An in-depth look at how the hospitality industry is evolving when it comes to social media, reputation and revenue management. By Kathick Prabu, general manager for Asia-Pacific at Tnooz.

1. Social media and reviews are changing the
landscape of revenue management
Karthick Prabu

2. Next Gen Revenue Management
• RTCP – Room, Time, Customer, Price
• Added with,
– The Right Distribution Channel with the best commission efficiency
– Proactive decisions
• Possible with knowledge on: Customers, customers, and customers.

3. Where to find, What they do
• Social media
– The obvious: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Blogs
– Beyond the obvious: Quora, Vine, Squidoo
– The non-obvious: Humans
– Core review sites: TripAdvisor, HolidayIQ, Zomato, Burrp
– Type of content: Text, picture, video
• Your own website

4. Quora: Text based search

5. Twitter Vine: 6 second Postcard

6. What To Do
1. Know the tools, like a pro
– Facebook EdgeRank, NearBy, GraphSearch, Home, Quora points
2. Descriptive statistics:
– Snapshot of historical and current performance
– Answer questions like, how many fans do I have? How many reviews have been posted over the last six
months? What is my average rating on each of the OTAs?
3. Social network analysis:
– Uses the connections among users, and the impact of their activity, to determine the degree of influence
– Targeted marketing efforts can be directed at the most influential users
4. Text analysis:
3.1 Content categorization
– Automatically categorize responses on guest surveys, route to the appropriate department
3.2 Text mining
– Understand the semantics, uncover key topics that can be used to predict or understand guest behavior
3.3 Sentiment analysis
– Uses natural language processing to determine how guests feel about attributes of your brand, product or
service.

7. What To Do … Contd
5. Product alignment
– Know the value score of your brand
– Price according to your value
– Test the value: In increments
– Identify purchase drivers
– Higher ADR, higher overall yield
– Super informed consumers make revenue managers to watch RevPAR by room type. Ex: Google streetview,
BusinessPhotos, Room 77
– Consumers have RM products at hand. Ex: Bing’s Farecast

8. What To Do … Contd

9. What To Do … Contd
6. Competitive benchmarking
– Know what is said about your competitor
– Metrics: Number of reviews on online travel websites, videos, Facebook fans, Twitter, photo shares,
bookmarks and blog entries
7. Strategic pricing
– New retail concepts that offer members-only deals, flash sales, group buying and auctions
– 70% same day bookings
– Focus on value instead of price, value seekers will pay more
– Better-informed consumers and shrinking lead time
8. Google Hotel Finder
– Yet another distribution channel that needs to be monitored
– Deep integration happening with Google suit of products
– Make sure your property is listed.
– Keep it updated

10. What To Do … Contd

11. What To Do … Contd
9. Brand protection
– Protect your brand from advertising hijacking
– OTAs and other travel websites bid on search engines on your hotel name; diverts people
– Costs you commission, instead of a direct sale
– Facebook Ad options are even more granular

12. What To Do … Contd
10. Make your website social
– Build social analytics

13. What To Do … Contd

14. What To Do … Contd

15. What To Do … Contd

16. Social Media Quadrant For Revenue Managers
Time Scope
SHORT TERM LONG TERM
Tactical Strategic
INBOUND (1) Inform (3) Inform pricing,
User Generated promotions and distribution and
Information Content pricing decisions CRM strategy
Flow
OUTBOUND (2) Drive short term (4) Drive customer
Hotel Generated demand and build development and
Content brand awareness retention

17. Online Reputation Management
Source: ReviewPro

18. Online Reviews – Importance
90% of online shoppers said they trust recommendations from people they know
70% trust opinions of unknown users
10% rate swings due to online reviews
50% of people won’t book a hotel if there are no reviews
26% of TripAdvisor visits occur in the last five days prior to reservation booking

19. Online Reviews – Importance
71% of Indian accommodations have rating of 3.5 (out of 5) in TripAdvisor
38% customers are ready to pay more, for reviews that indicate superior service
#1 reason visitors leave a hotel website - to check reviews elsewhere
40% of consumers that leave hotel websites to validate their decision with other site
reviews end up booking there

20. Impact of ORM on revenue
• “A 1-point increase in a review score equates to a 9% increase in average daily
rate” – Expedia
• Cornell University study reaffirms the impact of online reviews on all offline
and online distribution channels
+0.80%
ADR
1 point increase in hotel’s Global
Review Index (of ReviewPro)
+0.54%
Occupancy
+1.42%
RevPar

21. Reputation drives revenue – now what?
1. Reputation is everything
– Reviews are like glass. Handle with care.
– Have good reputation and review score
– Directly impacts ADR (average daily rate)
– Set up a combined task force together with the operations team to improve the service level of the hotel,
and tackle concerns or suggestions raised by guests
– It’s not just about service. You need to get reviews.
2. Grow direct sales
– Help your marketing team to secure a relevant budget to grow direct sales
– Make sure your website is well optimized and conversions are high
– Most important social revenue channel
– Loss in direct bookings is loss of revenue
– Boost confidence: Integrate reviews, leverage analytics
– Save commission from 3rd-party distribution channels
– Direct bookings enable you to take better decisions, serve customers better

22. Reputation drives revenue – now what? Contd..

23. Reputation drives revenue – now what? Contd..
3. Track your reputation against others
– Which are the places your potential guests check while they’re shopping
– When satisfaction drops or surges, dig deeper to understand the forces driving those trends, and then
make changes based on what you learn
– Semantic analysis of online feedback for a property can reveal opportunities for targeted improvements
that make the biggest, fastest impact on guest satisfaction.
– Doing this for a competitive set will help build a stronger unique value proposition for that hotel.

24. ORM Based Revenue Optimizer Quadrant
Source: ReviewPro

25. Revenue Optimizer Quadrant - Example
Source: ReviewPro

26. Case Study 1
Olivia Plaza Hotel, 4 Star, Barcelona:
• Used semantic analysis to improve breakfast offering
• Significantly reduced the number of negative reviews and comments

27. Case Study 2
CitizenM Hotels, Europe
• Checkout includes guest satisfaction check
– Negative: A manager is involved to resolve problem!
– Positive: Receptionist encourages sharing experience in review!
• Higher volume of negative reviews are minimized because guests do not leave the hotel
with a negative feeling

28. Case Study 3
Corinthia Hotels, Europe
• Used their Twitter account to resolve Marc Benioff’s complaint
• Brand and customer mileage

29. References
• HotelMarketingCoach
• Xotels
• Tnooz
• ReviewPro
• HotelExecutive
• HotelNewsNow
• ISHC
• WebInTravel
• Altimeter Group
• Awareness Inc
• Cornell university school of hotel administration
• PhoCusWright
• TripAdvisor
• comScore
• eConsultancy
• eMarketer

30. Q Q? ?
Social media and reviews are changing the
landscape of revenue management
Karthick Prabu

31. Appendix

32. The Social Media ROI Scene
“What are the challenges in tying social media to revenue”
Source: Altimeter, July’12

33. The Social Media ROI Scene
“How effective is your company at connecting social media to revenue”
Source: Altimeter, July’12

34. The Social Media ROI Scene
“What are the business benefits of social media measurement”
Source: Altimeter, July’12