The hoteliers debated the issue of collective buying in the Fire Presdidential Suite at Raffles Dubai.
The craze for collective buying websites has swept the Middle East in recent months, but PR experts at some of the most luxurious hotels have warned they could be bad for business.
Across the region, it’s estimated that there are 15 collective buying sites in total, with some of the most well known including Gonabit, Groupon, Cobone and DealGobbler.com.
They offer great discounts — anything from 40% off a night-stay at a hotel to 70% off a spa treatment — as long as a minimum number of people “buy” the deal.
| Advertisement |
However, luxury hotels should think carefully about incorporate these promotional tools into their marketing strategy, according to hoteliers in Dubai.
“There are a lot of outlets out there, websites or guides that are giving things for free, those ‘one for one’ vouchers etc — but we cannot participate in these,” said Ritz-Carlton regional director of PR, Vivienne Gan.
“You are limited by your brand, because if we were a budget hotel, then basically it’s a great model and we should go for it. For a luxury model it’s just a little bit tough. Everybody, of course, as a consumer loves a good deal, but then after you go for the first one, your perception of that brand after that deal goes down just a little bit. So I always tell [our managers] there’s a little bit of a danger in that.”
Sarah Omolewu, public relations manager at Raffles Dubai, agreed: “We’ve looked at a couple of them but have quite similar views to Vivienne. We listened to some of their radio ads and it was all about ‘go get your deal, go get it now, two-for-one’ and we just didn’t feel it was the right association.
“This was probably about a year ago where we really could have used the F&B help, but that perception in the mind of the consumer, it really kind of devalues the brand,” commented Omolewu.
Shona Mac Sweeney, marketing and communications manager, at The Palace — The Old Town, said “we decided against it for ourselves”.
She said that the limited number of seats at each outlet coupled with the high peak customer return rate, made these sorts of offers — which are essentially designed to drive volume — unsuitable.
Derryn French, director of market communications at The Westin and Le Meridien Mina Seyahi, said that hoteliers needed “to be wary of the consequences and understand what association with those kinds of brands can do to your product”.
“Certainly you do have to weigh up the value it can bring to you and the people it can bring to you, as opposed to the brand values. The people that are going to buy those deals are not necessarily the people that are going to come back and pay AED 500 for a brunch again. They might be prepared to pay AED 250 but are they prepared to pay AED 500?,” said French.
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
Apr 29, 2011 , United Arab Emirates
Dear all who commented and who are PR leaders: PR Leaders: Perception of brand as you are describing is wrong at first place, These Days if Big name can not offer something, it's nothing for customers. Why you believe that by these offers brand image is insulted/falling down. Don't you feel that...
Apr 28, 2011 , United Arab Emirates
First of all Hotel Marketers need to understand what works for them. They need to look at a brand from a customer's perspective rather than their own. Imagine giving someone an experience that they wouldn't have had otherwise. Imagine the same customer who have experienced something great, spr...