In the last couple months, we often discuss the possibility of making hotel reservations on a hotel’s Facebook page. Today, Design Hotels may become the first hotel chain that accomplished this goal.Most Americans might not have heard of Design Hotels because it has limited operations in the U.S. (Healdsburg, L.A., Miami, and New York City only). Yet, Design Hotels runs more than 180 properties around the world. As of 3:15pm on April 9, 2010, Design Hotels have 6,712 Facebook fans. By creating a platform that allows Facebook fans to make reservations directly on Facebook, Design Hotels bring their connections with their clients and fans to a different level.
I tried Design Hotels’ reservation tool on Facebook. After I selected the location and dates, I clicked “check availability.” Then, I was directed to the hotel’s webpage seamlessly. The rest is just some “routine” procedures I will find in a typical hotel reservation website. I cannot help wondering which hotel chain will be the next.
Similar discussion may be found from this blog via: http://linchikwok.blogspot.com/2010/03/to-capture-those-customers-who-dont.html
References:
Hotelsmag.com: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok04092010
The picture is a copy of Design Hotel’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/DesignHotelsAG?ref=ts).
From your post, I guess FB is only the link provider. I thought it would be like Priceonline.com, with payment platform. But it is very convenient at this stage.
ReplyDeleteThat's true. This function is similar to what I discussed on the post of March 31. One of the alternatives is:
ReplyDelete· Shopping Tabs: it charges a $20,000 to $25,000 setup fee; “completion of the transaction is moved seamlessly to the retailer’s traditional website.
I feel this function works out just fine at this moment though because if I were running a business, I would like to have the "control" of my own website. However, Facebook is still "directing" what we do there right now. As a result, putting everything on Facebook might be too risky.
I think the main reasons larger hotel companies haven't caught on sooner because facebook at first seemed unprofessional and "amateur-ish" compared to their advanced central reservation systems, especially with the media portraying facebook as a means to prevent people from getting jobs or getting people fired. I think eventually larger corporations will catch on. Speaking of internet marketing, have you seen these funny videos hyatt has made on youtube? There is a whole series of them!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/user/hyatt?feature=mhw5#p/u/0/2bSNEg0cgg0
^Lorenz
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing a good point and the video. I like the commercial. If interested, there is a related discussion about Hyatt's "Funny-or-Die" marketing approach in this blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://linchikwok.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-can-go-wrong-in-event-funny-or-die.html
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