Emotion

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From the course by ESSEC Business School

Demand management: Breaking down today’s commercial silos

162 ratings

ESSEC Business School

Demand management: Breaking down today’s commercial silos

162 ratings

Course 3 of 4 in the Specialization Hotel Management: Distribution, Revenue and Demand Management

The biggest challenge facing the hospitality industry over the next 5 years is the lack of integration between the key commercial disciplines of sales, revenue, distribution and finance and the negative impact this will continue to have on delivering asset value and maximum profitability. This course, spread over 4 key modules: Asset Management Demand Generation Digital Marketing Demand Optimisation aims to break down these commercial silos and reveal the journey from long-term asset development through to short-term profit tactics and how commercial teams can align themselves throughout the organisation. Created by SnapShot, this course is hosted by a group of experienced Industry guest lecturers in their fields of expertise and includes an ideal mix of accessible theory and practical exercises and simulations. SnapShot is a Hotel Demand Management company that specializes in helping hotels aggregate and use their data. We provide useful tools as well as innovative education and coaching services to empower hotels to take informed decisions in managing their demand to increase profits.

From the lesson

Online Marketing

Marketing is about making something known, desired and bought by the right public. While this hasn't changed, the means to achieve it has changed exponentially over the last two decades. As the customer searches for and finds your hotel, you will have to deal with the costs of distribution and how to sell through the most profitable channels to keep a healthy bottom line, while ensuring adequate visibility and top line.

Capture the visitors on your website6:22

Navigation and Reviews7:50

Third party and intermediary optimization: OTAs9:04

Third party and intermediary optimization: other channels of distribution3:15

Meet the Instructors

Peter O'Connor
Professor of information systems, Director of the MBA in Hospitality Management
Information systems
Alex Slors
Independent Hotel Asset Manager & Development Consultant
Asset Management
David Turnbull
Co-Founder and CCO
SnapShot
Brendan May
COO Livabout
Martin Soler
Independent Marketing Consultant
Lennert De Jong
Commercial Director
Citizen Hotels

[MUSIC]

So, now that the traveler knows about the hotel, and has searched for

more information, landing them on the hotel's website,

how do you convert these visitors into guests?

And what can you do to make them share the stay on review sites, and

to their friends and family?

In this video, we'll go over the basics of increasing your chances of getting both.

As we briefly touched upon in the previous video,

a hotel's website has a unique ability to communicate the hotel's UHP.

Which is an edge it has over third party sites.

The first of these is emotional impact.

It is emotion that tilts the scales one way or the other.

Quite simply, emotion sells.

There are two important factors that will enhance or choke your emotional impact.

The first is visual, the second is time.

For visuals there is some debate about whether you should or

should not Photoshop images.

Let me tell you, you should.

As long as the pictures are still representative of reality,

it is totally okay to edit the images and make them look as good as possible.

Consider the image here of London.

It is a standard image that one could take with a regular camera.

And would be representative of London but it is quite boring.

Now look that the next image it is much more interesting and

evokes many more emotions.

So the question isn't should one or shouldn't one Photoshop.

The question is can one deliver on the emotions evoked?

I was once the general manager of a hotel.

Our images were very Photoshopped and

as a GM, I was concerned that we were overselling to hotel guests.

Of course I was because I was the one

that ultimately had to deal with any complaints.

But despite the Photoshopping,

our main guest reviews said, just like in the pictures.

So I put my concerns aside and kept working.

One day, only two months later, the reviews began to change and

people started complaining that we had overly Photoshopped our images.

That it wasn't at all representative of the truth.

Perplexed by the change of tide, we began to look into what had changed and

it turned out we had changed the front desk personnel.

Our marketing was all about being a charming and

romantic hotel and our former front desk staff had understood that.

And would suggest romantic walks in Paris, romantic restaurants.

A trip to the Moulin Rouge.

And all in all, made the stay authentic.

The new staff hadn't been briefed properly.

It would suggest cheaper restaurants.

Great value sub rate trips.

Other efficient, but much less romantic activities.

Stuff locals find smart.

In other words, we had not delivered on our marketing promise.

The moral of the story was that you're less likely to oversell

than under deliver.

Guests didn't come with a print out of the pictures to compare

the image of the rooms with real life.

They came with a memory and emotion that the pictures had conveyed.

And if that emotion was met,

the guests remembered the hotels like in the pictures.

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