The Hotel Podcast from Aró

In this timely episode we delve into the way web search is evolving with the rise of AI and platforms such as Claude, Gemini and Perplexity.Aró Digital SEO specialist Devangana Rathore guides us through AI search and how websites, and the whole ecosystem which supports them, need to adapt to a new paradigm.The good news is that this is an evolution not a revolution and the fundamentals which have always underpinned strong SEO performance remain as relevant as ever. Your content must be:a) accurateb) freshc) reliableContact Aró Digital for more details

In this episode, Alan Rowe, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Aró, joins Richard Blowes to unpack a different way of thinking about hotel tech and digital growth.Alan breaks down Aró’s partnership-led model, why it's getting more sustainable results for independent hotels and what true long-term collaboration with clients actually looks like in practice.The conversation also explores AI’s growing role in hospitality, cutting through hype to discuss what’s genuinely changing today, what’s coming next, and how hotel leaders should be thinking about technology, data, and decision-making in the years ahead.A practical, forward-looking discussion on partnerships, performance, and the future of hotel digital strategy.

Mario Ovsenjak took over as general manager (GM) of Comis Hotel and Golf Resort in the Isle of Man in June 2024, moving on from his previous role as GM of Manchester's Gotham Hotel. One of his first decisions was to upgrade Comis Hotel's digital strategy with a new website and booking engine from Aró Digital. With these now live for several months, we chat to Mario to discover more about the Isle of Man, his stunning hotel, the challenges of being a GM and what impact the new digital strategy is having on direct bookings.

Eithne Cosgrove, director of Sales, Marketing & Revenue at Knock House Hotel, shares insights about our 26-year partnership, which began in May 1999. Recently, the hotel has experienced an increase in revenue of over 30%. She gives particular credit to our wonderful team members Susie Kilgannon & Nieves Pequeño Feijoo her account manager and SEO manger

In this video episode, Alan Rowe from Aró Digital sits down with Louis Murphy who is one of the owners of The Dunraven, a luxury 4* hotel in the beautiful Limerick village of Adare.Louis guides us through the history of this independent, family run hotel which has grown from 22 rooms to 90 including 24 suites.The Dunraven has been an Aró client for over 8 years and Alan and Louis discuss what each bring to a very successful partnership.The excitement is building in Adare (known as Ireland's prettiest village) and The Dunraven as the Ryder Cup is coming to Adare Manor in September 2027.

For this timely episode, I chat with Aró Digital's new commercial director Ciara Clancy about last minute summer vacancies and her top tips for how hotels can fill them.Rather than simply reducing rates, there are are several different approaches which your property can take to drive occupancy even at this stage of the season. For example, have you considered partnering with local attractions for a stay and play package?As always Aró are here to help luxury hotels and resorts with their digital strategy and increase their online revenue. You can contact us at arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us.

In this episode Aró's managing director Alan Rowe chats with Jonas Treffers, the General Manager of Aloft Dublin City and Tenters Gastropub.Jonas explains why their location in Dublin's The Liberties is so important, what benefits their partnership with Aró brings them and how it has transformed their digital journey.

In this episode I am joined by Erica Hogarty from the Aró Digital design team and Brett O'Mahony from Studio Saol. They worked together, and with the team in the hotel, on the design for the stunning new website for Park Hotel Kenmare, a 5* country house hotel in Co. Kerry, Ireland. Brett guides us through the initial work Studio Saol did as the hotel updated their branding and briefed them on what they wanted their website to do and how it should look. Erica tells us how she took this and made it work for implementation by the Aró build team. It's clear how much time and client collaboration goes into perfecting such a design. The result is a wonderful website of which they can be justifiably proud and reflects the splendour of Park Hotel Kenmare https://www.parkkenmare.com/ https://www.studiosaol.com/

Alan Rowe, the MD of Aró Digital, chats with Paul Broderick who is the general manager of Pembroke Hotel Kilkenny. This beautiful property is an independent 4 star hotel based right in the middle of the city and won Ireland's boutique hotel of the year 2024 award. They discuss the history and future of this unique property, why they chose Aró as their digital strategy partner and what the benefits of that decision have been.

In this short episode we are joined by one of Aró's senior account managers, Ciara Keogh. She goes through the items hotels should be checking now to make sure their book direct strategy is in the best shape for 2025. This includes optimising your mobile site, checking rates for the year ahead and looking at your content calendar. We discuss these and several more - none of them are very time consuming but you will be rewarded many times over. If you would like to contact us you can email [email protected] or fill out our contact form at arodigitalstrategy.com/contact

Karen Fleming is the accomplished Sales Director at the renowned Cashel Palace Hotel that is a member of Relais & Châteaux & Ireland's Blue Book. She has played a pivotal role in driving the hotel’s sales and marketing strategies, significantly contributing to its reputation for excellence and luxury. In this exclusive interview, Karen shares her insights with Lisa Leahy on leveraging digital innovation to boost sales and enhance guest experiences. Join us as we explore her journey, the challenges faced, and Karen's vision for the future of hospitality at The Cashel Palace Hotel.

Nestled amidst the rugged beauty of Connemara, Abbeyglen Castle Hotel is more than just a hotel; it’s a living, breathing narrative spun from the dedication and passion of its proprietors, Brian and Ronan Hughes. It's a testament to the enchanting allure of Ireland’s independent, family-run hospitality with a genuine charm that feels increasingly rare in today's world of corporate chains and standardised luxury. The hotel has been a client of Aró Digital Strategy for over three years, and this podcast aims to uncover the secrets behind their success. Their true secret can only be fully appreciated by experiencing it first-hand. Nothing could have prepared us for the legendary hospitality of Abbeyglen and the Hughes brothers, which transforms a stay into an unforgettable adventure steeped in warmth and charm. This experience was a wonderful reminder of why, at Aró, we love working with independent hoteliers: each client is unique, and their distinctiveness makes our job of finding and engaging their perfect guests all the more rewarding.

Lucy Gaffney is the executive director of Business For Biodiversity Ireland, a government funded initiative to help businesses make a positive impact on nature. It's a multidisciplinary role involving science, finance and nature and she is a passionate advocate for businesses embracing biodiversity as a benefit for their brand and their balance sheet as well as the natural world. We discuss the new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), what it means for hospitality and why hotels should embrace a nature positive approach now to prepare themselves for a changing environment, both business and natural. Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) details: https://plana.earth/policy/corporate-sustainability-reporting-directive-csrd Hotels and biodiversity website: https://sustainablehospitalityalliance.org/

For over 60 years, The Ardilaun Hotel has been a cherished gem in the heart of Galway, and it was an honour to sit down with John Ryan, the Managing Director and Owner, to delve into the unique essence of this family-run establishment. Our conversation unveiled a deep-seated commitment to preserving a legacy of warmth, quality, and an unwavering dedication to guests - a commitment that can only be fully understood through a visit to The Ardilaun Hotel itself. At Aró Digital Strategy, we take immense pride in partnering with independent hotels like The Ardilaun, whose uniqueness and commitment to quality service make our role of connecting them with the right guests an absolute pleasure.

In this episode of the Aró hotel podcast we are joined by Aró's head of digital marketing Jason Franz and hotel marketing expert Lisa Leahy. We discuss how hotels should be looking now to research and implement their best available rates (BAR) for the end of this year and into 2025 and even 2026. BAR is an intrinsic part of a hotel's direct booking strategy and Jason provides a comprehensive overview of how you can promote your hotel's BAR using metasearch for example Google Hotel Ads, Expedia and Trivago. If you would like to discuss further with us we would be delighted to hear from us - email on [email protected]. Or use our contact page on arodigitalstrategy.com.

August is the prime time to gear up for December's celebrations. Whether it's Christmas, Twixmas, or New Year, starting early with your digital strategies can make all the difference. In this podcast with hotel marketing guru Lisa Leahy and Aró's senior account manager Ciara Clancy, we discuss how you can maximize bookings, engage guests, and create memorable experiences for the upcoming festive season, with actionable steps to ensure your property shines during the joyful festivities. Contact us via our website or [email protected]. The accompanying blog is here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/blog/2024/08/01/marketing/deck-the-halls-with-bookings-kickstart-your-festive-hotel-sales-now!/73-258/

In this episode we chat with Lisa Leahy and Seamus Crotty who bring their years of hotel marketing and management experience to bear on the challenge of filling your hotel rooms in the Autumn period. They discuss why you should be planning before the Summer for Autumn occupancy, and provide proven strategies to fill your hotel with profitable business. This podcast ties in with our 'Top Ten Tips for Autumn Planning' blog which you can read here https://rb.gy/5nzu9n. If you would like to know more about our strategies, you can contact us via the website or email [email protected].

In this deep dive, we talk to Daniel Stewart from influencer marketing agency Tailify to better understand this oft maligned marketing channel. He explains what an influencer is (and that they prefer to be called creators); why you would work with one (or several) to leverage this valuable marketing vertical; and how hotels can use the content influencers create for multiple organic and paid social media campaigns and measure the return on investment.

Welcome to 2023. Although economic uncertainty is swirling around us, the consensus is that this year will be a rewarding one for the hospitality industry. Direct bookings are rising and people are looking for an escape from a long winter of bad news. As a luxury hotelier, how you shape your digital strategy will define your performance in 2023. Digital is here to stay and will always be a crucial component for the luxury hotel industry. Listen to our quick update on the most important things you need to master in the first quarter of 2023 to be top of the shop for generating budgeted revenue and profit for the rest of the year.

Although picking the right agency to work with you on your book direct strategy is key, as we have mentioned in previous podcasts this works better as a partnership and that is certainly how we work with our clients. In this episode we talk about how we also partner with Google to keep increasing hotels’ online revenue. The worlds biggest search engine and advertising agency provides many tools which help hospitality businesses - some generic and some more specific. We talk about three in this podcast Google Analytics, Google hotel ads and brand PPC. Although we provide five star by every measure direct book strategies we can’t do it all our own. By partnering with you and appropriate 3rd parties such as Google we can boost our brilliant offering and turbocharge your hotel’s revenue and profit.

What is a brand? A logo or a name? Although those are indeed an integral part, it’s so much more. It is everything that touches or gets in front of your target audience. It is an absolute reflection of what your customers should expect from you. Getting your branding right and delivering on its promise will drive differentiation, advocacy & loyalty, salience, and trust. In turn these help to promote direct bookings. Lucidpress article https://info.marq.com/resources/report/brand-consistency Hospitality Net article https://www.hospitalitynet.org/opinion/4091173.html Edelman report https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2019-06/2019_edelman_trust_barometer_special_report_in_brands_we_trust.pdf

At Aró in order to be five star by every measure and maximise online revenue for our luxury hotel clients, we follow the science and collect as much data as possible in order to make evidence based decisions about any changes we make to a hotel's book direct strategy. No strategy can exist in isolation – it has to reflect an up to date narrative and the values of the target audience. A recent Google survey identified four trends which brands should tap into as consumer confidence returns. In this episode we discuss these trends and how they apply to luxury hotels. Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us Subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwP5vRWNu-kPuCOrDmHFdIg

One of the key pillars of a revenue strategy is understanding your target markets. A great way to do this is to create different audience types for your ideal guests. Once you have identified your preferred audiences, you will find it easier to influence them in terms of moving them to direct booking, increasing your room rate and cross-selling/upselling. Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us Hotels mentioned in the podcast: https://www.rockhotelgibraltar.com/ https://www.parkhousehotel.ie/ https://www.grantleyhall.co.uk/ https://www.chubcay.com/

The top 3 trends in online retail are #1 omnichannel strategies, #2 personalisation and #3 immediacy. A hotel Internet booking engine (IBE) is essentially a highly specialised version of a general ecommerce platform and these top three trends apply equally to hotel direct bookings as shopping for clothes. In this podcast I outline areas of synergy between our booking engine benefits and these top 3 trends Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us

At Aró Digital we are focused on our customers' needs, data driven and dedicated to planning strategies for book direct success. That is why our clients survived and thrived during lockdown and are now reaping the benefits of the upswing in tourist numbers. In this episode, you can learn how we do it; and understand what we can offer luxury, independent hotels looking for outstanding online performance. Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us Google articles: https://lp.thinkwithgoogle.com/index.php/email/emailWebview?md_id=79709 https://lp.thinkwithgoogle.com/index.php/email/emailWebview?md_id=79351

Aró Digital's vision is to be the future of luxury by being a global leader & trusted disrupter for independent luxury hotels and resorts. This involves us taking a 360˚ degree view of a hotel's book direct performance. Over the next few podcasts we will look at the practical ways we help our clients and in this episode we look at you can manage the different booking channels to maximise revenue from direct bookings. Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us

Aró Digital's vision is to be the future of luxury by being a global leader & trusted disrupter for independent luxury hotels and resorts. This involves us taking a 360˚ degree view of a hotel's book direct performance. Over the next few podcasts we will look at the practical ways we help our clients and in this episode we start with the hotel website. Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us

While third-party data will now not be accessible, first-party data will become the key solution to all online marketing approaches. It will produce more relevant information with an opportunity for brands to build customer loyalty with a more authentic sense. Over time luxury brands will be able to build more quality customer relationships, target people more effectively and recommend options which make a difference to their lives. Read our accompanying blog: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/blog/2022/01/04/marketing/cookie-policy-changes-affecting-online-marketing-in-2023/73-211/ Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us

For our leading hotel clients, we perform regular benchmark audits, looking at nearly 200 metrics which affect book direct performance. The higher the benchmark score the higher the % of room bookings taken via the hotel booking engine. In this podcast we discuss some of these metrics and why they influence your book direct performance. Read our accompanying blog: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/blog/2021/11/02/marketing/why-should-you-choose-aro-as-your-book-direct-partner/73-201/ Avail of our mini audit: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/order-web-audit

Pat Kinsley from Neworld in Dublin chats about branding and how essential it is to drive a company's revenue and profit. In particular we discuss how luxury hotels should use it to deliver bespoke, unique customer experiences which resonate long after the guest has checked out. Does your hotel hit the sweet spot? Listen and find out.

Summer has been brilliant, particularly for our Irish hotels, with great staycation business, high occupancy rates and fabulous book direct levels. As Autumn approaches and the kids go back to school, those occupancy levels will inevitably drop and once again hotels will be competing to fill their rooms. In this podcast I consider five strategies which will help hotels maximise their chances of maintaining their occupancy through the autumn and into the shoulder season.

Core Web Vitals (CWV) is a new update from Google designed to improve user experience on the web. In this episode we explore CWV and why it is important for luxury, independent hotel websites. We consider it vital that our clients’ hotel websites pass the CWV tests – a key plank of having the best book direct strategy is that both a hotel’s organic and paid listings are optimised.

We're delighted to welcome Lisa Leahy from Brandlly Marketing for episode 4. She was the marketing director of the luxury Hayfield Family Collection and gives us the benefit of her considerable expertise on how marketing and branding can be used to drive direct bookings for independent hotels.

Abbeyglen is a 4 star castle hotel in Clifden, Ireland. Pre Covid, they filled their rooms for 7 months a year with overseas tour parties. When the pandemic struck they were staring into a bookings black hole. They turned to Aró to pivot to a direct booking strategy. What happened? Co-owner Ronan takes up the story...

In the first of our dynamic updates, we highlight the importance for independent hotels of managing their online reputation. We talk about why it is crucial that you do it, what benefits improving your review scores brings and some tips and tricks on how to do it.

In the first of our deep dives, we chat with Patrick O'Flaherty from Revenue Plus on the importance of independent hotels having a revenue management plan. It's action-oriented, with a 'how to do it' focus and what you can expect in return.

A taste of what's to come