This week in hospitality, the industry reported on the challenges hoteliers are facing around incorporating user generated content into advertising. Hotel News Now gave us the highlights on STR’s August performance data, and Travel Trends released an editorial on the controversy surrounding price parity agreements.

User Generated Content Marketing

Samantha Shankman at Skift published an article on Wednesday about user generated content marketing in travel. The article highlights some best practices with regards to how hoteliers should integrate user generated content marketing into their hotel’s advertising strategy without getting into a legally sticky situation. The bottom line? It’s best to only use photos from guests who have given permission for their use.

CLICK HERE to read the article and learn more.

August Performance Data from STR

This week, Hotel News Now published a handy dandy infographic on STR’s hotel performance data from the month of August. Here are some of the highlights:

  • August demand growth of 4.8% was the second highest this year
  • RevPAR increased 9.4%
  • ADR growth (+5.4%) was the highest reported since January 2008
  • Supply growth hit 1% after 44 consecutive months of growth sales below 1%
  • August saw the highest group room ADR increase this year (+4.1%)

CLICK HERE to view the infographic.

Price Parity or Price Fixing?

One of the headaches hoteliers often encounter when working with an OTA is the standard price parity agreement. While there are ways to get around these agreements, Martin Kelly at Travel Trends makes an interesting point. “‘Price parity’ – which describes the practice of charging the same rate across all channels and punishing those that don’t comply – is actually industry spin for rate fixing, which is illegal just about everywhere.”

CLICK HERE to read more of Kelly’s editorial piece.

We want to know what you think about price parity agreements. Should they be legal? Tell us what you think in the comments below!