4. Ideas for advertising hotels.

Hotel advertising is a highly competitive area, as every hotel wants to capture the attention (and the money) of leisure travelers. Fortunately, there are a number of highly effective and cost-friendly ways to raise awareness of your hotel through advertising and marketing strategies.

Twitter

Susan Black Associates advises travel brands to create a Twitter account to easily connect with customers. Companies on Twitter can easily develop a group of "followers" who will see the company's updates, including latest specials, discounts, renovation news, and more. Companies that use Twitter can also use it to test out ideas and get feedback from customers.

Search Engine Marketing

Hotel Marketing Strategies advises hotels to use search engine marketing techniques to attract customers to their website. Look through your site's content and infuse text with search engine keywords so that your site appears near the top of the list on search engine results. Good keywords for hotels include words like "hotel," "lodging," and "accommodations," along with our town or city. For example, a good combination of keywords would be, "Seattle lodging" or "Chicago hotel." You can also pay for space on popular search engines, such as Google, MSN and Yahoo.

Article Marketing

Hotel Marketing Strategies advises hotels to use press releases to distribute information about the hotel to various magazines and newspapers. If hotels can get free coverage in these places, where customers are looking on a daily basis for information, they have a willing audience ready to hear the benefits of their hotel. Try to partner with blogs to get coverage, or even start your own blog to post relevant articles about your hotel and fun travel experiences in your town. Some good blogs to partner with that are already established include GridSkipper and TravelPost.

Film Marketing

More and more, marketing is becoming entwined with entertainment. Viewers who are entertained by your advertisement are more likely to keep looking at what you have to offer and to remember your brand. Because of this, companies are turning to short films to market their product. The New York Times hails YouTube as a marketing vehicle for travel companies, with companies creating their own YouTube channel to advertise hotel specials or sweepstakes.

5. How to make hotel reservations.

The steepest price a hotel charges is its rack rate--the standard price for a room with no discounts. How do you get well below that inflated figure? With package deals, off-season rates and savvy bargaining.

Instructions

1. Comparison-shop online. Many hotels offer discounts for online transactions. Sites such as Orbitz.com, HotelDiscounts.com, Hotels.com. Travels.com and Expedia.com have arrangements with thousands of hotels. Name your own price on Priceline.com if your trip dates are set in stone--it offers no refunds.

2. Call the hotel directly during its office hours on a workday. That's when you're most likely to find an agent who knows the best deals and packages--and actually has the clout to give them to you.

3. Ask whether there are special rates or if a membership (AAA, frequent flier) entitles you to a further discount. Sometimes discounts are available for military or government employees, or even for just using a certain credit card. Those are the kind of deals agents won't normally tell you about.

4. Beware of hidden costs. Taxes, surcharges, resort and other incidental fees tacked onto your bill are common and rarely mentioned until you check out. Ask if there are any extra charges on the agreed room rate before you book your reservation: If they are tacked on without your prior approval, refuse to pay.