Key Success Factors and Opportunities in Online Markets for Hotel Industry

The hotel industry plays a vital part in Thailand’s economy, accounting for 6-7% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the past, several hotels utterly focused to service on mere high-end customers. However, people become more price-sensitive, along with high competition and Red Ocean of five or four-star hotels, many hotels must adapt strategies and portfolios by penetrating to capture low-income market segment. In addition, to survive in intense competitive business, three main factors are essential for hotel industry to maintain their business in long run.

The primary key success factor in hotel industry is service. Currently, for hotel and logging business, successful businesses can be evidenced in a noticeable increase in repeat guests and even comment card scores can be a tangible evident. Customers would be recognized and responded very favorably to the improvement in service. However, service can make a difference. Some customers would like to pay high prices in exchange of experience better services. Superior service delivery by an efficient and hospitable staff can be a major factor in a guest’s decision to return to your place rather than to try one of your competitors. A reputation for superior service can also become an important part of your places’ unique image and identity.

Another key success factor is location. Businesses with good and suited location could easily gain advantages from their place. In hotel industry, most successful businesses are in locations that have lots of people come in and out every day. If we focus on hotel segment, the businesses can benefit in location such as places that are near shopping centers, business centers, and walking streets. Those kinds of location have people trading or doing other transactions along the days so that businesses can sell their products and services. However; good and suited location can incur high costs for rental, it is a great opportunity for place owners to run businesses.

Nowadays, advancement in technology allows hotel industry to exploit benefits from popularity of online market, the following strategies are recommended:

Expand brand awareness by using social media pages – CHR an easily expand its brand awareness globally by hosting its own Twitter, Instagram account and Facebook pages. This strategy will not only provide more platforms for CHR to promote itself and its properties but also broaden its social media presence which will likely help the brand gain more attention, especially among the younger generations of guests. Moreover, guests will feel even more connected to the brand by enjoying this new insider’s look. With social media, CHR will be able to keep followers engaged and attract guests to stay at the hotels.

Luxury travelers and business travelers are most likely to book a trip on a mobile device - In 2014, 156 million consumers had engaged with digital travel content in the past year, up 11 percent from 2013. Increasingly, the percentage of consumers accessing travel sites exclusively on mobile devices is growing, reaching 62 million in 2014. The growth and scale of today’s mobile audience further illustrates the need for brands to implement a diversified cross-platform marketing strategy to effectively engage key audiences across devices throughout the travel planning process. Knowing that luxury customers and business travelers are booking more on mobile, it makes sense for CHR to advertise in this space. CHR can put their mobile advertisement in travel sites, business magazines or luxury product/service apps to expand its brand awareness and attract more guests globally.

Bidding for ad space on websites that many people use - Google search is an effective form of marketing because so many people use Google search. Purchasing ads and sponsored stories on Facebook are useful for the exact same reasons. Moreover, Facebook ads can gain a business significant exposure to billions of travelers on Facebook and to their friends, and their friend’s friends. With this strategy, CHR can be exposed to potential guests very quickly and effectively.