Hotel reputation in the travel and hospitality world online has created a series of challenges for the modern hotelier. Online reputation for your hotel now has a list of direct competitors (other hotels, resorts), travel focused portals (Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz), review sites (TripAdvisor, Yelp), and complaint forums (RipoffReport, Complaintsboard) that siphon off critical online exposure and paid marketing dollars.

On the flip side, Hotels have a unique opportunity to service guest unlike ever before: guest concierge services, local guides, event planning, social networking services, and destination partnerships.

The reality of all these new options means that the the non-savvy hotelier is often functioning with a business plan that worked ten years ago, but the core elements of the experience for guests and businesses choosing the hotel has dramatically altered. It is no longer acceptable to measure the experience during the guest stay, but increasingly required to develop the experience before and after then visit.

Larger hotels also have a range of digital cross-over points, understanding how hundreds of employees and ten of thousands of guest interact. Just ten years ago, this interaction occurred only during the visit. In today’s digital marketplace this interaction can continue for months before and after (providing long term growth and return guests.)