The survey, conducted by umi Digital, asked hotels, b&bs and guest houses how much of their annual turnover they were spending on marketing their business and what marketing channels they utilised. A quarter of the participants stated that they don’t understand what Google+ is, two-thirds don’t have a Google Places listing and 4% don’t even have their own website.
Umi Digital were keen to find out how confident independent hospitality businesses are in marketing themselves outside of online travel agency listings and whether those that want help, have access to it. Social media seems a preferable activity with 25% of the respondents using Twitter and 62% using Facebook for business. But when asked if they feel there is enough training and professional guidance available to independents to help them learn how to increase direct bookings themselves, 47% said no and a further 19% said ‘not near my business’.
Marc Crouch, COO at umi Digital, said “Google Hotel Finder will become the standard way for guests to search for hotels in future, before going to an OTA. Key data presented on a hotel's listing in hotel finder is its Google reviews rating, for which companies are only eligible if they have a Google+ account linked to a Google Local account. It is not a question of if hotels should be on Google+ and Google Places, but how quickly they can get on and start building up those all important Google reviews.”
