Digital strategy sarovar hotels

www.hgsinteractive.com
DIGITAL STRATEGY

x
The Sarovar Hotel and resorts brands

x
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.

x
The 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

x
 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.

x
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.

x
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

x
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.

x
3 Challenges for the Sarovar budget accommodation brands on digital
Visibility Booking experience Reputation

x
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.

x
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.

x
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)

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

x
Booking experience

x
Reputation

x
Sarovar hotels and resorts – Digital strategy

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

x
Positioning is the key on digital platforms
Leisure
+
Business
Accommodation
Budget
+
Economy
Accommodation

x
 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.

x
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

x
Working lunches
at
Radisson
Gurgaon
Buffet starts at
899/- per person
Promote dining facilities through
Digital channels across properties
and highlight prices

x
Never miss an
email at
Park Gurgaon
24/7 Wi-Fi
connectivity
Promote all the facilities through
Digital channels across properties
for business users.

x
Crush wine at the
Sula Vineyard
3KM’s from
Sarovar Portico,
Nashik
Starts at 4999/
Per night
Promote all the facilities through
Digital channels across properties,
based on location and uniqueness.

x
Yoga mornings
at
Ambrosia
Sarovar Portico,
Haridwar
Starts at 7999/
Per night
create innate curiosity about
locations . Exotic experiences but
within reach by Sarovar Portico

x
Easy conferences
At
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.

x
 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 SEM
Dedicated brand
Responsive websites
Abandoned cart, potential
leads
New and existing
properties

x
Intent
Pricing
Location
contextual
facilities
Nearby
targeted
Long tail
keywords
Branded
Keywords
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 ?

x
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.

x
Promoting corporate meetings through display Ad’s
Lowest rates through direct bookings

x
 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.

x
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.

x

x
 Responding to consumers improves personalization
and brand efficacy.
 It also shows that the brand cares and is responsive to
consumer sentiments.

x
Managing social response for Sarovar brands

x
 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.

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

Digital strategy sarovar hotels

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Digital strategy sarovar hotels

Similar to Digital strategy sarovar hotels (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Digital strategy sarovar hotels