Posts Tagged ‘relais & chateaux’

Hotels: destination PR boosts strategy

Friday, August 27th, 2010

Strategize PR efforts to include the destination to cast a wider net of opportunities for the hotel

Strategize PR efforts to include the destination to cast a wider net of opportunities for the hotel

Happy Friday!  Today, I am in a great mood.  It’s been a whirlwind of a summer with almost too much travel, so coming back and settling into a routine has been a great way to end the summer on a soft note. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about destinations this week… as we’ve explored on this blog, if you are working with a hotel, aligning your PR efforts to include the destination can pay plenty of dividends in the long term.

It has indeed become more difficult to obtain prime and strategic placements with the publishing shakeout, but when an article finally does come out, somehow it’s all worth it again!

I was so pleased with this USA Today Travel Tips article  that talks about the Hotel Heritage Relais Chateaux in Bruges.  I like this article especially because it only lists one hotel for each destination.  The fact that the article was published as online content makes it easy to share it with others on Twitter and Facebook.   In the past, a print article would have been more exciting, but that has completely changed in the last two years.

Joining the right collection of hotels

Friday, December 18th, 2009

Take your pick:  Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Preferred Hotels, Luxury Hotels of the World, Relais & Chateaux, Conde Nast Johansens and more.  There are several prestigious collections of properties that are designed to fit your hotel’s needs.

Is the expensive membership worth it from a PR perspective?  I vote yes only when you have done your research as to which hotel family will yield the most benefits.  It’s easy to fall into a box or category, but important to maintain the unique characteristics that make your hotel stand out.  Generally, most hotel collections require a set of standards to be met by your property.  Even if you meet them, sometimes down the road you might find that joining it wasn’t the right fit, and your membership did not yield the expected benefits.  In other cases, you might choose to spend the time to shop around until you find the right hotel collection.

From a PR standpoint, the branding acquired by joining a hotel collection membership can help with recruting additional press inquiries, tours, and other media initiatives. 

Remember, it is also up to you to get the benefits by joining a hotel family, so make sure you do your share of announcements and marketing about your membership to print/web/social media and guests, too.  It is important for you to do your share of the work  in order to get the word out to the right audience.