plan is needed, to ensure that Online Marketing is undertaken.
During the 9th and final module of the Online Marketing Award we will be asking participants to take everything they know and create a Plan for 2009. This Plan should then be approved by the Hotel Owner/Managers and used to monitor progress during the year.
The first part of this exercise will be to create an Online Marketing Plan for Cider Trees, a Fictional Hotel (see below).
Please read this case study before you arrive at the course.
Module 9 - Online Marketing Award
TUESDAY October 14th Letterkenny 10.00 (NOTE Date AND day moved)
Tuesday October 21st Donegal Town 09.30
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Start of (Fictional) Case Study
Cider Trees is a 40 room, 3 star hotel on the main road into Galway. Owner Mary McKenna was in her 60's and looking forward to her retirement, but wasnt sure how it was going to happen as all her children had run off to another country as soon as they were old enough to get a passport.
Kate O'Neill, with a fresh marketing degree in her hand was only 4 days into the job with Cider Trees, and was already starting to regret it. As she sat listening to Mary she realised why so many of the staff called her Hyacinth Bouquet.
Im not sure about this 'intersite' business, said Mary, 'I got my brothers son to do me one a couple of years ago
and it didnt really sell any rooms. Why cant people just use the telephone like i do?
'Well' said kate, 'i was looking at the website, and it doesnt look like it has been changed in 2 years, no one can book online, its only generating 50 visitors a day, and it doesnt seem to have a very good Google Search Engine Ranking. It didnt even come up un the top 20 for Galway Hotels'.
'Goggle surf what!!!' said Mary. 'Dont know anything about that, but If you want to do something useful why dont you get an advert in next weeks Herald' with our 59 PPS summer rates'.
Kate had seen enough from the accounts to know that something needed to happen urgently, every night as she drove home she went past the brand new Carberry Inn and it was full of sales reps cars. Room bookings had been declining for the last 5 years, the only thing that really seemed to work was the Restaurant, chef'd by Marys slightly eccentric husband Bill, who every now and again took a notion to do his 'Taste of Italy' or 'Greek Gastronomy' nights which seemed to amuse the locals at least. Maybe because of Bill, a motley crew of aged traditional musicians tended to turn up and run the bar on a Wednesday night.
The only silver lining was the Galway Theatre Company selling their building in the City Centre and relocating to the site of the old cinema across the road, but Kate had seen the Carberry Marketing Manager walking around the building with the Theatre Manager and was afraid that this might be too late also.
Kate really didnt know how to compete with the Carberry, Cider Trees whilst clean, tidy and quirky, had very few of the features that customers appeared to expect in a hotel such as Spa's etc, even though the hotel grounds were full of charm.
She sat down at her desk and started to review her CV.
End of Case Study
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Use the Blank Plan (DOWNLOAD HERE) provided to Develope an Online Marketing Plan for this hotel.
- Set Targets for the 'Results' and 'Enablers'
- Define a potential E Zine led Frequent Customer Scheme
- Define a potential SMS Scheme
- Define a potential Loyalty Scheme, complete with 'rewards
- Define a potential Google Adwords Plan for the Year'
ADD SPECIFIC POINTS OF ACTION or steps that need to be taken to implement the Marketing Plan.
AccuBook Bulletin No 15 - Demand Management Made Easy
Accubook Bulletin No 14 - Back to Online Marketing
Accubook Bulletin No 13 - Why are Internet Rates So Often Wrong?
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