Wow! What a year! On behalf of Odysys, I would like to thank everyone in the inn, bed & breakfast, and small hotel industry. After reflecting on 2017, I am humbled by how wonderful our clients are, how amazing this industry is, and how fortunate we are to be able to connect with so many passionate innkeepers.
If I had to select one word to describe Odysys in 2017, I would choose “innovation,” not just in terms of technology but also in our team. We are fortunate to have many talented employees with diverse skills, knowledge and enthusiasm for the hospitality industry, and above all, amazing attitudes. Thanks team!
And of course, thank you to all of our customers as well. I can’t tell you how much your business means to us. It has been a pleasure to be able to work with you every day of 2017 and we look forward to working with you for the next 365 days too. I love the fact that we have the privilege to call many of you friends. Thank you!
Most Popular Odysys Blog Posts This Year
I would also like to thank everyone who has read and followed the Odysys blog this year. We have covered a lot, from social media to local search marketing to payment gateways, and we hope to continue to share some of the best digital marketing tips and insights with you in the new year. We created 48 new blog posts this year (not including this one). These are the 5 most popular by views & shares:
- 58 Creative Fall Marketing Ideas For Your B&B or Hotels: Fall is the perfect time to rethink your marketing efforts and try out new strategies to drive more traffic to your website and attract more bookings at your property. We assembled a master list of all the best fall marketing ideas to help you spice up your current marketing strategy and attract more guests to your property.
- 3 Things Every Innkeeper Should Do This Shoulder Season: Don’t slack off during your property’s shoulder season. Use the slow time to focus on marketing and implement new changes and improvements.
- How to Choose Keywords to Drive Reservations: Keyword selection forms the very foundation of SEO. Identifying your keywords, and implementing them correctly, can mean the difference between more direct bookings and not being found at all. Learn the ins and outs of choosing the right keywords to attract more visitors to your site and more guests to your property.
- Why You Should Bid on Your B&B or Hotel Brand Name in Search Engines: Advertising on your own brand name in search engines is a cost-effective and beneficial way to beat out your competitors, increase the number of clicks on your site, and attract more bookings at your property.
- 4 Ways to Make Your Property’s Brand Search Results Superb: Branded Searches are one of the best ways to draw clicks to your page and encourage potential guests to make a direct booking. Implementing these tips will help you convert the easiest direct bookings of all – the guests who already want to stay with you!
We also launched our first 2 industry surveys…
- Results: Reservation, Survey & Cancellation Policies for Hotels and B&Bs
- Still taking responses for a couple more days!: Online Reviews for B&B’s and Hotels
And created 4 new guides and resources for innkeepers & hoteliers
- Guide to Blogging
- 28 Favorite Online Marketing Tools
- 58 Creative Seasonal Marketing Ideas
- 10 SEO Myths to Leave Behind
Notable Happenings at Odysys in 2017
Company Milestones, Product Updates and Customer Successes
- Added several new members to the Odysys team
- Received numerous 5-Star Reviews from Customers on Google. Thank you! Just like you and your property, reviews mean the world to us.
- Presented at several industry associations & events including: PAII, StayVA, Oregon Bed & Breakfast Guild, and Washington Bed & Breakfast Guild
- Gave over 50 free Webinars on online marketing topics for innkeepers & hoteliers
- Launched over 60 new features & updates to Odysys this year including
- Launched a brand new front desk PMS interface
- All customer websites were upgraded to SSL / HTTPS for free
- Revised reporting center for our booking engine/PMS
- Improved PMS/Booking Engine integration with OTAs
- Automatic international translation for our website and booking engine customers
- Custom translated content feature
- Began offering Professional Services to our customers to help drive even more direct bookings for them including: AdWords campaign management; Reservation Recapture retargeting advertising campaigns; Blog post writing & promotion; Local SEO business listing optimization
Looking Ahead to 2018
- Local SEO will continue to be a big deal. Giving your business listing in Google the best opportunity possible to rank well in Google’s map results will be at the forefront of our minds in 2018. Expect improved tools from Odysys for managing and improving your business listing.
- Professional Services: Along with improving Local SEO, we will be focusing on keeping your properties competitive with OTAs for direct bookings. The current landscape requires that innkeepers & hoteliers leverage tools and tactics like SEO, Local SEO, Google AdWords, Retargeting ads and Email marketing to compete for direct bookings. Expect a continued emphasis from Odysys on providing a best-of-breed solution in these areas for our customers to continue to compete with OTAs for bookings.
- New Templates: As Google rolls out it’s “mobile-first” index over the coming months, mobile friendly & fast websites and booking engines will become essential for competing in search results. Expect even more new website templates and enhancements like structured markup, image handling and more to existing templates from Odysys designed specifically to take advantage of this “mobile-first” philosophy.
- Significant investments in our booking technology
- New guest communication tools
Looking back on 2017 and forward to 2018, we feel proud, excited, and most of all, grateful for all our wonderful customers. Thank you for sticking with us. We promise we have even more amazing things in store for the coming year and beyond.
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