Notes from Eye for Travel's 2009 North Americian Summit

I recently had the pleasure of attending the 2009 North American Travel & Distribution Summit held this past week in Chicago. I took lots of notes but I don't want to bore you all with them all at once.

Here are my top 8 items pulled from the conference:

1.) You MUST always approach your hotel from the customer's perspective. Remove the blinders and look at things from the guests perspective. If you don't you don't you will always be stuck in your old mindset.

2.) If you negotiate on price alone the price will never be low enough. You must stress the value your property brings to the table.

3.) Never ask a guest "have you stayed with us before?" You should know the answer to that question already!

4.) Apart from groceries, customers go to the Internet first before purchasing a product. Plan your marketing strategy accordingly!

5.) When given the chance, customers prefer to book directly with your brand due to perceived flexibility and options.

6.) To encourage bookings through direct channels, hotels should build strong loyalty programs and invest in comprehensive SEO and SEM marketing efforts.

7.) OTA's get first time customers in the door for new brands. They may book directly later and become loyal customers. According to a joint research project by Cornell University & Expedia, for every booking via Expedia 2 bookings are sent to your website. The "billboard effect."

8.) OTA's offer international distribution and significant marketing budgets which can supplement a hotel's marketing budget when times are lean. Small and independent hotels must ride the back of this "800 lb gorilla."

I hope you enjoyed this and I will post more as I have time to further digest all of the fantastic information. Also, if you attended this conference I would love to hear about what you took away for the conference.

Cheers to a RevPAR building day!