On June 15th, the 2021 budget season buyer's guides officially go on sale to all vendors in the HTR community with one spot per category to be the exclusive sponsor in your category for a full year on HotelTechReport.

While its certainly not a typical year for any of us we do think this is one of HTR's best value offerings with turnkey content production, year round exclusivity and targeted brand placement all bundled into one package (with optional performance and localization add-ons).

Budget season is still a few months away so now is the time to solidify brand visibility.  Standing out with a clear message to buyers this budget season is going to be absolutely critical in what is sure to be a noisy world of COVID recovery marketing.

Please keep in mind that since there is only one spot per year in each category, guides are offered on a first-come-first-served basis.

Key Dates & Deadlines

• Feb 1-June 1: 2020 HotelTechAward winner early reservation period
• June 1-June 15: Premium Member early reservation period
• June 15-July 15: Regular reservation period
• July 15-Aug 15: Production period
• Aug 15-Sept 15: Guides go live as they finish production and being being promoted on HotelTech Report
• Sept 15, 2020-Sept 15, 2021: 1-year buyers guide placement and promotion on HotelTechReport through 2022 budget season

What's new in 2021?

We've made some major enhancements to buyers guides to give sponsors even more visibility and value including:

• 🎨 Enhanced branding to make sure your brand resonates and stays top of mind
• 🙌  New front and center in-category native brand placement 
• 🎁 Optional performance based add-ons
• 🇸🇧 Localization & translation to leverage your guide in local marketing (optional add-on)
• 💸 Performance to enlist HTR to run turnkey campaigns to your guide and generate downloads for you (optional add-on)

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?

Want to to save time and increase lead conversion? Check out our new step-by-step guide on how to automate your lead followup with HTR's CRM forwarding + Zapier

🤖 (NEW) 6-Step Guide to Automating Your Lead Followup with Zapier →

Research has shown that when it comes to reviews websites, the average consumer expects a profile to have at least 25-reviews (some research shows up to 40...) before trusting the profile and its star rating.  

This is the rationale behind the implementation of the May 2020 Matched Leads update and we will continue to integrate this golden number into decisions made throughout the product to drive more visibility to trustworthy profiles and avoid directing hoteliers to profiles that lack trustworthiness and sufficient feedback to help them make an informed decision.

While it is only a small percentage of matched leads that can potentially get matched with vendors without a strong reputation (since matching happens based on verified reviews in the platform)--it can happen on occasion which is why we have always cautioned against vendors without strong reputations on Hotel Tech Report from accepting matched leads (see: Tips Before Getting Started with Leads).

The first thing HTR's users are likely to do when matched vendors reach out is lookup the vendor's profiles on HTR and if they don't see a strong reputation they aren't likely to be interested in following up meaning its a bad experience for them, a bad experience for the vendor.

This is why we recently deployed an update so that now only vendors with strong reputations on Hotel Tech Report will be able to access matched leads.

What is considered a strong reputation?

You must have a minimum of 25 reviews.  25 is the golden number when it comes to consumer/buyer trust of profiles on reviews websites.  Please remember that this is in place to protect buyers and help ensure that you are setup for success when HTR connects you with leads.

💡Need help collecting reviews? Learn more

Why can't vendors without a strong reputation connect with matched leads anymore?

The short answer is that it is a bad experience for users, and vendors without strong reputations on HTR are not likely to be successful with matched leads anyways making it a bad experience for vendors as well (both of which hurt the HTR brand so its a lose-lose-lose!).

Remember, matched leads did not ask to connect with your brand specifically the same way that direct leads do, but rather said that they are open to connecting with recommendations for providers in your category.  Therefore while it is only a small percentage of matched leads that get matched with vendors with weak reputation, it does happen on occasion.  The first thing HTR's hotelier users are likely to do when matched vendors reach out is lookup your profiles on HTR so:

1. It is a bad experience for our users (hoteliers): Matched leads ask HTR for recommendations and opt in if they are willing to connect with HTR's recommended vendors based on the data in the platform.  That said, the first thing most HTR users do when they are contacted by a potential match is check their profile.  In cases where matches didn't have strong reputations we had some hoteliers reach out frustrated that they were contacted by a vendor with a poor (or no) reputation on HTR (understandably so)
2. Vendors with bad reputations were getting frustrated: While we had hoteliers frustrated as mentioned in #1, we also had vendors who were contacting these leads frustrated that the leads didn't want to speak with them.  We had to then explain that we advise against connecting with matched leads until their reputation was stronger and even so, many continued to connect with hoteliers and then they get frustrated the hotelier didn't want to talk to them. 
3. Negative brand impact to HTR: As much as we want to drive as many leads as possible to our community, ultimately trust with our users is our top priority so we decided that we couldn't take this risk anymore and had to block vendors without strong reputations from being able to access matches.  While the system is automated and crowd sourced based on reviews, when users come to HTR to ask for recommendations if we connect them with vendors based on reputation who don't have strong reputations--we lose trust with buyers and it hurts the HTR brand.

✅ The solution: Make sure your product has at least 25 reviews to unlock matched leads and be able to connect with in market buyers looking for solutions in your category.

Since the entire industry is undoubtedly struggling and there is constantly grim news left and right--we wanted to offer a glimmer of hope to members of the HTR community by sharing a few of our Q1 lead segmentation metrics during the crisis.

Hotels are closed, vendor sales outreach is frozen and conferences are cancelled for the foreseeable future but the good news is that hoteliers are still thinking about tech and buyers are still doing research.  Stay positive hotel techies! #hoteltechstrong

Q1 Lead Segmentation Summary

• 💼 Top lead job title: Owners (45%)
• 🛌 Top property size: Mid-sized up to 200 rooms (39.4%)
• 🏨 Top segment: Boutiques (31%)
• 📍Top region: Europe (37%)
• 🏢 Top department: Operations (28%)
• 🛒 Top category: Property Management Systems (16%)

By job title:

By property size:

By property type:

By region:

By category: 

• 📈 HTR's audience has grown more than 3x!
• 💸 We launched lead generation connecting vendors with thousands of in-market hoteliers looking for new tools to grow their businesses
  
• 🛎 We launched the GCSC Support Certification
• 👑 We launched Premium 2.0 with tons of new features and benefits
• 📝 We launched HTR's sponsored content studio

As our audience continues to grow (3x year-over-year!) and our offerings continue to evolve, we've received lots of requests from companies who participate in multiple HTR initiatives and campaigns throughout the year for custom all-inclusive packages to help plan/budget better for the year ahead (and benefit from additional bundled package discounts).

And that's why we're rolling out all new Premium Membership Packages that include: 💸 lead credit, 🏆 HotelTechAwards, 📝Sponsored content, 📣 Advertising, 🤑 members only discounts and more!

Premium 3.0 Membership Packages

1. Basic: Start out free with basic profiles, pick and choose which initiatives you want to participate in ala carte.
2. Silver: Unlock a suite of members only features, benefits & exclusive discounts to improve your reputation, boost your visibility and enable your sales teams.
3. Gold (NEW): Supplement your membership with advertising and sponsored content to build your brand and boost your visibility and get more leads.
4. Platinum(NEW): Partner with HTR as your outsourced content marketing and PR team to keep your brand top of mind for buyers year round.

New benefits added for existing 2.0 and new 3.0 members: 

If you are currently a Premium Member you are welcome to stay on your current membership for the duration of your membership period and will continue to receive your benefits at the time of signup (either with your 1.0 or 2.0 plan) as well as some new benefits.

• ⚡️Improved lead visibility: Added visibility to generate more leads via the Lead booster update
• 💌 Enhanced review collection: Enhanced functionality for manual verifications, review update requests, internal contests, simultaneous campaigns+campaign analytics
• ⚖️ Upgraded comparison pages: Feature Premium profile content in product comparison pages Learn more
• 🤑 More discounts: Advertising (Learn more), sponsored content, annual content packages (Learn more) and discounted leads (Learn more)
• 📝 New content credit usage alternative: Premium 2.0 Members (join period= 6/1/19-3/1/20) will now be able to use their content credits towards sponsored content or lead credit (2.0 plans only). Learn more

New 3.0 only benefits (included only with 3.0 Membership Packages):

If you would like to gain all of the benefits of the new Membership Packages you are able to upgrade at the difference in price between your current plan and the new plan you would like to upgrade to.  Depending on your plan, new Membership Packages include: 

1. 💸 Lead credit: Pro and plus plans include substantial lead credit to connect with in market buyers year round
2. 👩🏼‍💻Guest posting: Post your thought leadership on HTR to build your brand as a thought leader.
3.  📝 Sponsored articles: Get sponsored articles with pro and plus plans
4. 📣 Advertising: Build your brand through strategic targeted advertising via the largest audience of hotel tech buyers on the web
5. 🛒 Package discounts: New plus and pro membership plans include 30%-40% bundled discounts
6. 🎁 Upfront payment bonus: HotelTechAwards, lead credit and review incentive cards included with 3.0 plans

FAQs

1. Why Premium?
2. What are the changes and new benefits included with membership?
3. Is there a change in pricing for Premium 3.0 membership packages?
4. What options is HTR offering for COVID crisis relief?
5. What do I have to do to take advantage of the renewal offer?
6. How does HTR membership stack up to other marketing investments?
7. If my company is on a Premium 2.0 plan currently, do I have to upgrade to a new 3.0 plan and is there any change in pricing?You are welcome to stay on your current 2.0 plan at the same pricing with your current benefits plus the new free benefits added to your membership at no additional charge (see above)
8. What do I do if my company is a current Premium Member on a 2.0 plan and we want to upgrade to Premium 3.0 Membership Package to take advantage of the additional benefits? Please write in via the live chat on Hotel Tech Report to request an upgrade link.
9. What is the price change from 2.0 Membership to 3.0 Membership? This year we added tons of new features and benefits but pricing stayed the same with no increase.  The only change to pricing is that we no longer offer the 15% discount for upfront payment but instead offer an upfront payment incentive (includes HotelTechAwards entries, lead credit and review incentive cards) none of which were previously included and this incentive is actually worth more than the 15% discount.

If you're reading this it probably means that your annual Premium Membership is up for renewal shortly.  As a thank you to loyal members, we extend a renewal offer prior to your membership expiration.

Typically the renewal offer is activated if you renew your membership prior to your expiration date; however, during COVID we are offering 2 ways to help companies in need (valid through July 1, 2020): 

1. Option #1: Get a 60-day extension on your renewal offer

   1. 🎁 Offer: Members up for renewal during COVID that want to renew but aren't financially able to during the crisis are eligible for a 60-day extension on the renewal offer.
   2. Eligibility: Existing Premium Members up for renewal between March 1-July 1
   3. Activation: To activate the extension, please write in via the live chat on Hotel Tech Report prior to your membership expiration date and copy this message: "We would like to renew our HTR Premium Membership and take advantage of the renewal offer but would like to request a 60-day extension on our annual membership payment."

2. Option #2: Double the content credit

   1. 🎁 Offer: To show our appreciation to companies who are able to continue their membership during this difficult period, we will be offering 2x the standard content credit renewal bonus 
   2. Eligibility: Existing Premium Members up for renewal between March 1-July 1 who renew their membership prior to their membership expiration date
   3. Activation: Automatically applied to your account within 48-hours of your renewal upgrade submission

Deferred payment offer terms and conditions: 

• ✔ Company must be an existing Premium Member for a minimum of 6-months 
• ✔ Deferred payment is a only available to companies who intend to continue their membership at the end of the 60-day period
• ✔ Company must agree to resume membership for at least one full period after the deferment period expires (at which point you can upgrade or downgrade at anytime)

Several members have requested to exchange content coverage for guest posting so as of this month we will be allowing all members with content coverage included with their plans to opt for guest posting instead of content coverage.

HotelTechReport is constantly growing our audience and rolling out new features, benefits and exclusive discounts for Premium Members to constantly increase the value of membership for our members.

About once a year HTR repackages Premium membership plans which occasionally comes with a slight change in pricing to cover the new plan benefits.

For existing members, most new benefits are automatically grandfathered in at no additional charge for the duration of your membership; however, some new benefits do require you to update to the most current version of Premium to access them.

Below shows each version of Premium, any price changes and new benefits that were rolled out (as well as which are included for existing members and which require an upgrade to the current version of premium).

Current version: Premium 3.0

Premium Membership version overview

• 🚀 Premium v1.0 Membership (Oct 2018): The first membership plan ever rolled out on HotelTechReport which included basic functionality like v1 premium profiles, v1 automated review manager and press release posting-- 📈HTR audience/traffic: 14,997 users
• 🚀 Premium v2.0 Membership (June 2019): Updated membership plans with new benefits including hosted report+unlimited downloads, content credits, discounted sponsored content and advertising, new automation features for the automated review manager and more (Price change from previous year: + ~$1,200/year) -- 📈HTR audience/traffic: 20,284 users (⬆+35%)
• 🚀 Premium v3.0 Membership (April 2020): This year we added thousands of dollars in new features, benefits and discounts for members (Price change from prior year: no price increase to help companies struggling during the COVID crisis) -- 📈HTR audience/traffic: 39,278 users (⬆+94%)

👉 Current Audience Stats (updated 11/1/20): 96k (⬆+146%) View audience stats in Media Kit

🚀 Premium 1.0 Membership (Oct 2018)

• 🗓Member registration date: Upgraded between October 2018 - June 2019
• 📈HTR audience/traffic: 14,997 users

Benefits included:

1. Automated review manager (v1) to save time and generate reviews at scale to improve your rankings, reputation and visibility
2. Upgraded premium profiles (v1) to transform your profiles into your best piece of sales collateral
3. Respond to reviews to show prospects you're engaged and color any critiques
4. Press release posting to save hundreds of dollars sharing your companies' latest news, announcements and updates

🚀 Premium 2.0 Membership (June 2019)

• 🗓Member registration date: Upgraded between June 15, 2019 - April 1, 2020
• 📈HTR audience/traffic: 20,284 users (⬆+35%)
• 💸Price change: ~$100/mo (varies by plan)

Includes all benefits of 1.0 PLUS:

1. Update #1: Hosted reports + unlimited downloads
2. Update #2: Content Credits*
3. Update #3: Automated Review Manager (v2)
4. Update #4: Premium profile redesign (v2)
5. Update #5: Exclusive Access & Discounts on Sponsored Content*

*1.0 members are required to upgrade to current version to access benefit, all other benefits are grandfathered in for the duration of your membership at no additional charge

🚀 Premium 3.0 Membership (latest version)

• 🗓 Member registration date: Upgraded between April 1, 2020 - present
• 📈 HTR audience/traffic: 39,278 users (⬆+94%) (April 2020)
• 💸 Price change: No price change.  Upfront payment benefits (see #11 below) replaced previous 15% annual member discount from 1.0 and 2.0 plans

Update (June 2021): HTR audience update (as of June '21) = 140k monthly users up from 39k when Premium 3.0 Membership plans were rolled out. To help companies during COVID Premium 3.0 Membership pricing has not changed since the rollout of 3.0 back in April 2020).

Includes all benefits of 2.0 PLUS:

1. ⚡️Improved lead visibility: Added visibility to generate more leads via the Lead booster update
2. 💌 Enhanced review collection: Enhanced functionality for manual verifications, review update requests, internal contests, simultaneous campaigns+campaign analytics
3. ⚖️ Upgraded comparison pages: Feature Premium profile content in product comparison pages Learn more
4. 🤑 More discounts: Advertising (Learn more), sponsored content, annual content packages (Learn more) and discounted leads (Learn more)
5. 💸 Lead credit: Gold and Platinum plans include substantial lead credit to connect with in market buyers year round*
6. 👩🏼‍💻Guest posting: Post your thought leadership on HTR to build your brand as a thought leader.
7.  📝 Sponsored articles: Get sponsored articles with Gold and Platinum plans*
8. 📣 Advertising: Build your brand through strategic targeted advertising via the largest audience of hotel tech buyers on the web*
9. 🛒 Package discounts: New Gold and Platinum Membership plans that include advertising, sponsored content, buyers guides, lead credit and more plus 30%-40% bundled discounts
10. 🎁 Annual Member Upfront payment bonus: HotelTechAwards, lead credit and review incentive cards included with 3.0 plans*

* Existing Premium 1.0 and 2.0 members are required to upgrade to the current version of Premium to access these benefits, all other benefits are grandfathered in for the duration of your membership at no additional charge140k

WARNING: This scoring has been deprecated and is no longer applicable              View update

Similar to the way Google is constantly adding new variables to improve the accuracy and usefulness of their search rankings, we are constantly looking for new ways to do improve the HT Score.

At the end of March we will be rolling out several updates centered around building additional quality signals into the HT Score to increase its robustness and accuracy. Most of these variables were introduced into this year's HotelTechAwards (view scoring methodology) and now will be built into the HT Score algorithm as of the end of March.

Below we will cover (1) What are the new variables and (2) How to improve your HT Score/rankings.

__

I. How the new bonus variables/quality signals are weighted in the total HT Score calculation

The majority of the HT Score 90%+ is entirely based on customer reviews and always will be. The below Please note that these are relative percentage weights, not raw points in the HT Score.

Verified customer reviews & ratings variables make up 85% weighting of the HT Score algorithm with additional quality signals making up the additional 15%.

• Customer reviews related variables (85%): Customer reviews (80%, includes quantity, quality and recency of reviews), Customer advocates bonus (2.5%), Global reach bonus (2.5%)
• Additional quality signals: Partner recommendations bonus (3%), Verified customer support bonus (3%), Integrations bonus (2%), Company staying power (3%), Company resources (3%)

___

II. What are the new variables

👏 Customer Advocates Bonus

• What is it: Top 3 products with the most reviews (aka customer advocates) in the category will receive additional points
• Why is it important: The current HT Score only looks to identify if company meets the category average number of reviews; however, it doesn't fairly reward top companies with extremely high customer engagement.
• How to earn points: Most reviews // 2nd most // 3rd most
• Weight: up to 2.5%

🌏 Global Reach Bonus

• What is it: Bonus for products who have 5 or more verified reviews from at least 3 countries
• Why is it important: Scaling to, and maintaining, a global presence is resource intensive and requires strong product market fit, experienced leadership and strong business fundamentals each of which are strong success indicators. Hotel Tech Report's audience is also global and therefore the probability of best-fit matches for users increases for companies with a global presence.
• How to earn points: >3 countries // >5 countries // >7 countries
• Weight: up to 2.5%

📞 Certified Support Bonus

• What is it: Verified customer support certification achieved based on the Global Support Certification Standards
• Why is it important: Customer support is one of the most critical decision factors when hoteliers are selecting new vendors but is also one of the most difficult to assess in the buying process. Companies who have opened their systems and invested into tools and processes to help their clients succeed and have achieved HTR's GCSC Customer Support Certification earn additional points.
• How to earn points: Level I // Level II // Level III // Level IV
• Weight: up to 3%

🤝 Partner Recommendations Bonus

• What is it: Products who have at least 5 partner recommendations.
• Why is it important: Partner recommendations are a strong quality indicator and vote of confidence from industry experts that speak to the product, team and company

• How to earn points: >5 recommendations // >10 recommendations

  // >15 recommendations

• Weight: up to 3%

🔌 Integrated Vendor Bonus

• What is it: Products who have at least the average number of verified integrations relative to other products in their category.
• Why is it important: Integrations are one of the most critical elements to increase tooling efficiency, time savings and the ability to leverage data while reduce redundancies, manual entry and disparate data.
• How to earn points: Meets category average // Most integrations in category
• Weight: up to 2.5%

👬 Company Resource Bonus

• What is it: Companies with at least 15 employees 
• Why is it important: Having more resources means a company has more to invest in their product, R&D, customer support and growth. Since many companies' funding rounds are not publicly available or they are funded by cashflow, number of employees serves as a proxy for resource availability.
• How to earn points: Company size
• Weight: up to 3%

⏰ Company Staying Power Bonus

• What is it: Companies who have been in business for at least 3 years.
• Why is it important: When choosing technology vendors, hoteliers are looking for a partner that will be around for the long haul. More years in business is a strong indicator of a stable and sustainable company that will be around for more to come.
• How to earn points: Years in business

• Weight: up to 3%

  
  

💬 Minimum Review Threshold Update

• What is it: Previously, the category average was calculated based on the average number of reviews for products in the category with >10 reviews but will now only factor in products with >30 reviews.
• Why is it important: As categories develop and have higher review volumes, products with <30 reviews were given an unfair advantage despite have 1/3 or even less the number of reviews and being able to compete side-by-side. The minimum review threshold will remain in place to ensure a level playing field for smaller companies who don't have as many clients to get reviews from but will also fairly compensate companies who have drastically higher review volumes and customer advocates by increasing the requirements for the category average.
• How to earn points: Check the minimum review threshold for your products in your vendor dashboard and make sure you are above the category average.

III. How to improve your HT Score/rankings

Below are 6 simple ways to improve your HT Score or you can check out our more in-depth guide in the help center here.

1. Get more reviews Learn more
2. Get more partner recommendations Learn more
3. List and verify your integrations Learn more
4. Get more reviews from clients in other countries Learn more
5. Earn the GCSC Customer Support Certification Learn more
6. Review the bonus variables to identify more opportunities Learn more

Want to get custom recommendations to improve your HT Score? 

Write in via the live chat on Hotel Tech Report and we'll send you your current standing and how to improve as shown in the screenshot below.

WARNING: This scoring has been deprecated and is no longer applicable