This  Net Affinity info-graphic gives us 17 trends that potentially will disrupt travel, as we know it, in  2017.

The graph offers tips on whats happening and how it will effect hotel marketing in 2017 and beyond.

Book Direct Help

With the growing desire to boost direct bookings,  I expected TripTease and other hotel compare services to feature, they do not. Point 6 does talk about hotel loyalty driving traffic. In my mind that is not a game changer unless you are a chain hotel. Only 15 % of hotel bookers will be repeat visitors. If you look at single hotels it is far lower. So offering a deal on the next booking is a no go for the majority of your guests.   Flip.to, however is a worth while option for all hotels to explore. Its an advocacy platform that “Lets your guests introduce your hotel to the world with Flip.to”. Its an advocacy program that helps you make advocate of guests. Along those lines is TRVL that makes everyone a travel agent. It is still in beta but you can apply now at http://trvl.com/

Metasearch Helps if  You Do It Right

Talking about direct bookings; in point 14 they say Metasearch is an essential channel. But that is,  so long as you manage rates properly. Their is no point of being on metasearch with the same deal as everyone else. Offering a lower rate will run you into collision with the OTA on rate parity issue. Even with out rate party the OTAs are not going to like and like it or not they can throttle back the business they send you.

Video rising

Its no great surprise that 4 times as many travelers prefer to digest information in a video as apposed to text. We see a big rise in the importance of featuring reviews in video.   Videos in general they say is a Key to delivering timely, relevant animated content to guests at the right stage of the booking process.

Surprises

Some surprises are the rise of Bing and Instagram. Instagram is now working with leading retail brands and we can expect some significant inroads to be made by that image sharing site in hotel booking coming in 20017.

Graphics source – http://blog.netaffinity.com/infographic-17-hotel-marketing-trends-2017/

Also see short review by Linda Fox  at Tnooz