Hospitality

For today's hospitality brands, loyalty programs are as much about repeat customers as they are about controlling distribution costs. Often times that means strategy at the property level, rather then at the brand level.

This report analyzes the state of hotel distribution with a focus on direct booking. Rather than taking the view that it’s a booking war, we believe the landscape is far more nuanced where hotels need to take a holistic approach with their distribution channels. Readers will gain insight from our interviews with over 20 executives across the hotel and online travel ecosystem along with the results from our survey of 370 hotels around the world, which was powered by Skift and Trivago.

This report looks deep into the current state of destination marketing, with a particular focus on current and developing content marketing, digital advertising and data analytics strategies. Skift Research Annual Subscribers also gain access to our 2017 Digital Destinations Survey full results. We collected over 300 responses from destination marketing organizations worldwide to assess budget, spend on marketing, reported return on investment on advertising platforms, and other metrics. The data sheet is a downloadable Excel file a full breakout of results from this 35 question survey (Annual Subscribers only).

Airbnb popularized a new type of rental product - i.e. the primary-residence urban rental, but now professionally managed properties are coming online with fury. Looking forward ten years, the landscape will likely look quite different. Consolidation is in the air; vacation rentals have gone mainstream with the consumer but inventory remains fragmented. Property managers, marketplaces, SaaS platforms and a host of other add-on services are evolving their strategies to capture greater scale and efficiencies.

Disney’s success with its theme parks, hotels and cruise products is directly attributable to a highly-sophisticated marketing program that leverages cross-monetization of its different media businesses. It’s a case study for travel and hospitality companies on how to think and look outside of travel, when building globally successful businesses and brands.

The complex issues and questions being raised by alternative accommodations providers are proof that these businesses are no longer in their infancy, or startup stages. Despite the challenges, the sharing economy is here to stay. The almighty consumer will ultimately decide the ebbs and flows of how the business of short-term rentals plays out.

Many of Latin America's hotel chains have successfully grown their footprint in the region, despite Zika and a sluggish economic outlook for certain markets. A rising middle class and steady business traveler demand (particularly to secondary cities) are keeping accommodations demand interesting enough to keep planned expansion initiatives rolling through this period of economic and political transformation.

The world of hotel technology software, or the “tech stack” as it’s often called, has long existed as a fragmented puzzle of competing platforms, competitors and solutions. Now, growing signs of consolidation loom as big players from both inside and outside the category vie for a bigger piece of the pie. What solutions and strategies will be most important to help hotel owners stay competitive, and profitable, in the years to come?

Travel booking is transforming the mobile-first ecosystem. Messaging technology is replacing face-to-face and voice-to-voice commerce with a screen-to-screen conduit that stands to drive returns and open interactions to new levels of customer context and continuity that the travel industry has seldom, if ever, experienced before.

Why are brands like Apple, Disney and Nike are among the world’s most valuable? Because they’re able to embody a lifestyle, offering consumers access to an emotional connection that goes well beyond their product offering. As more travel companies look to redefine their offerings around the lifestyle brand concept, often with limited resources to do so, what strategies will they use to grow and thrive?

Messaging technology is expanding at a rapid pace across the online commerce ecosystem, across categories. This report addresses the marketing operations side of the messaging technology equation among travel companies. A companion Skift report will focus on bookings and messaging tech.

Hotel loyalty programs are facing a period of dramatic change, driven by recent devaluations of member points and picky travelers that are less loyal than ever. What strategies are hotel brands using to adapt and thrive in this changing loyalty landscape?