New & Improved Gold & Platinum Membership Plans

Along with the new year HTR is rolling out new and improved v4 Gold & Platinum Premium Membership plans that now include flexible HTR Agency credit that can be used towards advertising, sponsored content and demand generation campaigns.  

What's New:

  • Gold Membership...now includes $10,000 worth of flexible HTR Agency credit
  • Platinum Membership...now includes $20,000 worth of flexible HTR Agency credit

Head to the Membership Portal in the vendor dashboard to learn more and upgrade


HT Score Scheduler Increased Frequency Through the End of the Awards

As we round the corner into the last month of the HotelTechAwards, we have increased the HT Score scheduler to run twice a day (typically runs only once a day).

This will provide participants more visibility into real time rankings day-to-day without having to wait a full 24-hours to see updated scoring.


NOTE ABOUT SUB-CATEGORY RANKINGS: Please note that given the amount of dynamic data, rich filters, content and multiple languages the category pages are extremely dense/heavy pages.  As such, the page content is cached weekly in order to improve page load speed for users.

2023 Awards: What's New

While almost identical to prior years, this year's HotelTechAwards come with a few new updates to be aware of going into the competition.

  1. (NEW) Rules agreement. Your team should have received the rules agreement. This is a new requirement this year - all competitors must sign the document by September 23rd in order to be eligible for recognition as a winner, finalist or any other prize. Learn more
  2. (NEW) Leaderboard visualizations: The live leaderboard is now available from within the vendor dashboard and includes a bar chart visualization with hover tool tips that break down the HTScore and show the underlying data in realtime Learn more
  3. (NEW) Verified case studies. Next week HTR is rolling out our latest feature - verified case studies. We'll send a dedicated update about this feature and case studies will be a ranking factor in the HotelTechAwards this year so stay tuned. Rest assured all competitors will receive access to the feature at the exact same time to keep the competition fair as always. Learn more
  4. (NEW) Platform awards. This year's awards include 3x new platform awards to recognize companies that have built a suite of products that that enable hotels perform and execute essential use cases and work flows that span Ecommerce, Operations and Guest Experience Learn more

Introducing the App Store API

Want to add HTR product ratings to enrich the experience for your user's in your app store, integrations page or marketplace?

The App Store API gives forward thinking media partners, app stores, marketplace facilitators and service providers API access to HTR's data set allowing approved partners to easily enrich their product with HTR ratings and reviews to add helpful context for users and bring your app stores to life. 

Learn more


Added Visibility for Premium Members

The new sub-category pages signal a shift in perspective where there is no longer an emphasis on a 'one size fits all' approach.

Instead the UX of the site is built around buyer persona segmentation and filtering tools to help buyers find the best fit for them based on their property/ies characteristics including: hotel size, property type, location and even PMS.

By putting the power in the hands of users to find their perfect fit based on data in the platform with similar property characteristics to theirs, there is no longer an attempt to make a one size fits all recommendations and as such--the default sort is no longer entirely rankings based (until a user applies their property attribute filters) and now serves as a way for Premium Members to gain added visibility on the site.

The default sort gives all members (any plan/tier) preferred placement and boosted visibility via the default sort and then sorts by HT Score.  

These new placements in the default sort are just one more way, beyond the already existing boosted visibility placements, to give members even more visibility and benefits to drive more leads.

Members will also now receive preferred priority visibility via collections product tiles in organic content produced by HTR (or guest posts submitted by our contributor network) that relate to your category or categories to drive you even more visibility in high intent content to make sure that your brand and products surface as many times as possible throughout the buying journey for your related topics and categories on the site.  View example contributor post with related member inclusion.


Special Thank You to Premium Members

By supporting the HTR platform as members you share in our vision and enable us to continue to develop educational content, tools and campaigns that strive towards our mission of empowering hoteliers to leverage their greatest asset, technology.  Together we help raise awareness that great technology is essential to staying competitive and running a modern hospitality business.  

While we are a community and an industry organization of sorts, we are also a marketing platform and place strong emphasis on performance and value for our members which is why membership is priced to ensure that if our members get even just a single lead each year that they wouldn't have otherwise, it will not only justify their investment but it will guarantee a positive ROI with additional leads, awareness and benefits all generating exponential ROI making sure that HTR is your marketing team's best investment.

With this change, users still have the opportunity to sort and filter by key attributes including the HT Score--but this default sort aims to add even more value and visibility for members at no additional cost to generate an even stronger ROI out of your membership.

(CORRECTION) Awards Year in Review Email

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.



Winners Guide to the Final Week of the 2022 HotelTechAwards!

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 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

Subsidiary Membership Cap

Last year we rolled out subsidiary memberships for companies with multiple subsidiaries to be able to be able to purchase membership for multiple of their companies at discounted pricing for up to 3 companies.

Today we're rolling out a max spend cap on subsidiaries so that companies who purchase their primary base membership and additional discounted subsidiary Silver Memberships have a cap of 4 additional subsidiaries and any additional subsidiaries beyond 4 (plus the primary company's membership) get free Silver Membership included at no additional charge and still get all of the benefits of Silver Membership (view benefits).

Are you a company with 4 or more subsidiaries? Reach out via the live chat on site to get heavily discounted membership portfolio wide.



Here's how it works for all inclusive portfolio wide Silver Membership:

Company
Membership
Pricing
Benefits
Primary Company
(base membership)
Silver AnnualStandard pricingAll
Subsidiary 1Silver Annual
50% offAll
Subsidiary 2
Silver Annual
50% off
All
Subsidiary 3
Silver Annual
50% off
All
Additional SubsidiariesSilver Annual
FREEAll

📬 Introducing the New Lead Inbox

Introducing, the all new redesigned lead inbox with a new clean design, enriched leads, premium member discounts, deal size calculations, a customizable metrics calculator and more.

  1. ✅Redesigned and simplified inbox design
  2. ✅Enriched lead details (phone number, PMS data, multi-prop)
  3. Dynamically calculate lead deal size calculations and company metrics like ROI and estimated revenue based on your company's internal metrics
  4. Premium Members now get 50% off all leads
  5. ✅ Added targeting to reveal lead PMS data prior to accepting


1. Redesigned and simplified inbox design


2. Enriched lead details with phone number, PMS and multi-property

Please note that if you have CRM forwarding turned on it will continue to work with the new form fields.  If you have Zapier followup automation setup to map fields and automate followup, you can now add the new fields to your integration.


3. Deal sizes and customizable metrics calculator

Dynamically calculate lead deal size calculations and company metrics like ROI and estimated revenue based on your company's internal metrics.  Learn more about how lead metrics and calculations work


4. Member discount increased from 30%-->50%

The 20% increases nearly doubles the previous discount amount available to members of 30% and is included for all members (on any plan) and doesn't require any plan upgrades or increases 🙌


5. Added targeting to reveal lead PMS data prior to accepting

🏆 Let the 2022 HotelTechAwards begin!

Its September 1st and the annual HotelTechAwards officially kickoff today! 🏎  🏁 

This is arguably the most important HotelTechAwards competition ever. The last 18-months have seen the hotel industry undergo an unprecedented digital transformation.  During this same period, thousands of hotels around the world have changed ownership (or management) and the hospitality workforce has shifted dramatically.

This game of musical chairs amongst hotel tech buyers is creating opportunities for the top hotel tech companies to pull away from the pack.

What separates the best hotel tech companies from the rest?  That's where the HotelTechAwards come in: using data to measure customer satisfaction, partner ecosystem strength, customer support processes, peer trustworthiness and more to determine the most loved products in hotel tech according to the judges that matter most, hoteliers.

Almost every major hotel tech company from San Francisco to Sydney is registered to compete in this year's awards for a chance to win the most coveted award in hotel tech so make sure to start collecting reviews asap to increase your chances of winning.

Below please find a few tips to help you kick things off strong and as always, if you have any questions along the way feel free to reach out anytime via the live chat on HTR--we're here to help!

👇  Scroll down for week 1 tips 👇


Week 1 Tips and Announcements

  • Live leaderboard and coaching checklist activated: The live leaderboard and coaching checklist are now activated so registered companies can check your eligibility status and current standings in real time and get tips to pick up more points
  • Automated review manager is now unlocked for 30-days: Included with your registration is 30-days of unlimited access to the Automated Review Manager, a tool to help you save time, automate your outreach and collect more reviews.  The review manager is now unlocked in all participants dashboards so if you aren't a Premium Member and don't typically have access to the review manager--make sure to take advantage of it to save time and get off to a strong start
  • Coaching tips coming your way: We'll be sending out tips every few weeks to registered companies to checkin and help you focus your efforts on important milestones to stay on the road to victory.  
  • ✅  First target milestone target...Meet the minimum eligibility requirement of 25-reviews as quickly as possible to get a strong start and set your team up for success (you can check your status in the live leaderboard here)

Learn how to launch an automated campaign

30-day free access ends on September 30, 2021


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