Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

On this special edition of the Suite Spot, we are joined by AD1 Global’s Director of Marketing and e-Commerce, Jon McMillian. Host Ryan Embree interviews Jon and gets his thoughts on the state of the hotel industry today and where we are headed. Jon shares the start of his journey in hospitality and discusses his experience managing marketing and e-commerce through a global pandemic. He demonstrates how to distinguish properties in your hotel group portfolio from local competition and how to get buy-in from your hotel staff for new initiatives at the property level. Ryan and Jon wrap up the episode discussing the long-standing partnership between Travel Media Group and AD1 Global, showcasing how TMG's digital solutions perfectly suited the needs of his group. To get more information about becoming a special guest on the Suite Spot or to submit a question or topic for future episodes, call or text 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 76 - Moving Forward with AD1 Global's Jon McMillian Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check-in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host Ryan Embree, with me today, a very special guest, he is a first timer to the Suite Spot. That is Jon McMillian, Corporate Director of Marketing and E-commerce at AD1 Global. So John, welcome to the Suite Spot Jon McMillian: Thank you, Ryan. It's a pleasure to be here. Ryan Embree: Awesome, and just a little bit about you. You are the Global Director of E-commerce and Marketing. Jon oversees the digital marketing, public relations, social media, and promotional activities for each of the AD1 Global properties. He's responsible for developing and carrying out the company's digital marketing plans, as well as ensuring that hotels stay up to date with technology. A senior marketing executive with more than 17 years of experience, his range of expertise includes e-commerce, advertising, public relations, SEO, SEM, social, and email marketing, branding, mobile, and big data and analytics. So John got a lot of experience there, very excited to pick your brain and get some insights to our listeners. I want to just start out, like we do with a lot of our guests on the Suite Spot, just asking how you got your start in hospitality and the journey that led you to AD1 Global. Jon McMillian: Well, I think my journey, you know, was, was interesting, at least to me, in terms of that I started off in the Air Force, in public relations that in the sense is related to hospitality. Part of my job was to sell the Air Force to the general public, inviting visitors to the base and conducting tours from the school children, US Senators, Russian Generals in the like. So that's where I kind of got my start all be it into actual hospitality itself, happened many years later, after a stent in SEO industry, working for companies such as Tropicana, you may have heard of before and overwhelming resorts for them, and simply with email marketing, which quickly transitioned into corporate directors because it was at its infancy,SEO, SEM email marketing, things of that nature. You know, we're talking many moons ago, not to date myself, but I started off with an Odyssey computer way, way, way, way back in the hot tub time machine doing programming. And so I've always had a love for computers and a love for people. So you put the two together that kind of makes it e-commerce and marketing. Ryan Embree: Absolutely. It's a very perfect marriage there. And you know, we hear a lot of those stories. Hospitality is rooted in a bunch of industries. So, you know,

In part 1 of 2 of this special edition of the Suite Spot, we take a moment to recognize stories of resilience and excellence in hospitality throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Host Ryan Embree highlights some incredible hospitality professionals across the country and what they did to make them a hospitality hero during this trying time for our industry. This a feel-good episode that showcases the qualities and values that are at the heart of the hotel industry. Suite Spot Podcast · 75 - TMG Hospitality Heroes Part I Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check-in, and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. And thank you for listening to Travel Media Group's hotel marketing podcast, the Suite Spot. Today, we have an extremely cool episode: one of, if not the best episodes that we've had yet on this podcast, I'm extremely excited to share it with you all today. This is something that we've been working on here at Travel Media Group over the past month. And it was an idea brought up because of the difficult times that the hotel industry had in 2020. We have been on the other side of so many great stories from our customers about resiliency and their ability to adapt on the fly. And we thought that it would be so cool to take a moment and just recognize those hoteliers and hospitality professionals out there that just went above and beyond during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting these stories of resiliency and excellence in hospitality, even in the toughest of times. Ryan Embree: So what we're going to do today is we're going to name some of these Hospitality Heroes and tell their stories on this podcast. Like I said, I'm very excited and we've got a bunch of Hospitality Heroes out there. So let's go ahead and get started. The first Hospitality Hero that we're going to highlight today is Crystal Thompson, Assistant General Manager at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites Alliance. Now Crystal was nominated by Jenna and Jenna writes: "Crystal Thompson was my sole employee during the beginning of the pandemic and has went above and beyond to help the hotel thrive throughout the entire ordeal. She has stepped in and covered any shifts that needed to be covered, changed her schedule completely around to accommodate the hotel and has done way more than is expected of her in all departments." And this is a trend that we're going to hear for almost all of these stories. Hoteliers, just getting out of their comfort zone, covering shifts, working late nights, doing extra things and wearing different hats around the property because essentially they were forced to during this time where staffing was really cut down to a minimum. Ryan Embree: Our next hospitality hero is Diane M. Saumell. She's the General Manager at the Coakley and Williams La Quinta Inn and Suites by Wyndham Orlando IDrive Theme Parks. And Diana was nominated by Ken Shore. Ken writes, "Diana has been an amazing leader during the pandemic hospitality crisis. She's managed guests' expectations along with preserving associate jobs and managing cash flow to where we have not had to ask the owners for any additional working capital. Her guest's comment scores were amazing during the pandemic where her property exceeded the brand averages." So this is so impressive to see that brand scores and reputation was exceeded during this extremely difficult time. We've talked about the importance of getting reviews during the COVID-19 pandemic and how difficult it was and how the guest's expectations were an all-time high, not just for a comfortable experience, but for their safety and health. Ryan Embree: Now Ken Shore also nominates another Hospitality Hero: Carla Selp...

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we dig into the archives to unveil a never-before-heard episode on how hotels can prep for the busy summer season. Host Ryan Embree is joined by Director of Marketing, Anne Sandoval, to share tips and tricks on how to get the most out of this exciting time of year. Ryan and Anne start off by talking about why it’s critical for hotels to maintain their online presence – especially as recovery and travel ramp up for the summer. They share social media strategies to capture guest interest, like promoting local events and attractions. Anne talks about the relationship between guests and review opportunities. They finish the episode by stressing the importance of organization and consistency during such a crucial period for hotels. If you are interested in learning more about optimizing your hotel’s digital marketing for the busy season, you can reach us by calling or texting us at 407-984-7455 or email us at [email protected]. Suite Spot Podcast · 74 - Prepping Your Hotel For The Busy Season Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Hello everyone, this is Ryan Embree, host of the Suite Spot, what you're about to listen to today was actually an episode that we had prepped over a year ago. Like many things, this episode was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but we felt with the hotel industry really starting to recover and starting to see some strong numbers heading into the spring and summer seasons, a lot of these tips and best practices that we shared in this episode really can be applied to right now. So with that being said, we hope you enjoy and learn some really great tips on how to prep your hotel for the busy season. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check-in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello, hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree working on a great episode for you today. I think hoteliers, around the country, are getting really excited. We're coming out of the winter into the spring and summer season soon. So today's episode is actually a follow up from a topic that we covered all the way back in October 2019, where we were really prepping our hotels for the slow season, things that we could do with our social media, our reputation - to just get geared up and ready for kind of a slower time for hotels around the country. Today we're going to talk about the other side of that, an extension of that episode. We're going to look at how hoteliers can really prep their properties for the busiest time of the year. So with me today, to share some insights, is a very frequent guest of the Suite Spot and that is our Director of Marketing, Anne Sandoval. So Anne, welcome again to the Suite Spot. Anne Sandoval: Hey Ryan, thanks for having me back. Ryan Embree: As I mentioned, I'm excited. Hoteliers are excited, we're starting to get geared up, travelers are starting to plan their vacations, road trips. We're excited. How can we start prepping our hotels for this busy, busy season? So I wanted to first start with the question of why. We know time is of the essence in a hotelier's world, so why should hoteliers even spend the time or prep their digital presence for this season, if they know they're already going to be busy? Anne Sandoval: That's a great question and I think a lot of hoteliers are probably asking it, but we know that no matter what time of year it is, travelers are using a variety of channels to help make their booking decisions, but during and leading up to those busy summer months, we've got an influx of travelers looking at Google listings, online review websites, OTA search results, and on social media.

In this special edition of the Suite Spot, we announce the launch of a brand new YouTube segment – the TMG Concierge Desk. Host Ryan Embree introduces the new segment and explains how it will serve as a valuable resource for hoteliers. Ryan shares some of the very first episodes of the TMG Concierge Desk, including topics such as improving a hotel’s reputation, responding to reviews when COVID-19 is mentioned, and increasing occupancy and ADR. This episode is an exciting sneak peek into a new innovative initiative produced by the Travel Media Group team. If you are interested in learning more about Travel Media Group’s hotel digital marketing solutions, you can reach us by calling or texting us at 407-984-7455 or email us at [email protected]. Suite Spot Podcast · 73 - Hotel Industry Q & A on TMG's Concierge Desk Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check-in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot, this is your host, Ryan Embree. Thank you all for joining me today, we've got a very exciting episode for you. On this podcast, we are known to have some really exciting announcements when it comes to our solutions, updates, upgrades, and today is going to be one of those episodes. We have just recently launched a brand new YouTube segment called the TMG Concierge Desk. And it is a segment where we answer some of the industry top questions and discuss some of the current events. So what we thought we'd do today, to introduce you to this brand new segment is we are going to actually roll through some of the questions and videos from this new TMG Concierge Desk and discuss why we felt that this question was important and relevant to today's hotelier. We're going to start with our Product Director at Travel Media Group, Patrick O'Brien, who answers the question, what is the fastest way to improve your hotel's reputation? So let's hear from Patrick on his answer. Patrick O'Brien: The fastest way to improve your hotel's reputation is actually very easy. The first thing you want to do as a hotel is just actively engage in your online reputation. Now, the way that you go about that is going to be a little different, but I would say probably the best places to start, first and foremost, if you are taking every guest that checks in and checks out of your hotel and simply asking them to leave a review and making it very easy for them to do that, whether it be sending them links to your TripAdvisor page, Google, sending them surveys, giving them a number to contact the general manager of the property, somehow make it very easy for them to leave that feedback. The second thing that you want to do, to actively engage in your online reputation, is to really understand and analyze what each of those reviews is saying about your property. And when you're pulling in all of that information, I would start with looking at the areas where maybe there has been a miscommunication of expectations, and that's really why people will leave bad reviews. So if you can identify those, then you can approach that by updating your website, you know, using social media, using review response, to clear up those expectations and communicate that better. You can also work with your front desk to make sure when people are checking in, that they understand what to expect while they're on property. Now, the next step in there is to use all that information and understand really any operational improvements that you may need to make at your property. And some of those can be very minor, some of those may be, you know, major operational improvements,

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we share all the exciting, positive signs of recovery in the hotel industry. Brand Ambassador and Host of the Suite Spot Ryan Embree shares factors inside and outside of the hotel industry that all point towards positive signs for travel moving forward. Ryan examines some travel industry data including occupancy levels, hotel rooms sold, and TSA numbers: all of which have been trending positively for hoteliers. He looks at outside factors that bode well for the hotel industry like vaccine distribution, slowly-lifting COVID restrictions, and overall traveler sentiment. He also looks at some positive internal data collected by Travel Media Group, such as review response numbers and hotelier sentiment. This is a feel-good episode that should get hotels excited about the industry’s future as we move into the busy spring and summer months. If you are looking for digital marketing recommendations for your hotel this upcoming spring and summer season, call or text us at 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 72 - Positive Signs of Hotel Industry Recovery Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check-in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot, this is Ryan Embree, Brand Ambassador at Travel Media Group and host of the Suite Spot. Got a very exciting episode for you today - been looking forward to this episode - what feels like for a very, very long time. As we've done episodes of the Suite Spot, we've always been trying to look for the positives during and following this COVID-19 pandemic, because it has had such an impact on the hospitality, and hotel industry specifically. So what I thought we do today is - we are starting to see now more than just a glimmer of hope - we're starting to see multiple positive signs of recovery within the hotel industry, which I'm super excited about, I'm sure you, the hotel listener, is very excited about today. This episode is going to be circled all around, identifying those positive signs and potentially looking at some factors that might give us kind of a trail map or blueprint of where this recovery is headed and some ways to maybe gain some competitive advantages. But really at the heart of this episode, is just going to be talking about these signs of recovery and really should, hopefully, launch us into the spring and summer of really, really great numbers and just somewhat back to normal, you know, for some hotels, it's been a year since we've seen some of these. Ryan Embree: So we're going to start with some outside, industry factors. And the first thing that we look at, when we look at signs of hotel recovery, are the numbers. Now STR does an incredible job - if you haven't checked it out already, please do str.com - they provide some incredible analytics for the hotel and hospitality industry, and they're constantly putting out new information and data. So the most recent data that we saw, was more than 21 million rooms sold. I remember when we had an episode last April in 2020, that mark was only a million. To see that exceed 21 million rooms is a huge, huge indicator that we're gaining momentum, which is what we like to see, including some top 25 markets, including Tampa, which had an occupancy most recently at 81.8% and Phoenix at 77.1%. So those are top 25 markets all at 75% occupied or higher. Tampa obviously benefiting from spring break, but we expect those numbers, with the warmer temperatures, right around the corner to start to increase. Now, looking back at historical data, we are only 83% of occupancy regained from that 2019 benchmark.

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we explore the importance of post-stay surveys for hotels. Host Ryan Embree is joined by Product Director and head of Travel Media Group’s reputation solutions, Patrick O’Brien, to discuss why the feedback uncovered in these surveys is critical to a hotel’s success. Patrick and Ryan start the episode by explaining the difference between guest reviews and guest surveys. They walk through each question included in Travel Media Group’s post-stay survey and what insights the property can gain from the guest’s feedback. Finally, Patrick shares some creative ideas for other questions that our partners have included in their hotels' post-stay surveys. If you are interested in learning more about Travel Media Group’s post-stay survey solution, you can reach us by calling or texting us at 407-984-7455 or email us at [email protected] Suite Spot Podcast · 71 - Why Post-Stay Guest Surveys Are Essential Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Suite Spot. This is your host Ryan Embree. We've got a jam packed episode for you today. I am very excited about it. I'm very excited about our guest. He is our Product Director at Travel Media Group and head of our reputation solutions, Patrick O'Brien. Patrick, welcome back to the Suite Spot. Patrick O'Brien: Well, thank you very much for having me. Ryan Embree: And this episode is going to be all about guest surveys - why they're critical and essential to your hotel's success, how we can leverage our guest's responses to these surveys, and we're even going to include some of the questions from our very own Travel Media Group post-stay survey that we provide for our hotel partners. So let's go ahead and get started Patrick. We know that guest surveys is a major part of Travel Media Group's reputation management solution, I want to start today's episode, because when I say guest surveys, there's a pretty distinct difference there between a guest survey and a guest review. Can you first explain that? And then we'll get into the guest surveys a little bit. Patrick O'Brien: Sure, so Ryan, a guest review really will be any feedback left publicly online on sites like Google, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, etc, so while some could argue that not all public feedback is really fair or even sometimes legitimate, it is typically one of the most used resources that prospective travelers will turn to before making a booking decision, so it really kind of impacts the prospective traveler view of your hotel. And while the hotel can typically take part in that conversation via review responses, they don't have any influence necessarily on whether or not that conversation and feedback takes place. Surveys, on the other hand are typically feedback solicited directly from a hotel's guests, with the goal to provide the hotel insights into what is working and what is not, but really keeping that conversation one-to-one and offline. So you really can think of, you know, the online reviews being that tool that prospective guests are using to look at your hotel, and the online surveys, really being a tool kept internally to help the hotel understand what's going on at their business, but just because the surveys are kept offline, it doesn't mean that someone who fills out a survey can't then go back and leave a review as well. So that can be really good, if the feedback in the survey was positive, it may not be quite as good if the feedback was negative. Ryan Embree: Yeah, I feel like the hotel industry has gone through this love-hate relationship with any type o...

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we share a beginner’s guide for hoteliers live streaming on social media. Host Ryan Embree gives some ideas for topics hotels can use when going live, and best practices to keep in mind when recording. Ryan talks through some of the different objectives for live streaming, such as educating, showcasing, or entertaining. He reveals some of the most creative live streaming ideas that he has seen in the industry and ways that you can tailor them to fit your hotel. He also discusses the best way to leverage the different audiences on each social media platform to secure bookings. This episode is a great blueprint for hoteliers looking to incorporate live streaming into their social media strategy. If you are looking for more social media tips or learning about Travel Media Group’s social media solutions call or text us at 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 70 - Tips and Ideas for Hotels Going LIVE on Social Media Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check-in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, welcome to the Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. Welcome to episode number 70. We have a great episode, very excited to share this with you all today, we are going to be talking all about a - somewhat newer feature to the social media realm - but we know this has really picked up since the pandemic, so I thought it was important to have an episode on this and share for some of you out there - some hoteliers out there - that might be looking for some creative ways to connect and communicate to their travelers. So what we're going to be talking about today is live streaming. Now this is just a beginner course on really how to get started. We're going to have some tips and some ideas specific to the hotel industry and hotel world out there, that you might be able to adapt at your property. Ryan Embree: Let's talk about, first of all, what is live streaming, for those that are not familiar? The book definition is going live or live streaming refers to transmitting or receiving live video and audio coverage over the internet. As I mentioned, it has become increasingly popular with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and now even LinkedIn, is adding that feature to its platform. As COVID-19 began to take hold live streaming became even more popular and businesses, including hotels, started to utilize it as a way to connect and communicate to consumers. So in today's episode, we're going to talk about some best practices for going live and even share some ideas that you might be able to adapt for your own at the property. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you're prepared and have a plan for your live stream. Once you press that start live button there is no turning back, so make sure you are prepared. First thing you want to consider is where am I going to record? Well, the ideal spot is a place with really strong internet connection. You don't want any sort of frozen or lagging in your video, that's definitely not going to help with engagement and follower views. The other thing is lighting, making sure that it's not too dark, not too bright. Making sure you're in a place with good sound quality, so an echo-y hotel lobby or a windy day outside might not be the ideal place to live stream. So definitely take some practice videos before actually going live to figure out what that video looks like and sounds like. If you really, really want to take your live stream to the next level, you could even look up some lapel microphones to help with that sound quality. Ryan Embree: You also want to consider the video angle.

In follow up to an episode produced in early 2020, this episode of the Suite Spot discusses the relationship with Travel Media Group’s Client Success Team and Hotel Recovery Post- COVID-19. Host Ryan Embree is joined by Client Success Team Lead Aislynn Roberts to update us on how hotelier sentiment has changed since the beginning of the pandemic. Ryan and Aislynn talk about the crucial role that hotel digital marketing plays in a hotel’s recovery, and the creative ways hoteliers are connecting with guests to accelerate their recovery pace. Aislynn shares some innovative stories from Travel Media Group hotel partners and includes best practices for hoteliers not yet seeing the revenue bounceback expected. This episode is a great tool for hoteliers looking to spark ideas for targeting and capturing occupancy. If you are looking for help or more information from Aislynn and her client success team call or text us at 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 69 - Client Success & Hotel Recovery Post-COVID-19 Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, thank you all for listening today. We're getting to a very exciting time - depending on where you're at right now - it could be frigid, frigid cold, but we see just on the horizon, the warm spring and summer seasons are coming just around the corner, which typically means for the hotel industry, a little bit of a boost in occupancy, which we could all use right now. So we are going to continue our theme of just recovery and accelerating speed towards getting that occupancy and ADR to "normal levels." We're seeing a lot of good news outside with vaccines that continues to see progress, were starting to see more and more people travel. We know that interest in travel is at an all time high. There's just so much pent up demand out there. So today what we're going to be talking about is one of the differentiators of Travel Media Group and partnering with us. And that is, not only do we provide you with the digital marketing solutions, you know, top of class solutions, but we also supply you with a team dedicated to our hotel partners. And we're going to really talk through the role of what we call client success team and where they fit in, in hotel recovery. So with me today, I have Aislynn Roberts, she is our client success team lead. Aislynn, it's been a while since you've been on the Suite Spot, but I want to welcome you again for coming on with me. Aislynn Roberts: Thanks Ryan. It's great to be here. Ryan Embree: And we've got a great episode for you today, but I want to start before we roll into it, with just for those who might be unfamiliar with the client success team, so I kind of gave a high level definition of what your team does, but just walk us through your role and the relationship that client success team has with Travel Media Group hotel partners. Aislynn Roberts: Yeah, sure, so the client success team works alongside our hotel partners throughout their customer journey with Travel Media Group. When a hotelier begins a partnership with us, they are assigned a dedicated client success representative that walks them through the program on boarding seamlessly to ensure their program gets off to a good start right away. We provide training to all team members before the start and ongoing as needed in times of turnover. And we stay regularly connected throughout The first 60 days of the program to ensure all team members are comfortable with the system and new processes, providing encouragement to them,

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we take a look at what it will take for hotels to accelerate their speed of recovery in 2021. Host Ryan Embree is joined by Travel Media Group’s Marketing Coordinator, Marissa Kinzel, to discuss and share ideas. Ryan and Marissa start the episode by talking about how hoteliers can utilize social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin to gain an edge over local competition. Next, they explain the role a hotel’s online reputation plays in recovery speed and how a strong online reputation impacts traveler booking decisions. They wrap up by discussing direct bookings and how TMG’s OneView™ can help manage and organize all guest content online. To learn more about boosting your hotel’s pace of revenue recovery or to submit a question for future episodes, call or text 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 68 - Boosting Your Hotel's Speed to Recovery Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot where hoteliers check in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, this is Ryan Embree, host of the Suite Spot. Welcome to another episode and thank you for listening today. We have a excellent episode for you, themed all around boosting your hotel's speed to recovery. So right now, as we've turned the page to 2021, we are all looking for those little ways to gain advantage over our competitors and ways that we can really pick up the pace and accelerate our pace towards recovery. Now, there are a lot of factors out there, obviously, that are going to be presented as unknown to us: COVID vaccinations, COVID variants, but we are going to go ahead and make some positive assumptions today that we are on the right track to recovery. So I want to bring in our guest with me today to kind of talk through some of this stuff, Marissa Kinzel, Marketing Coordinator. You've been with us before on the Suite Spot, but I'm going to welcome you again to the Suite Spot. Marissa Kinzel: Thank you very much, Ryan. I'm glad to be back. Ryan Embree: Yeah, and we've got a great episode for you today. Obviously, at Travel Media Group, our expertise is in the hotel digital marketing space, that is the only vertical that we work with is hotels. So I thought what we do today, Marissa is really take it step-by-step and talk about a hotel's digital marketing strategy, and maybe ways that they can gain that competitive edge and again, boost speed to recovery. So let's go ahead and get started with social media. And I think the first thing that we really need to do as a hotelier is set some SMART social media goals for 2021. So obviously at the end of the day, social media, we have learned during this past year has been a great channel for us to communicate and connect with guests. The end goal, we always want to obviously see that revenue come from platforms and streams, like social media, but I think what hoteliers tend to forget is kind of that in between space there. So you've got social media and then you've got generating revenue. What do you need to do in between there? And I think in order to kind of boost that speed to recovery, the first thing you need to do is really set some SMART social media goals, because there's actually quite a number of things that you can set out to accomplish on your Facebook, your Instagram, your LinkedIn. One of those is follower count, maybe getting people to start following you and expanding that reach and audience. Another one is engagement, growth, we've all seen those posts on our feeds that say, "like and share this post" and see how many likes we can get, see how many shares that we can get, so there's different social media goals. Marissa Kinzel: Yeah,

In this episode of the Suite Spot, host Ryan Embree is once again joined by Vice President of Product and Technology, Jason Lee. This time, they're talking about the importance of social listening. Jason and Ryan start the episode by defining social listening and what it means to hoteliers and their business. Jason walks through different social media platforms – like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – and the unique ways guests interact with hotels on each. Jason and Ryan discuss the benefits and drawbacks of using social listening as a guest relations tool. And finally, Jason shares how the TMG development team has prioritized social listening with updates to the TMG OneView® Feed. To learn more about how Travel Media Group is helping hoteliers connect with their guests using social listening or to submit a question for future episodes, call or text 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 67 - Social Listening 101 Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot, this is your host, Ryan Embree. Another great episode today, with a very frequent guest of the show. I've said it before, when we have him on, usually this means new innovations and updates. So I, once again, will welcome Jason Lee, Vice President of Product Development and Technology at Travel Media Group. Jason, welcome back to the Suite Spot. Jason Lee: Ryan, thank you for having me, again. Ryan Embree: I'm super excited to have you on today because we have a really cool subject that I think has just become more and more prevalent, not just in hotels, but just business in general, as social media has really evolved throughout the last couple years and now businesses are kind of catching up to the curve and they're learning how to listen to - in this case, for hotels - travelers online, but just really consumers in general. So what we're going to talk about is social listening. So right off the bat, Jason, let's go ahead and define what social listening is in regards to this episode and what it means to you. Jason Lee: Well, social listening is - it's a little bit different than reputation and it's a little bit different than what we have talked about before, which would be that traditional outbound social media or even responses to social media. So social listening really is about detection and capturing information that past guests or future guests are saying about your location, but they're not saying it to everyone, they're saying it to their audience. So this would be when you're mentioned - so your business is mentioned or your hotel is mentioned in a post or in a tweet or your tagged - and so it could be something as simple as, "I just checked into my room - you know, and then they mention the name of your hotel - and everything looks awesome #greatweekend" or something. So something like that goes out to that person's audience, it is not put on your page. You wouldn't really ever see that if it wasn't for bringing that data to light. So the fact that you were mentioned or tagged is how we pull that information in, but it becomes really valuable information and it's surprising how much of that is out there. How often hotels are mentioned, you know, it positively and negatively. Ryan Embree: Yeah, it's interesting to see, you know, as I talk about the evolution again of social media, where this all stemmed from, obviously social media from the very beginning was supposed to be a person to person interaction, but then all of a sudden users started to realize and businesses alike, at the same time, I can start having a conversation with a busine...