Many hoteliers currently have thousands of disparate listings across the Internet. This creates inconsistent experiences for travelers as they visit many websites during the travel planning process.
The Internet has clearly become the most powerful channel for travel planning that hoteliers have come to rely on. As an important environment in which to “sell” their properties, hoteliers who haven’t invested in polishing their online presence through hotel merchandising don’t get the maximum value from their online hotel listings.
The VBrochure Online Merchandising System was designed to help hoteliers at individual properties and management companies better merchandise their hotel properties wherever travel shoppers are researching hotels online.
For decades, hotels have distributed traditional paper brochures to travel agencies and intermediaries in an effort to display their hotel to the hotel shopping consumer. Current research shows that hotel marketers are shifting their marketing budgets to online activities. In 2009, 53% of hotel marketers are shifting funds from offline marketing budgets to online, indicated by the HeBS 3rdBenchmark Survey on Hotel Internet Marketing.
Why the shift? Consumers are using the internet to research hotel accommodations online. In 2008, an estimated 80.4 percent of the 112 million online travelers used the Internet to plan their trips during the past 12 months.
The VBrochure system enables you to distribute the types and quantities of visual content you want, when you want. Basically, it’s more flexible, interactive and engaging than a printed brochure. According to Travel Industry Association’s report Travelers Use of the Internet in 2008, over 80% of travel planning is done online, that’s why a VBrochure is such an important part of any hotel’s online marketing strategy.