Quorum Hotels Inks Deal With Thayer Interactive Group

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Thayer Interactive Group (TIG), a hospitality online marketing firm, announced the formation of an Internet marketing partnership with Quorum Hotels and Resorts, a Dallas-based independent hotel management company. Under the agreement, TIG will provide full-service Internet marketing to assets of Quorum’s portfolio, which consists of luxury and first-class hotel properties valued at more than $800 million. TIG offers a comprehensive suite of online marketing services designed to administer all aspects of individually managed hotel websites; bypass excessive fees charged by third-party travel sites; and maximize Internet revenue with minimal effort required at the property level. According to the agreement, TIG will provide each participating Quorum hotel with a customized, five-part program—in effect becoming the property’s Internet marketing director—for a flat fee. The company’s full-service offering includes website development and content management; search engine optimization and pay-per-click marketing; strategic link marketing and online advertising; statistical reporting and analysis; and proactive client support. All five elements share a basic underlying objective, noted TIG: to deliver the travel consumer directly to individually managed property websites, which allows hotel clients to maintain control of pricing and circumvent excessive third-party fees. “The Internet is hospitality’s fastest-growing distribution channel, and the only channel experiencing meaningful growth in the industry today,” said Philip W. Schneck III, TIG president. “Analysts predict that online bookings will grow to represent 20% of reservations within the next two years. Yet, despite this surge in demand, the Internet’s potential as an effective hotel marketing tool has barely been tapped. Many hotels hand over a substantial portion of their inventory to third-party intermediaries, which can absorb as much as 25% of room margins. Our research shows that hotels that fail to develop and maintain an effective online presence through direct-to-consumer Internet marketing could be losing as much as $1 million per year in incremental bookings.” TIG has worked with a variety of hotel properties, producing an average of $750,000 to $1.5 million in incremental revenue, depending on the market. The firm works with hotels that range in size and type from 100-room mid-priced properties to 1,350-room luxury hotels.