Host Accommodation - Refresh

Our Friends at Host Accommodation have been busy updating their brand and have released the obliquity press release to media outlets (see below). 

As a point of difference, this quirky and innovative accommodation marketing group have also attached this supporting video...



Friday 16 March 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HOST ACCOMMODATION BRAND REFRESH

After an extensive review, Host Accommodation has just completed a brand overhaul across its network of nearly 90 properties throughout New Zealand.

Brand positioning is recognised by Host as being increasingly critical in a marketplace that is more than ever cluttered with product offers.

“Over the past 12 months we have conducted an in depth strategic review across all aspects of the Host Accommodation business” said Chris Lee, General Manager of Host Accommodation. “As a result of this work, we identified that consumers need clear and consistent messaging in order to understand our unique brand positioning and benefits” said Mr Lee.

Host’s customers will now find its member properties more easy to find with a move to bold new yellow street signage. In addition, the Host brand has been modified to reflect the yellow colour-way across all online and offline communications including the Host Blog, You Tube Channel and Map Directory.

“Our in depth research has provided a better understanding of the needs of our customers” said Mr Lee. “It’s a challenging marketplace and our “Free Bonus” programme and superior customer service mantra is driving a large portion of repeat customers”, he said.

Host Accommodation has also embarked on new digital marketing activity including QR codes linked to seasonal promotions powered by online video. Focus has been placed on added value benefits such as FREE internet which is available across the network.

“Host’s current Family Break video prize draw promotion features on the Host website, facebook competition page and You Tube Channel. In addition to accommodation vouchers, the prize draw includes a Philips Dual Screen Portable DVD Player and I know from experience these are great when travelling with kids!” says Mr Lee.

Host Accommodation Group has a network of nearly 90 hotels, motor lodges & motels conveniently located throughout New Zealand.

More information: Chris Lee - General Manager 027-253-7185

What does the No 1 video in NZ tell us about ourselves?

NZ's Top-10 destination and accommodation websites

We last took a snapshot of the top-10 rankings for destination and accommodation websites in New Zealand for the week ending 10 December 2011 at a time when Kiwis were eagerly contemplating their Xmas/New Year break.

After the "Summer of Discontent," workplaces are filled with vitamin D deprived drones that are feeling somewhat ripped-off after spending their valuable end-of-year break under cloud cover and rain.

Will Kiwis have a second crack at taking some leisure time off and travel to a domestic location? If so, what travel websites are they spending their time at work browsing while the boss is looking the other way?

No surprises that first placed TripAdvisor, owned by Expedia remains the most popular travel website. This site still attracts the largest percentage of Kiwis researching travel.

Big spending NASDAQ listed Booking.com comes in at number 2.

Of the bookable accommodation sites, Australian owned Wotif.com remain consistently popular.

AA Travel and TradeMe's Holidayhouses also attract good traffic levels.

TravelBuoy appears to have made a "rogue" showing in the top-10. This website has a contact address in India and uses accommodation inventory from Travelocity. Time will tell if this is a one-off top-10 appearance?

Rounding off the top-10 is AA's Bookabach and TravelBug (that have recently launched a mobile site).

For this week's snapshot, we see that Jasons is MIA, however we expect to see them back soon...

The top-10 rankings for destination and accommodation websites for the week ending 10 March 2012 according to Experian Hitwise are:

Looking forward To St Patrick's Day?

Attitude counts for a lot. When compared to Waitangi Day, the festivities surrounding St Patrick's Day seem to be....a lot more fun!

Earth Hour Count Down

*Heads Up* This year's masterbatery Earth Hour is almost upon us.

Get ready to ridicule those blow-hard, hypercritical eco-show-off "celebrities" like Lucy Lawless, Robyn Malcolm and Keisha Castle-Hughes. They all seem to have a bit of time on their hands between acting gigs, so expect them to jump on the bandwagon and spout eco-slogans in an attempt to raise their fading profiles. 

Due to the continuing demands in Christchurch, we are unable to hire our usual diesel powered lighting towers that we have used before to bathe our motel in light during Earth Hour. Being public spirited, we still intend to do our bit. Lurking in the back of our motel shed, behind old toasters, kettles, beds and piles of other motel chattels past their used-by date, we have several of these items purchased last year:

"WARRIOR HALOGEN WORK LIGHT. These handy portable units come complete with carry handle and the 500 watt halogen bulbs are included."

Our motel will once again be a beacon of light ensuring that we confront anti-human globalised gullibility while celebrating the advancement of human prosperity.

Is New Zealand's Accommodation Over-priced?

OTA's have a wealth of data that can be padded into interesting press releases that lazy journalists can easily cut and paste into newsworthy items after adding some pithy localised observations and comments.

The Hotels.com Hotel Price Index is a regular survey of hotel prices in major destinations across the world. The index is based on bookings made on Hotels.com and prices shown are those actually paid by customers per room night (rather than advertised rates). Approximately 142,000 properties in more than 19,800 global locations are used in the survey results.

This is a great publicity branding exercise by Hotels.com that are able to freely place their website address across worldwide MSM, websites and blogs (including this one!).

We have been following the media reports about this year's survey and in particular the reaction to the reported 32% average tariff increases recorded in Christchurch. 

Pleasingly, the average room rate in New Zealand for the 2011 year climbed 13% to $NZD132 in contrast to the global increase of 4%.

The optimism of the Rugby World Cup held between September and October 2011, a strong currency and the ripple effects of the Christchurch earthquake all helped drive up prices across New Zealand, especially in venue cities where events were held.

The biggest rise in average tariff came in Christchurch with tariff rising by 32% to $130. Misinterpretation of this increase has prompted howling in the media with accommodation operators accused of profiteering. Without the benefit of context, Christchurch has been singled out in headlines unfairly.

It must be remembered that Christchuch's high percentage increase has come from a very low base. In 2010, Christchuch's average tariff was recorded by Hotels.com at a miserly $98.00 at a time when most local accommodation providers were struggling and heavy discounting prevailed.

The Christchurch earthquake in February 2011 was a significant event that heavily reduced the supply of beds and dramatically altered the mix of accommodation types available. After the earthquake, up to a third of the usual beds available were taken out of the supply chain. The beds sold in 2010, were very different to the beds sold in 2011.

Partly buoyed on by the optimism of the Rugby World Cup, there were also big increases in Wellington, up 15% to $126, Rotorua up 10% to $109, Auckland up 9% to $132 and Dunedin up 5% to $114. 

Hamilton was the best-priced place analysed in the survey despite a 13% rise to $107 and the most expensive location was Taupo at $158.

In spite of New Zealand experiencing higher than average tariff increases, it must be remembered that this country's accommodation still resides at the lower end of the world scale of comparable tariff and presents extremely good value.

Average hotel prices by city destinations in NZD, ranked in order of price point

Average room prices and changes by country in NZD, ranked in order of price point

The challenge for accommodation providers is to ignore the cloth-cap wowsers that incorrectly claim that New Zealand is pricing itself beyond the reach of overseas tourists and to continue the trend of increasing tariff. 

Augmented Reality Hotel

We first heard about "Augmented Reality" when the AA introduced this as a killer feature on their ill-fated XplrNZ app in December 2010.

When used with a smartphone, augmented reality allows a user to view real-time pictures through their camera on their phone and it comes alive with overlaid imagery that provides personalised information.

In a lead up to the London 2012 Olympics, I see that Holiday Inn London Kensington Forum is claiming to be the world’s first "augmented reality Hotel" by using the technology to bring digital versions of Britain’s athletes into rooms of the hotel.

I personally would be more impressed if iPhone wielding guests had the opportunity to beam-in a version of Liz Hurley into their hotel rooms...something for another hotel chain to promote perhaps?    

It looks like the Holiday Inn will get reasonable media exposure from using the gimmickry of augmented reality in its promotion. 

What is an Instant Hold Reservation?

Motels in New Zealand make it real easy for customers to make a reservation with them. To book a room, customers can choose to use snail mail (some still do!), engage in email ping-pong, book online direct from the property's own website or a utilise a vast array of online travel agencies. Motel inventory is now available on several smart phone apps and a few moteliers are investing in separate mobile websites that have access to online reservation services.

Let's not forget the old-school telephone, where customers ringing a motel can still get to talk to a real person and make a reservation in minutes. And with 0800 numbers, the call is "free".

So how can accommodation providers possibly make it even easier for their customers to connect and make a reservation?

I was interested to read about Dallas-based, limited-service hotel chain, La Quinta that have developed a very slick mobile site that shares the distinctive and easily remembered domain of their main site, lq.com. Mobile device users that enter this web address are seamlessly transported to La Quinta's mobile site that is customised to look and navigate app-like on a small screen.

A radical innovation included on La Quinta's mobile website, allows customers to reserve a room for the same night by only entering their telephone number. In online commerce, simplicity, intuitiveness and speed are of the essence as customers can get easily distracted.

When La Quinta did some research they figured out that a customer making a reservation is able to recall and tap-in their own telephone number a lot easier than reaching for a credit card and laboriously entering-in a string of unfamiliar digits. Er...no surprises there. They also discovered that 77% of customers using their mobile site were making same-day reservations or checking for availability before just showing up.

So customers on-the-go that use La Quinta's (extremely cool) mobile website on their Android or iPhone can make a same-day "Instant Hold" reservation that will hold a room for up to four hours by only providing their telephone number. The thinking behind the idea was that more customers will be likely to book by making the booking process easier and customers may also have some comfort in not having to share their credit card details.

Customers that are unable to front up to the hotel before the 4-hour expiration have the option of later adding their credit card details to guarantee the reservation. Customers that don't supply their credit card details, find a better offer elsewhere and "No Show" don't seem to be under any obligation.

Is La Quinta crazy? How can a major accommodation chain allow their customers to randomly book rooms without the guarantee of a credit card?

A quick browse of the inventory available on La Quinta's mobile site, reveals that hotels that are part of the 800 location network seem to have the option of only allocating certain rooms for "Instant Hold"- when it suits. So hotels that offer "Instant Hold" rooms will do so as part of their day-to-day yield management process that involves manipulating different sales channels to their advantage according to demand. During high demand a hotel would be unlikely to offer many "Instant Hold" room options, but will be able to generate sales during low demand periods by exposing rooms to a four-hour booking window.

I reckon that La Quinta is an innovative hotel chain worth following. They are the first to offer "Instant Hold" and this is part of their mobile strategy that also includes being the first to add independent TripAdvisor reviews.

I wonder how soon it will take for others to follow?

Having An Affair? Stay Here!

Unfortunately, the American old-school motel culture of the marque motel sign has never caught on in New Zealand.

As a fan of roadside architecture, a perverse side of me would like to see Kiwi moteliers regularly arranging tacky plastic lettering on roadside signboards to share with the world their latest quirky thoughts and offerings (excluding tariff offers, of course).

There are some classic examples of these signs attracting attention (sometimes for the wrong reasons). 

Dave, the owner of the, Aladdin Motor Inn recently decided to come up with something a little different when he set about his weekly chore of arranging letters on his roadside marque sign outside his motel. He came up with the message: “Having an affair?” and listed his motel's phone number.

Hilariously, it looks like many of the good-old straight-laced folk in the sleepy city of Sonora in California don't possess a sense of humour and take things a little too literally. It's kind'a quaint that they got a tad upset with Dave's motel sign by apparently believing he was aiding and abetting unchristian-like activity.

Kony 2012

I'm not going to pretend to understand the disputed issues surrounding the "Kony 2012" campaign run by an activist organization, Invisible Children. They have successfully released a powerfull 30-minute-long viral video exposing Ugandan guerrilla leader, Joseph Kony as a war criminal.

The apparent motivation is use social networks to raise awareness and drive change that will take-out Kony. The cause appears to be a noble one - there doesn't seem to be any dispute that the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), headed by Kony have committed atrocious crimes.

Along with online viral success will come detractors and the internet is now full of armchair commentators disputing the finances, motivation and the effectiveness of the "Kony 2012" campaign including a Tumblr blog called " Visible Children" that is receiving heavy Internet traffic.

"These problems are highly complex, not one-dimensional and, frankly, aren't of the nature that can be solved by postering, film-making and changing your Facebook profile picture, as hard as that is to swallow"

Whatever your views, this is a significant and powerful news story. We all want to believe that the power of the internet can expose and take-on tyranny.