The latest research on the hotel front offers a comprehensive look into the digital competence of 52 hotel brands, providing background and deeper insights into what makes a successful hotel brand in the digitally connected, global economy.
Compiled by the team led by Scott Galloway, founder of
L2 Think Tank and Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern, the detailed, and well-considered report highlights the importance of digital dominance for hotel brands of all sizes:
- 92% of travelers book travel online.
- 66% of travelers said they would spend more time researching online for travel in 2012.
- 63% of travelers consult reviews before booking online.
- 57% of business travelers access information from a mobile device.
- 33% of mobile browsers book hotels within 24 hours.
- 81% of hotel brands have mobile-optimized sites.
- 3-5 times is the how much more direct bookings go for than via traditional OTA channels.
The sum of these statistics equals the importance of a fully-fleshed out digital strategy for profitable hotel operations. The report dubs this strategy the "digital IQ," and directly correlated an increased digital IQ with a higher stock price.
After establishing the link between digital innovation and stock price, the report goes on to explain the methodology behind their proprietary - and exhaustive - ranking system.
The following criteria are used in the rankings, which demonstrates a skew towards websites versus mobile - an interesting choice:
- 40% site: message, visual design and functionality are all considered here.
- 30% digital marketing: search, display, email and digital marketing efforts are reviewed.
- 20% mobile: mobile optimization, apps, and mobile strategy are all analyzed.
- 10% social media: brand voice, community, engagement and other social efforts are taken into account.
To be considered a brand with a "Genius" IQ, the total points must be greater than 140. Lower levels of digital intelligence are considered "Gifted," "Average," "Challenged," and "Feeble," and the total score informs the final ranking in the Digital IQ Index.
The rankings are then followed by robust case studies outlining the impact of each hotel brand's activities that affected their rankings.
At the top? W Hotels.
This is not at all surprising, given the great thought and care that the brand puts into pretty much all marketing activities. The user experience is cohesive, the customer service responsive, the brand messaging consistent, and the marketing well-integrated both across channels and properties.
W Hotels also has a fantastic
mobile app that allows guests to actively interact with their current hotel location.
What is surprising, however, is that W Hotels was the only hotel brand that successfully ranked in the "Genius" category. Not one other hotel brands made it into this category according to this specific set of criteria. In fact, 62% of hotels ranked "Average" or below, proving that there is great potential for increased innovation in the hotel sector.
Rounding out the Top Ten is InterContinental, Westin, Four Seasons, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, St. Regis, Hilton, Fairmont and The Ritz-Carlton.
Multi-unit brands came out on top over smaller, independent chains, most likely due to the depth of resources available to the larger brands. In addition, the larger brands can benefit from some economies of scale as far as shared marketing initiatives and resources across specific properties, locations and sub-brands.
The report offers robust insights into what's working, what's lacking, and what's just so-so when it comes to hotel marketing.
Daniella Caplan, Research Lead at L2 Think Tank, spoke to Tnooz a bit about their findings.
What is the significance of these findings? And what can brands not on this list learn from the ones on this list?
The competition in the industry is intensifying, as well as the opportunity to reach travelers on a variety of digital platforms. The wide adoption of mobile, the many site relaunches we observed, and the activity on both traditional and emerging social networks, should all be an indication of where hotel brands have been investing in the past 12 months. Brands that are not thinking holistically about the user’s digital experience, from online reservations to the hotel stay, will find themselves left behind.
What are some things that distinguish top brands from others?
As with many of the industries L2 researches, brands at the top are those that don’t rest on their laurels, but rather continue to push the envelope, for example Starwood’s design lab and the recent launch of their SPG Android app. Many of those on the bottom are just not keeping up with the increasing pace of innovation, specifically when it comes to mobile adoption.
Any other key takeaways that these findings provide for hotel marketers?
I think I would touch upon 3 interesting findings:
- It is surprising how few brands are actually tailoring their site experience for the tablet, given that more hotel bookings are now done on a tablet than any other mobile device. There are many mobile-native features that have not been fully leveraged, such as swipe browsing, geo-targeting, and drop-down menus.
- Hotel conglomerates do a very good job at leveraging technologies across their respective brands. There is great sharing of site and mobile platforms, as well as centralized email and booking systems. Similar to last year, multibrand companies outperformed independent brands due to these economies of scale, which is in contrast to other industries we research such as Fashion.
- This year we observed a surge in content creation amongst luxury hotel brands, as they aspire to become more than just a place you come back to at the end of your travel day. Hotel brands, such as the Four Seasons, are becoming experts at anything from weddings, to food, to travel destinations.
>A summarized version of the report is available
here.