Hotel News and Articles

Author Louis Godin
Virtual Sales Specialist
Hotel Internet Marketing
Office: 480.272.6049
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BIO - HotelEPacket.com is a provider of common sense approaches to Virtual Hotel Internet Marketing and Hotel One Line Advertising. Since 1999 HotelEPacket.com and WebEventPlanner.com have provided clients with Hotel Internet Marketing Consulting, Development and Training based on 18 years of management, sales and customer service experience in the hotel and event planning industries and 10 years of Hotel Internet Marketing Research and Development. HotelEPacket.com now provides all service sales professionals with web sites that are tangible Hotel sales tools - offering all the necessary features needed to present and close a sale efficiently and virtually. Nominated by Event Solutions Magazine for '2009 Marketing Professional of the Year! HotelEPacket.com is committed to providing the hotel sales industry with cost-effective hotel Internet Marketing, Advertising and Sales.

FOLLOWING HOTEL INTERNET MARKETING NEWS ARTICLES INCLUDE:
Hotel Industry has Lost Track of the Fundamentals of Selling Services - Hotel Sales and Catering Sales Industry Professional needs to start thinking Green! - New Age of Hotel Internet Marketing and Hotel Online Advertising - Rethinking Hotel Internet Marketing and Hotel On Line Advertising - Hotel Industry Web Sites are, Falling Short of their Full Potential - A Common Sense Approach to Today's Hotel On Line Advertising and Hotel Internet Marketing - AND MORE! (scroll down this page to review each article)

HotelEPacket.com has been nominated for '2009 Marketing Professional of the Year'!
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ARTICLE 1 of 12 (scroll down this page to review each article)
Hotel industry set to save between $600M and $1.2B annually by organizing its virtual sales polices, procedures and training.

This article is based on 18 years of sales, management and customer service experience in the hotel industry and 10 years of Hotel Internet Marketing, Sales and Advertising Research and Development. (By Louis Godin - Virtual Sales Specialist - HotelEPacket.com - E-Mail Contact - published 01.14.09)

Hotels are losing millions of dollars each year by unorganized virtual sales procedures and the lack of virtual sales training of its sales and catering sales staff! Furthermore the hotel industry needs to start incorporating traditional "Sales 101" selling techniques to its virtual sales procedures to ensure closing new business and giving them the extra edge above their competitors.

The Internet offers many cost effective (even free) resources and tools to forward virtually unlimited sales information to capture prospective business! Web sites are good marketing tools but they do not provide hotel and event planning sales professionals with the resources and education needed to streamline the service sales process to each sales and inquiry call. Distribution and presentation of your virtual sales material instantly and professionally - while providing personal attention to the guest - can make the difference between the sale and lost business.

Studies have shown that 85% of those who respond first to an inquiry with complete sales information and provide personal attention to the guest will win the business. Complete sales and catering information should be presented within the first few seconds of an inquiry or sales call. One of the first things a Sales or Catering Sales Managers should be asking when receiving an inquiry or sales call is; are you sitting in front of a computer, if the guest is, then this gives the sales professional a visual option for the guest to review as they follow along with your virtual presentation of services. Once the call is completed there should be no need to access e-mails, send attachments, word documents, web links, powerpoints and PDF brochures or resort to faxes and snail-mail to complete the inquiry or sales call (other then a follow up).

Today's full services and limited service hotel web sites have been built to reflect the web designer's technical goals and restrictions instead of the goals and needs of the hotel sales and catering sales professional. Traditional web sites do not provide the virtual tools, knowledge and training hotel sales and catering sales staff members need to close the sale with one phone call. And, increasingly, businesses of all sizes are recognizing that being first on any major search engines costs money. Good search engines ranking is not something that just happens, and the Internet is filled with fraud. The hotel sales and catering sales industry must look at additional virtual options to make web sites a viable sales tool, such as instant virtual presentation of services offered and providing hotel sales and catering sales staff member with cost effective virtual tools needed to closes the sale quickly and effectively, saving both time and money.

The hotel sales industry must start analyzing its cost effective virtual options, organize its virtual sales procedures, train its sales staff and begin distributing and presenting sales information to include traditional sales standards to ensure an increase in profits and a decrease in annual marketing budgets. Further consideration, from a business perspective, must be given to the millions dollars of misdirected revenues in production and postage each year.

Consumers are still looking for personal attention and outstanding customer service in the hospitality sales industry. Simply having a web site is not enough to bring attention or cut cost. Setting policies, procedures and training on how virtual information is handled and presented for selling guest rooms, facility services and event facilities is key to reducing your annual sales budget and increasing new business.

In the age of computers and Internet, it's easy to lose touch with guests. Quick, easy and up-to-date information is no longer available. In order to find the information they are looking for, guests may have to go to a corporate web site or independent web site and access e-mails, attachments, word documents, links, web programs and PDF brochures or resort to faxes, phone calls and snail-mail. What happened to one-on-one personal attention to help a guest decide on services? What happen to sales 101? Just because we are starting to live in a virtual world doesn't mean we no longer need personal customer service in the service sales process. Sales 101 tells us the importance of building rapport, educating, communicating accurate information quickly and providing special personal attention above and beyond the competition. This no longer exists with traditional web site service sales and provides no personal attention (instruction/education), which we all know the guest is looking for. The Internet has taken away the personal edge that service sales once had before web site development.

Paper-based sales process and traditional use of web sites also provides no personal attention nor does it help the hotel stand out above and beyond its competitors. The hospitality, hotel and event planning industry must look at its sales material and begin presenting environmentally friendly information while providing virtual sale information under traditional sales standards and providing personal attention to each guest.

*The 2002 census reported 46,295 hotels and motels in the United States. If each lodging facility and event facility were start providing 2 **virtual sales calls per day X5 days, X52 weeks at an average cost of an estimated $25 per call (includes: staff labor, production, paper material, postage, long distance and all the steps it takes to properly respond and document a sales or inquiry call) that would save the hotel industry over 600 Millions dollars each year. At 4 virtual sales call per day would be a cost saving of over $1.2 Billion each year for the industry. (this does not include wasted productivity or the 1000’s of tons of material going into our landfills each year)

**VIRTUAL SALES CALL - Once a sales call or inquiry call is completed there should be no need to access snail-mail, faxes, e-mails, attachments, word documents, web links, powerpoints and PDF brochures to complete the inquiry or sales call (other then a follow up). The guest has all the information they need before you hang up with the call.

ARTICLE 2 of 12
Hotel Industry has Lost Track of the Fundamentals of Selling Services

http://webeventplanner.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/hotel-industry-has-lost-track-of-the-fundamentals-of-selling-services/
In the age of computers and Internet, it's easy to lose touch with guests. Quick, easy and up-to-date information is no longer available. In order to find the information they are looking for, clients may have to go to a corporate web site or independent web site and access e-mails, attachments, word documents, links, web programs and PDF brochures or resort to faxes, phone calls and snail-mail. What happened to one-on-one personal attention to help a client decide on services? The Internet has taken away the personal edge that hospitality sales once had before web site development.

Studies have shown that 85% of those who respond first to an inquiry with complete sales information and provide personal attention to the client will win the business.

Web sites are good marketing tools but they do not provide hotel and event planning sales professionals with the resources and education needed to streamline the service sales process to each sales and inquiry call. The service sales industry has lost track of the basic fundamentals of selling.

Sales 101 tells us the importance of building rapport, education, communicating accurate information quickly and providing special personal attention above and beyond the competition. This practice no longer exists with online resources. Web sites often are built to reflect a web designer's technical goals and restrictions instead of the goals and needs of the sales Industry.

In today's competitive sales environment, time is money. Distribution and presentation of your sales material quickly and professionally - while providing personal attention to the client - can make the difference between the sale and lost business. Web sites should be a tangible sales tool, providing hotel sales professionals all the necessary items needed to present and close the sale efficiently. Combining old-school selling techniques with today's technology will allow you to outsell your competitors.

Hotel Internet Marketing and Hotel On Line Advertising industries must organize its virtual sales procedures and material and begin distributing and presenting sales information to include traditional sales standards to ensure an increase in profits and a decrease in annual marketing budgets.

Web Sites should provide your sales staff with virtual sales tools to close the sale faster and more efficiently, saving you time and money. Incorporating sales 101 into your virtual sales programs helps you sell above and beyond your competitors, while providing you with the tools to streamline your sales process and create a paperless sales environment.

Consumers are still looking for personal attention and outstanding customer service in the event planning sales process. Simply having a web site is not enough to bring attention to event planning sales services anymore.

Distribution and presentation of your sales material instantly and professionally - while providing personal attention to the client - can make the difference between the sale and lost business. Web sites should be a tangible sales tool, providing sales professionals all the necessary items needed to present and close the sale efficiently in one phone call.

HotelEPacket.com provides of common sense approach to Hotel Internet Marketing and Hotel On Line Advertising. Providing the hotel industry with cost-effective virtual sales consulting, development and training.

ARTICLE 3of 12
Hotel Sales and Catering Sales Industry Professional needs to start thinking Green!

http://webeventplanner.wordpress.com/
Recently, and by recently, I mean in the very near past and in the ages of the Internet and climate change, I was at the office of a meeting planner providing virtual on site virtual sales training. After the meeting, we were talking, and as we were talking, the meeting planner was sorting her mail. This meeting planner tossed 5 unopened hotel paper sales packets in the garbage that had recently arrived from various hotels. I asked how many of those larger, paper hotel sales packets came in the mail each week, and to my surprise, the answer was five.

Take a moment to consider some important things about paper sales packets distributed by hotel sales and catering departments to prospective clients.

If five sales packets are snail-mailed, weighing 6.5 ounces per packet, then that is 2.03 pounds of fancy, glossy paper mailed to a single meeting planner - in just one week.

Now consider that Meeting Planner International (MPI) has over 20,000 registered event planners within its organization. Based on an average of five packets per week, meeting planners could be discarding 1,050 tons of material each year - while having little impact in the sales process.

Further consideration, from a business perspective, must be given the millions of dollars misdirected revenues in production and postage each year.

This paper-based sales process also provides no personal attention nor does it help the hotel stand out above and beyond its competitors. The hospitality hotel and event planning industry must look at its sales material and begin presenting environmentally friendly information while providing virtual sale information under traditional sales standards and personal attention.

Sales 101 also tells us the importance of things such as client name/information displayed, communicate quick and accurate information and provide special personal attention above and beyond everyone else. This no longer exists with traditional web site service sales and provides no personal attention (instruction/education), which we all know the client is looking for.

In today's competitive sales environment, time is money. Distribution and presentation of your sales material quickly and professionally - while providing personal attention to the client - can make the difference between the sale and lost business. Web sites should be a tangible sales tool, providing sales professionals all the necessary items needed to present and close the sale efficiently. Combining old-school selling techniques with today's technology will allow you to out sell your competitors.

The sales industry must organize its virtual sales procedures and begin distributing and presenting sales information to include traditional sales standards to ensure an increase in profits and a decrease in annual marketing budgets.

ARTICLE 4 of 12
New Age of Hotel Internet Marketing and Hotel Online Advertising

http://webeventplanner.wordpress.com/new-age-of-hotel-internet-marketing-and-hotel-online-advertising
Traditional web sites are built for marketing. Web sites should be built to CLOSE THE SALE! Web sites should provide instant presentations of your services and the ability to create customized web sites to each inquiry and sales call. Allowing the sales professional to sell above and beyond their competitors while saving thousands of dollars each year.

Consumers are still looking for personal attention and outstanding customer service in the hospitality sales process. Simply having a web site is not enough to bring attention to event planning services anymore. Just because we are live in a virtual world doesn't mean we no long need to offer personal attention and outstanding customer service in our sales process.

The hotel and event planning industry must begin presenting sales information by traditional sales standards whereby web sites are virtual sales presentation tools to be viewed by the client under the guidance of a sales professional.

Paper folders, business cards, cover letter, paper brochure information and menus were sent in a presentation to the guest for event facility consideration. The Internet has turned this once great presentation and first impression into web sites that provide unorganized or too little information and offer no personal attention to the guest's needs for individual attention.

Web sites are good marketing tools but they do not provide hotel and event planning sales professionals with the resources and education needed to streamline the service sales process to each sales and inquiry call. The service sales industry has lost track of the basic fundamentals of selling.

ARTICLE 5 of 12
Rethinking Hotel Internet Marketing and Hotel On Line Advertising

http://webeventplanner.wordpress.com/
Hotel sales and catering sales industry needs to start thinking outside the box when it comes to web sites and search engines through virtual presentation of services.

Web sites are good marketing tools, but marketing does not close the sale. Studies have shown that 85% of those who respond first to an inquiry with complete sales information and provide personal attention to the client will win the business.

Hotel Internet Marketing and Hotel On Line Advertising Sales professionals should use web sales tools that are tangible virtual sales tools - offering all the necessary features needed to present and close a sale efficiently in one phone call.

In today's competitive sales environment, time is money. Distribution and presentation of your sales material quickly and professionally - while providing personal attention to the client - can make the difference between the sale and lost business. Web sites should be a tangible Hotel Internet Marketing virtual sales tool, providing sales professionals all the necessary items needed to present and close the sale efficiently. Combining old-school selling techniques with today's technology will allow you to outsell your competitors.

And, increasingly, businesses of all sizes are recognizing that being first on any major search engines costs money. Good search engines ranking is not something that just happens, and the Internet is filled with fraud. The hotel sales industry must look at other options to make web sites a viable sales tool, such as virtual presentation of services offered.

The hotel and event planning industries must organize its virtual sales procedures and begin distributing and presenting sales information to include traditional sales standards to ensure an increase in profits and a decrease in annual marketing and advertising budgets.

ARTICLE 6 of 12
Hotel Industry Web Sites are, Falling Short of their Full Potential

http://webeventplanner.wordpress.com/
The hotel and event planning industry must begin presenting sales information by traditional sales standards whereby web sites are virtual sales presentation tools to be viewed by the client under the guidance of a sales professional.

Web sites are good marketing tools but they do not provide hotel sales, catering sales and the event planning sales professional with the resources and education needed to streamline the sales process to each sales and inquiry call.

Traditional web sites are built for marketing. Web sites should be built to CLOSE THE SALE!
Web Sites should provide your sales staff with virtual sales tools to close the sale faster and more efficiently, saving you time and money. Incorporating sales 101 into our virtual sales programs helps you sell above and beyond your competitors, while providing you with the tools to streamline your sales process and create a paperless sales environment.

Web sites are good, but the hotel sales and advertising industry has lost track of the fundamentals of selling. Personal attention has been lacking in the sales process through most web sites. Sales 101, tells us the importance of things such as building rapport, education, client name/information displayed, communicating information quickly, and providing special personal attention above and beyond everyone else.

ARTICLE 7 of 12
Hotel Industry Needs to Start Rethinking Web Site as tangible Sales Tools

http://webeventplanner.wordpress.com/
The service sales industry has lost track of the basic fundamentals of selling. Sales 101, tells us the importance of building rapport, education, communicating accurate information quickly and providing special personal attention above and beyond the competition. This practice no longer exists with online resources. Web sites often are built to reflect a web designer's technical goals and restrictions instead of the goals and needs of the sales Industry.

In today's competitive sales environment, time is money. Distribution and presentation of your sales material quickly and professionally - while providing personal attention to the client - can make the difference between the sale and lost business. Web sites should be a tangible Hotel Internet Marketing virtual sales tool, providing sales professionals all the necessary items needed to present and close the sale efficiently. Combining old-school selling techniques with today's technology will allow you to outsell your competitors.

ARTICLE 8 of 12
Reorganizing sales procedures in the Hotel Industry will
save millions of dollars each year.

http://webeventplanner.wordpress.com/
Web sites are good marketing tools but they do not provide hotel sales, catering sales and the event planning sales professional with the resources and education needed to streamline the sales process to each sales and inquiry call.

In today's competitive sales environment, time is money. Distribution and presentation of sales material quickly and professionally - while providing personal attention to the client - can make the difference between the sale and lost business. Web sites should be a tangible Hotel Internet Marketing sales tool, providing sales professionals all the necessary items needed to present and close the sale efficiently.

The hotel and event planning industries must organize its virtual sales procedures to ensure an increase in profits and a decrease in annual marketing and advertising budgets.

Studies have shown that 85% of those who respond first to an inquiry with complete sales information and provide personal attention to the client will win the business.

ARTICLE 9 of 12
Hotels Industry is in Tough Economic Times

http://webeventplanner.wordpress.com/
In these tough economic times the hospitality industry must look at new way to cut cost and attract new business. Hotel and catering sales professionals need to take a look at their sales materials and examine how they sell in the virtual world, virtually organizing your sales material and sales process will help you close more business, save your hotel thousands of dollars each month and give you a competitive edge in the industry.

In today's competitive hospitality sales environment, time is money. Distribution and presentation of your sales and advertising material instantly and professionally - while providing personal attention to the guest - can make the difference between the sale and lost business. In the age of computers and Internet, it's easy to lose touch with guests. Quick, easy and up-to-date information is no longer available. In order to find the information they are looking for, clients may have to go to a corporate web site or independent web site and access e-mails, attachments, word documents, links, web programs and PDF brochures or resort to faxes, phone calls and snail-mail. What happened to one-on-one personal attention to help a client decide on services? The Internet has taken away the personal edge that hospitality sales once had before web site development.

In the age of computers and Internet, it's easy to lose touch with clients. Quick, easy and up-to-date information is no longer available. In order to find the information they are looking for, clients may have to go to a corporate web site or independent web site and access e-mails, attachments, word documents, links, web programs and PDF brochures or resort to faxes, phone calls and snail-mail. What happened to one-on-one personal attention to help a client decide on services? The Internet has taken away the personal edge that sales once had before web site development.

ARTICLE 10 of 12
A Common Sense Approach to Today's Hotel On Line Advertising
and Hotel Internet Marketing.

http://webeventplanner.wordpress.com/
The hotel sales, marketing and advertising industry must look at its sales material and begin presenting virtual sale information by traditional sales standards, while giving personal attention to each guest. Provide not only a virtual sales tool to your hotel sales and catering sales staff, but empowering them to up sell and cross sell your properties and services.

Sales 101 tells us to find ways to stand out and sell above and beyond your competitors - How can you stand out above your competitors when you are doing the same thing as everyone else with your virtual sales material and paper material? Personal attention has been lacking in the sales process through traditional web sites. Sales 101, also tells us the importance of things such as client name/information displayed, communicate quick and accurate information and provide special personal attention above and beyond everyone else. This no longer exists with traditional web site service sales and provides no personal attention (instruction), which we all know the event planner looks for.

SOME 'SALES 101' FACTS:
- Provide professional and organized information
- Build rapport with the guest
- Educate your guest (helps build rapport)
- 'KIS' (Keep it Simple, bells and whistles are not needed at the sales stage)
- Have knowledgeable and friendly staff - Provide, user friendly information
- Clients like to see their name and information displayed
- Communicate quick and accurate information
- Provide information specific to each guest needs
- Provide special personal attention to each guest
- Provide you sales staff with the fools needed to do the job
- Up Sell and Cross Sell

Hotel Internet Marketing and Hotel On Line Advertising industry must start thinking outside the box when it comes to web sites. Web sites are good marketing tools, but marketing does not close the sale. Studies have shown that 85% of those who respond first to an inquiry with complete sales information and provide personal attention to the guest will win the business.

ARTICLE 11 of 12
Combining Old-School Selling Techniques with today's
Hotel Internet Marketing Technology

http://webeventplanner.wordpress.com/
In today's competitive sales environment, time is money. Distribution and presentation of your sales material quickly and professionally - while providing personal attention to the client - can make the difference between the sale and lost business. Web sites should be a tangible sales tool, providing hotel sales professionals all the necessary items needed to present and close the sale efficiently. Combining old-school selling techniques with today's technology will allow you to outsell your competitors.

Paper folders, business cards, cover letter, brochure information and menus once were sent in a presentation to the guest for event facility consideration. The Internet has turned this once great presentation and first impression into web sites that provide unorganized or too little information and offer no personal attention to the guest's needs for individual attention.

Web sites are good marketing tools but they do not provide sales professionals with the resources and education needed to streamline the sales process to each sales call. The service sales industry has lost track of the basic fundamentals of selling.

Hotel Internet Marketing and Hotel On Line Advertising industry must organize its virtual sales procedures and begin distributing and presenting sales information to include traditional sales standards to ensure an increase in profits and a decrease in annual marketing budgets.

ARTICLE 12 of 12
Remembering Sales 101 in Hotel Internet Marketing, Sales and Advertising

http://webeventplanner.wordpress.com/
Web sites are good marketing tools but they do not provide sales professionals with the resources and education needed to streamline the sales process to each sales call. The service sales industry has lost track of the basic fundamentals of selling.

In today's competitive sales environment, time is money. Distribution and presentation of your sales material quickly and professionally - while providing personal attention to the client - can make the difference between the sale and lost business. Web sites should be a tangible sales tool, providing sales professionals all the necessary items needed to present and close the sale efficiently. Combining old-school selling techniques with today's technology will allow you to outsell your competitors.

HotelEPacket.com provides of common sense approach to Hotel Internet Marketing and Hotel On Line Advertising. Providing the hotel industry with cost-effective virtual sales consulting, development and training.