digital strategy sarovar hotels

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DIGITAL STRATEGY

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The Sarovar Hotel and resorts brands

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Current hospitality trends India

204 Million smart phone users by end of year 2016, and most of them will book hotels online

3.5 M 8.4 M

Growth in Online bookings 2014 - 2016

The Indian hospitality sector is undergoing a revival, with demand rising rapidly for the branded affordable hospitality segment. online hotel booking industry will be worth $1.8 billion from the current $0.8 billion

Over 10,000 new rooms are expected to be added online in the branded budget hotel segment in 2016 and it could double up.

Apart from affordability, the consumer is now spoiled for choice with a range of options, provided through rampant cross-branding and bundling of services, that were well beyond their reach earlier.

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Current hospitality trends IndiaThe branded budget hotel segment might be the driving force behind the explosion, but it is digital platforms driving their growth. The Google Travel Trends Report indicates that while queries for the hospitality sector grew at 37%, the branded budget segment’s grew by at a whopping 179% y-o-y, *Google India

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Current hospitality trends India

59% bookings are done through offline channels.

25% bookings are done online of which OTA’s own 18% bookings.

18% Online travel agents

7% Hotel

websites

Makemytrip.com owns the largest market share of online bookings followed by Goibibo.com and Booking.com

Makemytrip.com has 27,500 hotels and guesthouses as part of it’s inventory In India and rooms are available through mobile app, mobile site and website.

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Hospitality consumer trends India Only 29% of the users book hotels online at present, 83% of users

who research for hotels online are comfortable transacting online and do an online transaction once a month, the report said.

More women (about 50%) research and book hotels online compared to men (41%).

Users in the age group of 35-44 year are the most savvy and mobile phones have emerged as the preferred choice of device for accessing the Internet.

72% consumers prefer doing advance bookings for hotels before travel.

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Hospitality consumer trends India Indian travellers are increasingly preferring short trips of less than five

days.

Budget accommodation has emerged as the most popular option for travellers in India with 49% users choosing them. 32% users book economy hotels and 19% users book luxury hotels.

37% prefer to travel with friends. as opposed to 31% who said they prefer family members as the travel companions.

Online payment continues to be a challenge with two-third of Indian travellers preferring to pay offline; half of them pay directly at the hotel.

Complicated terms and conditions, concerns about online cancellation policies, better rates and discounts available offline as well as offline personalised services were some as the other reasons for users to still book hotels offline.

Short Trips

Economy / budget hotels

Search Online

Book offline

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Sarovar hotels and resorts – Digital experience The Sarovar Portico, Hometel ,Park Plaza / Inn and Radisson brands already cater

to requirement of the 3-4 star and budget accommodation.

The majority of this branded budget accommodation is spread over Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, including some properties in Tier 1 cities as well.

These branded budget accommodations cater to two set of consumers:

The business travel – Short stays of 2-3 days through the week, typically booked last minute or few days before travel.

The leisure traveller – With the increase in Internet penetration and competitive flight tickets, more travellers are looking to travel for leisure to popular destinations. They normally look for budget accommodation packages/offers and good amenities. These bookings are done in advance.

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3 Challenges for the Sarovar budget accommodation brands on digital

Visibility Booking experience Reputation

Sarovar hotels and resorts – Digital experience

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Visibility

A search for budget hotels does not show up Sarovar brands on the 1st page of results Or in the Google hotel meta search. If travellers can’t find you on the 1st page, they won’t even know about your presence.


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Sarovar hotels and resorts – Where to play in digital

Visibility

The Sarovar hotels and resorts has a parent website, which allows consumers to book hotels across India. However in some cases we found individual websites for budget hotels in few destinations with different equity. This can be challenging for consumers, who are looking for a common experience while booking accommodation.

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Visibility

Makemytrip.com is the #1 OTA in India. Our budget hotels are not getting featured in the top 7-10 search results on their website for popular destinations like Shimla or Jaipur (rated by popularity)


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Booking experienceThe user experience while booking through a hotel website, can reduce cart abandonment and quick conversions.


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Booking experience


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Reputation


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Reputation

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Sarovar hotels and resorts – Digital strategy

Increase visibility and grow share of online bookings for branded budget accommodation.

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Positioning is the key on digital platforms

Leisure +

Business Accommodation

Budget +

Economy Accommodation

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Sarovar hotels and resorts – Digital strategy A responsive website each for Sarovar

portico, Radisson and Park Plaza is required to build a common equity for the consumers, as currently it is disparate.

These will be backed by Sarovar booking engine.

These responsive websites will cover all locations where the respective brand hotels are present.

This will ease out management of online inventory and bookings across properties and exemplify consumer experience for Leisure and business accommodation.

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Digital branding across channels is required for Sarovar portico, Radisson and Park Plaza, to make them more alluring for Leisure and corporate consumers.

The branding is used across search, media banners, Social media and 3rd party aggregator websites.

The Last meeting @

Sarovar Portico Delhi

Starts at 6999/Per night

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Working lunches atRadisson Gurgaon

Buffet starts at 899/- per person

Promote dining facilities through Digital channels across propertiesand highlight prices

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Never miss an email at

Park Gurgaon

24/7 Wi-Fi connectivity

Promote all the facilities through Digital channels across properties for business users.

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Crush wine at the Sula Vineyard

3KM’s from

Sarovar Portico, Nashik


Promote all the facilities through Digital channels across properties, based on location and uniqueness.

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Yoga morningsat

AmbrosiaSarovar Portico,

Haridwar


create innate curiosity about locations . Exotic experiences but within reach by Sarovar Portico

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Easy conferencesAt

Hometel Pune

Rooms start at 2999/

Per night

Affordability and business benefits need to be called out clearly for Hometel brand, calling out for conferences and making group bookings.

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PPC/GDN across properties

Ongoing optimisation based on offers, rates , location and inventory

SEO for all hotel websites and mobile sites dedicated to brands

Promoted posts on social media

Digital penetration

Promoted social Media stories

personalised e-mailer

3 Months 3-6 months 4 months

Retargeted mobile/desktop Ad’s on browsing

personalised SMS

Hotel bookings

Lead generation plan

SEO and SEMDedicated brandResponsive websites

Abandoned cart, potential leads

New and existing properties

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Intent

Pricing

Location

contextual

facilities

Nearby

targeted

Long tail keywords

BrandedKeyword

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Search strategy for Sarovar brands

People are going to search for the same thing in different ways. Target terms travellers use to describe your hotel.

Why are people traveling to your location? What are they looking to do?What do they like about your property?What is the price people are searching for ?

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Local SEO increases visibility for businesses interested in ranking for geographically-related keywords.

The Google hotel meta search listings allow users to purchase accommodation without leaving the search page.

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Promoting corporate meetings through display Ad’s

Lowest rates through direct bookings

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Insight – Majority of the consumers search online and book offline.

Search solution – Click to call mobile PPC Ad’s for Sarovar brand hotels will increase leads and conversion through the hotel reception.

Location based mobile search results , need to be optimized to increase visibility and reach.

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Social media strategy for Sarovar brands

Platforms Community Size Updates Total Engagements Engagements Per

Update

Facebook 16.9K 34 522 15

Twitter 1.2K 34 86 3

LinkedIn 17.3K 16 483 30

Google+ 459 15 18 1

Pinterest (Total) 9 145 NA NA

Sarovar Hotels & Resorts is active on all major platforms but the interaction levels are on the lower side across all the platforms.

But, across all the platforms, the brand isn’t actively engaging or responding to users.

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Responding to consumers improves personalization and brand efficacy.

It also shows that the brand cares and is responsive to consumer sentiments.

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Managing social response for Sarovar brands

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Promoted social content needs to have clear “book now” call outs.

This should then lead to dedicated mobile pages or allow for in-app purchase for hotel rooms.


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Personalized emails to new and existing consumers helps in promoting offers and brings in potential leads.

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