In your company, are you responsible for booking venues, facilities, restaurants and organizing transportation for meetings and events?
| Houston's Heart of Hospitality |
Moreover, websites are no longer restricted to view-only portals nowadays, so hotels are investing time in sharp media tools like blogs, newsletters and webinars, which get the message out even further while reducing hefty traditional media expenses. Targeting meeting planners, properties use the hotel blog to write about meeting ideas or use webinars to converse with them about current industry topics and thus show their capabilities for meeting their needs. Simply put, creating and sharing content builds interest and confidence in the brand.
— Mobilizing the Digital Interface
Mobile devices have been projected to overtake PCs as the most common electronic devices in 2013, and more travelers are looking beyond the PC and using mobile devices for their hotel researching and booking needs. Smart hotel marketers are keeping their eyes open for authentic ways to make use of the emerging mobile applications, even enabling guests to communicate room preferences or needs directly with the hotel from the palm of their hand. Another development is creating mobile device applications that become a “virtual concierge,” providing interactive hotel tours, automatic check-ins and area maps to enhance the overall hotel experience.
— Reviews Rule
Even though the methods change with the times, positive feedback from outside sources remains a crucial part of a hotel’s marketing mechanism. Today, impartial review websites like TripAdvisor and Yelp! carry tremendous clout with customer perception. Many hotels are making it policy to encourage guests who remark about an enjoyable stay to post a review, and they often do. Successful properties also frequently monitor these review sites to collect positive feedback to repost on the hotel’s own website as well as stay aware of any guest concerns that can be addressed to benefit future visitors.
Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, are other incredibly powerful sources of reviews about hotels. Past and prospective guests likely already are users, and meeting planners visit these interfaces to research, compare and read reviews of hotels to recommend to attendees. To best utilize these popular media, hotels are beginning to designate a staff member to oversee the property’s social media presence by maintaining contacts, answering customer-service inquiries in real time and updating incentive offers.
Do not overlook the powerful review force that is the local community. The most successful hotels balance their business between local traffic and out-of-town visitors. Locals unable to justify grand vacations are likely to book a weekend “staycation” getaway, especially as hotels target exclusive discounts to local and regional residents. Locals also continue to be strong brand ambassadors since visitors to a new city often ask their local contacts where to stay.
Even in the fast-paced digital world, personal attention, comfort and connectivity continue to trend in 2013 and beyond.
Hotel renovations and expansions
New plans that look ahead to the future are always happening in a great destination city like Houston, and the hotel industry is working hard to keep up with those plans to accommodate new and larger meetings and events all the time. Following are just a few of the latest projects on the local hotel scene.
The brand-new Hilton Garden Inn Houston NW–America Plaza has opened at Highway 290 and Beltway 8. This full-service upscale property has 172 guestrooms and 6,500 square feet of conference center meeting and event space. This first Hilton Garden Inn is a modern hotel with bold colors and top amenities for leisure guests and business travelers alike. Other touches include an outdoor fire pit, pool, whirlpool and fitness center. Its restaurant, the Garden Grille & Bar, daily presents a full buffet and cook-to-order breakfast, lunch on weekdays and dinner every night.
The newly renovated Hotel Derek now has a signature style and a cool Texan vibe all of its own. The bold new look of the Galleria area’s only boutique hotel showcases the sleek restyling of its 312 guestrooms and suites, meeting rooms and public spaces. The new bold colors, textured fabrics and materials reflect Hotel Derek’s “indigenous surroundings.” Along with the renovation are enhanced guest services that reflect the hotel’s modern take on Texas chic.
The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center began a $60-million expansion and renovation in March 2013. The 18-month project will add a new guestroom wing, lazy river and restaurant while updating the property’s 60,000-square-foot conference center. Along with transforming the existing Fairway Pines guestrooms, the resort will add a third Fairway Pines building with 184 new rooms and suites that overlook the Panther Trail golf course. Among other new amenities is a 140-seat steakhouse with 18th-hole views, a private wine vault and an outdoor patio. The new signature lazy river will wind 1,000 feet through the surrounding Forest Oasis Waterscape, and property enhancements will provide a modern spa experience while the new design and interiors will feature contemporary Texas architecture with elements of stone, steel and wood.
— Mobilizing the Digital Interface
Mobile devices have been projected to overtake PCs as the most common electronic devices in 2013, and more travelers are looking beyond the PC and using mobile devices for their hotel researching and booking needs. Smart hotel marketers are keeping their eyes open for authentic ways to make use of the emerging mobile applications, even enabling guests to communicate room preferences or needs directly with the hotel from the palm of their hand. Another development is creating mobile device applications that become a “virtual concierge,” providing interactive hotel tours, automatic check-ins and area maps to enhance the overall hotel experience.
— Reviews Rule
Even though the methods change with the times, positive feedback from outside sources remains a crucial part of a hotel’s marketing mechanism. Today, impartial review websites like TripAdvisor and Yelp! carry tremendous clout with customer perception. Many hotels are making it policy to encourage guests who remark about an enjoyable stay to post a review, and they often do. Successful properties also frequently monitor these review sites to collect positive feedback to repost on the hotel’s own website as well as stay aware of any guest concerns that can be addressed to benefit future visitors.
Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, are other incredibly powerful sources of reviews about hotels. Past and prospective guests likely already are users, and meeting planners visit these interfaces to research, compare and read reviews of hotels to recommend to attendees. To best utilize these popular media, hotels are beginning to designate a staff member to oversee the property’s social media presence by maintaining contacts, answering customer-service inquiries in real time and updating incentive offers.
Do not overlook the powerful review force that is the local community. The most successful hotels balance their business between local traffic and out-of-town visitors. Locals unable to justify grand vacations are likely to book a weekend “staycation” getaway, especially as hotels target exclusive discounts to local and regional residents. Locals also continue to be strong brand ambassadors since visitors to a new city often ask their local contacts where to stay.
Even in the fast-paced digital world, personal attention, comfort and connectivity continue to trend in 2013 and beyond.
Hotel renovations and expansions
New plans that look ahead to the future are always happening in a great destination city like Houston, and the hotel industry is working hard to keep up with those plans to accommodate new and larger meetings and events all the time. Following are just a few of the latest projects on the local hotel scene.
The brand-new Hilton Garden Inn Houston NW–America Plaza has opened at Highway 290 and Beltway 8. This full-service upscale property has 172 guestrooms and 6,500 square feet of conference center meeting and event space. This first Hilton Garden Inn is a modern hotel with bold colors and top amenities for leisure guests and business travelers alike. Other touches include an outdoor fire pit, pool, whirlpool and fitness center. Its restaurant, the Garden Grille & Bar, daily presents a full buffet and cook-to-order breakfast, lunch on weekdays and dinner every night.
The newly renovated Hotel Derek now has a signature style and a cool Texan vibe all of its own. The bold new look of the Galleria area’s only boutique hotel showcases the sleek restyling of its 312 guestrooms and suites, meeting rooms and public spaces. The new bold colors, textured fabrics and materials reflect Hotel Derek’s “indigenous surroundings.” Along with the renovation are enhanced guest services that reflect the hotel’s modern take on Texas chic.
The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center began a $60-million expansion and renovation in March 2013. The 18-month project will add a new guestroom wing, lazy river and restaurant while updating the property’s 60,000-square-foot conference center. Along with transforming the existing Fairway Pines guestrooms, the resort will add a third Fairway Pines building with 184 new rooms and suites that overlook the Panther Trail golf course. Among other new amenities is a 140-seat steakhouse with 18th-hole views, a private wine vault and an outdoor patio. The new signature lazy river will wind 1,000 feet through the surrounding Forest Oasis Waterscape, and property enhancements will provide a modern spa experience while the new design and interiors will feature contemporary Texas architecture with elements of stone, steel and wood.
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If you have expertise in a particular area relevant to planning meetings and or events, you may submit a 400 to 750 word "how-to" article for possible inclusion in any of our magazines and/or our websites.
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Send submissions to
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If accepted, your submission will be edited for length and clarity. There is no monetary payment if your item is used; instead, you can publicize yourself through a five-line biography with your contact information that will appear at the end of the article.
Send submissions to
editorial@MeetingPlannerResources.org. We will contact you if your submission is chosen.