Google Maps

Maps are important tools when planning a trip to a place you don’t know well. People use maps to understand where all the important places for them are located. It’s important for leisure travellers that the hotel is situtated near the sights and other wanted attractions which customers want to visit. For people travelling in business purposes the most important thing is that the hotel is located near the convention centers and that there are good tranportation connections. 

Google maps is is the most popular and used map service. Google maps offers maps all around the world. It is simple to use and it offers many other services in addition to normal maps, like Google Streetview where you are able to see buildings and landscapes like you would walk along the streets. There has also been marked some places and buildings in the maps to ease people to find them. There has been marked many hotels as well and for example in the maps of Helsinki you are able to find many hotels in the city center area. If you look Helsinkin city center area in Google maps the first accommodation places to see are Sokos Hotel Torni, Sokos Hotel Presidentti and Domus Academica. Hilton Kalastajatorppa can be found easily too. But the thing is that you have to zoom in quite a much to find for example Hilton Strand. It isn’t so easy to find than some others are. This is disadvantage for the hotel and for marketing it. I’m not aware of how easy it’s to affect these searching results but if it’s possible for Hilton to highlight their hotels more in Google maps they definately should do that. It make them more visible for customers and impove their selling that way.

In Google maps you are able to find more information concerning the hotels as well. There are some reviews about the hotels. These reviews are written there by people who have been staying there. Hilton Hotels staff should visit these pages regularly and try to answer question there and comment customers’ postings. It would give a good impression of the hotel and improve their image and that why improve selling as well. 

It’s possible to make reservation to a hotel through Google Maps as well. Or actually they have links there to different pages where you can finsh you reservation. But it’s possible to see in Google maps the prices of a hotel room and fill in the dates when you want to stay but the rest of the reservation will be made in another place. This is quite handy as well and could be a important distribution channel for Hilton Hotels & Resorts.