As of this week we're rolling out redesigned sub-category pages.  These pages will serve as hubs for relevant content about each sub-category with new filters to help users move beyond a single top solution recommendation and instead help users identify the solution that is right for them.

Key changes: 

1. 🎯 Segment based recommendations & buyer personas
2. ⚙️ New data filters to give users the power to find the right fit
3. 📖 Unified content hub of helpful resources

🎯 Segment Based Recommendations & Buyer Personas

There is no best overall vendor in any given category nor has there ever been just as there is no single best hotel asset.  But to make comparisons amongst hotels asset managers and buyers use metrics like REVPAR and similarly HTR uses the HT Score.  

The reason for this is that popularity is not a strong indicator of fit (or it would just be a bigger is better competition).  Having said that, popularity does tend to be a strong indicator of fit when applying segmentation (ie. most popular for resorts, most popular in Europe, etc).  For example, an mobile ordering solution that is recommended by lots of resorts is more likely to be a good fit for a resort looking for mobile ordering than a vendor who is not recommended by other resorts.

For this reason we have created the new buyer personas that outline hotel types that tend to have unique attributes which lead them to make similar tech purchasing decisions.

At a glance users can now quickly see that there is no one size fits all solution but rather there are different tools that serve different types of properties with unique need.  

⚙️ New data filters to give users the power to find the right fit

The new data filters enable HTR to move beyond a single overall ranking and instead allow users to quickly refine the rankings based on their own criteria including hotel size, city, region, hotel type or even PMS.

📖 Unified Content Hub of Helpful Resources

The new category pages are jam packed with helpful resources for buyers giving them tons of free tools, resources and content all related to the category they are researching including: 

• Recommended articles
• Free report downloads
• Category buyers guide
• In-depth deep dive (overview, benefits, features, pricing, implementation and FAQs)
• Related categories

We're excited to share that the Hospitality for Peace initiative is now live! (view press release)

We've already raised $52,500 from fellow hotel tech companies to provide much needed humanitarian relief in Ukraine.

CURRENT FUNDING UP TO $393,227! track progress live

On top of that, corporate partners have committed to matching an additional $280,000 when the campaign reaches $100k (view corporate partners)

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." ~ Hellen Keller

Needless to say, we're stronger and can make more of an impact when we work together as a community--and that's where you come in... 

• In order to unlock the full amount of match donations, we need to raise $100k from the community during the 30-day campaign between now and April 15
• Hotel tech companies have already donated $52,500 which means we only need to raise an additional $47,500k to unlock the full match donations
• We need your help to spread the word to your employees, colleagues and customers to make sure we hit the $100k milestone needed to unlock the full corporate match donations

A few easy ways you can help: 

1. Post on social media to help spread the word
2. Email your customers and partners
3. Email your employees & encourage them to share with their network
4. Add the solidarity ribbon to your website
5. Make a donation

To make it even easier for you to help spread the word and make an impact, we created copy/paste email templates and graphics for you to use.

We appreciate any support you and your team can provide to help maximize our impact as a community!

Later this month the Share of Voice variable will be given weight in the algorithm along with increased weight for review consistency which will therefore begin impacting rankings.  

To check your Share of Voice or Review Consistency head to the Reputation Report Card.

Want to learn more about the update? Learn more

Each year Hotel Tech Report puts out the definitive Hotel Technology Market Map used by the industry.  

Last year's 2021 Hotel Tech Market Map was one of the most downloaded pieces of content all year and gots included in the annual HotelTechIndex Market Leaders Report. 

HTR will be publishing the Official 2022 Market Map next month so please make sure that your company is properly represented and categorized.

Request market map update

Please complete the above inclusion request form by no later than February 15th to request any changes to how your company is represented in the market map prior to publication.  Please note that no requests will be accepted after this deadline.

Each quarter HTR releases updated audience stats as well as a trailing 1,000 leads snapshot that shows segmentation of recent leads through the platform.  

Below you will find the most recent audience/segmentation snapshot as of January 31, 2022 per HTR's Updated Media Kit.

TL;DR

• What is it...Once a year limited availability sponsorship opportunity for a single vendor to be the exclusive sponsor in each category of HTR's official budget season buyer's guide
• What's included...High quality turnkey co-branded content, exclusive native advertising placement in your category for a full year on Hotel Tech Report and 1-year content license to leverage the guide throughout your marketing to generate leads
• When is it available...2023 Budget Season Buyer's Guides are open for sponsors to reserve beginning April 1st for Premium Members and May 1st for basic members.  Join the waitlist for early access
• Limited availability...Since there is only one spot per year in each category, guides are offered on a first-come-first-served basis.  
• A few reasons to become a sponsor...Buyer's guides are one of HTR's best value offerings because they not only include turnkey content production but sponsorship also includes year round exclusivity as well as targeted native advertising front and center to own your category for a full year on HTR.  

👉 JOIN THE WAITLIST FOR EARLY ACCESS 👈

Related article: Buyer's guide sponsorship FAQs

What is a buyer's guide?

The goal of the budget season buyer's guides is to create a living document that continues to evolve year over year becoming the ultimate primer for each category.  HTR partners with one sponsor per category each year to be the exclusive sponsor of that year's budget season buyer's guide.

While the design and production of each buyers guide is handled by HTR, sponsors are featured prominently throughout the guide and on Hotel Tech Report for a full year through the following year budget season and additionally are able to contribute ideas, insights and content to infuse the guide with their unique expert perspective on the category.

Key Dates & Deadlines

*Underlined = sponsor involvement

• Jan 15 - April 1: HotelTechAward pre-sale early reservations access and waitlist open
• April 1 -May 1: Premium Member early reservation period
• May 1-June 1: Regular registration period
• June 15-July 15: HTR designs and produces buyers guides drafts
• July 22-August 8th: Sponsor feedback and content collaboration period (Round 1)
• August 1 - August 15: HTR implements round 1 feedback
• August 8 - August 15: Sponsor review period and final revisions (Round 2)
• August 15 - August 30: HTR implements final revisions
• September 1: Guides go live as they finish production and begin being promoted on HotelTech Report and sponsors receive hard copy along with 1-year content license
• Sept 1, 2022-Sept 1, 2023: 1-year buyers guide placement and promotion on Hotel Tech Report through 2023 budget season

Buyers guide sponsor FAQs

1. What does it mean to be a sponsor?
2. What are the benefits?
3. What is the process once my company registers?
4. How much does it cost?
5. Is there a performance marketing model available?

Earlier this morning HTR sent out the annual year in review notification email to all HotelTechAwards participants recapping your annual campaigns.

In order to send this email HTR exports data from the frozen database as of the 12/15 5pm awards deadline and maps the 27 merge fields and data points via Zapier to populate and send the automated notifications.    

Shortly after sending the notification, we identified that one of the 27 fields was not mapped correctly and was fetching from the incorrect column which was the 'final score points value' (shown below).

Please note that this is the only of the 27 variables that was not mapped correctly and in no way impacts your ranking in the awards.  The data to audit in the email is all of the inputs of the raw points score which were all correct (eg. reviews, integrations, partner reccs, employee survey completions, etc). That said, if you would like to receive your corrected/true final points score from the frozen database please reach out via the live chat on site.

We apologize for any confusion this may have caused and please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have.

Geographic bonuses in the HT Score are counted based on # of reviews a given product has with 5 or more reviews from a given country or region.  Now you can see which countries and regions you have achieved this for right from the reputation report card.

It's the final week of the 2022 HotelTechAwards and things are really heating up 🔥 with tons of close races!

By now you've had 13 weeks to collect as many reviews and bonus points as possible, but to help you into the final stretch we've put together a guide to help you pick up last minute bonus points and maximize your chances of winning with recommendations for each day of the final week.

• 🗓 Monday Dec 6: Launch Your Final Review Campaign!
• 🗓 Tuesday Dec 7-8: Submit Verifications for Unverified Reviews
• 🗓 Thursday Dec 9: Max Out Your Partner Recommendations and verify all integrations
• 🗓 Friday Dec 10: Maximize Your Team's Completions for the Best Places to Work Company Culture Survey
• 🗓 Monday Dec 13: Final Checkins and Report Card Audit

• 🗓 Tuesday Dec 15: Awards Period Ends, Data Freeze & Dark Period

  
  

🗓 Monday December 6: Launch Your Final Review Campaign!

The most successful review campaigns include at least one followup (check best practices) so with essentially a week left, if you're going to run a final campaign--today's the day! 

🧮  Review Volume Impact & Milestones

• Minimum review threshold: Meet the minimum review threshold in your category to make sure you aren't penalized for being under the category average
• Customer Advocates Bonus: Secure your position as one of the top 3 most reviewed products in your category to earn points or become the most reviewed to maximize the Customer Advocates Bonus
• Geographic Reach bonus: Get 5 or more reviews from as many countries and regions as you can to maximize your geographic reach bonuses
• Tie Breakers: In races where two companies have the same amount of points when data is exported, ties are broken based on the product with the most reviews

🚀  Resources to Boost Your Review Volume

1. Review Campaign Best Practices
2. Top Ways to Collect Reviews for Basic Members
3. How to Setup Automated Review Campaigns
4. Pre-written Copy/Paste Starter Templates
5. How to Motivate Your Team with an Internal Contest

🗓 Tuesday December 7-8: Submit Verifications for Unverified Reviews

In most cases users verify their review simply and easily right away by clicking the verification link but in some cases a hotelier may just forget or accidentally not click the verification link.  On December 7-8th the Review Manager will be unlocked for all participants to be able to submit manual verifications for reviews that were rejected. Please make sure to carefully follow the requirements as stated on the verification upload modal to ensure that your uploads pass the verification criteria.

👉 Click here to learn how to get unverified reviews verified

🗓 Thursday December 10: Max Out Your Partner Recommendations & Integrations

Partners are a critical part of the hotel tech stack and ecosystem and you earn bonus points for the strength of your partner ecosystem via (1) verified integrations and (2) partner recommendations.

🧮  Impact & Milestones

• Verified Integrations: Make sure to list and verify each of your integrations to maximize your connectivity score.
• Partner Recommendations: Reach out to partners to request partner recommendations to maximize your partner recommendations bonus.

🚀  Resources to Maximize Your Partner Ecosystem Points

1. What if a company won't verify our integration?
2. Inviting an Unlisted Integration Partner
3. Hotelier Reviews vs. Partner Recommendations
4. How to get partner recommendations (copy/paste template inside)

🗓 Friday December 11: Make Sure Your Team Has to Completed the Company Culture Survey

Remember, the Company Culture bonus is awarded to companies who make the 10 Best Places to Work list and is added off-platform after data is exported.  While these bonus points are nominal, they can be MAKE OR BREAK IN CLOSE RACES!

• If your company makes the list...you get bonus points for Company Culture
• If your company doesn't make the list...NOTHING HAPPENS!

You have nothing to lose so its worth a chance and can be what makes or breaks close races!

👉 Click here to get the company culture survey to send to your team

🗓 Monday December 14: Final and Report Card Audit

Hopefully by now you've done everything in your power to maximize your points so today is a good day to just check your Reputation Report Card to see if there are any last minute bonus points you can still pick up for any of your products.

👉 Check Your Reputation Report Card

🗓 Tuesday December 15: Awards End, Data Freeze & Dark Period!

👉 Key Dates, Rules & Processes Leading into the Announcement of Winners