Hotel Smartphone website brings more bookings than Apps

AXSES Smartphone Hotel and Tourism Marketing Strategy

This blog is a little out of step with the way we do things. First, we are sharing our Smartphone Marketing strategy while the mobile products we discuss are being developed. It's perhaps brave, perhaps naive, perhaps foolish, but we have a solution that is dynamite and right for the market. While developers are rushing to build apps, the fact is that only 1/5 of traveler users are using apps. Travelers prefer to use the web. "While about a third of Smartphone owners use their devices for travel-related activities, only one-fifth of all Smartphone owners have installed travel apps on their devices." ReadWriteWeb based on Smartphone Intelligence survey by  Compete.com. 


The smart website solution is very affordable and aimed directly at where the smartphone market is now and where we see it evolving.

Over the last 15 years, AXSES has been  a leader in tourism development with many first to market products, like http://Realholidays.com dynamic package and matchmaking for hotels and travelers. AXSES created http://Bookable-maps. Commended by Google, Bookable-ads.com,  is a first in merging advertising and bookings, making adds more effective and dramatically increasing the travelers' time on the site and their click rate. We were first with our  direct bookings application for facebook, allowing small and mid-size hotels, car rentals and tourism suppliers to load and manage their info directly into Facebook using arcRes Publishing.

You will note from our last blog that we feel hotel and tourism operators need to move quickly to make their information and marketing efforts Smartphone-ready.  But we are not proposing that they have to develop new websites or smartphone apps. What we propose is to treat this market just as we do Facebook add-ons. We are now enhancing arcRes publishing, adding a Mobile Module for smartphones.

What this means is that we create a standard way for information to be loaded, stored and managed for websites, for Smartphone applications, Web 2.0 applications, like Facebook, and for Web marketing.

For clients already using arcRes as a booking engine or a marketing system, getting onto Smartphone is just a few clicks away.

For hotels and tourism operators not already using acrRes, there is no better time to sign up and get Smartphone mobile. For tourism suppliers who  have a booking engine, arcRes will step through a setup and publish the Smartphone website and  marketing system. arcRes is the complete publishing system for website information, booking engines, Facebook pages, special promotions, collaborative marketing, packaging and marketing.

See the video as an example of what we mean.



What does it mean to tourism operators, hotels, car rentals, restaurants, tours and local attractions?:

For arcRes clients, there is no fee to create the mobile website as they will already have the content is arcRes and just need to tweak it. We will host the smartphone website and bookings for 25$ per month. For non-arcRes users, there is small cost to set up and hoist the new smartphone website.

No bad, considering the size of the market. For More on AXSES arcRes, see arcRes: the Complete Tourism Platform at http://tourism-marketing-platform.com | For More on AXSES Smartphone Travel marketing applications, see http://SmartphoneTravelApps.com

 Final word on Apps vs. Smart websites

I don't believe the industry will put up with this idea that every  Smartphone must have its own app. That worked when there was only iPhone. With Android, the game has changed. Their are over 40 manufacturers and the pace of innovation and new products in unprecedented. Check out the latest Motorola Droidx 4.3 inch display . Apple is already falling behind. Open your technology and do the proper job. You are about to repeat your past when you could embrace much more. Be open; you have so much to give!

 "61.6 million Smartphones were sold in the second quarter of 2010, as compared to just over 40 million in 2009, with the biggest change coming in operating systems. Android overtook Apple's iOS for the number three spot worldwide and passed Research In Motion's operating system to take the number one spot in the U.S" Garner .

More like this: see our Hubpage apps vs websites- whats the difference
Check our research pages at http://research.SmartphoneTraveller.com

Coming soon - Tools to build your App or Website | The demise of the App

Hotel websits on Smartphones need rethinking

"Most regular websites look horrible on a Smartphone." So says Chris Atkinson, Founder at MobiSphere.

I agree, and we have the proof of that in the video below. This is particularly true for the Hotel and Tourism Operator's website,  where bookings are complex and include many dimensions: Terms and meal plans, upgrades and add-ons,  different rates by season, special deals and promotions,  different rate plans, family plans and packages.

Over the last few years, hotel reservation and booking forms have become wider as developers and application designers put all information on a single screen. The Smartphone just can not handle it. It's time to get back to basics.

Many hotel and tourism owners think the scrunched-up websites on the Smartphone are cute and perfectly adequate. It amazed me that a 700-pixel screen of our site, Barbados.org, did look cute and is readable on a tiny screen. But on closer inspection, it is not so smart and it is rather like the video below, in some cases.

It is inevitable; these sites must be re-designed in order to provide the service. The re-design must be from the ground up. Smartphone and mobile users have a different mindset and they want pertinent facts in precise form. Content must be concise.

There is no doubt that the Smartphone mobile market it going to be vast.
(see whyMobile.PDF). 

eMarketers' research show that both travelers and tourism operators have plans for the Smartphone market.

The question is how best to get there

 eBusiness Strategies found that 40 percent of Smartphone owners say they’ve done at least some of their leisure travel research on their mobile device; 25 percent say they have booked travel through their phones.  Smartphone use is accelerating at a rapid pace as consumers and business users shift from desktop PCs, and  laptops, to iPhones, iPads, Androids, BlackBerrys and other platforms.

 

A critical choice is: should you do applications for every phone, or a build a better web experience?. 

Applications are great. They can be fully optimised for the Smartphone to take advantage of internal features on every phone.

The problem is, of course, that you have to develop an app for each phone (operating system at least).

At the same time, travelers have to download the app, and they have to find it!. App stores have a long way to go to replace web search. Apps are proprietary and closed. They are becoming lost in a crowded app store that has not been designed for search and retrieval. As apps get more numerous, the store seems more inadequate.

When I talk to smartphone users, they all use their phones to browse the web. Many say they browse far more that they look for apps. So that tells me it is the right place to start. I think the apps idea is not mature for travel shopping, compared to the number of users who still browse the net. My view is that web browsing will not go away and it is the right place to start. App stores will not, in my view, replace the search engine, as people will want to find information and services that are free and readily available on the net.

Well, it's a view in hindsight! We initially created a Smartphone application for travel shopping (see our PR http://SmartphoneTraveller.com). It was pretty straight forward and works well. Several hundred travelers have downloaded it already and we are committed to apps as a long-term strategic solution for tourism.  But our next initiatives will be in mobile websites and web-based services for Smartphone mobile website.

We are soon to introduce new applications to help hotels and tourism operators get their own hotel websites and marketing information Smartphone-ready. Websites are ready now with a longer-term strategy to build the same content and new services into apps. It's a comprehensive Smartphone Tourism Marketing strategy; building for the immediate and for the long-term. 

But not all agree with the rational of building smart websites. Apple says that iPhone users don't want search; they want apps. I agree that they certainly don't want to search for regular sites. But the app idea undermines the concept of the web as an open and comprehensive service.

My vision of the future is that people want openness, and if there are great apps, they will want it on their own Smartphone. The best way to deliver that openness is via the Internet. It is where we will see the next burst of innovation as the net morphs into the Smartphone, bringing the entire universe of information to your pocket as quick and easy and as versatile as an app.

Watch out for our next blog, where we outline AXSES Smartphone Strategy for Hotels and Tourism Owners. Direct sales straight to a pocket for you!




LINKS
HubPage on this topic | arcRes travel Platform | 

BREAKING NEWS
Just off the Press: Aug 22 2010 - Eye for Travel EU study finds  "consumers were almost 3 times as likely to access travel services via a browser, compared to an application".
With the ongoing enhancement in Smartphones and development of the web and more Smartphone-ready websites, we expect that consumers will continue to prefer browsing over using an app to shop for travel.

The Next Hotel Marketing Wave - Publish or Perish

The tourism marketing and development work we did for Dominica has opened our eyes to the future. Almost as a sideline, we created the TravelersInsights.com magazine. It was a personal account, inspired by our need to understand and document the brand. When marketing the destination on the Internet, it provided a framework for the conversation we entered or created. This was a success. We managed to place the new central reservation system we had created BookingsDominica.com on top of search results for most of the important Dominica Travel search words and phrases.

The TravelersInsights Dominica however sat on the shelves and was largely ignored by the Discover Dominica Authority (DDA). Hotels loved it so much that every single copy of the draft run disappeared. We knew that it was a worthwhile endeavor, but it needed the DDA to use and distribute it. This did not happen!

Adversity is often the mother of invention, and in trying to find a better use for the TraveleresInsights Dominica publication, we discovered online publishing. 

There are thousands of online resources where you publish travel stories, articles and destination promotional pieces. They break down into blogs, ezines, Web 2.0 resources, bookmarking, dedicated interest channels, document storage, re-publishers and online magazine racks.

Online magazines were our first foray. They are are slowly taking over from the corner store. Here, you get full-colored magazines of very high quality. In may cases, they may be downloaded or delivered by courier. Services like Magcloud print runs are very reasonable, at only 15-20 cents US per page for small runs. Try to get a regular printer to do that and you'll see what I mean. This is a good and inexpensive outlet for destination marketing. Their are no expensive print runs and no inventory. Quality magazines can be ordered one at a time and delivered anywhere (Print on Demand -POD as in TravelersInsights.com).

Closely related are the document sharing systems, like Slideshare. Here, high quality documents are stored online in PDF format, ready for download.

Next, we looked at ezines and started with ezineartciles.com. The submission was rejected, as they thought it was too professional and suggested we had copied it. When this was cleared, up the piece went on to be featured in Travel Tips. We are still working our way through these ezines with a list of over 500 services and some paid help in submitting to them.

It was at this point that the thought struck: Hey! Digital Publishing is the new marketing!

What better way to get noticed than getting publicity: print coverage online. One that you can do yourself, or at least control yourself. It is a slightly new twist on an old and dying adage, replace print with the hybrid of digital marketing. Both in print and online, have it ready to download, ready to print on your own desktop, or have it shipped to your destination sales staff, travel agent or traveler.

What is most interesting, from an Internet Marketer's perspective, is the fact that your listing in these online services often allows backlinks to your website. This means that your website get seen and, as these sites are often very authoritative, it means that Google and the search engines pay attention. This will help you get listed on top search results and directly increase you bookings.

I think I see a fundamental shift in marketing coming - see my article on Bukisca - Publish or Perish. These sites are examples of the new Web 2.0 platforms that are rapidly becoming voices and influences. We have used HubPages, Squidoo, RedGage and many, many others. See our Tourism Marketing Platform in the arcRes-Publishing link below for a researched list.

In our business of tourism marketing, we will often drop in our clients' Special promotions, hotel deals, car rental offers and restaurant advertising. For an example, see Barbados Special HubPage on Smartphones.

It's what we at AXSES have been gearing up for for a decade! Those who are our clients will know how we have positioned AXSES products to serve direct business to hotels and tourism suppliers.

Our flagship product, arcRes.com, has changed from a simple booking engine to a full-fledged publishing system.

We even coined the name arcRes-Publishing before we fully understood the impact it might have. 

Jobs wants iPhone to dominate Travel

I wrote about Steve Jobs not doing the Good Job a week ago. I am not happy with the moves Steve is making to dominate the market and limit travelers' choices by exempting Flash and other travel apps from the iPhone store. See Jobs not done well

Today, CNet and Unwired revealed Apple's patent application for its travel-apps. The plans reveal more of this new face of Apple - A company more and more interested in going it alone.

I don't think it's wise. The internet is about sharing and being open. Consumers love Apple, but they also like free choice, and if Steve does not give them an iPhone that allows them access to the websites they want to see, it's just not going to cut it. No matter how great the technology, it has to be open to succeed.

Others, like Android and BlackBerry, are working hard to make the smartphone a universal product reaching all corners of the web. iPhone, already losing market shares to Android, will be a past piper, if Jobs and Co. fails to see the light. Apple iPhone revealed.

Related links see AXSES http://SmartPhoneTraveller.com

For Hotels and Tourism operators - Get arcRes Free Advertising and Marketing Trial - quickly advertising your brand and holiday specials, packages, deals on hundreds of travel marketing and shopping sites

smartphonetraveller.com

June 2010. AXSES SCI, Bridgetown Barbados, launches a unique travel shopping application for mobile market and smart phones.

This application combines arcRes Specials Marketing of http://BookingsCaribbean.com and the themes and moods describing each island from http://CaribbeanHopping.com.

It is currently number 1 on AndroLib Marketplace for a search of Travel Shopping .

AXSES Caribbean Travel Shopping is a FREE app. that can be downloaded to the mobile and used to find hotels and activities offering special deals and book them on the phone.

Caribbean Travel Shopping - Android 

For more info on this app see AXSES site http://SmartPhonetraveller.com and more about how the application can be used by Hotels and Tourism operators http://SmartPhonetravellapps.com

Other Resources: Google Android vs Apple iPhone HubPage| AXSES Squidoo Page
How to get your Hotel on smartphones hubPage 

Dominica Tourism Authority gets AXSES Arcres Travel Platform

The Dominica Tourism Authority (Discover Dominica Authority, DDA) selects the AXSES Travel Platform for the tourism industry in Dominica.

Colin Piper, CEO/Director of the Discover Dominica Authority, says, “We selected AXSES because its people have a deep understanding of the travel marketplace and the right suite of products and resources to help our travel marketing.”

The AXSES Travel Marketing and Bookings Platform is a unique marketing and bookings solution for destinations, hotels, tourism operators and car rental companies. It offers the full spectrum of advertising management, bookings, interactive branding and systems for direct marketing. It is ideal for destinations, as it plays by destination rules and promotes the destination product with direct to hotel and tourism owner sales and bookings.

AXSES, know for putting Barbados.org on the net, and owners of http://Barbados.org, is also a world leader in travel software. A team of Barbados programmers are now at work building what they call the next generation travel shopping platform. Many of AXSES' products are first of a kind. Its Facebook application, which allows Facebook Fans to get quotes and book direct from Facebook, published a year ago, is an example of AXSES leading edge innovative and adaptive thinking that caught the attention of Dominica.

AXSES has completed the first stage of the project which is to build the new e-commerce Dominica Marketing portal which is the Dominica Central Reservations Center http://Bookingsdominica.com. The sites have been Search Engine-Optimised (SEO) with dozens of 1st-page positions on strategic keywords.

A Dominica travelogue was completed as part of this project and it is being marketed with print and online Dominica magazine publications: TravelersInsights.com. TravelersInsights is a cloud publishing service for destinations developed by AXSES and part of the AXSES arcRes Travel Platform. The articles are being distributed to over 300 online ezines and are available on magazine and document services, like Slideshare, ArticlesBase, as well as TravelerInsights and BookingsDominica


The DDA and AXSES are jointly marketing the Dominica Reservations Center, which is being cross linked and marketed with http://dominica.dm the official website of the Dominica Tourism Authority.

AXSES is now installing booking engines on Dominica hotel websites using the arcRes bookings widgets http://BookingsWidgets.com.

As part of the project to create the Dominica Travel Platform, AXSES staged a 3-day seminar to the entire Tourism industry. The seminar was attended by over 50 tourism partners and enthusiastically supported.

AXSES key personnel Kathy-Lynn Ward and Kris Gooding delivered keynote addresses on web design, use of technology, branding & marketing in the interactive age. The seminar included interactive examples of AXSES Next Generation Shopping Platform, which is being installed as the Travel Platform for Dominica.

For more info on the AXSES Travel marketing platform, see http://TravelBookingsPlatform.com
Built on the arcRes e-commerce suites the travel platform combined advertising management with e-commerce marketing and publishing. arcRes Bookings-Expert the booking engine for hotel and tourism operator websites, allows hotels and activities, tours, car rental cos and tourism suppliers to advertise and publish their product and brand to smartphones (http://SmartphoneTraveller.com), Google Shopping, social media and hundreds of affiliated travel marketing sites.

Jobs not done well

JOBS not done well.

its interesting times with Apples latest iPhone 4 hitting a communications snag and Apple, the consumer favorite, saying "you have to buy the patch". Well Steve had to back down and weeks later made it Free. Suddenly is seems that the iPhone is not the darling of the consumer. Google android phone shipping at 1000 per day are outpacing Apple. A quiet backlash is taking place and for good reason read more at http://hubpages.com/t/16fdbb

smartphonetravelapps.comFor latest on smartphone apps for the travel mobile market see http://smartphonetravelapps.com


Interesting times ahead with Apple saying its our way or the highway and more and more taking the highway. By many account Android is outpreforming iPhone. Interesting for travel when both Apple and Google declair a travel focus.

Hotels, travel Agents, tourism operators and destinations await the outcomes.

We will keep you posted on the site linked above.