Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

In another special edition of the Suite Spot, Senior Vice President of Lodging Insights at STR, Jan Freitag returns to the podcast for an insightful conversation. Jan and his team at STR are continuing to closely monitor industry data and trends post-COVID-19. Jan and Ryan discuss changes in the industry since they last spoke in June (You can hear that conversation by listening to Episode 51). In this episode, Jan talks about the health of the US hotel pipeline and predicts what we can expect to see in new build growth moving forward. Jan shares which markets are experiencing an increase in occupancy and which types of travelers are filling rooms right now. Ryan and Jan also talk about the impact that back-to-school will have on travel, and they speculate about what the rest of 2020 could look like for hoteliers. For more information and insights from the STR team, visit their COVID-19 resource center at STR.com. To submit a question for future episodes, call or text 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 56 - COVID Hotel Industry Trends With Jan Freitag Pt. II 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, but you are in for quite a treat. We have once again, a special guest that joined us a couple episodes ago. He has been the calming presence in these turbulent times that we're going through right now and that is Senior Vice President of Lodging Insights at STR, Jan Freitag. So Jan welcome back to the Suite Spot. Jan Freitag: Thank you, Ryan. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you, to be back with you. I'm not sure that I'm such a calming influence. The data that we're putting out, is getting better, I guess, you know, it's not that great, but yeah, it's been quite a ride since the beginning, quite a ride since we last talked. So I'm happy to chat more about what we're seeing in the industry today. Ryan Embree: Absolutely and that's what this episode is completely about. I felt like the last episode was just a couple of days ago, but it also feels like it's been months in between - kind of like our lives are feeling right now in this pandemic. So, you know, speaking of that last time, we were starting to see those early signs of recovery. We were seeing some encouraging signs out there. You and your team were sharing some great information, then all of a sudden, not so fast, the rises in cases in the United States came in the month of July. How has that impacted the industry's recovery and STR future projections? Jan Freitag: Yeah, so it is nice to see that the U S occupancy for the week ending August the 15th actually hit 50%, 50.2%. Now it's true, that that is only for the hotels that are open, you know, and so just under 5% of rooms are still temporarily closed. That is totally skewed towards the upper end, right? Full service, luxury, ana upper upscale hotels are more likely closed than economy properties, where we are basically completely open again. But so occupancy, 50%, half the rooms are occupied, great. Leisure travel continues to dominate, weekend travel, weekend occupancies, you know, 57% continue to be very, very healthy, and extended stay continues to outperform, lower end continues to outperform. All of that, all of those are good signs. And I think we've seen that through July and I think we're probably gonna see that little bit more through August. The big question, the hundred billion dollar question is, "What happens after Labor Day, right?" When kids are back in school virtual or real, whatever, but we're not as eager to get back out on the road,

In this episode of Suite Spot, we talk about the adaptations hoteliers are making to their property websites in the midst of this pandemic. Travel Media Group Senior Website Product Analyst, Stephanie Courtois, joins host Ryan Embree to share how she, alongside the Travel Media Group product team, prepared our hotel partners' websites for COVID-19 and after. Stephanie and Ryan discuss the different options hoteliers can utilize to communicate important information pertaining to COVID-19 through their hotel's vanity site. For franchised hotels, Stephanie stresses the importance of highlighting changes specific to the individual property while aligning with overall brand messaging. She also shares search results analytics about COVID-19 landing pages created by the Travel Media Group team and the high impact it has on a traveler’s impression and expectations of a property. To learn more information about upgrading and updating your hotel’s vanity website or to submit a question for future episodes, call or text 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 55 - Adapting Your Hotels Website During 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 episode #55 and we have another great episode for you today, packed with information on hotel marketing. Today, we are actually going to dive into a subject that at Travel Media Group we specialize in among other things, but something we probably haven't talked about in awhile, but it's super, super important, and that is your hotel's website. And we're going to talk about your hotel's website during this time of COVID-19, some of the adaptations that we've been seeing that hoteliers are making, and really how you can evolve your website to make it work best for you in this post COVID recovery stage that the hotel industry is going through right now. So with me today, I thought I'd bring on one of our Travel Media Group experts and senior product analyst, Stephanie Courtois. Stephanie, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot today. Stephanie Courtois: Thank you for having me. Ryan Embree: And we're going to be talking all about websites and again, that is your specialty. So you've had a lot of conversations through every phase of this pandemic, from the very beginning, to the shutdown in April and May, and now as we get into the summer part of that recovery stages. So the way I'd like to look at it from a high level is this pandemic has really given hoteliers a unique opportunity and reason to evaluate the way that they're communicating to travelers and guests online. So almost the silver lining to reevaluate how you're using those communication tools. How has the COVID-19 crisis highlighted the importance of using a hotel vanity site as a communication tool? Stephanie Courtois: So with the ever evolving nature of the pandemic, it's super important that hoteliers communicate to guests the active measures they're taking for their safety, whether that be mask mandates, enhanced cleaning protocols, social distancing markers, amenity limitations, or even closures, guests need to be aware of the changes your making at the property. So for a franchised property, they have the brand initiatives for guidance, and those are usually displayed as travel advisories on the brand page. But generally they're pretty broad. They kind of go over their entire hotel suite and collections as a whole and don't really hone in to what you're doing specifically at the property. And that even goes for independent properties, they are just thrown into the thick of it and need to come up...

In this episode of Suite Spot, Ryan Embree reflects on some of the post-pandemic effects of our everyday lives when it comes to travel. Ryan recounts the significant changes to the traveler experience of a hotel stay in summer 2019 versus summer 2020. He talks about how hoteliers have adapted their websites, social media, and online reputation to meet the needs and expectations of travelers in the midst of a global pandemic. Learn about various guest touchpoints like check-in and check out and how they have been impacted by COVID-19. This episode provides perspective on all that has changed in the past several months while appreciating those things that within the hotel experience have stayed the same. If you have any questions or need assistance during this time please feel free to reach out to us by either calling or texting us at 407-984-7455 or email us at [email protected]. Suite Spot Podcast · 54 - The Changing Traveler Experience: 2019 vs 2020 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. You've heard us talk about over the past couple of podcast episodes about the new normal. You've probably read articles about it, you've heard industry experts talk about, what can travelers expect in this new normal? What is our world going to look like in this new normal, after the pandemic? And as we start to see recovery that new normal is going to drop that "new" part and it's just going to become normal for us. And I think one of the best ways to reflect on this "new normal" is to really take a look at where we've come from. It's been a very, very long, but also short four months into this pandemic. So what we're going to do on today's episode - and this might sting for a couple hoteliers out there - but I think it's important to do, is really walk through the entire traveler's journey and experience and compare summer 2020 to summer 2019, so just one year ago. Ryan Embree: I challenge you to kind of listen for all of the changes, because day to day, as we're kind of living and going through the operations, we might not see as many changes as we notice when we reflect back on just one year ago. So let's go ahead and get started. And we're going to start where a lot of travelers start, in that traveler's journey, the way that travelers and guests are looking to book and make a purchase decision, when it comes about a hotel stay. Now in summer 2019, as hoteliers we were excited, the summer, you've got the kids out of school, this means family vacations, this is our busiest time of year. We're expecting all ages to be traveling, so maybe some older generations, as well as younger and families. Events that were going on, that we paid very, very close attention to summer events, whether that be concerts, sporting events, conventions, our travel was coming from all over the world, really nationwide travel and people were flying and we had our typical walk-ins people that would go ahead and just walk through our door, kind of check what our rates were for the night without maybe doing that much research, but we were still getting those travelers. Ryan Embree: We fast forward to 2020. You know, all of a sudden our travelers are going to be skewed a little bit younger. We've talked about this as we start to recover those younger travelers are going to be the first ones to feel more comfortable and safe starting to get into the travel world. We know that a lot of events have been canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. Sporting events,

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we discuss what to do when your hotel receives an online review related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Host, Ryan Embree, is joined by review response expert and Respond & Resolve™ Product Manager, Kristeena Seckinger, who walks us through which COVID-19 red flags to watch out for in your hotel’s online reviews and how to handle them effectively and appropriately. Ryan and Kristeena describe how traveler sentiment and tone in online reviews have evolved since the beginning of the pandemic and the role that setting proper expectations plays in generating positive reviews online. They also share best practices on how to best prepare for the increase of online reviews as the industry begins its recovery. If you have any additional questions about your responding COVID-19 reviews online or would like more information on Travel Media Group”s Respond & Resolve™ solution, call or text 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 53 - Responding To COVID - 19 Online Reviews 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 here for Episode #53. Very excited about this episode, we are going to be talking about responding to online reviews. So I know we've kind of had some of these episodes in the past. We've talked about COVID-19 and the impact that it's had on some of our other digital marketing channels: online reputation, social media, but we really haven't got into responding to online reviews. It's one of those things that this pandemic has changed so many aspects of the hotel experience, that new normal, that we're always talking about and hearing about. But one of the things that has stayed consistent is the importance of responding to your reviews professionally and in a timely manner, because this is the type of information that travelers are looking at more than ever when they're determining whether they're going to book with your property, or another property, or even necessarily book in general and take a vacation. So with me today, I brought on the expert of review response, she's joined me before on the Suite Spot, but this is her first time joining me from her remote office, so I will welcome in Kristeena Seckinger, she is our Respond and Resolve™ Product Manager. Kristeena, thank you so much for joining the Suite Spot. Kristeena Seckinger: Hi Ryan and thanks for having me again. Ryan Embree: Absolutely. So let's start with how you and your review response team have adjusted since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kristeena Seckinger: Well, there's definitely been a lot of adjusting for everyone since the beginning of the pandemic and my team is no exception to that. I would say back in March, when all of this started, the review flow really slowed down drastically, which was definitely an adjustment for the fast pace that we were used to before. But since then, as the states began opening and everything started returning to almost normal, we have seen a huge increase in review flow again. And with that increase of reviews and everything that's going on, our team has continued to craft those customized responses that really represent the hotel's voice and message that they want to deliver to their guests right now. And one of the great things about our program, the Respond & Resolve™, is that our team understands that now it's more important than ever to make sure our responses are meeting those client needs and delivering that specific information to all of our guests and travelers. Ryan Embree: Absolutely,

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we turn our attention to COVID-19 hotel industry recovery and what hoteliers can do to build traveler confidence. Host Ryan Embree is joined remotely by Travel Media Group’s Director of Marketing, Anne Sandoval, to share best practices for increasing guests' comfort level. Ryan and Anne start by discussing the evolution of hotel’s messaging throughout the pandemic across their digital marketing channels like social media and vanity websites. They talk about the most effective places online to relay the changes that have been implemented at the property to ensure the safety of their guests. Finally, they identify the signals that hoteliers should keep an eye out for online which indicates that travelers are feeling more comfortable and confident in your property. If you are looking for more creative ideas on how to build traveler confidence post-COVID-19, visit Travel Media Group’s COVID-19 hotel marketing resource center online or reach out to us by phone or text at 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 52 - Building Traveler Confidence For 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 your host, Ryan Embree. I want to take a quick second to thank all of our listeners for all of your support out there, I can't believe it's been over 50 episodes that we have been providing this information. I hope you're enjoying it out there, with me today is our Marketing Director, Anne Sandoval. Anne, I know you just joined me remotely a couple episodes ago, but here you are again. So thank you again, for being on the Suite Spot. Anne Sandoval: Thanks. It's great to be back. Ryan Embree: Anne, you know, we're in a completely different place when we were the last time we spoke and I believe things are moving so fast right now during this pandemic, but the good news is we're starting to see signs of recovery. But, as we enter into the next several months, the question is still looming out there for all hoteliers, when will we get to this "new normal" everyone's talking about. Like I said, we're starting to see signs of recovery every single day from occupancy, demand, we see flight numbers are up. So people are starting to emerge from these stay at home orders, all that pent up demand. We've heard the term revenge travel, which I absolutely love. I think there is going to be a huge, huge demand here coming up in the summer. Time, will eventually and organically get us to that new normal, but what we're going to talk about today are some ways to potentially speed up your hotel's recovery. Everyone wants to try to get back to where they were and hopefully even further than we were, by instilling consumer confidence and comfort levels. The only way that travelers are going to feel safe is if you can instill some sort of confidence and comfort that they are going to be safe at your property, when you host them. So last time we did speak Anne, we covered the five characteristics and attributes of crisis management communication. So what messages we were sending out to our customers at a time where it was a lot of uncertainty, right? We were just getting the stay at home orders, states were starting to lock down, we didn't know what the future holds, now that we have somewhat of a clear vision of how we're going to recover. How should a hotel's messaging have evolved since that time? Anne Sandoval: That's a really great question and before I talk about the things that have changed, I just quickly would like to touch on a few important things that I think should remain the same and ...

In this special edition of the Suite Spot, we sit down with Senior Vice President of Lodging Insights at STR, Jan Freitag. Jan and his team at STR have been hard at work collecting and analyzing hotel data across the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jan and Ryan take a look at how the COVID-19 crisis compares to past industry crises and how to look for clues in other global markets to predict what we might see moving forward in the U.S. hotel industry. Jan also shares what recovery signs hoteliers should keep an eye out for to signal the return of leisure transient travel, corporate business travel, and group travel. Jan also discusses what he calls a “high touch to high tech” evolution that will be the new normal in a post-COVID-19 hotel world. For more information and insights from the STR team, visit their COVID-19 resource center at STR.com. To submit a question for future episodes, call or text 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 51 - COVID Hotel Industry Trends With Jan Freitag 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 the 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: episode number 51. This is your host Ryan Embree coming to you, once again, live from my Orlando, home office. We've got an amazing episode for you today. I am super excited for the special guest that we have coming on the Suite Spot with us. He has been a voice that a lot of you have probably been listening to throughout this whole pandemic, COVID-19 situation. And that is Senior Vice President of Lodging Insights at STR, Jan Freitag. So I'm going to have Jan with me on today and we are going to talk data from STR, recovery, and cover all of those good topics. Alright Jan, thank you again so much for joining us. Let's go ahead and jump right into it. Jan Freitag: Yeah, thanks for having me. Ryan Embree: You know in your position as Senior Vice President of Lodging Insights at STR your team is really uniquely positioned to identify trends in global hospitality markets. You know, I'm wondering with the data almost changing day by day, how is your team navigating the challenge of COVID-19, which again has really provided a significant disruption to original forecast for this year and beyond? Jan Freitag: So it is true the data is changing day by day, by now we can luckily say that the data is getting less bad. So we sort of peaked, if you want to use that word, or troughed out at the bottom the week of April the 11th and ever since then, our week of demand data in the United States has steadily improved bit by bit by bit specifically on the weekends. We've seen occupancies actually increasing week over week over week, which is a nice thing to see. We're navigating this just like everybody else. We're reporting the data. We ask our clients to trust the data. We are making the best of the data and trying to point out where things are really hurting and where things are getting a little bit better, you know. And STR as a company, it's nice to see that our Beijing office is actually back in the office, but all the other offices are still working from home globally. Ryan Embree: That is awesome to hear and we are constantly looking for any of those signals of good news. So even something as small as people coming back into the office, that is a good signal for our industry. You know, in difficult times like this, we sometimes try to find comparisons from the past to help us understand where we're going through and, you know, maybe give us that hope moving forward. Now in your webinars Jan, you mentioned prior challenging times 9/11 and the great recession 2008.

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we celebrate another hotel digital marketing innovation created by Travel Media Group’s product development team led by VP of Product & Technology, Jason Lee. Host Ryan Embree is joined by Jason to discuss 1st Impression Score®, a first of its kind hospitality and reputation metric. Jason shares what separates 1st Impression Score® with other reputation metrics in hospitality and why it was necessary to create it now. Jason explains the 4 factors that impact the 1st Impression Score® and gives tips on what a hotel can do to improve their score. Jason and Ryan also speak to what role traveler first impressions play in a COVID-19 travel world. The TMG 1st Impression Score® is a powerful tool that hotels can use to see how reputation influences revenue in real-time. If you are interested in learning more about unlocking your hotel’s 1st Impression Score® or to submit a question for future episodes, call or text 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 50 - 1st Impression Score™ 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 coming to you once again from my home office here in Orlando. We've got a great and exciting episode for you. I am joined, once again, remotely with Travel Media Group's Vice President of Product Development and Technology. You know his voice well, that is Mr. Jason Lee. Jason, thank you again for joining me on the Suite Spot. Jason Lee: Alright, thanks for having me Ryan. Ryan Embree: Absolutely and we've got a really exciting topic today, another innovation and digital tool for hoteliers that we're extremely excited to talk about and share with you all on the Suite Spot. I want to start this episode by congratulating you, Jason, you and your team on creating this tool. It's called the 1st Impression score. It's one of a kind, but you know, don't let me explain it. Let's hear it from you. What is the 1st impression score for someone that's never heard of that before? Jason Lee: So it's a brand new metric at looking at reputation. So if you think about reputation, for those of you listening to this, if you're using a tool that's provided by your brand or are you using some other tool or maybe even using Travel Media Group's tools, you're used to seeing reputation given to you as it occurs, right? So I receive a review, the contents of that review, the score of that review, all of that kind of comes in. So I can see my last 30 days, here's how many reviews came in, here's some sentiment data possibly around this, and so you're seeing reviews in time, right? But that is not how the guest experiences your reviews, the guest experiences your reviews as they display, as they show, right? So, I see your lifetime score in one phase of my research, but then I might encounter your actual reviews on that first page of the review site. So now I'm looking at the lifetime score and I'm also looking at further data on that first page, but that first page worth of reviews could have nothing to do with the last 30 days or even 60 days. And now even in this time, it could have nothing to do with the last 90 days, right? So that data that's there is influencing guests to stay with you or not stay with you and that has nothing to do with traditional modeling of reputation. And so we developed 1st impression score, we developed it, by the way, long before COVID we'd been working on this for awhile. And this metric is brand new, so it is a completely new way of looking at it. We call it 1st impression because it truly is the guest's impression of your repu...

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we discuss the stories and sentiments that we have been hearing from our hotel partners across the country who have been impacted by COVID-19. Host Ryan Embree is joined by Client Success & Operations Manager Edwin Pomales to discuss how his team has evolved their conversations with our partners to support hotels along the path to recovery. Ryan and Edwin share the proactive steps hotels should be taking to instill traveler confidence and comfort in their property’s response to COVID-19. They know that every hotel’s situation is unique, but with strategic action planning and careful crisis communication, hotels can gain a competitive advantage on the road to industry recovery. Edwin also shares his thoughts on how his team plans to adapt to this “new normal” that hoteliers and travelers alike will begin to experience. If you are looking for help or insight with a recovery plan for your hotel call or text us at 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 49 - Client Success During 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, continuing to give you some content from my home office here in Orlando, Florida. Hoping everyone out there listening is safe and healthy. We're going to be continuing our COVID-19 podcast series. We've covered a lot so far during this time, we've covered leveraging social media and communication, we talked about the top five things to do during a crisis, and we talked about, most recently, about reputation management. So if you've been following along, we are going to continue our COVID-19 series and with me today, I'm going to bring in Edwin Pomales who is Travel Media Group's Client Success and Operations Manager. At Travel Media Group, since this crisis we've had a lot of communication with our hoteliers at every single stage of this. So I thought it would be a really good idea to bring Edwin on and kind of discuss, you know, what we've been hearing from our hotel partners and what type of advice we've been sharing to try to generate some ideas for you, the listeners, the hoteliers, to implement at your property to get us ready for that recovery that we've been hearing so much about. I'm going to go ahead and welcome Edwin to the Suite Spot. Thanks Edwin everyone for being on. Edwin Pomales: Hey Ryan, thanks for having me. Definitely happy to be here today. Ryan Embree: Absolutely, Edwin. So let's jump right into it. Your teams are in constant contact with hoteliers through this entire process from the beginning of COVID-19 to now as we start to see ease on restrictions and we start to see maybe that light at the end of the tunnel and that recovery phase. I'm wondering how has COVID-19 impacted your team's interactions with Travel Media Group's hotel partners? Edwin Pomales: Ryan, it's interesting because over the years we've definitely worked hard to build strong relationships with all of our clients. We really do pride ourselves on being a proactive team and try to stay in tune with the goals and the challenges of our partners. You know, when I say proactive, you know a lot of customer service departments are more reactive, right? You have an issue, you reach out to them, they try to fix the issue for you. Where at here at Travel Media Group with my Client Success Team we're actively reaching out to our clients and game planning with them, figuring out what, you know, based upon what time of year it is or what their goals are at that time. Really trying to figure out how to execute. So with COVID,

In this episode of the Suite Spot, host Ryan Embree is joined by TMG's Product Director Patrick O’Brien to discuss the role that online reputation plays during COVID-19. Ryan and Patrick break down the influential power that online reviews are playing in consumer’s booking decisions during this time and the potential negative and lasting impact a bad review today can have on your business. Patrick shares some best practices that his professional review response team has implemented during this time when travelers are paying more attention than ever to every hotel’s reviews and responses. This episode details what the evolution of online reputation looks like as hotels start to enter into the recovery phase. For help with improving your hotel’s reputation during COVID-19 or to submit a question for future episodes, call or text 407-984-7455. Suite Spot Podcast · 48 - Reputation Management During 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 and welcome to another edition of the Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, as always. Still recording live from my home studio here. With me today we have another remote guest that we've decided to bring in to the Suite Spot. Also a frequent guest of the Suite Spot, that is Product Director of Travel Media Group, Patrick O'Brien. So let me get started by welcoming Patrick again to the Suite Spot. Patrick O'Brien: Thanks Ryan. Ryan Embree: Patrick, up to this point, you know, as Product Director, you work with all of our solutions at Travel Media Group, but really kind of where you started was the reputation side of things. So I know we've talked up to this point about the COVID-19 crisis and our educational series through our blogs, our webinars, and through this podcast. But I thought a really insightful episode would be to bring you on Patrick and really drill into reputation because I think reputation sometimes gets lost on hoteliers. You know, we talk about, you know, what are we going to do about our bookings? What are we going to do about generating more business? If you could, let's start by just saying why are reviews still important right now for hoteliers? Patrick O'Brien: Yeah, so I think that the, you know, the initial thought from hoteliers is occupancy is down. People aren't staying at our hotel and so, you know, as you mentioned, reviews are there for, not important. But technically we're faced right now with a unique time where hotel demand in effect, according to Smith Travel Research is at zero. We're still booking around a million rooms a night. But, you know, it's created a new benchmark of what demand is when there is no demand. So being faced with that as a hotelier, your options are very limited in the number of guests that are going to be in your market and looking for a hotel room. So first and foremost reviews are a fantastic way to let guests know that your hotel is still open, that it is safe, and also, you know, potentially what amenities may or may not still be available because something that you have up and running today may no longer be up and running tomorrow. This is all done through sort of a verification process of other guests. So it's not necessarily just you saying, "Hey, this is what we're doing." It's other guests going in and identifying, "Hey, this a good hotel to be able to stay at or this is not a good hotel to stay at." We talked about in the past how reviews are vitally important to your business because it helps the guests set their expectations prior to arrival and this is even more important today. You have to think that for the most part,

In this episode of the Suite Spot, we continue sharing helpful insights and tips to help hoteliers combat the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. Host Ryan Embree is joined by Travel Media Group’s Director of Marketing, Anne Sandoval, to discuss 5 Strategies of Crisis Response. Anne, who studied crisis management and has a graduate certificate in corporate communication, talks us through each component of crisis response. Ryan and Anne then apply these crisis response strategies to the hotel industry. They share insightful statistics surrounding these strategies and give some specific examples of how they can be implemented at a property level. These 5 crisis response components – responsiveness, transparency, accountability, consistency, and action – build the foundation of an effective game plan for managing this global emergency. If you are looking for more information on the hotel industry and coronavirus visit Travel Media Group’s COVID-19 hotel marketing resource center online or reach out to us by phone or text at 407-984-7455. 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 recording remotely again during this COVID-19 crisis. And with me today we have another frequent guest of the Suite Spot, also recording remotely for the first time, Anne Sandoval. So Anne, I know you've been with us a couple times, definitely a different location than when we are usually recording, but want to welcome you to the Suite Spot. Anne Sandoval: Hey Ryan, thanks for having me. I definitely prefer when we are able to record face to face, but I'm glad this is working out. It's awesome. I'm so happy to be here, once again. Ryan Embree: Absolutely, feeling very thankful that we're able to give all of our listeners content, insights, and education on the current ongoing COVID-19 crisis today. We've got a really great episode that I think is going to be very relevant to what's going on and best practices and tips on how hoteliers can implement ways to handle this COVID -19 crisis that really we've never been through before. So Anne, is not only our Director of Marketing at Travel Media Group, but has studied at the University of Central Florida with a master's in mass communication and a certificate of corporate communication and has studied crisis management. So I thought no better person to bring on with us today to talk about some of the components and strategies of crisis response than Anne. And what we're going to do today, in this episode, is we're actually going to go through the five components or strategies of crisis response. We're going to go through each one, we're going to talk to them from a high level of how these tips and strategies would work just overall, and then we're really gonna drill down into the hotel industry and how we can apply that to the hotel that you may be managing during this crisis today. So let's go ahead and get started with the first tip. Anne Sandoval: Of course, yeah. Thanks Ryan for that introduction. So the first component of crisis response that's important to talk about is responsiveness. And the reason I'm going to mention it first is because it's so time sensitive. Some industry experts say that you have just 15 minutes to respond when a crisis occurs. And you might be thinking, "Why is that, 15 minutes sounds almost unreasonably fast?" But the reason is because now information is shared 24/7/365 and consumer expectations are higher than ever. If it's a small crisis, like a negative tweet about your business, it might seem a little more reasonable to respond...