By Erica Garza: The property website continues to be the hotelier's most important distribution and marketing channel. The main goal of any hotel website is to turn lookers into bookers. A number of factors help to achieve this goal, including eye-catching design and a user-friendly layout. The look and feel of a website may initially grab the user's attention, while the copy contains the core information about the hotel that will convince that visitor to make a booking. Accurate, engaging, and relevant content – all written with the brand's voice in mind – is what gives users that final push to click "Book Now."

By Are Morch: LinkedIn is the leading Social Network in generating leads for brands. How is Hotels taking advantage of this? It starts with Collaboration & Networking that allows your Hotel to build trust with your brand. And then start ask your Network Ambassadors the right questions. What questions have your Hotels asked to increase brand awareness on LinkedIn?

By Jason Nazar: How is it that certain people are so incredibly persuasive? Can we all harness those skills? After studying the most influential political, social, business and religious leaders, and trying countless techniques out myself, these are the 21 critical lessons I've identified to persuading people. This is an overview from a talk I've been giving to thousands of entrepreneurs for a few years now on "How to Persuade People."

By Annie Graham: Clean rooms and comfortable beds are important, but today's business travelers want a lot more than that. If you own a hotel and are interested in attracting more business travelers, you should be aware of what amenities they usually look for. This will allow you to introduce those amenities in your hotel, which, in turn, will attract business travelers who prefer your hotel over the others.

By Noelle E. Ifshin: All too often, restaurant owners take their employees’ job satisfaction for granted. They focus all their energy on achieving financial results, acquiring new customers, launching new marketing ideas, and driving guest satisfaction, but they forget about the people who actually turn all those HR action verbs into real-life actions.  Treating employees as internal customers is the first step in providing a productive, positive environment, which reinforces your company’s hospitality and service culture. Here are 4 reasons you should consider employees your customers.

By Dr. Jonathan Barsky and Frances Chiu: Travellers are looking for more innovation from the hotel brands they choose.  As hotels across the service spectrum, from economy to luxury, meet basic comfort needs, guests are looking for more.  Hotel operators should pay attention.  Many of these requests are becoming effective drivers of choice and loyalty.

By Nancy Trejos: Hotels used to try to keep guests indoors at their bars, restaurants and spas. Now they're dragging them outside.

By Helen Nesterenko: Customer feedback isn’t about resolving complaints. Smart brands know that it’s insight on the customer service, and have learned how to apply this information. If you’re under the impression that customer service is about fixing isolated issues, your brand is focusing on the wrong problem entirely.

By Tiffany DeShazo: It is possible that we have been taught inadvertently that more is better when it comes to writing. In school, we are required to write essays that have a specified word count. And let’s admit it, we often add needless words in order to meet that word count. I’d like to suggest that in writing, less is more, less is better. Here are some tips on how to do it.

By the end of 2013, there will be more smartphones than human beings in the world. It is unsurprising, therefore, that in-room technology is going mobile! We review some of the latest mobile platforms providing new levels of connectivity to the guest experience.