Last month we hosted our first industry round table exclusively for hotel brands. The event gave senior marketers the opportunity to meet industry peers and discuss the challenges they face in today’s digital landscape.

Hosted at Gordon Ramsay’s Heddon Street Kitchen we were joined by the likes of Hilton Hotels, Four Seasons and Langham Hotels, all of whom contributed to a lively and interesting discussion. Here are our main takeaways from the event;

• Instagram is increasingly becoming a search tool for many potential hotel customers
• Hotels recognise paid search is a short-term fix and that organic is the long-term solution
• Bidding on branded key words is expensive and competitive but sometimes necessary especially during peak selling periods.
• Everyone recognises that video is an important part of their strategy, but also admit they needed to dedicate more resources to it
• GDPR has made CRM more complicated
• Content remains a critical element of a hotel’s digital marketing strategy
• All agreed that the OTA’s had an important role to play in the distribution strategy, but controlling their capacity and pricing is key

If you’d like to know more about Melt Digital events or how we support hotel and travel brands, please get in touch.