SHA545: Hospitality Demand Management with New Media Marketing

Cornell University School of Hotel Administration

Search Engines and Online Selling: Stimulating Incremental Demand

Research Project

Instructions:

As you progress through this course, you will periodically be directed to this document. This
project consists of three parts. Save this document to a convenient location on your computer
so you can find it again when you are ready to complete subsequent parts of the project later in
the course.

At the end of the course, you will be instructed to submit this entire document to your
instructor for review.

Part One of your course project begins on the next page.

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 SHA545: Hospitality Demand Management with New Media Marketing
Cornell University School of Hotel Administration

Part One - Find a Hotel Room

To begin, imagine that you are a consumer interested in traveling to New York, New York
(Manhattan) for a Friday and Saturday night stay. The date of travel should be approximately
one month after your course completion date. You are searching for a four-star hotel. Please
use whatever tools you would normally use to find a suitable hotel room. Document your
process and your result, including room type and rate. Include any comments you'd like to
make. The goal here is to decide which hotel you would like to stay at.

- I went to Booking.com and I choose the area and dates (27.03 for 2 nights).
- Then I choose in the filter 4* hotels.
- I sort the display screen with option “star rating and price”.
- I choose “AC Hotel by Marriott New York Downtown” based on the score and the price.
- I checked the comments to ensure that is the right choice for me.
- I opened a meta-search (Tripadvisor.com) to see which OTA offers best rate, the best
was Booking.com; so I went back to booking.com to complete the reservation process.
- I choose king guest room with River view on NRF basis and BB as meal plan. It cost $322

This is the end of Part One of your research project. Save this document to a location that you
will be able to locate easily. Later in the course, you will return to this document to complete
Part Two, which begins on the next page.

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© 2013 eCornell. All rights reserved. All other copyrights, trademarks, trade names, and logos are the sole property of their respective owners.
 SHA545: Hospitality Demand Management with New Media Marketing
Cornell University School of Hotel Administration

Part Two - Find a Hotel Room II

As we established in Part 1, you are imagining that you are a consumer interested in traveling
to New York, New York (Manhattan) for the weekend (Friday and Saturday nights)
approximately one month from your course completion date. You are searching for a room at a
four-star hotel.

Use one or more of the tools discussed so far, including social media tools, to find a suitable
hotel room. Document your process and your result, including hotel name, room type, and rate.
Also note the names of the hotels that seem to be this hotel's major competitors. This time,
were you able to find new options for those dates in New York, or did you get the same
information? Describe any differences in your research experience. If you did notice differences,
how do you think they came about? Include any additional comments you would like to make.
If you were to choose a hotel, would that purchase decision be different now than in your first
attempt?

- This time I choose tripadvisor.com

- I sorted the screen with traveler ranked.
- I choose Bryant Park Hotel as it rank 10 out of 510 and the rate is closer to the first hotel
I choose in part one.
- I checked the reviews of the hotel.
- I went to booking.com to check the deal and the room rate was $363 for Superior
Queen room
- The good thing this time I paid attention to is how trip advisor analyses the reviews, it
shows how many reviews in total and the percentage for each review (v.good, excellent,
good… etc).
- After comparing both hotels I still stick to my first option (AC Hotel by Marriot) for below
reasons
1. Both almost has same score in booking.com
2. Not big difference in the rate but the view of the room in AC hotel and the location is
better that Bryant Park Hotel.

This is the end of Part Two of your course project. You will return to this document to complete
Part Three later in the course.
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© 2013 eCornell. All rights reserved. All other copyrights, trademarks, trade names, and logos are the sole property of their respective owners.
 SHA545: Hospitality Demand Management with New Media Marketing
Cornell University School of Hotel Administration

Part Three - Search for the Hotel

Now imagine that you are the Marketing Manager or Revenue Manager at the hotel you chose
in Part 1. In your capacity as manager, you are trying to make sure that consumers, when using
search engines, can find your hotel.  

Create a list of five keywords or keyword phrases that you think a typical consumer would use
to search for a hotel like yours. Perform searches using these keywords. For each search,
document the page and position your hotel is listed on. Investigate both paid and organic
search results. Make a note of where your main competitors are located.  

How does your hotel compare to its competitors in the search world? Consider both other
hotels and OTAs. In your comparison, present some examples and potential explanations.

Keywords/Phrases
1. AC Hotel Manhattan
2. Marriott hotels in Manhattan
3. Hotel with river view in Manhattan
4. Manhattan Hotels
5. Hotels near the Seaport Manhattan

1. Search with “AC Hotel Manhattan”

With this search phrase 1st website appeared was

hotels.com listing the hotel as 1st suggestion then
the branded website.
Other hotel with same name (AC) appeared as
second in both (Hotels.com & Branded website)

Other competitors hotels start to appear from

page 3 in ad asites.

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© 2013 eCornell. All rights reserved. All other copyrights, trademarks, trade names, and logos are the sole property of their respective owners.
 SHA545: Hospitality Demand Management with New Media Marketing
Cornell University School of Hotel Administration
2. Search with “Marriott hotels in Manhattan”

First site came up was Marriott.com as ad and when I open

it; it showed me another hotel under Marriott umbrella.

Second website was hotels.com where I had to scroll down

a lot to see the hotel

Then I clicked on Google option (in red) and I managed to

see the hotel in 2nd page.

The issue is that the area was full of Marriott hotels and
according to geographic situation my hotel location is not
close to Manhattan area as other hotels

3. Search with “Hotel with river view in Manhattan”

In the first page it came all ad-sites and starts with

hotwire.com (most probably because I was using
that site couple of days ago) followed by
hotels.com and rest of OTAs.

First branded website came in 2nd page for another

hotel (Mandarin chain).

First branded website came for Marriott chain was

in 3rd page with W hotel.

This time I couldn’t find my hotel (I managed to

search till page 8 in Google).

I think most of the hotels showed were near Times

Square as it is popular area for travellers aside
that search keywords includes wide range of
hotels.

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© 2013 eCornell. All rights reserved. All other copyrights, trademarks, trade names, and logos are the sole property of their respective owners.
 SHA545: Hospitality Demand Management with New Media Marketing
Cornell University School of Hotel Administration

4. Search with “Manhattan Hotels”

First age was with Ad sites started with

hotwire & hotels.com

1st branded website was Radisson blu with

Ad option

1st hotel in Marriott chain came in 2nd page

with Ad option with Residence inn hotel

In all OTA sites my hotel doesn’t appear in

first or second page/set of hotels

5. Search with “Hotels near the Seaport Manhattan”

In First page it shows Trip advisor and hotels.com

When I checked Trip advisor the hotel appeared as
number 15

In Hotels.com it appeared in first patch of hotels

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© 2013 eCornell. All rights reserved. All other copyrights, trademarks, trade names, and logos are the sole property of their respective owners.
 SHA545: Hospitality Demand Management with New Media Marketing
Cornell University School of Hotel Administration

In Google search it appeared as 2nd hotel

When you have finished your work and saved this research project document, return to the
course assignment page, “Research Project, Part Three” and follow the instructions for
submitting this document to your instructor for review and grading.

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