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Hotel Commercial Strategy Blog

A Hotel Guide for Avoiding OTA Panic and Rate Parity Games

OTAs are a fact of life in our industry. But there are so many negative feelings about them, constantly being
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Meetings: The Black Hole of Hotel Revenue and Productivity

Meetings are the black hole of productivity. I’m not saying this just to be dramatic. There is plenty of evidence
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Remote Work

Hotels Must Embrace Remote Work

After my last pandemic-focused article, my inbox was flooded with queries about remote work. I had urged hotels to embrace
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The Post Pandemic Hard Reset

I wrote two articles during the pandemic, one around the beginning and one in the middle. It’s time to complete
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RIP BookingSuite: Protecting Your Hotel’s Digital Assets

On November 30th of this year, Booking/Priceline is shutting down its BookingSuite product, likely affecting hundreds of hotels worldwide. In
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Pandemic Pricing For Hotels

Pandemic Pricing Principles for Hotels

This is my second pandemic-themed article, following the last magnum opus on Hotel Marketing and Revenue Management in the Time
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Hotel Revenue Management the time of pandemic

Hotel Marketing and Revenue Management in the Time of Pandemic

As I write my first article during a global pandemic, my title inspiration comes from the Columbian literary superstar, Gabriel
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Using Influencers for Hotels

Reality Check on Using Influencers for Your Hotel

As social media marketing continues to evolve and grow, one of the questions hotel owners/managers consistently ask me is whether
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hotel conferences need an upgrade

Hotel and Travel Conferences Need an Upgrade

When it comes to hotel conferences and trade shows, I will go ahead and show my age by saying I
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How Google Reviews Is Crushing TripAdvisor

  An interesting trend has been brewing in the travel business. Quietly but surely, Google Reviews has been expanding their
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Hotel CRM Reality Check

On January 20, 2017, I booked a hotel in Seville, Spain. That is also the day that Meliá Hotels &
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The Ultimate Guide to TripAdvisor for Hotels

When TripAdvisor was founded in February 2000 in a small office above Kostas Pizza on 315 Chestnut Street in Needham,
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Is Your Hotel Booking Engine Destroying Your Profitability?

Almost every other day, I see a headline about the latest trend that is going to have a massive impact
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Use website content to generate revenue

Use Hotel Website Content to Increase Your Revenue

Contrary to what you might have heard, people still read. We read quiet a lot actually, but much of our
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Words of Vikram Podcast

Adventures in Vancouver: EP009

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Words of Vikram Podcast

Colorado Springs, Airports, TV: EP008

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Last Click Attribution Is Killing Your Hotel Marketing Campaigns

Last Click Attribution Is Killing Your Hotel Marketing Campaigns

Marketing success today can be measured using many diverse metrics. Analytics programs let you measure everything from who and where
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Words of Vikram Podcast

Interview With Daniel Edward Craig: EP007

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Words of Vikram Podcast

Iberian Ham, Christopher Columbus, Singapore Airlines: EP006

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Words of Vikram Podcast

Madrid, Expedia, Cupcakes: EP005

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Words of Vikram Podcast

Best and Worst of Airbnb: EP004

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Shrinking value of hotel loyalty programs

The Shrinking Value of Hotel Loyalty Programs

My work revolves around travel. Every night away from home is spent at a hotel or Airbnb property. I was
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Words of Vikram Podcast

High-Fiving the Octopus: EP003

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Words of Vikram Podcast

Flying, Tipping, Kissing Frogs: EP002

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Words of Vikram Podcast

What’s this podcast about anyway? EP001

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email marketing for hotels

The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing for Hotels

Hotel email marketing has become more important than ever. The cost of click- and impression-based marketing on search engines and social
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My Top 6 Articles of 2016

2016 was a very interesting year and will surely be a memorable one. I have had the opportunity to grow and
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direct revenue strategy

BookingSuite: A Lesson in Direct Revenue Strategy

Throughout my career in revenue optimization for the hospitality and travel industry, I have always stressed the importance of owning
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Hotel Website Design and Usability: Top 10 Mistakes

Hotel website design, like any kind of design, is subjective. Nothing is more painful than a website design “discussion” where
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Super Metrics for Hotel Marketing & Online Revenue Optimization

Analytics metrics have evolved over the past few years. In my last article, I discussed the dinosaur metrics that have
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Dinosaur Metrics Are Taking a Bite Out of Your Hotel Marketing Performance

Marketing is evolving as I am typing this sentence. I’m here to make sure you are not wasting your time, energy
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Do You Really Need a Separate Brand for Millennials?

Almost every other week, there is an article about how hotels are trying to “embrace” the Millennial traveler. Basically, anyone
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My Top 6 Articles of 2015

2015 was a phenomenal year for my site. I would like to thank all of my subscribers for participating, sharing, and
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Marriott’s Acquisition of Starwood: Winners and Losers

Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood is great news for investors, but unfortunately not for Starwood hotel guests and employees. The quote that sums
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Hotel Brands’ Struggle to Understand Airbnb: The IHG Edition

When I’m on Twitter, I’m usually catching up on some of my favorite comedians (mostly comediennes) and posting my own material.
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The End of Hotel Rate Parity: Much Ado About Nothing

Over the past few months, there has been a lot of talk about the imminent “end of hotel rate parity” and what
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Your Marketing Focus Must Shift To Hotel Value Over Price

It’s amazing how much time and energy gets poured into deciding the price of a hotel room. There are STR
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The Free Website Trap: Lessons From Priceline’s Rebranding of Buuteeq

Last year, Priceline.com made a splash when it acquired Buuteeq, a digital marketing and website “cloud-based system” for independent hotels,
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Google’s Mobile Update: Keep Calm and Get With the Program

Every time Google issues an update, hotel marketing agencies have a field day writing articles and trying to give you a reason
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Let’s Keep It Real: The Truth About Hotel Meta Search

Hotel marketing types love trends. Every day there is the same old story about a new thing that changes everything.
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Expedia Acquisitions Signal Tougher Times Ahead for Hotels

Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz walk into a bar.  “We do not serve second and third rate Online Travel Agents here,”
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Marriott’s War on Wi-Fi: Hotels Need to Stop Fighting the Future

Big hotel brands have seen unprecedented growth over the past decade. Even when the global financial engines slowed down, they
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My Top 6 Articles of 2014

It’s time to say goodbye to 2014. It was an epic year for me, and I especially loved sharing my thoughts
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The End of an Era: IHG Acquires Kimpton

How much is that boutique hotel in the window? Well, it’s around $430 million. Yes, that’s the price InterContinental Hotels
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Why You Shouldn’t Sell Rooms for $7 on Hotel Tonight

This Thanksgiving holiday in the US was an eventful one for the hospitality industry. What got my attention was the
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Front Desk: Ground Zero for Hotel Profitability

Want to increase your profitability, while improving your online reviews at the same time? Then start paying more attention to an
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Do You View Hotel Marketing as a Cost or an Investment?

I am often asked, “What is the most important factor in a good hotel marketing strategy?” One of the top factors
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Reality Check: 7 Questions for Your Hotel Marketing Agency

Everything digital, including marketing, changes rapidly. Hotels know that online marketing is crucial, yet they take a back seat on innovations. Most
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A Brief Guide to Managing Your Hotel’s Digital Assets

One of the most crucial aspects of running a hotel or a lodging business is asset management. The same efforts
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Priceline’s Acquisition of Buuteeq: Why Hotels Must Own Their Digital Assets

The hotel marketing and distribution world was recently shaken when Priceline Group (aka, The #1 Lodging Online Travel Agency in the
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Euromonitor International Interview With Vikram Singh

  I was recently interviewed as part of the Euromonitor International Interview Series conducted by Michelle Grant, Euromonitor’s Travel and
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Hotel Pay Per Click: Your Single Most Powerful Marketing Tool

I have had a front row seat to the hotel pay per click (PPC) world for the past decade. PPC
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Hotel Marketing Is Not a Substitute for Innovation

One of the trends I have been noticing is that hotels continually generate hype instead of value. Hyper-marketing on social media
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How to Supercharge Your Hotel Revenue After Rebranding

A Tale of Two Brands (based on a true story) Once upon a time in December 2012, there was a
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Hotel Marketing Cannibalization: Is Your Hotel Website Traffic Eating Itself?

Hotels, bed and breakfasts, and vacation rentals are all competing for their market share of today’s travelers, who are armed
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Top 5 Resolutions Hotels Should Make to Boost Online Revenue

We have entered a new year of awesome possibilities. The hospitality and lodging business is poised for more disruption, innovation
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My Top 6 Posts of 2013

This has been an amazing year for the Words of Vikram blog. I remember publishing the first post on a beautiful
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How Airbnb Is Crushing Traditional Hotel Brands

In April, I wrote one of my first ever articles about Airbnb’s impact on the hotel industy. It started as
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Google Analytics vs. Adobe Site Catalyst for Hotels

Marketing is evolving, especially the Internet kind. Website analytics have come a long way in the past decade. We have
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Death by Data: How Misusing Hotel Analytics Data Can Hurt Your Revenue

Analytics is an amazing and powerful tool. Voltaire/FDR/Stan Lee (depends who you ask) has said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” This is
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It’s Time to Burst the Hotel SEO Bubble: What Hotels Really Need to Know

Hotel search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most debated online marketing techniques in our industry. That’s because its
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Hey, Airline Industry! It’s Time to Care Again.

I recently completed another round-the-world trip and got to experience a few different airlines and their cultures. It always amazes
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RoomKey.com: Hotel Brands’ Misguided Attempt to Become an OTA

How many times have I heard the hotel brands say they are going to “fight and win” the Internet battle
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What the Hotel Industry Can Learn From “Heads in Beds” by Jacob Tomsky

I recently finished reading Heads in Beds by Jacob Tomsky. To be clear: I am not writing a standard book
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Biggest Myths About WordPress Perpetrated by Hotel Marketing Agencies

The hotel industry has always been a target for misinformation about new, emerging, and especially open-source technology. It feels like
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Airbnb: More Than a Threat, It’s a Great Disruptor To The Hotel & Travel Sector

I recently read an article on Airbnb on Euromonitor that declared: “Airbnb.com Poses Only a Small Threat to Hotel Industry.”
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Hotel Online Marketing Budget Disconnect: A Perpetual Case of Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight.

“Nice try kid, but it looks like you brought a knife to a gunfight.” This line from Indiana Jones and
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Another Day (Not) Another Blog

This is not my first blog/dance/party/luau. It’s the fourth blog that I’ve launched since 2006. The other three blogs were focused
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