Five Powerful Ways To Use Google In Hospitality

The number of Google applications which exist are phenomenal - no wonder it dominates the internet. So whether it is the independent hotelier or a chain, there is much to be made from looking at how some of them can be made to work for the hotel industry.

1) Google Analytics

Analytics is becoming more and more well known as a fantastic application to track and analyse visitors, trends, searches etc. All it requires is the insertion of a small html code generated by Google Analytics into your web template or the page you want to track. From the following day, a multitude of options to understand visits by city, which keywords have landed them on the site, which websites have sent traffic, which pages are most popular and how long they stayed there - just to name a few, will be available on your dashboard as you log in...used well, this is a great way to focus marketing funds as well as to correct weaknesses in the website in terms of retaining customers. The possibilities are endless and I have just listed a few - more at http://www.google.com/analytics/

2) Google maps

They are a great way of pinpointing hotel locations on your website http://maps.google.com/

3) E-mail with Gmail

While most corporate organizations as well as smaller companies have their own domains and e-mail set ups, managing their e-mails while traveling has always been a challenge. Gmail is a very flexible solution which allows you to respond with your domain e-mail provided you set it up that way. So even if one does not have company wide intranets and VPN dial ups, Gmail offers you a simpler way of responding to work e-mails while on the move. You can also pick up e-mails on gmail on your mobile phones as long as you have internet access. http://mail.google.com/mail

4) Blogger

While there are still discussions on the pros and cons of blogging, there is no doubt that if you are looking for one of the most user friendly blogging platforms, Blogger will come on the top of the list. http://www.blogger.com/

Wordpress is another blogging platform popular with the blogging community.

5) Google search

While this is certainly not news, very few people use Google search effectively. With the internet throwing up hundreds of thousands of new sites and blogs every day, the accuracy of the search becomes more and more relevant. Spending an hour to understand the mechanics of the search function on Google can save hours and hours of time when one needs quick access to relevant accurate information.

Just using quotes around the term you are trying to find gives you far more accurate and as well as better related results eg: "itb"Berlin, rather than itb Berlin on its own.

And of course there are more, Google documents, Google calendar, Google Picasa for managing images, Google Adwords etc

Google documents allow you to manage your documentation online, while the calendar function can be integrated and used with other calendar applications. Picasa is a very user friendly photo software which allows you to store, file, collate and share in one easy user interface.

So with all these powerful applications available free, there is certainly enough incentive to make them work for you.