4 Award-Worthy Hospitality Marketing Posts: Hospitality Marketing Link Digest

Anyone planning on watching the Oscars™ tonight? Or are you too busy gearing up for the Adrian Awards tomorrow? Me? I’m doing both—watching the former, attending the latter (hope I’ll see some of you there). Anyway, this crazy, crazy award-filled weekend helps explain this slightly shorter—but still outstanding—list of 4 award-worthy hospitality marketing posts from the past week. Enjoy:

1. As promised last week following Expedia’s Orbitz purchase, I took a look at what the Expedia-Orbitz deal means for your hotel. Definitely worth a read. And, you might also want to check out this look at what in the world Priceline and TripAdvisor are up to for some additional context.
2. Loads of great social stuff this past week, Big Thinkers. First, Tnooz reports that Conrad Hotels turns some Instagram images into booking buttons, which is very, very cool idea. eMarketer builds on that, noting that the travel industry sees strong Facebook CTRs and engagement. Excellent info all around.
3. Sticking with social, Tnooz follows up with this post that explores whether dark social is destroying your travel marketing strategy. Fascinating read.
4. And, finally, 9to5Google has a great story that says Visa hopes to track smartphone locations to prevent credit card fraud for travellers. Good idea. Given the emergence of digital wallets as a 2015 travel e-commerce trends worth watching, I do wonder about its long-term necessity. After all, digital wallets and mobile payments likely represent a game changer for mobile commerce. Making plastic work more effectively is a welcome, but likely short-lived solution.

Looking for even more of the best hospitality marketing advice and insights? Be sure to check out my round-up of these “7 Hot Hotel Marketing Insights,” these “6 Totally Brilliant Travel Marketing Posts,” and these “5 Outstanding Posts to Kick-off a Successful Hotel Marketing Week,” from our hospitality marketing link digests (part of the ongoing E-commerce Link Digest series).

If you want to learn even more about how customers changing behavior shapes e-commerce and marketing, be sure an register to receive a special report I’ve produced in conjunction with hotel marketing firm Vizergy, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World.” While it’s targeted specifically at hotel and resort marketers, the lessons apply to just about any business. You can get your free copy of the report here.

And take a moment to review the slides from my recent webinar, “Digital Marketing Directions 2015: Three Key Trends Driving Your Hotel Marketing Next Year” here:

Finally, you might also want to check out some of our past coverage of the mobile, local, social web and how to make it work for your business, including:

• 10 Key Posts about Millennials and Mobile: E-commerce Link Digest
• The Secrets Behind “It’s All E-commerce” for 2014
• Should Marketers Really Trust Google in 2014?
• The Zen of Digital Marketing Strategy
• 7 Steps to E-Commerce Heaven
• Today and Tomorrow: Mobile and The Changing Customer Journey
• Mobile Makes E-commerce Even More “Frictionless”
• Your 2014 Internet Marketing New Year’s Resolutions – Thinks Out Loud Episode 56