Category: Hospitality

Register your 1:1 with Purple at HITEC Amsterdam 2018

Are you attending this years HITEC event in Amsterdam? If so, make sure you book in some time to visit stand 176. Purple will be on hand over the course of the three day conference to talk you through how you can increase customer retention by 24%.

Intrigued? You should be. Here’s a brief overview.

It starts with customer data.

Efforts to engage with customers and make the most of revenue opportunities fall flat when you can’t identify who is in your venue. So, taking a proactive approach to identifying your customers is crucial. Why? Because if you know who your customers are and what they want, you can then engage with them on a more personalized level and drive retention.

How do we do it?

Through the installation of WiFi analytics, you can provide a high-speed and secure wireless connection for guests whilst also collecting valuable data and demographic insight.

Unlike many digital forms of data capture, WiFi analytics enables you to paint a full picture of your guests; from key demographic data such as name, DOB and gender, to contact information, social interests, footfall, dwell and frequency of visits.

Couple this data with a centralized reporting dashboard and cutting edge integrated marketing tools, and you can begin to understand and engage with your guests like never before.

Key features

Social login – connecting to the WiFi is simple and flexible, using either social media authentication or a short registration form that is fully customizable, enabling you to collect the guest data you need
API access – quickly and easily integrate the data collected with your internal CRM system
Webhooks – there’s no need to poll for data every few minutes to find out if new information has hit your system, with Webhooks enabled you can get new data in real-time, enabling you to engage with guests in the right place and the right time
Logic Flow – set-up complex, and multi-staged marketing campaigns in minutes. Trigger an action such as an email, SMS, webhook, website redirect or splash page and personalize this engagement based on specific guest demographics and behaviors
Reviews – increase the number of reviews for your hotel with our TripAdvisor connector that allows you to send ‘leave a review’ reminders to guests when they leave your venue
Multilingual – customize your splash screens and landing pages and promote offers in different languages to ensure an exceptional experience worldwide. Purple is available in 24 languages

Contact details

HITEC Amsterdam will be held at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre on April 11–13, 2018. You can visit the Purple team at stand 176 or if you would like to book a meeting, please use the contact information below.

James Radcliffe, Enterprise Sales Manager – james.radcliffe@purplewifi.com or view calendar.

James Dale, Regional Sales Manager, EMEA – james.dale@purplewifi.com or view calendar.

About Purple

Purple is a cloud-based platform that focuses on turning WiFi networks into revenue generation tools for businesses through social media integration, intuitive analytics and profile-based remarketing.

With over 50 million users worldwide across 34,000 venues, Purple works with a number of leading hotel brands, including the W Hotels, Mercure, Hyatt, Choice Hotels Europe, and Radisson.

6th March 2018

Purple and Local Measure unveil new engagement connector at Cisco Live ANZ

Purple, the intelligent spaces company, and Local Measure, local customer intelligence experts, unveil the Local Measure Connector at Cisco Live ANZ. The Connector provides businesses across retail, hospitality, stadiums and entertainment and other industries, with a holistic approach to customer engagement.

The two global tech companies have been collaborating within the Cisco and Cisco Meraki partner community to introduce their real-time integration in the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre this week.

“We’re excited to be working with Local Measure to further amplify how businesses identify and engage their customers in both their online and offline spaces,” said Madelaine Coates, Regional Manager in APAC at Purple.

“Purple help businesses identify their previously unknown customers, understand their interests and behaviors, and develop personalized campaigns to elevate customer experience and return rates. Purple achieves this by using Cisco or Meraki to overlay in-store WiFi with analytics software and intelligent LogicFlow marketing tool to drive engagement in real-time,” said Coates.

What the new Connector will do is integrate this data with Local Measure’s engagement platform used to manage the online social conversations and influencers in their locations, and complete unique customer profiles with rule-based notifications for staff around customer activity on-site.

“Local Measure provides a lens to learn more about your on-site customers. Brands can engage with their customers’ public posts on social media and with customers who have connected to WiFi to drive personalization and unique customer experiences at scale,” said Jonathan Barouch, CEO at Local Measure.

“Through the connector with Purple, clients can have access to rich venue data and high-level reporting to complement Local Measure’s customer insights. It’s a powerful combination that we are very excited about,” said Barouch.

Coates further commented on the impact the combined set of insights, stating, “Businesses don’t realise they have one chance to capture 75% of their customers’ details or they won’t be seen again. Identifying who your customers are walking in your store is the first step to understanding your customer demographics, social interests and how they behave within your physical space.

“We’ve found that just by having WiFi and users logging in, it can increase return visits by 7% compared to visitors who don’t log into WiFi. This is because the personalized communication of timely, automated messages that are personalized to the specific customer segments. What you as a business can do then with Local Measure is complete the picture. Businesses can follow social media campaign reactions, monitor individual preferences, and notify staff on customer activity,” said Coates.

Purple overlays Cisco or Meraki to collect, gather and action the WiFi analytics and location data, while Local Measure operates on real-time integration into Cisco Spark and Cisco Vision digital signage for user generated content.

“The team are looking forward to the next level of creative engagement that businesses across all industries can achieve with the Purple Platform and Local Measure’s customer insight tools,” said Coates.

For further information about the Purple Platform and Local Measure Connector, visit Madelaine, Franck, and Zak from Purple at booth E29 between 6 – 9 of March.

10th January 2018

Purple’s WiFi and analytics solution – McDonald’s is lovin’ it

Hamburger giant, McDonald’s, has begun its next course of digital transformation having rolled out WiFi analytics across its sites in Belgium as part of a three-year contract with Purple, Cisco Meraki and Socialspot.

McDonald’s Belgium is using intelligent, hyper-targeted marketing features in the Purple platform to deliver radically new digital strategies in personalized communication, promotions and micro-surveys to improve their diners’ experience.

Purple’s cloud based solution has been gradually rolled out across 80 restaurants over the last three-months, coinciding with McDonald’s Belgium new mobile application which was also launched last year. Almost 400,000 people logged on to the WiFi network since installation via Facebook social media authentication and short form who are then redirected to a multilingual survey page, encouraging diners to provide valuable, real-time feedback.

Commenting on the installation of Purple’s marketing and analytics software, Carlo Dei Cont, IT Infrastructure Lead for McDonald’s Belgium, said: “We chose Purple’s WiFi and analytics solution because it is all about personalized interaction and engagement with our customers. The API integration is seamless with our systems and each onboarding experience can be customized to complement our brand to the most recent or relevant McDonald’s Belgium campaign.

“When customers log into McDonald’s Belgium WiFi, we are also able to redirect to our new mobile application. This has demonstrated a significant increase in mobile uptake compared to previous methods. The metrics in Purple’s dashboard allow us to measure the impact of each campaign in real-time, tailoring every communication to our customers to ensure their experience improves,” said Dei Cont.

McDonald’s Belgium have experienced a substantial decrease in technical calls for the WiFi following the Purple platform installation by Socialspot, including an enormous increase in positive feedback from the internal McDonald’s support team, as well as diners.

Purple’s enterprise content filtering system automatically blocks URLs on the IWF watchlist to safeguard young customers from inappropriate material. This was an important feature for the global brand which ensures their new transformation in digital services and engagement is through safe, secure and family friendly WiFi.

“The McDonald’s Belgium brand prides itself on bringing families together in our restaurants, so content filtering and being GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] compliant was another key reason we chose Purple. With Purple and their stand-out Profile Portal, any information gathered is secure and protecting our young diners from inappropriate content,” said Kristof Vanonckelen IT & Digital Director for McDonald’s Belgium.

Commenting on the deployment of Purple across McDonald’s Belgium sites, Jonas Dekkers, Co-founder of Socialspot, said: “I love working with Purple. It’s a fantastic product and I know that McDonald’s will see great results from using the analytics solution to further transform their restaurants. I’m looking forward to helping McDonald’s optimize their customer experience and drive loyalty through the platform.”

By utilising multiple methods of data capture it allows the QSR chain to distinguish who their customers truly are and start distributing more segmented campaigns that will improve engagement, drive footfall, increase loyalty and deliver ROI across the entire region. The information gathered through guest WiFi will also enable the brand to make more informed business decisions and improve customer interactions eventually with more personalised offers.

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple, said: “It’s fantastic that we’ll be working with Socialspot to ensure that McDonald’s Belgium maximizes return on investment from the WiFi network and analytics. Purple gives the global brand an advantage over competitors, helping them to better inform business decisions and communications to the mutual benefit of their brand and consumers.”

4th December 2017

Hotel group improves guest communication thanks to Purple and Nowire Networks

South American boutique hotel and apart hotel group, Inmobiliaria Su Ksa, and its guests are benefiting from the investment in a new guest WiFi solution that will see management gaining valuable analytical data to improve guest experience within each location.

Purple’s WiFi and analytics solution has been installed initially at Hotel Capital in Chile, with a view to the cloud-based solution being rolled out to additional hotel branches, such as the Hotel Antonio Bellet, in the coming months.

Previously, the Hotel Capital network was aimed predominantly at providing connectivity for hotel staff but the decision was taken to work with Nowire to install a new Xirrus network that would allow the hotel to capture relevant guest information, in order to enhance each visit through targeted communication around amenities, events and promotions.

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO at Purple commented: “The hospitality industry is ideal for a social WiFi-driven solution. It’s easy for guests to log in and benefit from the free guest WiFi being provided by each hotel and, at the same time, the management gains detailed data that will allow them to provide the services and amenities that guests genuinely value. Purple’s marketing tools allow any venue to reward customers with promotions and exclusive offers, improving the guest experience in real time while demonstrating excellent customer service.”

In terms of return on investment, the solution began delivering results within the first month of deployment at Hotel Capital, with almost 1,000 guests utilizing the free WiFi being provided at the hotel, in addition to the detailed analytical information around guest behavior being generated for the hotel management team to act upon. The hotel attracts more than 1,300 guests every month, gaining average TripAdvisor ratings of 8.9, making the venue the ideal type of business to install a WiFi analytics solution to better understand visitors and meet their needs.

Commenting on the hotel’s WiFi solution, Marcelo Fernandez, IT Manager, said: “We believe this is a quick to deploy, affordable solution that contributes to improving communication and deep understanding of our customers, which enables us to communicate with them more effectively.”

Cristobal Navarro, Nowire Product Manager, also commented: “We’ve been pleased with the outcome of our first project with the Purple team. We firmly believe in the potential of this solution and hope to expand these benefits within our main client base in the next few months.”

21st November 2017

UK bar chain now has access to a cocktail of valuable analytics to improve customer engagement

Baa Bar sites across the UK can now capture detailed demographic and behavioural data about bar revellers following the installation of Purple’s WiFi and analytics solution by Hudson Hill Computing.

The group owns a number of popular bars in cities such as Manchester, Nottingham and Liverpool and is now delivering high-speed connectivity to partygoers who are looking to share memories of their night and connect with friends. Whilst people enjoy the free WiFi offering, each bar will also collect an array of information about network users, including their name, age, visitor location and even the frequency of their visits, which can be used to improve communications and drive loyalty.

The network has already attracted almost 10,000 users in just two months, with 52% of people accessing the network via their social media accounts and spending over an hour on the WiFi. The data captured in the Purple platform will be used by the bar chain to make strategic business decisions around promotions and where new bars could be opened, as well as being used to improve customer communications and drive frequency of visits.

Information about interests, age and gender will prove particularly useful when considering what events could be hosted on-site and developing segmented marketing campaigns for specific audiences. With a wealth of analytics at their disposal, the bar chain can gain a comprehensive awareness of their target market and send personalised, relevant communications to bar-goers.

Commenting on this latest partnership, Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple, said: “Purple is a fantastic asset for those operating in the hospitality sector, it allows brands to deliver a more personalised, well-informed experience to visitors which is something that millennial customers now expect. Businesses like Baa Bar need to truly understand their clientele to be able to increase loyalty, improve communications and ultimately grow their profits. With Purple, this is made easy.”

13th November 2017

6 ways to get more TripAdvisor reviews

Quality food, service and pricing are just some of the key ingredients that make a dining experience memorable and worth talking about. With 92% of people regularly or occasionally reading online reviews and 88% trusting them as much as personal recommendations, if your customers aren’t talking about your restaurant both online and offline then you could have a problem. Accumulating positive online reviews is one of the most effective ways of utilising your existing, loyal customers to entice new clientele through your restaurant doors.

TripAdvisor has over 4 million restaurants listed and is a cost-effective way of raising your business’s profile. The review site is not only a reliable, trusted source for people worldwide to inquire about your restaurant, but it also allows you to manage and respond to customer feedback. In addition, the site has launched a new advertising product aimed at restaurateurs, allowing you to use sponsored placements to drive traffic to your venues TripAdvisor listings. So, with reviews now so highly regarded it may be worth reading our tips to help your business acquire more TripAdvisor reviews.

1 – If you don’t ask you don’t get
It may sound pretty obvious but when a customer places their order at your counter or is paying the bill at their table your employees should take the time to ask them about their experience. 7 out of 10 consumers said that they would leave a review for a business if asked to, so simply letting diners know that you’d value their feedback on your TripAdvisor page can be the simple push that people need to contribute more TripAdvisor reviews. Building up a repertoire with your customers can also leave a positive, long-lasting impression and could encourage them to praise the service of particular staff members.

2 – The little things
You can use the finest of tools and the utmost charm to persuade people to leave your restaurant more TripAdvisor reviews, but if you don’t give guests a pleasurable experience from start to finish then it may be a lost cause. Guests love feeling valued and what’s better than getting a freebie or gaining access to information without even having to ask? Providing diners with complimentary water and nibbles on the table will immediately paint you in a good light and post-visit you could send them an email, SMS or a push notification thanking them for their custom and offering them 10% off their next visit. The littlest of treats can make a huge difference and could be the make or break between securing more TripAdvisor reviews and having a better TripAdvisor ranking than your competitors.

3 – Promote your presence
TripAdvisor may be the most well-known review site in the world but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t shout out about your presence on the site, especially if you’ve bagged some badges and awards. Publicise your TripAdvisor page at every touch point, whether it be on your menus, receipts and flyers, or on your social media channels, WiFi login page and website, reminding visitors that reviews are important to you can make others feel obliged to share their own opinions. Also, if your restaurant features in a list such as the ‘Top 10 Restaurants in London’ then be sure to make some noise about it. It’s no small feat and ‘Top’ lists receive high search traffic from inquisitive prospects.

4 – Reminders and prompts
I’m sure this scenario will sound familiar. A new customer dined at your restaurant last week, appeared to enjoy every second, said they’d return again and leave a review, but a week has passed by and they’ve failed to recommend your venue and food to others online. In many cases this won’t have been intentional, they probably did want to write up a TripAdvisor review but it just wasn’t a top priority. A simple prompt could be all you need to resolve this common issue. Sending an automated email, SMS or push alert to people asking for a review within a specified timeframe after their visit could be all that’s needed to get more TripAdvisor reviews. It’s also been found that customers are more likely to recall their experiences in greater, more accurate detail within 3 to 7 days of purchase.

5 – Respond to reviews
Show folks that you appreciate them taking the time to leave reviews, regardless of whether it is positive or negative. In fact, if it is negative then this is more of a reason to respond as it shows that you proactively rectify issues and don’t want to tarnish your restaurant’s reputation. Responding to reviews may not have a direct effect on your TripAdvisor ranking but it can mean more bookings and potentially more TripAdvisor reviews in the long run as you implement changes in reaction to criticism.

6 – Take lead from the example
Regardless of the sector in which you operate, monitoring what your competitors are doing is vital to ensuring you don’t get left behind. What are the businesses with the highest TripAdvisor ratings doing? What do people praise your competitors for in their TripAdvisor reviews? Follow them closely so that you can start to imitate their best qualities or conjure up ways to become better than them. Before you know it your restaurant could be racing to the top of the rankings and acquiring more TripAdvisor reviews than you ever anticipated.

All in all, gaining popularity is important. Acquiring a healthy influx of good quality reviews will increase visibility and engagement, which in turn will lead to increased bookings and revenue. However, it is vital that you acquire the demographic details of the people that actually visit your venues so that you can deliver offers and promotions to them, encourage them to return and prompt them to leave valuable TripAdvisor reviews for your restaurant. Without this information, you risk never seeing or hearing from them again. By gaining access to existing customer data you can drive repeat custom and harness their reviews to attract new customers. A win-win for any restaurateur.

19th October 2017

Purple and Smartspace deliver powerful analytics to largest mall in South America

Purple, the intelligent spaces company, has partnered with WiFi marketing agency, Smartspace, to provide sophisticated guest WiFi and analytics to venues across Ecuador, with plans to roll out further across Colombia, Panama, Peru and Chile in the coming months.

The partnership solution has been adopted by Smartspace customer, Mall del Sol, one of the largest malls in South America located in Guayaquil, Ecuador. 33 Ruckus access points have been installed at the mall, which boasts more than 270 stores, a food court and cinema.

In addition to the robust security features and marketing tools offered by Purple, Mall del Sol was specifically interested in the location based services that the solution offers, which delivers a more sophisticated visitor interaction than alternative providers. The customer will therefore be utilizing Purple location based services and Spot Ruckus, for onsite tracking and zone analytics throughout the venue.

Shantal Paredes, Commercial and Marketing Manager of Mall del Sol, comments: “In order to improve the experience of our visitors we decided to invest in the Purple platform served by SmartSpace, as it allows us to identify the movement of visitors in the mall and validate the impact of our events in terms of traffic through the use of heat maps.”

Reports are easily generated through the dedicated Purple Portal which gives valuable metrics such as repeat versus new visitors, time spent at the mall and in which areas, times of visits and many more. The venue can then choose how it wants to target new or repeat visitors by making them aware of new stores, restaurants or other amenities and offering rewards in real time.

Shantal adds: “We are also looking to distribute mini surveys on specific topics because we now have the customer data that used to be difficult to collect. The data that is generated allows us to perform much more focused actions to our customers and we hope that other departments such as Operations can use the information to become more efficient. We are very satisfied with the results we have from the platform so far and we look forward to a long-term business relationship.”

It is the intention of Smartspace to migrate all of its existing business from SOCIFI to Purple in the coming year, in addition to targeting new customers, including an additional six malls expected to go live with the solution in the coming months.

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO and founder of Purple said: “The deployment of our solution at Mall del Sol is a great example of the type of commercial venue that can really benefit from the scalable, secure solution that we deliver. Our software delivers measurable benefits such as location based services and engagement through SMS and email marketing, and essentially provides Mall del Sol with a much better understanding of footfall and trends throughout the destination. We look forward to supporting Smartspace with many more customer deployments in the coming months.”

Commenting on the partnership, Allan Gasken, Director of Smartspace said: “We completely understand how Purple’s tools can positively impact our customers. We were very happy to sign a partnership agreement as we like what they offer, we value the sales and technical knowledge and support in place and so do our customers. There is a lot of noise around WiFi analytics in Ecuador at the moment and the Purple solution allows us to remain ahead of the curve in terms of the service, the reports and the support we can provide to our customers.”

Smartspace has ambitious growth plans, aiming to have 8,000 WiFi access points operating in the next 5 years, tapping into a number of vertical markets and high-profile companies that have branches across South America. The company’s main goal is to become the number one provider for marketing in Ecuador. With the partnership now established between the two businesses, Smartspace is currently going through Purple’s certification process, which will further cement the relationship.

Gasken adds: “When we made contact with Purple at the end of last year the team was very responsive and were a great help when explaining the portal’s functions and the benefits of becoming a partner. Those customers that have already transitioned are very happy with the Purple solution to date, the detailed reporting it delivers and the stability of the platform.”

9th October 2017

You’ve got a restaurant loyalty app but why isn’t it increasing loyalty?

It’s been revealed that by 2020 there will be 21 billion connected devices invading our lives. A pretty mind-boggling stat, right? And considering the fact that mobile users spend 90% of their time on apps, it’s no surprise that restaurants are zoning in on this digital emergence. The likes of McDonald’s and Subway are already making strategic digital transformation updates, with the launch of new mobile apps proving to be a key element in becoming more digitally focused and forward thinking.

QSR and restaurant brands are recognising that creating memorable experiences for diners will help win the stomach share and allow them to dominate the market. Paying by mobile app has certainly hit the headlines over the last year, with research confirming that more than a quarter of people aged 18-34 would be more likely to dine at a restaurant if it allowed them to pre-order and pay via an app. It seems that today’s diners are no longer willing to interact with staff, order at a counter or browse a menu once seated, they instead prefer a faster, digital approach requiring minimal effort.

Earlier in the year Britain’s biggest pub chain, Wetherspoons, launched its ‘order and pay’ app to allow customers to place an order and settle up without even leaving their seat. Fascinatingly, the makers of these apps claim that they allow customers to be more sociable, however, some would argue that eliminating the interaction with staff is almost the definition of unsociable. But hey, at least we now have a valid excuse to go on our phones at the dinner table, and restaurant owners certainly won’t be complaining as the average spend rises by about 20 percent when technology is used to place an order.

With mobile apps forecast to be a 38 billion-dollar industry by 2020, brands are recognising that they not only improve operational efficiency but also drive customer engagement. Greggs, the largest bakery chain in the UK, gives away regular free items via its app, encouraging repeat custom and often leading to additional purchases being made when people redeem the offers. Pinkberry’s and Earl of Sandwich in the US have also significantly benefitted from launching loyalty programs that are integrated into their mobile apps. Last year, 32% of Pinkberry’s transactions came via their mobile loyalty app, and Earl of Sandwich customers spent on average 22% more when using the app.

In addition to pushing out loyalty schemes and increasing engagement, mobile applications allow brands to collect priceless customer data. The information collected during sign up and in-app use can be utilised to develop targeted and highly personalised messages that will grow frequency and spend. The Harvard Business Review states that personalisation can reduce extra costs by 50%, lift revenues by 5-15%, and increase the efficiency of marketing spend by up to 10-30%. So, it appears to be a real win-win for both end users and the restaurant that has launched the mobile application.

In an ideal world, consumers would always seek out and download a restaurant’s mobile application upon first visit, however, this often isn’t the case. According to the 2017 U.S. Mobile Apps Report, 51% of people still don’t download any apps in a month. This highlights that only a small proportion of people, usually the younger generations, will download restaurant loyalty apps, meaning there’s a huge data gap. When you also consider the fact that for every 10 customers who walk into a business only 3 are likely to return it seems restaurants need to use additional methods of data capture to truly understand their target market, be able to communicate with them effectively and drive repeat custom.

There’s no denying that mobile applications are growing in demand and helping to deliver a happier, more memorable customer experience, but for restaurants to deliver a best in class service they’ll need access to as much demographic and behavioural data as possible about those buying into their brand. Customer insights around frequency of visits, where people have travelled from, how old diners are and how they move around a venue will help restaurant and QSR brands to make strategic business decisions and launch new offers and menu options according to what their customers actually want.

The main takeaway for restaurant teams is that this is a highly competitive market where customers want to feel valued and have access to promotions with ease. Through the effective use of data capture and complementary mobile applications, it is possible to increase loyalty and deliver a more interactive and engaging experience for today’s digital savvy generation of diners.

5th October 2017

Why are guests staying at your hotel? [White paper]

Pin-pointing why each individual chooses your hotel over competitors is a challenging task for any marketing department no matter how big the budget is, and yet this information is they key to shaping direct booking strategies.

There are an increasing number of international visitors and local tourists in Europe’s hotel industry. Some travel alone, others with friends or family at different time periods and for different lengths of stays. There are adventure holidays, work commitments, spa retreats, foodie escapes, sporting events, and at the end of the day they all need somewhere to stay. The sharing economy, the growth of connected smart devices, and influence of social media imagery are leading the way for huge shifts in travel trends beyond price wars.

An article produced by Trivago in June, 2017 revealed hotel content featuring high-quality images receive 63% more clicks than those with low-quality, with only 4% of people clicking through hotel profiles if visual content is low quality. But what imagery and content do you use to create an effective campaign, and which platforms are your guests using most for best use of paid marketing? Guests are increasingly influenced by Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and vloggers choosing travel accommodation based more on local experiences and what they can see. At the same time guests are shifting their decision-making behaviour, hoteliers are informing their digital strategies to increase direct bookings.

Engaging consumers online with content personalised to their interests and motivations delivers a personalised experience pre-, during and post-stay and relies on data available to hotels. When you know why your current guests are staying, you can create content that is contextual to guests and where they are in your hotel to improve their experience, keep them engaged, and build stronger relationships for greater reviews to attract future guests.

The Purple Intelligent Insights delves into the profiles of almost 4.8 million review ratings from guests across Europe to showcase the potential of data and identify opportunities to better engage guests. The study also highlights a key marketing tool hotel marketing and operations departments can use to help identify guest interests, drive revenue, and generate relevant, meaningful content based on the reports of every guest and visitor in a hotel, rather than generic industry reports competitors can access.

Download the free white paper to begin understanding why guests stay at your hotel.

25th July 2017

How Much Influence Does TripAdvisor Have On Your Results?

Since its early beginnings in 2000, the review giant TripAdvisor has eclipsed the travel, tourism, res-taurant, and leisure industries; now in 2017, TripAdvisor’s famous review bubbles represent over 7 million businesses across the globe, with 500 million reviews and counting.

Undoubtedly, there are a wealth factors contributing to TripAdvisor’s success, but it’s their consum-er-driven platform that has fuelled their popularity among travellers, tourists, and foodies alike. Completing a TripAdvisor review is quick, straightforward, and most importantly, public – within a few seconds, customers are able to praise establishments for the quality of their offering while hold-ing them equally accountable for their pitfalls. By using such a transparent and objective review system, the public have established TripAdvisor as an unbiased, reliable, and empowering platform for review-seekers all over the world. It’s no surprise that they have generated enough traction to take over the online review industry, and considering their immense impact across nearly all con-sumer verticals, it’s vital that businesses have an active, responsive presence on TripAdvisor in 2017.

While it would seem that by putting a business forward for public scrutiny would leave it vulnerable to poor reviews and bad overall scores, trends in the industry have proven that the opposite is true: research conducted by Cornell University revealed that nearly all TripAdvisor reviews have a posi-tive effect on businesses, concluding that the more reviews a business has, the more positive, fair, and accurate their bubble scores tend to be. This is because the review process essentially pro-vides businesses with a free, honest, and ongoing audit, and such with intricate insights into the minds of their customers, hoteliers, restaurant owners, and other consumer-driven companies can easily identify areas for improvement and directly rectify customer dissatisfaction. TripAdvisor also highlighted that initial negative reviews of a business can be due to a lack of context – if a customer has an experience that doesn’t comply with what is advertised by the company, they are more like-ly to leave a negative review to ‘warn’ others. Considering that 95% of people regularly use travel reviews to make bookings, it’s likely that future clientele will base their expectations on previous customers’ experiences, meaning less surprises, and less negative reviews.

Even with the potential for negative reviews, it’s difficult to argue a case against TripAdvisor for businesses, and those who are new to TripAdvisor or feel misrepresented by their the bubbles should aim to generate as many reviews as possible to ensure their scores increase (or at least re-main neutral) over time. More contributors also means more insight through content: reviewers are always eager to share the highs and lows of their experience, and by observing what tends to be shared, businesses can easily identify unique selling points and target demographics they may not have previously considered. TripAdvisor content essentially functions as extremely valuable, effort-less advertising that businesses that use to significantly boost their visitor count, their bubble rating, and in turn their overall revenue. With so many people heading to TripAdvisor to review or assess a potential destination, it’s also arguable that businesses should consider their bubble scores as a new kind of KPI. After all, the bubbles don’t lie.

With such an incredible level of influence and the wealth of benefits surrounding TripAdvisor, it’s unsurprising that social sites like Facebook and global tech companies like Purple have integrated TripAdvisor functionality into their platforms. Within Facebook, businesses are able to install a TripAdvisor app directly to their page, allowing reviews to push conducted on the social site to be pushed directly through to TripAdvisor. This not only increases the number of reviews within TripAdvisor, having their famously trusted bubbles on Facebook also affirms their authority within the world of online reviews. Having a healthy TripAdvisor rating on Facebook can also increase the amount of ‘likes’ a business receives – similar to the bubbles, a ‘like’ is a form of Facebook currency that is extremely valuable within the hospitality industry. More ‘likes’ translates into more money, and by investing their time and finances into improving their TripAdvisor score, businesses who in-tegrate their reviews into Facebook can expect a healthy return on their time and monetary invest-ments.

The same can also be said for businesses that have invested in Purple’s WiFi technology: surveys have shown that the quality of an establishment’s WiFi offering has a significant impact on the overall customer experience. Purple’s market-leading platform, which solves a host of commonly reported issues with guest / public WiFi, also functions as an intelligent and in-tuitive marketing tool that can boost many different areas of a business. In addition to a number of useful integrations with massive databases like Salesforce and social giants like Facebook, Purple have now added TripAdvisor to their growing list of connected platforms. This means that with each and every complying user that logs onto an establishment’s guest WiFi, the potential for a new TripAdvisor review exists. If customers are prompted appropriately and in a timely way, businesses offering WiFi via the Purple platform can expect to see a significant increase in not only the amount of reviews, but (as the research suggests) the overall bubble score as well. This was made particu-larly apparent in a recent case study between Purple and Eldan Hotel : after installing Purple’s plat-form and using the Tripadvisor feature, the hotel saw a 218% increase in TripAdvisor reviews, in addition to a 50% increase in number of users logging in to guest WiFi. Purple has also enabled the hotel to curate a wealth of immensely valuable customer data that they can use to identify their key demographic and improve their overall services.

Ultimately, improved TripAdvisor scores directly correlate with more bookings / visits, more positive reviews, and more revenue. Any form of investment – whether it be time or money – that aims to increase the amount of Tripadvisor reviews a business has is bound to generate a solid and wide-spread return on investment. And with such unprecedented connectivity between major platforms and technology like Purple, the potential for increased reviews, ‘likes,’ new customers, and money only stands to increase exponentially over time.

3rd May 2017

SunSol Hotels see 500% increase in TripAdvisor reviews with Purple

Purple, the intelligent spaces firm, has enabled SunSol Hotels, located across the Americas, to collect 500% more TripAdvisor reviews since the installation of its WiFi and analytics solution by Vadel Oil Company.

By using Purple’s solution, venues and businesses that want to engage with visitors and understand the use of their physical spaces can deliver a guest WiFi solution that generates real-time analytics and marketing. The solution is also integrated with TripAdvisor, which enables hoteliers and brands across the globe to send out timely prompts to customers for reviews.

Vadel Oil Company, specialists in security services and IT networks, first approached the hotel chain in late 2016 to discuss their IT and wireless requirements. The three year contract applies to all of the hotels owned and operated by the company, with three properties located in the Caribbean on Margarita Island and Coche Island in Venezuela, plus their newest opening in Orlando, Florida.

The first phase of deployment has seen Ubiquiti wireless hardware, Purple and the TripAdvisor connector go live in all public areas of the Sunsol Isla Caribe hotel on Margarita Island, which was awarded a TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice award in 2017. In just two weeks of installing the connector, the hotel received 500% more reviews than they used to in a whole month and collected more reviews in April than it had in the last year. Gradually, Purple’s solution will be rolled out by Vadel Oil Company at all SunSol properties, in various zones.

Fedor Sawoloka, the Digital Platform Manager for SunSol Hotels, said: “Purple’s marketing and analytics platform has opened up a wide range of opportunities for us. We can now collect detailed profiles about our guests and have a much clearer vision of potential clients. In addition, through using Purple we can offer a better overall service to our guests throughout their stay.”

The four highly esteemed resorts previously had no WiFi in place and their client database was very limited. They needed a quality WiFi connection for guests, along with the ability to capture detailed customer data to export into a brand-new database. Details such as who is logging on, when and where across the resorts will be used to engage with guests and improve the visitor experience, by promoting amenities, entertainment and restaurant offers to both new and existing customers.

During the initial meetings, Vadel Oil Company, a Purple Certified Partner, met with the customer’s IT and commercial departments to ensure both teams fully understood the platforms value and capabilities. They showcased how customers can login to the WiFi via a form or social media, which then provides the hotel with detailed analytics, visitor data and a plethora of marketing tools.

Daniel Rojas, Technology Manager for SunSol Hotels, adds: “It is truly amazing how Purple allows us to deliver a totally personalized experience based on customer statistics including frequency of WiFi usage, gender and age.”

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple, comments: “It’s great to see that Purple’s WiFi and analytics solution is being deployed in some of the most exotic places in the world. In such a short space of time the hotel chain has seen some fantastic results. Vadel Oil Company took a great approach with Sunsol Hotels to ensure they fully recognised the value of Purple’s solution and I’m excited to see more customer wins in the region.”

11th April 2017

Eldan Hotel gets 218% more TripAdvisor reviews by using Purple

Purple, the intelligent spaces company, has enabled the Eldan Hotel to collect 218% more guest reviews on TripAdvisor following the installation of its WiFi and analytics solution by Certified Purple Partner, Boot Net Ltd.

The four-star hotel in Jerusalem is working with Purple and Boot Net Ltd. to offer a fast, free guest WiFi solution, detailed analytics and Purple’s new TripAdvisor connector, which encourages guests to write reviews. Boot Net Ltd overlaid Purple onto Ruckus hardware across the five story boutique property in January 2017, and connectivity is now available in all 76 guest rooms and public areas.

Owners of the Eldan Hotel knew they needed to offer a free connectivity solution but they also wanted to see a return from their investment. Above all, they were keen to start acquiring more guest reviews as they didn’t previously have a method of reminding people to review their stay via email due to staff time constraints, size of the hotel estate and lack of client data.

Robby Leon, CEO & Founder of Boot Net Ltd, installed Purple at the Eldan Hotel and said: “Boutique hotels are a great market for Purple as they often have minimal overheads and limited time to collate customer data and distribute emails to guests. With Purple, businesses like the Eldan Hotel can get data collected automatically from those accessing the WiFi and messages are automatically sent to ask for reviews. I know that the TripAdvisor connector was the key feature that won the deal with the Eldan Hotel and it will be a big hit with other clients in the hospitality sector.”

So far, the feedback from guests has been positive and thanks to the TripAdvisor connector, which went live in February 2017, they are now leaving more reviews than ever before. When you compare the number of reviews collected in January to February there is a 218% increase, evidencing the value of the TripAdvisor connector for those businesses in the hospitality sector.

The hotel’s free guest WiFi is now a service that is openly promoted on the company’s website and travel sites. In just the first month of use, the hotel saw almost 1000 people log into the WiFi, with the number of users increasing by up to 50% week on week. The average guest accessed the WiFi for over 5 hours per a day, highlighting that guests use their mobiles or laptops for 22% of their stay.

CRM data is now captured from every individual who logs into the WiFi and it is exported into the hotel’s existing customer database. The business is looking to distribute e-shots to encourage more repeat, direct bookings as they currently receive a high percentage of reservations through external OTAs. As a whole, the hotel is now more equipped to deliver personalised, targeted marketing campaigns as they can now can identify where their guests are from and their language.

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple, comments: “It is fantastic to see that the Eldan Hotel has achieved such significant results in such a short space of time. Not only have they launched a free guest WiFi solution, but they’ve massively increased their TripAdvisor reviews and are now equipped with an array of tools to make their marketing campaigns much more targeted and relevant. If this is what the hotel has in achieved in just one month then I can’t wait to see what they’ll achieve by the end of the year.”

Find out how the hotel increased the quantity of TripAdvisor reviews by 218%.

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