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.

Facebook adds

Facebook is maybe the most popular social media at this moment. In that way it’s also a remarkable advertising channel for companies. People spend hours in a week in Facebook and are forced to see adds there as well. The adds which people can see in their Facebook are individual but at least I haven’t ever seen any adds concerning Hilton Hotels in Facebook. Actually I don’t remember that I would have ever seen any adds concerning accommodation in Facebook. That’s why Hilton should really put some money to advertising in Facebook. It would be something fress in their advertising and marketing and it would reach a large amount of people really quickly and easily.

My opinion is that advertising in Facebook is also really neutral way to get attention. Advertising there doesn’t annoy people and that way people don’t start to hate companies which advertise there. When planning advertising in Facebook Hilton Hotels & Resorts should of course somehow try to target their adds for smaller group of people and not to advertise for all people. It would be unnecessary. They could advertise for example certain hotels for people who are living in a certain area. Like Hilton Kalastajatorppa or Hilton Strand for people living in Helsinki region. 

Facebook

Hilton Hotels & Resorts is using social media in a quite effective way already. Especially Hilton Hotels in Finland have put much effort on their Facebook pages. In the Facebook you can find page Hilton Helsinki Hotels and by liking it you will be able to get lot of information concerning three Hiltons in Finland. 

There are many pictures about the hotels. Including pictures inside hotel rooms and other interior and exterior photos which help customers to see easily what kind of decoration there is and what kind of looking restaurant etc. In addition to these informative pictures there are many other pictures which show other sides of the Hiltons for customers like photos about events they have been taking part or they have been organizing. Among the pictures can be found the menus of their restaurants as well. There are also links to the restaurants pages which helps customers to access more information if they are willing to.

By liking Hilton Helsinki Hotels you are able to get the latest news of three Hiltons in Finland. They tell in their news for example about all the events and happenings in the hotels. They also publish many offers and campaigns in their pages. Additionaly there are quite often some lotteries going on in which customers can win hotel and restaurant packages. These activities naturally attract visitors.

All this above mentioned things make the pages relly good already but there is still one thing which improves their pages a lot. They have a spot there were you are able to make a reservation to Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa. You have to put there the dates you want to stay there and the number of guest and after that the browser takes you to another page where you can finish your reservation. They should really consider expanding this to cover Strand and Airport as well.

All in all Hilton Helsinki Hotels Facebook pages are extremely good and a really good example of effective use of Facebook and social media. The whole Hilton Hotels & Resorts organisation should start to use Facebook in a same way than people do here in Finland. It could be a really good marketing channel for them. One thing which would still imporove their pages is the better interaction with the Facebook users. They could engourage people more to start conversation on their pages and give feedback. Telling honestly what was good in the hotels and what could be improved. Guests could ask questions there as well which would reduce phone calls to their receptions too. Unfortunately there isn’t any discussion going on right now. 

Augmented reality

Augmented reality (AR) is a live view of a physical real-world environment. AR is computer-generated with the input of video, sound, graphics or GPS-data. Augmented reality is an extension to Virtual reality (VR) which  is a virtual space where the players are not hold back by the physical laws and material properties.

Augmented reality is quite new and therefore not so well known or used. In the near future Hilton Hotels should concider though making some apps/programs using AR. For example the hotels could be put into augmented reality so the users could see themselves how the hotel looks like. This could be a way to market the hotel before the bookings and this could became handy for the customers when arriving to the hotel, looking for their room, breakfast room etc. AR could also be extended to the neighbouring area of the hotel.

YouTube

I dug into YouTube and searched for 'Hilton Hotels'. With that search word you end up with 14 300 results. Searching 'Hilton Hotels Helsinki' you find only 32 results. There was some good commercial videos but I think Hilton could do much better than that. They should be able to give more modern and elegant picture of themselves. Also there could be more videos of each hotel in Helsinki area, some could be more thorough and longer and some just short sneak peaks. Here is one okey good video I found!

Twitter

With over 30 000 followers and a surprisingly active Twitter account (link in the name), Hilton gets a tip of the hat from me. 

The microblog includes both links to interesting articles (such as the rising hotel room prices in Singapore) as well as direct messages to people using their hotel facilities - and tweeting about it. Which is great: Imagine hyping about your upcoming holiday and your stay in a nice suite of a Hilton (we can all dream!) ... and the hotel welcomes you before you even enter it ! 

Obviously though, with 30 000 followers and a ton more of people tweeting about Hilton as single cases, it might be hard to keep track of all of the mentions. Maybe, time permitting, Hilton could divide its account into smaller sections - like customer service, Hilton news and perhaps complaints. Or countryspecific. 

The microblog sphere might not seem like a huge deal to a conventional business mind, but one shouldn't forget that Twitter is very popular with regular people, an easy & quick way to communicate. 

Google search

I couldn't help but notice that Hilton doesn't pop up very well in Google search. With searches like "accommodation Helsinki airport", "majoitus Helsinki", "hotellit Helsinki" Hilton is never on the top search results. Also their add only pops up if you search for hotels in the airport. This is definitely something Hilton should think about. With Google search only the airport hotel is at least somewhat likely to be chosen. Instead the two other hotels in the city will be left out of people's radar. I think Hilton should invest in more search words and that way try to get to the top results. After all these days most people make travel plans through intenet and especially using the help of Google.