winter solstice - why days are getting darker

Winter Solstice is a topic that concerns many people during 22nd of December, 2014. Articles appear in BBC News and other reliable sources. What is a winter solstice? Wikipedia will offer you a structured format to get yourself documented.

HotelMinder - marketing tool and online bookings

HotelMinder has its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and provides applications, consulting and management services to Hotels, Hostels, B&Bs and Guesthouses in many countries all over the world, since 2010.
 
They assist property owners and their staff with everything they need to run their business efficiently - whatever its size and requirements!

What kind of products they offer? Check some of their services in other to gain a more detailed understanding on how they would be able to support your business and property:

 

More and more properties are looking forward into connecting they property online, to more than just one booking portal like Expedia or HRS.com. After they are live on different channels, they find it hard to keep the pace and update rates and availability so that they avoid over bookings. Here is where a Channel Manager solution would make sense. Here is a list of favorite partners to chose from:

Personal Brand - SlideShare

Slide Share has also an option of bringing to life your own Brand:

Personal Branding Passport-Gigoing

Companies are constructing their brand identity from day one and evolving by changing the logotype, vision, mission and culture as they grow and achieve more an established status quo. What about each one of us? We should seriously think about promoting ourselves and be able to market our values in a relevant manner.

This idea has been in the back of my mind for a time and was looking for the perfect tool to just do it. Gigoing is a Spanish company that lunch just the products I was looking for:

Moreover, it allows you to create projects and in the future have a viral effect by sharing it with your network

Booking Button and Engine Stromberg Resort Germany

Booking Button from Booking.com

Small and even bigger size properties face the problem of not having integrated a Booking Button or Engine into their own website. I have seen even 4 star hotels that do now have this function and they rely purely on the bookings that come from the online distribution Channels. 

A quick fix solution is having the booking button provided by the biggest player in the market: Booking.com The property is already paying commission when a booking is done directly on the Extranet and also pays the same commission when the booking comes from their website. Ups.... trouble. Yes, you heard it right. The property is investing money in marketing to drive traffic to their own website or just benefiting from positive reviews, that take the client directly to the personal website of the Hotel. 3rd scenario would be a client is looking in the Extranets and then goes to the webpage of the hotel. In the end, again a commission would be paid to Booking.com

Better way to do it is to have an own booking engine that can be linked directly to the Extranet when a booking comes from the personal page of the hotel. See the example of Resort Stromberg

Also, we can look inside once the booking button has been clicked:

What are your concerns when looking for a Booking Engine? Price, integration with Extranet, technical implementation. Hospitality industry has to keep up the pace with the new consumer than is active online, now more than ever

Ebay hotel coupons - Sales, soldes, angebot for Hotels

You are getting deals for meals, cinema or even holidays. What about Hotels? One day a friend has asked via Facebook where can he find attractive offers and coupons for a night in a Hotel in Berlin. Given the network that has been established, I have recommended him: http://www.zuzzu.com "Ebay hotel coupons"

Feel free to have a look and maybe there is something valuable for you as well. Following we will have some highlights from the offers you will have access and also some design hotels. Awesome ideas to keep in mind

Special Offers the Psychological Side

14-days free trial offer for MappingMaster-Channel Management Solution...free ice-cream event from Ben&Jerry...free test drive with a beautiful BMW or 3 months service free. The free offer is perhaps the most effective in all of business. People will always take something for free.




This takes me to an example of an online business owner in Spain that delivered oranges for free. He even let the client decide what, he wanted to pay for the fruits. Many other similar ideas coexist around, like a restaurant that would offer you a high quality service and invite you to pay whatever you think is worth it. Going one step ahead, some online shops offer Free delivery services as a differentiation point.

Now the question comes: are free offers evil? Are we as marketers of online services, scared of 'drugging' our partners with promotions? like in the situation of promotions sold in the supermarket, where we buy because there is something free?

We can not compare apples with oranges, but both of them are fruits :) Let us apply the golden rule, we all like free offers and by extension our partners as well.

There are 2 different Approaches to Selling:

1. Based on value, quality, brand name, recognition, specialized services, price and so on.
2. Based on the psychological need of our partners. Offering something for free, where they are not bound to a contract, in need of providing bank details for a further extension, no automatic extensions, commitments, they are free offers that have the needs of our customers in mind.

I do agree that all of us would like to have a high-end position in the mind of our customers, like in the case of BMW exclusive cars. Just ask yourself, how long have they been in the market? How much do they invest in marketing and advertising? How many people have already bought their cars? Are this people their best advertising? brand ambassadors.

Just one advice, if you are trying to sell based on point number one, when you are not fully established in the market you will eventually be successful. It will take longer, your client portfolio will not very extense and your efforts will be double. In the end you will have a long-term selling process.

As when it comes to point two, selling based on free takes. You will have a short-term selling process, your clients portfolio will be bigger from the first moment, with less effort, energy and time consuming processes.


In conclusion, there is nothing evil in offering free solutions because you have already earned a partner. Now start bringing in all the value you have for them and establish a long term relationship with your customers.