In its latest report, “Luxury Hotels: Regional Search Strategies,” New York-based brand consultancy L2 suggests upper upscale and luxury hotel brands should be looking to TripAdvisor more often than they are now.
As hotel brands are forced to compete in an increasingly crowded online marketplace with both online travel agencies (OTAs), as well as Google Hotel Ads, it’s becoming more and more difficult for hotels to make it to the first page of Google search results for hotels in a specific city.
L2, which compiles an annual “Digital IQ Index” of 55 luxury hotel brands, found the following:
- Brands that invest in affiliate site pages like those on TripAdvisor and establishing partnerships with them can compete against OTAs in search and create new conversion channels
- Brands should prioritize their search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) budgets to regional areas that align with the brand’s areas of growth or match its regional footprint
- More brands should optimize their SEM/SEO efforts abroad to attract international travelers who may not be familiar with the brand
Why and How Is TripAdvisor So Helpful for Hotels?
TripAdvisor is helpful to hotels in a variety of ways, says Grant Torres, L2’s study lead for this report. “They are one of the most highly trafficked sites for hotels and for reviews and information,” he said.
First of all, TripAdvisor dominates in terms of both SEO (organic searches) and SEM (paid searches). L2 tested out 452 non-branded search terms during the month of March and found that TripAdvisor was on the first page for 99% of organic search results and 72% or paid search results on Google. TripAdvisor also occupies 7% of all organic real estate in brand term search, even when competing against brand’s own sites (63%) and social media properties (16%). Within those brand term searches, these brands have the top TripAdvisor visibility: Jumeirah; Anantara; Hilton; Sofitel; and Omni Hotels & Resorts.
“That’s kind of a massive amount [7%] when you look at other industries,” Torres said. “In other industries you wouldn’t see those kinds of numbers.”
Hotels can partner with TripAdvisor in a number of ways, one being a strategic Instant Booking partnership, as Marriott has done. As it would with an OTA, Marriott pays a commission to TripAdvisor for each room booked via the site’s Instant Booking feature, and L2’s report states this “gives Marriott a fighting chance against OTAs on the site.”
“The new product rolling out from TripAdvisor puts [brands] in a new kind of stratosphere,” says Torres. “It’s a direct partner that these brands can work with to boost visibility since Google is so crowded right now.”
As reported earlier this month in Skift, TripAdvisor and other OTAs are attempting to get hotel companies like Marriott to give them access to those brands’ exclusive loyalty-member rates that they are offering on their own branded sites. Marriott has been a partner with TripAdvisor’s Instant Booking since June 2015, but neither party has divulged much information about how well the Instant Booking feature is contributing to the bottom lines for each company.(Source Skift.com)
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