Website 2.0 - Social Sharing Sites

1. What is meant by social sharing sites, link to 2 examples

The Social Sharing sites are the site where you can share the information, video, photos, information about everything you are interested in. We can say also the website 2.0, new generation of internet where the users can create, change the content of the site, before we can just read and see the images only.

Nowadays forums are very often frequented by the users registering from all over the world. The forum are the website, where you can share everything you want (almost), but also talking about the subject that you are interested in, like politics, music, games, etc.

Ex. www.youtube.com (video sharing site)

www.myspace.com (blog website)

www.flickr.com (one of the biggest photos sharing site)

www.wikipedia.org (the biggest online encyclopedia, where id adding and changing infomartion between net users)


2. How does social sharing influence consumers' choices, link to 1 article to support your assessment

Nowadays forums are very often frequented by the users registering from all over the world. The forum are the website, where you can share everything you want (almost), but also talking about the subject that you are interested in, like politics, music, games, etc.

Before the buyers are looking for the best price, reading the information about the product,

Now new research by Knowledge Storm and Universal McCann, show that how the effective use of new online, two-way media channels are engaging customers as well as keeping direct communications with them alive and thriving. The podcast, the third in a series of studies examining the impact that emerging online media have on B2B technology marketing, shows how three mainstays of the Web 2.0 culture are evolving into B2B information delivery tools.

The article: click here

3. How hoteliers can best utilize social sharing trends to communicate with customers. Link to 2 examples.

RSS feeds on the blog, I have already seen the small hoteliers have done that. You can do it I 2 different ways, you can have the personal site and just put all hospitality information on you interest rubrique. (RSS feeds) or to create hole blog of your hotel, necessary information to promote your hotel, then you can receive directly the comments on your site,

Every country or continent have different ways (to be more precise different programs or forums) to communicate with each other

Ex. There are few examples how people communicate with each other in XXI century:

I have friends from all over the world:

1) With the polish friends I use the program www.gadugadu.pl to chat with them, www.grono.net the biggest forum for sharing the information and to find your friends from school.

2) The Vietnamese or Asian nation they use to use Yahoo Messenger to chat and they have the great blog www.yahoo.360.com which is in use long time ago.

3) The French use almost only Msn messenger to communicate between them.

4) www.skype.com has very good quality of voice and view chat, you can buy the credit to call from your computer to mobile phone with very low price. In my opinion in the soon future all the call will be numeric and will be through the computer.

What I meant by that is to find the website (group of people) where are the most frequented in specific region, where you want to promote and sell your product. For the hoteliers is little bit different because the customers are more worldwide.

4. What is your opinion...can hotels effectively establish an online conversation with customers? Yes, why...no, why not?

Yes, I think that will be very soon, nowadays people network each other almost online, you can call, hear, see the person in front of your computer where you want and when you want. Even with someone that you’ve seen for the first time of your life. The world is changing a lot since 50 years, the technology is more and more developed, behaviours and needs of customers also change. The hoteliers should link or create a special service to be in touch with customers online, to be able to respond all their needs and must understand what they desire and what they want from us. The best way is to be online with them, to offer them best quality of service and to create the product most adapted for their needs.

Group Project

Eléonore and Linh project

We decided to choose the Kube Hotel in Paris, France.

3 resellers

www.avantgardehotels.com
-Who is the target customer group for the reseller site
Business people, Artists (VIP’s),
Word of mouth
Passage

-What is the ‘reach’ of the site, how do you know
Just by choosing the destination, Kube hotel is first on the list.

-What is the hotel ‘image’ projected by the site, what types of hotels are listed
Very trendy and design hotel, demonstrated by pictures, very detailed services and facilities. Same concept of design hotel, such as the Murano…but yet, we were also able to find the Lancaster. Trend-setting & concept hotel
Style, personality, and innovation. Avantgarde Hotels also present the coolest and most exciting designs, combining colors and shapes that appeal to customers with style and originality.

-Distribution – what types of marketing programs are offered to participating hotels
They have the same design concept between the reseller site and www.avangardehotels.com and the hotels proposed on the list, which mean that, this particular clientele will be able to find and satisfy their needs.
There is not many marketing programs
Exclusive, selective trendy hotels
No promotions

Affiliate program
-Distribution – are affiliate programs offered, if yes – what are the affiliate benefits
-No affiliate program offered.

-Distribution – are affiliate programs offered, if yes – what are the affiliate benefits
Affiliate Programs:
http://www.avantgardehotels.com/
Benefit: the customers can book and then compare with other hotels.


http://www.france-hotel-guide.com/
-Who is the target customer group for the reseller site
Just in France, and most hotels proposed are in Paris.
All stars, from no stars to 5 star luxury.

What is the ‘reach’ of the site, how do you know
We researched on google by typing “france hotels” and could not find the website right away. It only came up on the third page.

-What is the hotel ‘image’ projected by the site, what types of hotels are listed
Hotel not appearing on the website.
Not the same type of clientele as we are more into design/concept hotels.

-Distribution – what types of marketing programs are offered to participating hotels
Simply by filling out a form provided on the website, hoteliers will be to appear on the site.

-Distribution – are affiliate programs offered, if yes – what are the affiliate benefits
There are no affiliate program.



GTAhotels.com
-Who is the target customer group for the reseller site
We believe the site to be oriented to people who are looking for a good value…and are ready to spend some time searching for best deal. Mostly families, yet singles…

-What is the ‘reach’ of the site, how do you know
They have been a leading company since a long time. Well-reputed on the market.
Customers know about them, easy reach. Worldwide reseller site.

-What is the hotel ‘image’ projected by the site, what types of hotels are listed
Kube hotel is not showing up on the website. Totally different target market customers.
Discount hotels, low rates…

-Distribution – what types of marketing programs are offered to participating hotels
Toll free number, always a good thing!
Instant confirmation
Booking different activities (tours, day trip, transfers…)
Flexible reservation system
Rebate program

-Distribution – are affiliate programs offered, if yes – what are the affiliate benefits
Affiliate program offered by filling an enquiry/form.
The benefits:
detailed hotel information
wide selection/wide appeal
last minute bookings
instant online reservation/confirmation/charging


Conclusion
-Which reseller would you select for you hotel

We would select avantgardehotels.com because it does reflect the whole concept of the hotel, very well represented. It shows how appealing, unique and what a stylish experience it could be!

Affiliate programs

What are hotel affiliate programs?

It also call associate programs, are arrangements in which an online merchant Web site pays affiliate Web sites a commission to send them traffic. A particular agreement based on the number of people the affiliate sends to the merchant's site.

There are 3 parties in affiliate program:

- We, the customers

- The affiliate program

- The merchant program

In 1996, Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of amazon, popularized this idea as an Internet marketing strategy. The affiliate helps make the sale, but Amazon.com does everything else: They take the order, collect the money and ship the book to the customer.

How do they work?

To create an affiliate programs it’s very easy if we have a computer connected to Internet. We just have to go to a site such as GeoCities or AOL and use their ready-made Web design templates to construct a simple personal page.

When a customer clicks on a link on an affiliate site and purchases one of your products, you pay your affiliate a commission on the sale. You decide how much commission you're willing to pay for each item that sold. After a sale results, you pay your affiliate a commission, and the process begins all over again.

How it does work, OPAQUE Websites?

Click here to see the procedure how it does work, new way of travelling, for the travellers who don't care about the brand hotels!!!

What is OPAQUE SITES

So the opaque websites its different from others OTA, unlike “transparent” travel sites such as Expedia.com and Orbitz.com — which identify the service providers with whom you’re dealing — opaque sites like Hotwire.com and Priceline.com won’t tell you the company you’re doing business with until you enter your credit- or debit-card number. By then, what you see is what you got: Everything is final, with no refunds or exchanges.

If you don’t mind flying blind, purchasing your travel needs from an “opaque” Web site could save you a bundle.

To read the whole article click here

3rd Party Distribution

1. When should a hotel use 3rd party distribution?


With the continuous growth of ecommerce 3rd party distribution allows managing rates, avaibility, cut MLOS restrictions, etc from one screen for all distributors simultaneously. It interfaces to over 110 different 3rd party websites and tour operators.

- The hotellers should use to increase the e-commerce business and save time for market analysis, strategy, and sales coordination. They have come to the decision as it has really been a strong demand made by the Revenue Management Team.

2. What resellers are available?
Resellers are these organizations, also known within some industries as intermediaries, distributors or dealers, generally purchase or take ownership of products from the marketing company with the intention of selling to others. If a marketer utilizes multiple resellers within its distribution channel strategy the collection of resellers is termed a reseller network. These organizations can be classified into several sub-categories including:
· Retailers – Organizations that sell products directly to final consumers.
· Wholesalers – Organizations that purchase products from suppliers, such as manufacturers or other wholesalers, and in turn sell these to other resellers, such as retailers or other wholesalers.
· Industrial Distributors – Firms that work mainly in the business-to-business market selling products obtained from industrial suppliers

RateTiger, by eRevMax technologies, is a Revenue and Distribution Management solution, which is servicing over 1200 hotels worldwide. RTAllocator, the extranet of extranets, is a state of the art channel management system. RTShopper is a real-time rate shopping tool, allowing hotels to see what prices competition is selling at across a wide selection of distributions channels like IDS’s and GDS. With RateTiger you save time and make money on your ecommerce distribution strategies.

Somes examples of others resellers:

- Microsoft Navision ERP -Business ERP Software
- Akamai Business Performance Management Services
- TTS - Time and Attendance Management

3. How to select the right channels:

When choosing a distribution channel a marketer must determine what value a channel member adds to the firm’s products. Product Decisions, customers assess a product’s value by looking at many factors including those that surround the product (augmented product). Several surrounding features can be directly influenced by channel members, such as customer service, delivery, and availability. Consequently, for the marketer selecting a channel partner involves a value analysis in the same way customers make purchase decisions. That is, the marketer must assess the benefits received from utilizing a channel partner versus the cost incurred for using the services.

4. How does a hotelier manage all this?
In order to achieve this goal, executives should evaluate three approaches: 1) expand the product line; 2) build new distribution channels; or 3) optimize the current distribution channels. There has been a significant focus on "speed to market" programs to reduce the cycle time in bringing new products to market, but more attention should be paid to building new distribution channels and optimizing existing channels. The goal of this discussion is to assist you in evaluating your organization's performance against the four principal challenges of distribution management affecting carriers today:
1. The ability to attract and retain good producers.
2. Determining the best strategy for distribution.
3. Reducing the cost of distribution.
4. Channel rationalization.

Bryan Adams Heaven

Mobil Travel Guide

Mobil Travel Guide has rated hotels and restaurants since 1958 -- longer than any other site or company.

Today, in North America, there are approximately 50,000 hotels, of which Mobil Travel Guide recommends about 9,000. So whether you are seeking clean, reliable, roadside accommodations or a destination resort experience that will provide a lifetime of memories, you can trust their Stars to guide your way.

Mobil Travel Guide helps us to make the best travel decision and especially for travelers who use the Internet to plan trips, hotel ratings have become seriously suspect. The goal is to provide travelers with the most objective ratings for hotels, restaurants and spas in the U.S. and Canada. There are more than hundreds of criteria for Hotel Ratings, Restaurant Ratings, and Spa Ratings. Or find out which hotels, inns and restaurants are among the finest in North America in 2007.

Every hotel, resort inn or bed and breakfast that has a Mobil Star Rating is recommended. Of course, the higher the Star Rating, the higher the service level, amenities and overall experience you can expect. Mobil Travel Guide Inspectors evaluate several hundred objective hotel criteria, including housekeeping, room service, and hospitality and lodging amenities to provide a rating that you can depend on.

Understanding the Mobil Star Ratings process and the criteria for each Star-Rating level will give you the background you need to get the most out of the ratings and reviews on MobilTravelGuide.com.

In my opinion nowadays travel websites are world wide with complaints from travelers who feel they are misled about the quality of a hotel. Many ratings criteria from other websites have not been considered. Mobil Travel Guide is the well know standard in the North America.
Even The Wall Street Journal, said that 56% of all leisure travellers agree that “hotel guide ratings such as those provided by Mobil Travel Guide.