The hospitality industry has been hit as hard if not harder than any industry in the nation. And I see their pain.

A day rarely goes by that a strong hotelier does not grace our door or give us a call, with a sad face and begging for ideas to make it through to the next high season. Here are my best suggestions for online


1> Price. It is all about price. The ones that are coming are looking for a deal. I am not telling you anything new here but I could not ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room.

2> Do the discount channels. Make sure you are on Hotwire and Priceline. Here you can discount without diluting your public rates. The ones that are surviving are out there.

3> Go knock on doors. The flagged properties are doing it. Make sure you are known with the large employers in your area. Hit the hospitals, the schools, the city governments. They still have money.

4> Take a deposit and don't give it back easily. Make your policies tough and enforce them.

5> Tend to your website. If you are not doing something daily on your website you are not doing what you should.

Hope this helps. If you need a shoulder to cry on, give me a call. It will get better.

Video is so powerful online. No one will argue with that. Just look at the success the Web 2.0 sites such as YouTube have had. Of course, Google is all about video right now. Search results are showing up on a regular basis that are videos.

We are now doing a weekly video cast in several areas and posting them on different sharing sites across the net. We are using them on our newly launched booking portal, BookDaytonaBeach.com.

This is a very effective way to promote hotels by using daytona beach videos. You can see Daytona Beach hotel specials and news.

In today's Wall Street Journal there is a large article called 'The Subprime Summer Vacation'. The article's title made me say OUCH.

A few of their observances do not reflect what we see with our hotel clients but many are reflective of what we are seeing.

-The Journal - "Close-to-home destinations like suburban water parks and regional resort towns say they're bracing for a spike in business as Americans look for fun things to do that don't require much travel"

- AI - We see a more ominous trend. Americans maybe going to water parks but we see a significant trend of day trips and shorter stays. They maybe going to close to home destinations but they are holding onto their money when it comes to hotel rooms.

- The Journal - 17% of respondents said they would stay closer to home. This summer, resorts that are selling well are all inclusives. The advance booking window has dropped in half.

- AI - We are seeing a significant decrease in how far in advance people are booking. We saw the same trends after 9/11. We feel it is an uncertainty that often shortens this window. This coupled with the fact that people are looking for last minute deals.


What can you as a hotelier do?

Make sure you are in regular contact with you prior guests. Email newsletters are a great way to announce last minute specials. If that is what the American public is looking for, make sure those that have stayed with you previously will come back

Give them a reason to stay longer. Work with local attractions. Offer an 'Add a Day' special at time of check in. Offer length of stay discounts.

Most of you are seasoned pros. You know what to do. Now is the time to implement all the rate strategy that you have come to hate. I know your competition is.

When you do a search on Google for your hotels in your geographic location (ie, hotels Indianapolis Indiana or hotels Miami Beach) you will probably be shown a map of the area plus a listing of 10 hotels. Each hotel will have a letter beside it that corresponds to the location of the property on the map.


Do you see your property? Is the information correct? If not it is time to do some Google housekeeping.


First you will need to be registered with Google. If you are not, simply go to Google. Up in the right hand side of the screen you will see either a sign in link if you have previously registered. If you have not registered, go ahead and do so. In today's Google dominated world you almost must be registered if you do business online.

After you register, go back to the map. Find your listing and click on more information. A bubble of information about your listing will appear. Don't worry if you see information that is not correct. You can correct it yourself in the next few steps.

In the bubble you will see one of several options. You can claim you business, add your business or edit your business. Click on the link. You will be presented with a fill in the blank series of questions. You will also be able to upload photos and videos!

When you finally complete all the information, there is a verification process. They will either call your main phone number immediately or send you a post card that takes 2 to 3 weeks. If you do not have an automated answering system on your primary phone number then I suggest that you use the phone method. If for some reason you cannot answer the phone request the postcard.

That will get you listed. What's next? Get your guest to leave reviews just like they do on Trip Advisor. Google will pull reviews from Trip Advisor and add them to your listings here.

If you do any paid advertising with Google Adwords, you can also pay for local listings.

Hope this helps.

Michelle Herrin
Alternate Image, Inc.