The Hotel Marketing Weblog

Not long ago the conventional wisdom in this industry was that English was something of an internet lingua franca. The consensus was that, overall, internet users were a technologically and culturally developed target. Whether or not they lived in an English-speaking country, they understood English.

This is why an English language website has long been considered a must-have for getting to the vast majority of potential clients. But if you have not yet taken in how much of a sea-change has come about, you should know that non-English speaking internet users have overtaken English speakers by a handsome margin. And month by month, it’s the non-English speaking group that’s growing fastest.

(more…)

As the owner and manager of a small resort hotel, I have always had a controversial relationship with online booking websites run by third parties or TPI, as they are known for short. It is not that I have any difficulty in accepting the idea of paying a commission on the booking received; this is completely normal for anyone who does my job. It was, rather, the fact of becoming in some way deprived of control of my hotel’s inventory that frightened me.

(more…)