Colliding Continents

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Hyatt's New Twitter Initiative

HyattConcierge, "the first global, 24/7 dedicated concierge service on Twitter" - according to Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian, launched yesterday. Mr. Hoplamazian says

"...through HyattConcierge, our skilled guest service professionals will be able to respond to guests’ questions, needs and concerns, any time, any place, and by any digital means on Twitter - before, during and after their hotel stays."

According to a press release the top 5 ways to use HyattConcierge is as follows:

1. Driving directions
2. Assistance with hotel reservations and Hyatt Gold Passport account information
3. Book dining reservations and spa treatments
4. Request late arrival/checkout
5. Arrange transportation

Personally, I think the push hotels are making for more presence on Twitter and to utilize it more effectively is fantastic although the idea that simply utilizing one Web 2.0 platform, I feel, is an approach that does not maximize the initial back end investment.

How so? Twitter, like most Web 2.0 platforms are free!!

Well yeah, obviously but what happens when you have 65,000 followers and 10% of them asked for driving directions? 6,500 requests for driving directions handled by who? What about promotions? Who is going to update the booking engines with the appropriate promo codes? One could argue that once you give driving directions to one person you can begin to archive those responses and re-use them - well, doesn't that defeat the purpose of Web 2.0? Where is the highly valued 'personal' interaction that us web junkies crave?

So the costs add up eventually but this is where expanding onto multiple Web 2.0 platforms becomes more effective vis-à-vis reach. The same Twitter team could potentially handle the Facebook page that offers the same service as Twitter spreading out the costs and increasing followers and fans. Imagine that!

So does that mean we can start talking about calculating Cost Per Follower or Revenue Per Follower? That would be interesting. Obviously all the benefits are yet to be fully measured (and will they ever be?), but I do believe that Twitter and other Web 2.0 platforms can be profitable for hotels. Take MarriottIntl on Twitter for example. Marriott is a huge brand name across the globe, it has over 7,000 followers (they can do better than that) but lets assume they can get 50,000 followers. If they time seasonality and booking windows properly for different properties and push property-specific promotions through Twitter and Facebook I believe they would be able to see their Web 2.0 revenue stream begin to flow. In fact I believe they have already begun to do so.

If you want to get technical: An ideal way to use Twitter as a capture tool is to tweet promotions links (with tracking/src codes) and have the link direct to a landing page specific to a property with great copy, sweet images, a list of cool things to do on the property, a description of the promotion and of course a reservations button that links to the booking engine where the property can choose to incorporate dynamic reservations (ie. add the Spa package for only an additional $20 a night). If you want to get REALLY aggressive you might as well tweet a link that takes the user straight to the booking engine.

Overall I don't think hotels have really attempted a truly aggressive capture strategy but I think the time will come soon - HyattConcierge and MarriottIntl are signs of those things to come. Some hotels have asked me what my position is and how to make their Twitter initiatives effective and to answer that I ask these questions first:

1. Is your Twitter initiative an auxilliary service (much like HyattConcierge is offering - driving directions, etc) intended for existing (booked) clients or to capture new ones?

2. If so, how many Twitter users out there are already booked customers?

3. Of those people how many can you get to use your Twitter service?

Until those questions are answered I do not think the solution to effectiveness can be solved. At the end of the day I believe that by expanding from a Twitter based approach to an integrated multi-platform approach and internally re-brand said Twitter servce as more comprehensive Web 2.0 initiative a hotel can better measure effectiveness in the right light.

Written at 10:00 AM by Sebastien.

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