Kagehitokiri

uggboy, there are many points : nonpaying guests vs (high) paying guests, FS hosting TV shows that are filming (fiction where characters stay at hotel, actors stay at hotel) while guests are there, FS having pools open to public, FS having day/night clubs, FS having DJ on beach (by villas?) all night over NYE, FS renting pools for events and closing them to guests, FS golden triangle disregarding published age requirement around holiday

when changes or events or whatever happen, they need to be communicated to guests in advance, and on websites, etc

while many do not care about including others in backgrounds of photos, it can be impossible to even notice such things when taking selfies especially on long selfie sticks, then there is the whole drone discussion (in another thread)

principle is like children etc, there is a way to accommodate 'everyone' and that is luxury service

i really do not understand the whole "aspirational" thing and dont think it applies to luxury travel in any substantial way besides things like honeymoons. (which are not new.) the overwhelming majority still buy luxury goods. (some like in japan spend more than this forum's travel on goods, with lower income.) if one chooses to spend on travel and not other things, that is the opposite of definition of aspirational.

PR buzz i think by definition is not targeting large numbers, but hoping to get some good hits from wide view.

a lot of marketing 'strategies' continue to be overblown, as a result of highly paid marketing 'experts'

and like thread title says, need to be careful re (all) guests' expectations, with some 'marketing'

communication can be extremely important and make enormous difference

elitetraveler

IMO luxury hotel group marketing is pretty weak overall, outside of maybe the MO fan campaign and O&O which was a bit of a breakout when it launched.

Part of it is that corp. marketing dollars are mainly funded by the owners of the properties who generally are either REITs, UHNWs, Financial Investors, etc. who view owning the hotel as a financial investment, particularly the former and the latter. Their focus is maximizing profit, cash flow and flipping it within some type of window usually under 10 years. That means brand is just a temporary "helper" to the real estate led financial objectives.

On the corporate hotel side, the real action isn't in consumer sales and marketing, it's on the development side - trying to sign new projects.

All of the above means that from a hotel owner perspective and the CEO/CFO perspective at the management company, marketing is a poor stepchild with limited funding, hence low-cost guerilla marketing Youtube videos about how a made found the wedding ring and delivered it to the church, etc.

scented

vuittonsofstyle started this thread back in 2011 with many high-end groups losing the sight of reality at the time...

Sadly I believe that this is very much true today, even more than before. The icing on the cake lately is, for me at least, a high-end hospitality group comping a stay of a so-called 'influencer' at one of their Maldivian resorts for (positive) coverage. This may not seem strange in itself, however when you take into account that his person is a YouTuber, focused on video games and the sorts with a target audience of 14-19 year olds, it becomes laughable.

I understand influencers are the new bloggers, who are the new editors, who are the new critics (and so on...), but never have I seen anything as misplaced. Other than the number of followers, have they ever thought about who they aim to attract? I don't believe a 14 year old with interests in video games and a disposable income of 100-something $ per month will book a stay at a Maldives luxury resort anytime soon. I am happy to see that person enjoyed his stay on the island, however looking at the pictures I don't see how this all seems to work.

Influencers do make sense, at least when their profession is 'modeling' and the likes... but this is certainly a new low and not a strategic fit.

0bsidian

Which influencer, out of curiosity?
I saw Soneva recently working with Pia Muehlenbeck, not the most sophisticated of brand ambassadors one can think of.

Tellerwaescher

Considering the high quality of the films and pictures on Instagram a free stay is a very low investment for the hotel to get attractive content. The strategy behind this kind of marketing may be not only to reach the followers of the Youtuber, but also people using the search engines of Instagram and Youtube. As the Youtubers discussed have quite a lot of followers it is quite probable, that their content will be shown on top of the results.

People used to Instagram and Youtube will realize that the Youtubers are only modells and not the average guests of the property. But as in fashion industry most poeple like to see attractive young modells and don't like to see the people who actually buy the items.

Therefore the hotels are using the creativity and beautifullness of the Youtubers to create content for their real guests.

chinmoylad

This is upon management - who only look at overall numbers (e.g. 15 million views) rather than actually targeting (surely 15,000 views from another influencer who hits the target market are more worthy?)

Having said that, as someone else mentioned in this thread, when it becomes a number games, it's all about SEO and getting as many eyes as possible on the video - after all, the Maldives is very much a honeymoon (think first timers and never again) destination.

Who is the resort and who was the influencer?

scented

Six Senses Laamu.

TheBrownPrince

I still remember my underwhelming stay at the Six Senses Laamu a couple of years back. Although I cannot fault the hardware (the resort and the rooms are gorgeous), little annoyances such as taking over a day to provide rubber slippers and debating with the waiter over an overcooked steak he insisted was medium rare (decided to comp me one basic drink for service recovery), really affected my experience. Excellent spa treatment though :-)

Have no idea who this influencer is. Good looking guy but wouldn't really inspire me to book the resort.

scented

Frightful marketing, I agree.

chinmoylad

Think that's one for the 'Unwowed' thread. Had a similar experience there - where I thought it would be a lot better than it was (it was okay - all things considered, not bad for the price for Maldives).

chinmoylad

A-ha - but you aren't their target markets. He's hit 50,000 likes. Just by sheer numbers, he's worth it for SS Laamu.

Whether you want to go down that route of marketing (the numbers game) is a different question entirely though, but from what I've seen, Six Senses is more than happy to oblige to any influencer with a huge following.

Pierre&Cédric

Conrad, Six Senses, Park Hyatt, they all rely on the same 'influencers', I don't really see the point. Because the guy is gorgeous I am supposed to feel like going to the same places?

Londonjetsetter

Finolhu in the Maldives recently paid for Cara and Poppy Delevingne and 160 of their friends, including a couple of friends of mine, to spend a week at the resort. In return they were asked to post photos on Instagram. Apparently it was a completely debauched week with non stop parties and no sleep. Interestingly the editor of Conde Nast Traveller in the UK, who happens to be Cara and Poppy's aunt, was also there. Unbiased journalism!?

scented

But at least this guy conveys a certain 'lifestyle' that the targeted clientele of the resort could relate to... much better than video games and YouTube 'fun' content. Although I agree generally.

This influencer and imagery is the 2017 version of the O&O ads we saw a couple years ago, in which couples enjoyed the beach in dim lighting.

chinmoylad

Again, you aren't their target market when they are inviting these influencers to visit and stay all expenses paid etc.