Hraba Hospitality Consulting

Direct ROI from social media, such as tracking someone from a review page to your booking engine is only one small component of the overall ROI.  Your analytic program can find the dollar amount in those conversions incredibly efficiently.  You can even have a graph.  I like graphs, and charts. and lots and lots of data… great stuff.

But frankly, I am nearly done with the ROI conversation (except that my clients are not there yet, so here we go again). It is IMPOSSIBLE to measure EVERY aspect of how valuable it is, at least so far.  We can provide relevant insight into what we are doing from time to time, sort of like taking a snapshot of an electron.  What we show you now might not be what we are working on in the next nanosecond, but you can see one scintillating aspect of how we build your brand, create business, and return on your investment in us “hired gun” online concierges.  I am constantly thinking and developing better reporting tools for my client, but it sometimes works better just to show what I am doing.

We want and need a lot of freedom to work on all these channels.  It is a lot to manage, and sometimes you get lost in 20 projects… so this is not a short term thing.  For social media campaigns to work you need to be experimental, playful, trusting, and patient.  But framing that with a long term and consistent approach is paramount.  Once you start this thing, you can’t stop.  Not that you would want to, but it might have a damaging effect.  If people expect you to be there, and you are not…. the online word of mouth can go south really quick (as you can read HERE and throughout my blog).

On a popular review site, there was a “thread” (IE conversation) about local hotels with large bathtubs.  One of my clients fit the bill, and being an active community member my suggestion of the hotel wasn’t looked at as spam or solicitation… it was just another of my many recommendations (or annoying remarks, depends what user you are).  This wasn’t in official capacity of the hotel, this was in a personal capacity while online.  As I said, this job is like an online concierge, and I am often talking about much more than just the properties… it is about the community.  Hiking, rentals, theatres, the weather and more.  So I simply told her that might be able to get a deal, because I was part of the team that opened it, straightforward and honest.

The person that asked the question messaged me privately, and I got more information about her needs.  For the sake of argument your hotel is empty.  She basically needs a $600 RACK rate room type for $200, which isn’t much above our Friends & Family, with the CPOR being $129 or so (yeah it’s large luxury property).  If you accept the $200 rate *and* are able to give them a room with a 2 person or larger style bathtub… she is *very*likely to write a good review on her preferred review network, as long as the services are up to snuff.  What’s more, she will be a willing and receptive social media advocate… and likely post her review to her facebook account, make a second review on tripadvisor, and twitter about her stay (in fact, you can ask engaged participants in social media to review you…they don’t mind at all).  These people are helping grow our online footprint.. keywords, optimizing, etc.

It is possible they deserve a discount, but you have to release yourself to the fact that you can’t control the message.  You are simply, in earnest, trying to get an eager guest to stay at your property.  You can’t be disappointed when she is honest about her stay, or says something you don’t like.  In all likelihood it *will* be positive because you engaged them, and created a positive, enthusiastic climate of your brand from start to finish.  In essence, a rate that might make a revenue manager cringe, or that a desk agent would never give a walk-in, is worth considering due to the amplified voice your online guest has.

An active person in social media that becomes an endorser is a huge brand advocate.  Beyond $200 of revenue that may have not previously existed, she will virally and offhandedly promote Cavallo for years to come with reviews and indexed search keywords.

What’s more… the more keywords, and the more “real” conversation that exists about you… the better you are indexed and the more relevant you become in search engines.  As search indexing changes in the next few years – aggregating pictures, videos, reviews, and other content – it will be paramount to start creating as much corporate or property level specific content as possible.  Everyone should be uploading photos of themselves to photo sharing sites – constantly.  We should be in chat groups talking about our brand – constantly.  Buy Flip Video cameras for the Executive team and have them load videos on youtube.  Have your pastry chef do a demo.  Have your spa manager tour the spa.  EVERY employee diggs articles about the hotel.  You need to add as much content as possible to get way out ahead of these other hotels that… well, frankly… aren’t reading this right now.

But this isn’t a science, and this is where experimentation and patience come in.  Would you take a lower ADR for that nicer room type with the bathtub, investing in your online reputation?  There are no sure things, of course.  If she has a bad stay, you can’t control the message…. But extending yourselves to an active participant should bode very well for your online reputation.

Let me know what you think, and expect one or two more of these “social media optimization” snapshots in the coming days.

Remember being a young buck in the industry?  Remember when they didn’t have solitaire, or even windows based PMS?  Standing at the desk in an empty lobby gazing into nowhere, or on the overnight sneaking away from the desk to create a makeshift sandwich from the walk in?  Remember thinking you always did more work than managers?  I consider myself a pretty nice guy; amicable, easy, and good at communicating with almost everyone.  But there was a manager or two… I would find myself muttering things under my breath.  Bad things.

But as a manager, my ears became bionic.  I think they would *actually* curve towards the direction of the whispers or furtive eyes having a private conversation.  You know those moments…. when you walk in and *KNOW* line employees were talking about you.

It makes you think, what the hell are they saying when I am not in the room?

I knew I was an awesome manager, and even if they were speaking kindly (**”oh he’s cute”**, no doubt) I would be suspicious as all get out.  I am an insecure type, so it would eat me up.  I think it was good in the end, because I became an even more hands on manager, and really worked in the trenches with my staff.

So part of my philosophy was always being available, present and accessible.  Being visible, and letting others know I was there for them prevented a lot of unfortunate situations.  I was able to resolve situations immediately upon noticing them, reinforce the quality of the brand, improve morale, root us in the community (long chats with locals about this and that), and probably prevented some bad talk about me, and more…. just by being an active, present manager.

What’s more, if you leave the room and don’t come back, people start speaking pretty freely when they know no one can hear them.  This, of course, is not good.  This is that guest or employee unleashing tirades with impunity.  You need to be there for them.

Well think of a twitter account like that.  Think of all your social media accounts like that.  It’s your online concierge department, and you are the manager.  A good manager is present, and available.  When you are, people know they can go to you, interact with you, utilize and trust you.  If you aren’t available (hiding in the back office reading the paper), you are missing opportunities and not doing your job… employees and guests alike are feeling ignored. 

This is why you need to establish your social media presence.  This is why you need to reply to reviews… so reviewers know you are there and will review you more professionally.  This is why you need to search social networking sites, so you can assist in people’s conversations about you, or questions in regards to your offerings.  This is why RSS feeds become important, piping updates from Blogs to Facebook and more.

Otherwise, all your employees and guests that are online will know you aren’t in the room.  They will say whatever they please, and possibly consider you irrelevant.  What’s worse, they might not consider you at all.  You don’t want people knocking on your lobby door, asking questions and choosing their next stay when you aren’t listening. It isn’t just about missing out on an opportunity, it’s that ignoring it could be a real disaster.