“Also, back-ups are done for every 3-4 days; all of our clients will have eight copies of the website in our dedicated server each month that protects them from hacking or data corruption. Besides, in case of a disaster, Compass Edge can get the clients’ websites up and running in less than 4 hours. This means 8X more hosting space on a dedicated server for each of our hotels,” states Anita Chan, CEO, Compass Edge.
When it comes to social media, China has both open platforms (Weibo) and closed platforms (WeChat). Compass Edge assists the hoteliers to create accounts on Weibo, and publishes 12 posts every month, as the company strongly believes that it is the reach and the engagement that matters most. On the other hand, the company’s travel alliance platform GoHotelsGo features all the Compass Edge hotels under their WeChat GoHotelsGo official account and soft feature the hotels in weekly ‘Always On KOLs’ or blogger articles. Besides, the company also has a Facebook group “China Ready Hotels” to get the hoteliers up to speed on everything on Chinese online, marketing, technology and e-commerce. As online is not pure online, and offline presence and marketing are extremely important in China, the company conducts huge travel fairs exhibitions to promote its alliance hotels, offering them the competitive edge over their peers.

In addition, the company’s LN Global Hotel Alliance is one-of-a-kind Chinese-centric loyalty program co-founded by Anita & Ling Nan Hospitality alongside with China Southern Airline and GZL Travel Services. “Together, we have 46 million+ ready to travel Chinese loyalty members in our alliance. This offers huge benefits for our hotel clients,” extols Anita. As the Chinese government supports the program, the Chinese consumers will see this as a sign of trust. “This is something that no individual overseas hotelier can do on their own.”

Compass Edge also generates an analytics report on a quarterly basis. The report has a detailed account of its clients’ performance across the different stages of traveler acquisition. For instance, take inspiration stage, where the company scales out the influences—what attracts the travelers more, the good impressions the client received, how satisfactory the engagement is, and more. This report keeps track of not only the website statistics but also social media statistics. Compass Edge’s report also includes social listening which is based on Chinese travelers’ feedback. The clients can leverage these reports to change traveler acquisition tactics that align with the increasing demand in the market.

Citing one of their success stories, Anita mentions The Surin Phuket, a luxury hotel in Phuket, Thailand, with whom Compass Edge has been partnering for almost two years now. Through their effective ‘Go China’ strategy, the client captured the attention of not only Chinese travelers but also celebrities, establishing a solid branding presence in China.

While most organizations are still trying to figure out the WeChat ecosystem, WeChat Mini Program is taking off in China with 20-30 percent traffic. It is like an application inside WeChat, and it promotes social commerce with 60 entry points. Also, all data sources in WeChat are ICP enabled with no connections to APIs outside of China. “We are now in the beta testing stage and will launch WeChat Mini Program in early 2019, and we are sure it will enhance the experience of the Chinese travelers," concludes Anita.