Louis Halpern's View » Hotel Marketing

Hotel & Restaurant Review Websites Advice

Louis — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 10:37:04 +0000

Websites like TripAdviser can make or break a customer’s decision to book with a certain hotel or eat at a certain restaurant. Hoteliers and restaurateurs often ask me what they can do about negative reviews. I was asked earlier in the week to comment on a Daily Mail article that reported on a Company organising a group defamation action’ against TripAdvisor. May advise is…

Unless these reviews are factually incorrect, there’s not much that can be done. Instead, the brands need to consider how they can respond and engage with the community of people.

Put simply, hotels need to get their product right. If they are receiving an abundance of negative reviews, they need to look at why that…

200,000 Chinese want to come to your hotel

Louis — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:25:28 +0000

The growth of the Chinese tourist is the going to be the biggest change in the tourism industry for a generation.

Britain is on the approved list for China’s tourists. Half a percent of all Chinese tourists already head to the UK for their holidays, that’s over 200,000 people last year, and rising. Two mid market Chinese hotel groups are sniffing around for acquisitions – according to yesterday’s Sunday Times – to take advantage of this demand. That means it’s time to get on with some hotel marketing basics.

When you see a website in your own language you are immediately more likely to trust it. It shouts that the company values you…

Hotel Usability Report Coming Soon…

Louis — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:40:59 +0000

With more than a few years experience in helping Hotel brands optimise their web presence, it still never fails to amaze me just how many hotels and booking agents seem to get it wrong when it comes to website usability. Such a high proportion of the industry’s business is transacted online that you would think that ensuring your website is quick and easy to use would be no-brainer. The reality is, though, that nearly half the websites you visit are a long way of the mark.

My team at Halpern Cowan have started the process of collating our expertise on what exactly makes a the best possible online booking user journey and hotel website. We’re…

Volcanic Hotel PPC

Louis — Sun, 09 May 2010 12:28:32 +0000

How do you keep a cool head in the face of an erupting volcano threatening to blow away a client’s bookings?

Around the time of the first Icelandic volcano’s eruption, I was stranded at the St Lucia hotel of one of our clients. They were concerned that through no fault of their own, they could potentially take a massive revenue hit from decreased European bookings, as these customers were physically barred from traveling to their resort. After listening to their concerns, I recommended that the hotel aggressively target their US and Canadian customer base. We quickly developed a promotion where the hotels offered an aggressive discount for the entire duration of…