Final Exam

1- A revolution is taking place on the Internet, with new sites redefining how we interact online. The next-generation Internet is emerging in collaborative and interactive applications and sites with rich, varied media (images, video, music). The young generation, which is adopting social networking sites like MySpace and video sharing sites like Google’s YouTube knows good the social sharing sites. But the general shift is not restricted to the young, as more mature consumers and businesses alike are exploring the possibilities of collaborative, media-rich applications.

2- The social sharing influences consumers’ choices due to the price difference and the choice offered thanks to the high level of possibilities. It provides some advices and experiences from others customers concerning airlines, hotels or still visits to do. Moreover it’s more complete than a classic website; people can share information about business and link their appointments with their travels and their planning.

http://jensthraenhart.com/cblog/index.php?/archives/194-Social-Networking-in-Travel-KLM-Airlines.html

3- We can see some possibilities for hoteliers to establish communication with customers. First, I think hoteliers could create some social sharing sites in order to share their customers’ opinions. They could also propose partnerships with airline companies to minimize more and more the cost of the packages.

http://www.lesexplorers.com/50226711/vibeagent_hotels_recommendations_you_can_trust_at_prices_you_cant_beat.php

http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/070207_social_networking_and_the_travel_industry/

4 -My opinion concerning the possibility for hoteliers to communicate with customer is mitigated because the strength of those new social sharing sites is to be independent to companies. But, in the same time, I think that hoteliers will be fast to create some partnership or licensing with those sites in order to make advertising for group.
The fact that those sites are for the moment independent provide good advices from different person and supply for example for airlines companies a large choice which take in consideration all the companies existing.
We can also see that e-marketing in hospitality and tourism industry are constantly increasing. So, my point of vu is that marketers will be able to find a type or new software closer to the customer which will propose all the same comparisons.

I found a blog where all those e-marketing and websites skills are really good explained, with some articles from hotel marketing and some comments with a lot of explanations.

To come back on the subject and link blog and sites with the communication shared between customers and hoteliers, I put some print screen about websites as PairUp, Vibeagent, Tripwiser.com, Travellerspoint, or again Airtroductions which show us how they work.

3rd Party Site

I choose Otel.com because it proposes the Hyatt hotel, this third party site is simple and clear.

I think it reflects the Hyatt hotel but may be it’s not enough luxury to book this type of hotels.

The hotel image can be share on this website because the site style is simple, there is not too much colours and customers can book easily. Photos are present and so, you can see the hotel atmosphere. It’s complete and you can also read some comments about customer’s ideas.

Hotel Ice Kube

I think that the Kube hotel's idea is good to use the second life success in order to present their hotel with an original side.

In fact, wherever you click, you have some music and animations with virtual people. It's really imaginative, modern, and funny. The marketing for this hotel wants to focus on young workers, and they did it very well !

You can visit the web site on http://www.kubehotel.com/kubehotel.html.

Concerning the 3rd Party :

First of all, most of the hotels appear on different 3rd party websites and not only on the Official Website. You can have an access to a good rate for the same service and also at the same date. 3rd party websites can be for example websites like Expedia, VirtualTourist, Hotels.com, etc...

* Expedia :

If you find a better rate on another website than Expedia, They refund the total invoice of your booking.

Now, regarding Best Rate Guarantee :

For this exercise, I have chosen to take the example of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Indeed, as you can see, this chain suggests to its guests the possibility to obtain a reward of 2000 points or 10% in supplement on the lower price we find in other websites / channels compared to the official website.

About the Geraud's article

http://geraudcmh4.blogspot.com/2006/11/never-enough-amenities.html

I think this article is very relevant about what's happening in hotels about aminities. In fact, if hotels doesn't put a limit about the services inside the room, it will be too expensive for hotel and there will not be good marges for rentabilities. For my point of view, it's a good thing that hotel put aminities but not too much. If they want to have a exceptional service for regular customers, they could give some small gift from the second time for a client.

Print screen about a hotel research

This reserach show us that this hotel appears on the first line and inside the sponsor links on the right side. Although it's a name very used, we can see that on the french and on the english version of google, it appears very well each time. About the sponsor links, it is very present on the majority of third party site. When you go on the third party site, booking.com, you can see a very good resume and all the advantages of this hotel. Moreover, you can see a lot of beautiful photos, almost better than on the original site www.hotel-ambassadeur.com. We can book the rooms and also see the disponibilities second to the period.