Sleeping  like a king

 

Chambord

  After Versaille and Fontainebleau Castles, Chambord, François Premier’s Castle, is going engage a renovation by next year.

Part of it consists in renovating an outbuilding of the domain, la Maison des Refractaires, and another forest house, to open a high standard hotel de charme. Both of them are expected to offer 20 rooms to the visitors willing to enjoy the King life.

Fontainebleau

Internationally famous, the city wants to keep improving its image and fame. 730 000 people visit the castle each year, and 2million enjoy the park. It’s been years since people have claimed for an opportunity to stay in a hotel de charme within the royal property.

 

Cultural hospitality is more and more developed, Fontainebleau and Versaille  took the first step, and Chambord followed them.

Versaille

In Versaille, the Hotel du Grand Controle, which welcomed ministers for finance at the time of Louis XVI, will be transformed into a23 rooms luxury hotel. Fontainebleau just make a call for tender for one of its buildings.

 

This idea triggered off many reactions, some citizens being afraid that the state abandoned their heritage.

To me, it is an innovative idea to renovate buildings that are lagged behind, due to the lack of budget to renovate and exploit them. Not for any easy these building must be lost. As far as the buildings are renovated according to the rules of the listed buildings, without damaging the spirit of the place, transform them into luxury hotels de charme perpetuates the tradition of these Castles. They were built to welcome the splendor of the courts, why not continuing the tradition? I definitly believe that France enjoys many jewels, unfortunatly unexploited, that the government cannot afford renovating. If welcoming people who came to visit wonderful historical sites can save them, let's do it !

 

Hospitality keeps pushing the limits, proposing more and more innovating alternatives to classic hotels. France and especially these 3 Castles offer pioneer ideas. In the end of 2013, Versaille, Fontainebleau and Chambord will provide their visitors with the opportunity to experience the King’s life….

The future of travel loyalty programs

The future of travel loyalty programs

Loylogic published a study regarding loyalty programs. It resulted that nowadays, there is a shift in customer’s satisfaction:

• ·         58% of the travelers prefer earning points on the web: being connected any time, any where is a habit today, and being available on the web is a crucial issue for companies.
• ·         43% indicated that travel was their preferred non-core reward category (Merchandise (26%) and experiences (10%)). This figure demonstrates that consumers want a wide range of options when comes the time to convert their points into rewards.
• ·         75% of travelers are satisfied they can use their points or miles on what they want and when they want

• ·         22% would like more redemption options
• ·         3% indicate they can never use their points or miles on appealing rewards.

Loyalty programs are structured marketing efforts that reward, and therefore encourage, loyal buying behavior - behavior which is potentially of benefit to the firm.

Their aim is to influence the behavior of consumers in order to make them repeat purchase. More, an efficient loyalty programs is able to change normal repeat-purchase patterns into ‘Excess loyalty’ for brands in the program.

Concretely, loyalty programs are used through free cards / paying cards, adapted to your spending potential. The more you spend, the more you can earn points that you can later converts into rewards.

Loyalty programs are experiencing an increasing popularity around the world. Nearly 75 percent of shoppers in the U.S. now belong to at least one loyalty program.

With almost 2 billion loyalty program memberships in the U.S. and more worldwide, the “one-size-fits- all” loyalty program will no longer suffice. It is vital to practice individual marketing level.

The study revealed that 22% would like more redemption options, that is to say nearly 1 out of 4 people. The more personalized, the more attractive are the programs. What is the point of collecting points, or miles, if there is nothing interesting for you in the ends?

Rewards must be targeted and personalized. According to Loylogic, key features of futures travel loyalty programs are:

• o   Higher miles value at unchanged costs
• o   More rewards including non-air travel
• o   Personalized reward experience
• o   Worldwide reward delivery
• o   One electronic interface

Regarding Hospitality pursue a very different business model compared to frequent flyer programs. Leading hotel chains offer attractive reward solutions to their worldwide member bases. The key challenges and opportunities the industry is facing vary among regions but include:

• o   Deliver packaged travel for points
• o   Setting up and managing global reward solutions
• o   New accounting standard

With the increasing number of cunsumers being members of a loyalty programs, hotels and travel companies will have to compete in order to elaborate the more attractive, personalized, and efficient programs!

5 Signs Your Marketing is Outdated

5 signs your marketing is outdated

by IMedia

Sign 1: You don't remember what your website looks like

Sign 2: The administrator of your Facebook account has left the company

Sign 3: You lost rankings when Google Places launched

Sign 4: Your paid search traffic directs to your homepage

Sign 5: Behavioral targeting is not in your vernacular

The article focuses on the importance of Digital Marketing and Sociale Medias.

An attractive website is the basis of Digital Marketing. 

It is crucial to look after your website regularly. It must be easy to use and attractive. It is your digital Brand Image! If your website is not attractive, and complicated to use, customer will not visit it and you will loose a chance to communicate with them and your brand image will suffer from that...

When using Digital marketing, you must be very active. Updating your website and and your Facebook or Twitter page, posting news or comments, answering your followers,... show your followers that you care about them . One of the principles of 

Social Medias is that you must be

 engaging with your consumers. They

 expect brands to be present, responsive, and authentic on social medias. If you do so, they will be seduced ! T

he rate of response is far higher in Social Media in comparison to the traditional media.

Another key tool in the Internet is Google, or Search Engines more generally. It is crucial to have a good referencing to enable customers to find you easily on the web ! Use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) : having a good ranking improves your visibility and gives you more traffic. Consumers don't like loosing time in looking for your website, it is way better if they can reach it easily. More, with a good referencing and ranking, your website can appear before your competitors, which may enable you to steal them some visitors ! 

Target you consumers : Media Marketing Programs are target oriented. If you are aware of the type os consumers visiting you websites and social pages, you can use that information to your advantage. Track consumer interests: If you know their habbits and tastes, you can reach them more efficiently by using ads adapted to them !  The more closely consumers become connected to digital technologies, the greater the power of the information channel for marketers.

 

I definitly believe that today, the Internet has a crucial place in our life, and Digital Marketing is a tool that must not be neglected. It offers you the oportunity to reach a huge pool of consumers. Today, nearly everyone uses the Internet either for work or personaly. Not being present on the Web would make you loose some oportunity to communicate with them. Being active on the internet show your consumers that you care about them. This way you may have the oportunity to fidelize them!  

 Another advantage is that Digital media marketing strategies are far more cost-effective than the traditional marketing media tools. Online marketing includes use of mobile phone and internet technology provides a cheap medium to establish direct contact with the customers. A lot of actions that you can take to promote your brand and communicate with the consumers are free ! It often requires you some time, and involvement, and contrary to TV ads or street billboards, you don't have to pay for it or very few. 

 You only need to have someone dedidated to the digital activity. 

Affiliation Programs part 2

Affiliate Programe on Prezi

Affiliation Programs

Affiliation Programs on Prezi

The economy may not keep holiday revelers at home this holiday season

The economy may not keep holiday revelers at home this holiday season

Holiday travel: 29% will cut trip short or shack up with relatives

by USA Today

According to an AOL Travel survey , 39.6% of travelers said the economy is "somewhat" affecting their plans, while only 17.6% believe the economy affected them "very much."

The survey also found:

• 54.5% of travelers will be cutting back on expensive activities due to the economy.

• 28.5% cited cost as the most stressful part of holiday air travel, and 23.9% indicated delays were the most stressful aspect of flying.

• 82.8% of travelers will be using cars to get to their destination this year.

• Almost 30% of travelers will be shortening the length of their travel or staying with family and friends to reduce expenses.

Although the economy affects the way American people plan their holiday, and despite the desire to save money, they are oddly expected to spend more money this year than last year: American Travelers plan to spend on average $349 more this year — a 41% increase .

Prices had dropped last year due to the economic crisis. As a result, the average amount of money dedicated to holidays had also diminished. Now that there is a recovery, prices are getting closer to their initial rates.: airfares are much higher than a year ago (up to 59% higher than last year for travel before Thanksgiving , according to an analysis by FareCompare.com for USA TODAY, ), higher hotel costs (almost 4% higher than a year ago) …

Consequently, people try to find tips to save money, but they don’t want to sacrifice their holidays at all! Holidays are a way to evade and escape daily life stress and problems, and considering the economic background, they turn even more necessary.

And the economical improving compared to last year makes people feel more optimistic. Their mood is better and they are more inclined to leave, because they feel less threatened than a year ago. They still want to visit their relatives, enjoy the season to have a break… still elaborating money saving strategies to compensate :

Money Saving Strategies :
- Driving than fling

- Shack up with relatives

- Shorter holidays

Reputation management

Reputation management

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