HOTELMARKETING.COM

Smaller OTAs thrive with social media promotions

August 16, 2012 | Online Travel

When you are up against the big boys like Expedia, how do you possibly compete? Smaller OTAs like HotelTravel.com and CheapOAir successfully invest in promotions and social media campaigns to differentiate and build a loyal customer base.

Finding new ways to hit a chord with an audience can be a bit of a struggle especially when times are tough. Price conscious consumers will undoubtedly be thinking twice about where they travel to forcing travel firms to wrack their brains to come up with catchy campaigns that capture the imagination of consumers.

This is not easy. By his own admission, Tom Racette, chief marketing officer at the privately owned HotelTravel.com doesn’t believe he has “ever seen a release or a hotel promotion go viral before”. But that doesn’t stop him trying. “As a small-to-medium sized company with a staff of 300 we have to work harder to come up with fresh original campaigns that could, at least in theory, go viral,” he says, adding that this is where the bar is set.

“Of course we do keep a close watch on all OTAs but large publicly listed companies like Expedia are not our true competitors,” he says. And in fact when brainstorming new marketing ideas, “we intentionally do not look at what is running on other OTA sites.”

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