http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/May 21,2013 The competition was hosted by the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) and honors the best of the best in travel sales and marketing, specifically those who demonstrate the most creative and forward-thinking campaigns Click here for more info http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-extends-winning-streak.aspxFebruary 06,2013 Santa Clara, CA - For immediate release - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. today announced that its CEO, Anil Aggarwal, was honored by The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) by naming him as one of the Top 25 Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality Sales and Marketing for 2012.  Milestone is a leading provider of digital marketing and social media solutions for the hospitality industry. The award recognizes the "best of the best" in the hospitality, travel and tourism industries.   The 2012 "Top 25" recipients were judged by a panel of senior industry executives for their recent work based on the following criteria: creativity and innovation; cutting edge sales or marketing campaigns; triumph in challenging situations; and sales efforts that resulted in dramatic gains. "The ‘Top 25' is our annual hot list that celebrates the sales, marketing and revenue management leaders and innovators in our industry," said Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHBA, president and CEO of HSMAI. "The creative strategies, passionate dedication and sharp intelligence of these professionals have not only grown the business within their organizations but have also truly raised the bar for the hospitality industry as a whole." "I am truly honored by this award.  Even though HSMAI makes the award out to an individual, the award truly is a win for Milestone's extraordinary team and our commitment to our customers.  Milestone's innovative search marketing and social media solutions generate high revenue for our customers and make the entire team look great," said Anil Aggarwal.  Milestone's proven search, social, and mobile strategies has led to a successful collaboration between our team and clients resulting in over $550M in annual revenue for more than 1400 clients in Milestone's portfolio. Mr. Aggarwal will be honored during a private ceremony preceding the Adrian Awards Gala on January 28, 2013, at the New York Marriott Marquis and will be recognized at the Adrian Awards dinner reception and gala. Mr. Aggarwal will also be featured in an HSMAIpublication and receive a personalized plaque.  Mr. Aggarwal is scheduled to speak at the HSMAI Digital Marketing Conference in New York on January 29, 2013. During his session, he'll be sharing secrets to creating successful social media contests and providing real-life case studies. For more information or to register for this event, click here. _______________________________________________________ About Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry.  Milestone's portfolio of services includes Hotel Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click marketing, Social Media Optimization, Marketing Dashboard, and eBuzz Connect™ and online reputation monitoring.  Milestone currently works with over 1,400 hotels and drives over $550M in annual revenue for its clients.  Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading hotel management companies.   Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs internet marketing workshops and book. For more information, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com, email sales@milestoneinternet.com, or call 888-350-8396. About HSMAI The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is committed to growing business for hotels and their partners, and is the industry's leading advocate for intelligent, sustainable hotel revenue growth. The association provides hotel professionals & their partners with tools, insights, and expertise to fuel sales, inspire marketing, and optimize revenue through programs such as HSMAI's MEET, Adrian Awards, and Revenue Optimization Conference. HSMAI is an individual membership organization comprising more than 7,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region. Connect with HSMAI at www.hsmai.org, www.facebook.com/hsmai, www.twitter.com/hsmai and www.youtube.com/hsmai1.  Click here for more info http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/hsmai-top-25-minds-in-sales-and-marketing.aspxJanuary 28,2013 Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc, a full-service Internet marketing agency, earned distinction last week from the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal as one of the top local companies poised for growth.  The Business Journal honored 75 companies that made the publication's annual Silicon Valley's Fastest-Growing Privately Held Company list. Milestone's growth is attributed to the company's commitment to providing the best-in-class Internet marketing solutions that drive revenue and income for its lodging industry clients. By focusing on helping customers grow their online revenues, Milestone has earned the trust and business of more than 1,200 clients nationwide and continues to drive over $550 million in annual revenue for its clients.  Milestone's growth is also directly impacting the local economy.  The company continues to create jobs for Silicon Valley and has increased its workforce by 65% in the last 3 years, from 25 employees in 2009 to 70 employees in 2012. "We want to take this opportunity to thank our customers, partners, and our employees, whose trust and confidence in our products and services has led to this significant achievement for the company," said Anil Aggarwal, CEO of Milestone Internet Marketing. click here for more details http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/silicon-valley-fast-private-company-award.aspxOctober 16,2012Hotel operators, vacation managers, and franchisees will glean practical data and useful guides to help them maximize return on investment when thought leaders from Milestone Internet Marketing join industry experts in presenting the latest trends in search and social media at three important conferences this fall. Find out more about the events and how to register. click here http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-internet-marketing-strategies-for-tourism-industry.aspxSeptember 05,2012The Interactive Media Awards (IMA) recognizes the highest standards of excellence in website design and development, and honors individuals and organizations for outstanding achievement. Winning entries demonstrate excellence in all categories. For more details click here. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-wins-class-awards-website-design-and-internet-marketing-strategies.aspxAugust 08,2012Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is pleased to announce today the release of its 3rd generation of eBuzz Connect™, a social media and reviews monitoring solution specifically targeted for hotels, restaurants, and vacation rentals. The new enhanced version of eBuzz Connect provides advanced features as well as highlights data hotels need most for effective online reputation management. Milestone did extensive market research on reviews analysis and found that the most pressing challenge relates to gauging the sentiment of each review. Let's say a guest rates your hotel an overall 4.5 stars, but then expresses disappointment in the high parking fees. Without breaking down the review by category or topic, this negative comment may be overlooked due to the positive guest rating. Our tool's simple-to-use reviews and sentiment analysis will ensure that all potential issues are flagged. New System Highlights: Compset Index. You can now view and benchmark your hotel's performance vs. your competitor in an easy to understand graphical format. Sentiment Analysis. The tool provides the sentiment of your guests in the reviews for different categories such as service, value, location, etc. or for specific  keywords.  With the new sentiment analysis, you can now determine the attitude of guests towards their stay and specific hotel amenities. Reviews Analysis. Analyze your reviews and see how your hotel is performing against your competitors in categories such as cleanliness, hotel condition, service, comfort, location, and value. Top Keywords Analysis. eBuzz Connect's powerful reporting provides invaluable insights for sales and marketing. Tap into what's working by viewing the top trending keywords that can be incorporated in your hotel's online and offline channels, including website, social media, videos, and brochures. Top Channel Analysis. Do you know exactly what channels your guests are using to share their travel experiences? The top channel analysis dashboard pinpoints the channels most used by your target market, allowing you to focus on the ones that can have the highest impact on your ROI. New Channels. eBuzz Connect is going global! Our tool now includes international channels to cover European, South and North American, and Latin American markets, such as TripAdvisor.com.br, Malapronta.com.br, Decolar.com, Mundi.com.br, Laterooms.com, Zoover.com, etc. For more information and pricing on eBuzz Connect, please contact Milestone Internet Marketing at sales@milestoneinternet.com or 888-350-8396. About Milestone: Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone's portfolio of services includes Hotel Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click marketing, Social Media Optimization, and eBuzz Connect™ Online Reputation Monitoring. A preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands, Milestone also works with some of the top management companies. In addition, Milestone is recognized as a cutting-edge lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs Internet marketing workshops and book. For more information, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com or call 888-350-8396. Press Contact: Teresa Villaruz Sr. Marketing Specialist Tel: 408-200-6871 Email: pr@milestoneinternet.com Website: www.milestoneinternet.com Blogsite: blog.milestoneinternet.comhttp://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/ebuzz-connect-3-online-reputation-for-hotels.aspxApril 10,2012Milestone Internet Marketing has received top honors from this year's Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards, capturing four awards for outstanding website design, internet marketing and social media campaigns. The winning entries - from an upscale resort website to a playful Facebook campaign - illustrate Milestone's creativity, innovation, impact, and copywriting excellence.  Milestone Internet Marketing is an award-winning website design and internet marketing company, recognized for its cutting-edge SEO strategies for hotels and resorts worldwide. Milestone's winning entries are: Residence Inn Savannah Downtown - Outstanding website design and marketing (http://www.iacaward.org/iac/winner.asp?eid=8796) Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beach - Outstanding website design and marketing (http://www.iacaward.org/iac/winner.asp?eid=8826) Hotel 1000 Facebook Scavenger Hunt - Outstanding website social media campaign (http://www.iacaward.org/iac/winner.asp?eid=8807) The Renaissance Boulder Flatiron Hotel - Outstanding website design and marketing (http://www.iacaward.org/iac/winner.asp?eid=8829) "We are honored to have won these prestigious IAC awards, which recognize our creative internet marketing strategies and strategic website designs," said Anil Aggarwal, CEO of Milestone Internet Marketing. "It's rewarding to go head-to-head with the top internet marketing companies in the country, and be awarded for our performance and impact. Our greatest reward is giving our clients the strongest presence and profits on the internet." Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards Produced by the Web Marketing Association, the Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards honors excellence in online advertising, marketing and social media and recognizes the individuals and companies who are the top in Internet advertising. Representing all aspects of the advertising and Internet worlds, companies competed and entries were judged on specific categories, including: Creativity, Innovation, Impact, Design, Copywriting, Memorability and Use of the medium. Competition judges are experienced professionals with an in-depth understanding of state-of-the-art advertising design and technology and the objectivity to score entries according to a defined set of criteria.For more information on the IAC Awards, go to http://www.iacaward.org. About Milestone: Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone's portfolio of services includes Hotel Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click Marketing, Social Media Optimization, eBuzz Connect™ Online Reputation Monitoring, etc. Milestone currently works with over 1200 hotels and drives over $550M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading management companies. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs internet marketing workshops and book. For more information, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com or call 888-350-8396. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-wins-iac-awards-for-website-design-internet-marketing-strategies.aspxApril 24,2012Santa Clara, CA - October 20, 2011 - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of eBuzz ConnectTM 2.0 Group Dashboard with significant feature enhancements for groups and brands. The new high-performance version of eBuzz ConnectTM Group provides a completely revamped, intuitive dashboard allowing brands and management companies to easily view their hotels' social media and reviews performances and compare against the group's top competing brands. Some of the key enhancements and features in the group interface include the following: Key Features: Expanded, easy view of overall brand/group's performance in social media and online reviews channels Track and compare overall group's performance against top competing brands/groups Easily track and compare performance of all hotels under the group based on different criteria most important to the brand Track hotels' goals, performances, and activities on social media and reviews channels View open action items by hotel and identify which hotels are active in online reputation management and which may need corporate help Key marketing and sales insights at the group level - identify top keywords, channels, referrers, etc. Sophisticated group reporting for brands and management companies including usage statistics Because search engines now place high importance on social buzz and online reviews, it is imperative for hotel brands and management groups to have full visual of their hotels' online branding. The purchasing decisions of savvy online users and travelers are highly influenced by their social circles and guest reviews, and eBuzz ConnectTM provides the hospitality and travel industry key tools allowing them to evolve with the inevitable changes in travel search and booking. For more information and to see how eBuzz ConnectTM 2.0 Group can help your brand or management group increase guest satisfaction and maximize revenue, please visit www.ebuzzconnect.com or call 888-350-8396. Click here if you're interested in scheduling a live demo or to request a proposal. About eBuzz ConnectTM eBuzz ConnectTM is an award-winning online reputation management system targeted exclusively at the hotel industry. It provides an integrated single interface for the hoteliers to monitor reviews and social media buzz and to interact with consumers. The tool focuses on driving actions by hotel management to enhance profitability from review sites and social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. About Milestone, Inc. Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone's portfolio of services includes Hotel Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click marketing, Social Media Optimization, eBuzz ConnectTM Online Reputation Monitoring, etc. Milestone currently works with over 1000 hotels and drives over $500M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading management companies. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs internet marketing workshops and book. For more information, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com or call 888-350-8396. If you are interested in attending the workshops, send an email to info@milestoneinternet.com.http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/social-media-monitoring-for-hotel-brands-groups.aspxOctober 20,2011Santa Clara, CA - November 10, 2011 - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. announced today that it has received more than 30 awards in 2011 for excellence in hotel website design and marketing strategies. The awards were won in several prestigious competitions such as W3 and WebAwards, both of which are hosted by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, as well as The Communicator Awards and IMA (Interactive Media Awards). Each website was judged on creativity, innovation, campaign impact, design, copywriting, usability, marketing strategy, and campaign results by experienced professionals with an in-depth understanding of the current state of Internet advertising and design. Milestone is proud of its track record of consistently producing search engine-friendly websites that deliver a high rate of return on investment and adhere to best practice programming guidelines provided by the search engines. The highlights of these honors are two Best in Class awards from IMA for the development and marketing strategies for Extra Holidays by Wyndham (http://www.extraholidays.com) and Spectrum Resorts (http://www.spectrumresorts.com/). Winners of the Best in Class award, the highest honor presented by the Interactive Media Council, excel in everything from design, usability, and innovation in technical features to standards compliance and quality content. Below are some of the additional website design and strategy awards Milestone has received in 2011: Holiday Inn Waikiki Beachcomber Resort (http://www.waikikibeachcomberresort.com/) - Gold Davey Award Nickelodeon Resort & Suites Custom Facebook Wall (http://www.facebook.com/NickHotel?sk=app_117758421629171) - WebAward for Outstanding Social Media Website Crowne Plaza Key West (http://www.laconchakeywest.com/) - Interactive Media's Outstanding Achievement Award Ayres Hotels & Resorts (http://www.ayreshotels.com/) - Silver Davey Award Koloa Landing Poipu Beach - Wyndham Grand Resort (http://www.koloalandingresort.com/) - W3 Silver Award The Marbella Club (http://www.themarbellaclub.com/) - W3 Silver Award CITIC Hotel Beijing Airport (http://www.citichotelbeijing.com/) - W3 Silver Award Waikiki Gateway Hotel (http://www.waikikigateway.com/) -  Internet Advertising Award for Outstanding Website Pueblo Bonito Oceanfront Resorts & Spas (http://www.pueblobonito.com/) - Communicator's Award of Excellence InterContinental The Clement Monterey (http://www.ictheclementmonterey.com/) - Summit International Bronze Award http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/award-wiinninghotel-website-design-marketing-strategies.aspxNovember 10,2011 Comfort Inn Hayward Website Designed By Milestone Internet Marketing Awarded Best Website 2004 In Region 12 By Choice Hotels Santa Clara, California (December 17, 2004) - The Comfort Inn of Hayward, California received the honor of having their first website, which was designed and optimized by Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. of Santa Clara, named "Best Website of 2004 in Region 12" by parent company Choice Hotels. The Comfort Inn Hayward selected Milestone to provide a wide spectrum of Internet marketing and promotions services, including creating and launching a dynamic, effective, aesthetic and search-engine optimized website. "We constantly get compliments on the look, feel and user friendliness of our hotel's website," said Tom Kearns, general manager, Comfort Inn Hayward. "The real hook of our site, however, is its keyword rich content and top search rankings that help us reach new guests looking for specific information and hotel packages in our area." Websites were judged on several cutting-edge Internet marketing criteria, in conformance with Choice's web design parameters, including curb appeal, design and layout, photography, searchability, meta tags and keywords, photography, ease of navigation, link relevancy, body content, page length, load time, ease of finding rates and contact information, site timeliness, and the ability to make a reservation from every page. The Comfort Inn Hayward site exemplifies the most organic, cutting-edge Internet marketing strategies and practices in the industry to achieve web visibility and productivity. "It's great to be recognized by a leading franchisor for the things we practice every day and the elements we incorporate in creating search engine optimized websites that are designed to drive business, as well as look good" said Benu Aggarwal , founder/president, Milestone Internet Marketing. "The industry is fast realizing that to be successful on the web your site has to rank high on search engines and then giving potential guests what they want." For more information, please visit www.milestoneInternet.com and www.comfortinnhayward.com. Milestone is a full-service marketing communications firm, specializing in Internet marketing strategies and website development for the lodging industry. Founder and President Benu Aggarwal is a recognized expert in Internet marketing, search engine optimization, and e-commerce strategies. Benu has written several articles on Internet marketing and website development, and has been a speaker at industry workshops and conferences. Benu has combined her hotel industry experience with search engine optimization technology to create Milestone's proprietary technology, MileSearch™, currently utilized by Milestone clients throughout the U.S. Milestone's multi-talented team of award-winning designers, copywriters/editors, programmers and photographers encompass 30 years of industry experience and a profound love for what they do. Milestone is a preferred e-commerce vendor of InterContinental Hotels and has a client list that includes, Choice Hotels, Best Western International, Sheraton Hotels, Hilton Hotels, Cendant Corp., US Franchise Systems, Silicon Valley Hotels, and several high-tech and venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/best-website-choice-hotels-press-release-121704.aspxDecember 17,2004 Milestone's Hotels To HTMLs ™Seminar Helps Hotel Industry Achieve Marketing Success on the Internet << Listen to this comment now, by clicking play Santa Clara, California (December 7, 2004)- Created and presented by Milestone Internet Marketing, the Hotels to HTMLs™workshop is being touted as the most practical and tactical Internet marketing seminar in the industry today. As more and more consumers flock to the Internet to look for hotels and lodging options, the hotel industry is undergoing a major transformation in the way we communicate to potential guests online. The highly-successful Hotels to HTMLs™ seminar discusses in detail how hoteliers and managers can take advantage of the power of the Internet to improve their online bottom line. "Benu's seminars have been tremendously successful among all our state associations, and our members found the information to be very valuable," says Jessica Lytle, senior director, Member Services, publisher, Directory of Hotel & Lodging Companies, American Hotel & Lodging Association. " This informative seminar series offers property managers the essential tools to be competitive online. Benu is a speaker who can relate to our members with her years of hospitality experience combined with her expertise in Internet marketing. Milestone will continue to conduct this workshop at AHLA partner state associations nationwide." The Hotels to HTMLs™ seminar offers you the competitive advantage in Internet marketing. This interactive class explains step-by-step and with real life case studies how to drive occupancy directly from an effective Internet presence and promotion. The half-day sessions reveal revolutionary formulas for optimizing your website for search engines to attract thousands to your site, maximizing the revenue your hotel can generate through these sites, utilizing travel sites and the global distribution system, and implementing effective permission-based email marketing campaigns. The Hotels to HTMLs™ seminar has received numerous accolades from hotel owners, executives, and general managers who have attended workshops at the Western Lodging Show, CLIA, state conferences of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the AAHOA National Convention, and the Best Western International National Convention. "This was one of the most interesting and informative seminars that I have ever attended," said Mebs Tejpar, owner/operator of Best Western Regency Inn, British Columbia, Canada , who attended the seminar at the Best Western National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. "We quickly learned how to market on the Internet and yield the best results by building search engine friendly websites and by targeting certain features in our area." "I was most impressed with Benu's knowledge of the latest Internet marketing strategies and technology," commented Seona Kim Persons, Director of Revenue, The Sutton Place Hotel and an attendee of the Illinois AHLA-sponsored seminar in Chicago . "I realized how important it is to think about web optimization before you even build your website. It gave me a whole new understanding of web marketing." "Milestone's Hotels to HTMLs™ seminar at the 2004 AAHOA National Convention covered extremely relevant and detailed information such as websites, GDS, travel sites and much more," expressed Jay Shah , owner and general partner of the Days Inn Sherman. "M uch of the information discussed during the conference has never been shared by other Internet marketing companies. This was an excellent session!" For additional information and upcoming dates for the Hotels to HTMLs™ Seminar, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestoneahlapress.aspxDecember 07,2004 Hospitality SEO & SEM News and Press Releases Online marketing for hotel Contact Teresa Soriano Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. Email: tsvillaruz@milestoneinternet.com Tel: (408) 492-9055 Fax: (408) 492-9053 Toll Free: (866)-231-3941 Milestone Presents Hotels to HTMLs™ Workshop at AAHOA National Convention in Grapevine, Texas on April 22 -24, 2004 Santa Clara, California (March 24, 2004) - Milestone Internet Marketing will be presenting the nationally-acclaimed "Hotels to HTMLs™ Workshop" at the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) National Convention April 22-24, 2004 in Grapevine Texas. "Hotels to HTMLs™" is a pioneering workshop that's designed to help hotels owners and managers understand, harness and effectively utilize the far-reaching sales and marketing power of the Internet via website promotions, email marketing, booking engines, global distribution systems and travel sites. "The Internet has manifest into the most critical marketing channel for the lodging industry, it's your online front desk, selling rooms and making your lodging accessible on World Wide Web," says Benu Aggarwal, president of Milestone Internet Marketing and author of the book From Hotels to HTMLs™ - A Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for the Lodging Industry. "The Hotels to HTMLs™ workshop covers the most crucial areas of your online marketing strategy, such as websites, search engine optimization, travel sites & GDS, and permission email marketing, and shows hoteliers how to capitalize and prosper on the e-marketplace. How you position your company today is vital to your future." Milestone is a full-service marketing communications firm, specializing in Internet marketing strategies and website development for the lodging industry. Founder and President Benu Aggarwal is a recognized expert in Internet marketing, search engine optimization, and e-commerce strategies. Benu has written several articles on Internet marketing and website development, and has been a speaker at industry workshops and conferences. Benu has combined her hotel industry experience with search engine optimization technology to create Milestone's proprietary technology, MileSearch™, currently utilized by Milestone clients throughout the U.S. Milestone's multi-talented team of award-winning designers, copywriters/editors, programmers and photographers encompass 30 years of industry experience and a profound love for what they do. Milestone is a preferred e-commerce vendor of InterContinental Hotels and has a client list that includes, Choice Hotels, Best Western International, Sheraton Hotels, Hilton Hotels, Cendant Corp., US Franchise Systems, Silicon Valley Hotels, and several high-tech and venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-aahoa-texas-press-release-042204.aspxMarch 24,2004 Milestone Internet Marketing Licenses Hotels to HTMLs™ Handbook To Best Western International (BWI) For Online Education << Listen to this comment now, by clicking play Santa Clara, CA - May 19, 2005 - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. Announced today that Best Western International, The World's Largest Hotel Chain®, has licensed the online version of its Internet marketing handbook, Hotels to HTMLs - A Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for the Lodging Industry, for its North American members. As part of the agreement, Best Western has secured rights to offer the electronic version of Hotels to HTMLs exclusively through the Best Western International member intranet. Find out more about the hand-book, reviews and online availability of the book. As more and more consumers flock to the Internet to look for hotels and lodging options, the hotel industry is transforming its marketing philosophy. Milestone's successful book Hotels to HTMLs is an effective resource that hotel owners and managers have to achieve success on the Net. This highly-informative guide covers everything hotel owners and managers need to be competitive on the Internet by utilizing search engines, travel sites, GDS and email marketing campaigns. Loaded with real life case studies, the Hotels to HTMLs handbook explains step-by step how to succeed in the virtual marketplace and how to improve you're online bottom line. "The Hotels to HTMLs e-book is a practical, tactical guide for both beginners and veterans, the layout makes it easy to read and it is a great reference tool for information as needed," says Beth Delci, director, eBusiness Initiatives, Best Western International. "The e-book covers the importance of having an effective website, keeping the content up-to-date, how to handle third-party websites and how search engines work to populate information." Hotels to HTMLs provides a step-by-step strategy of how to develop effective Internet marketing campaigns for your properties. The book describes in detail the process used to design search engine friendly websites that consistently rank high organically on search engines. Readers will discover a revolutionary formula that will attract people to your website, elevate your site's ranking in all search engines and directories, maximize your hotel's revenue by using distribution channels, such as travel sites, and create and implement an effective permission-based email marketing campaign. Whether you are advanced or just beginning your Internet marketing journey, Hotels to HTMLs is user-friendly and filled with easy to understand concepts and processes that you can reference every day. "No other book or online publication in the lodging industry encompasses such valid, up-to-date information, is so easy to use and relevant to today's online environment," adds Delci. "Member education is important to Best Western, its simple style make sit an extremely useful reference tool for any hotel owner or manager. Providing online educational opportunities supports Best Western's goals to communicate online while at the same time provide tools that can maximize member profitability." Please visit the Milestone website at http://www.milestoneinternet.com/ to get more details about the book, workshops, availability and how to secure your copy today. Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a full-service Internet marketing firm, specializing in Internet marketing strategies and website development for the lodging industry. Milestone offers a complete suite of Internet marketing tools, including website design, website promotions, booking engines, email marketing and travel site and GDS promotions for the lodging industry. Founder and President, Benu Aggarwal is a recognized expert in Internet marketing and search engine optimization, and author of the acclaimed lodging handbook and seminar "From Hotels to HTMLs: A Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for the Lodging Industry." Hotel owners and operators seek out Milestone because of their unique ability to create complete packages, organic, search-engine friendly websites that rank high on search engines and increase sales and profitability and because of their deep knowledge of the travel industry. Best Western International is THE WORLD'S LARGEST HOTEL CHAIN® with more than 4,100 hotels in 80 countries and territories. It is a membership association of independently owned and operated hotels that provides marketing, reservations and operational support to its members. Hotels to HTMLs By Benu Aggarwal Hotels to HTMLs provides a step-by-step strategy of how to develop effective Internet marketing campaigns for your properties. The book describes in detail the process used to design search engine friendly websites that consistently rank high organically on search engines. Readers will discover a revolutionary formula that will attract people to your website, elevate your site's ranking in all search engines and directories, maximize your hotel's revenue by using distribution channels, such as travel sites, and create and implement an effective permission-based email marketing campaign. Whether you are advanced or just beginning your Internet marketing journey, Hotels to HTMLs is user-friendly and filled with easy to understand concepts and processes that you can reference every day. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/hotels-htmls-best-western-license-press-release-051905.aspxMay 19,2005 Milestone Becomes Corporate Friend of Cornell Center for Hospitality Research Santa Clara, CA - September 20, 2007 - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc., (Santa Clara, CA) announced that we have become a Corporate Friend of the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research. A unit of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, The Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) sponsors research designed to improve practices in the hospitality industry. As a part of Milestone's affiliation with the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, Milestone will be providing consulting services regarding the hospitality industry, trends and new hospitality technology, etc. We expect that over the course of the next year, we will share mutually beneficial research to further progress in the field of Hospitality Internet Marketing. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/cornell-center-for-hospitality-research.aspxSeptember 20,2007 Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. Wins Web Marketing Association's Excellence Award Online marketing for hotelSanta Clara, CA - September 20, 2007 - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc., (Santa Clara, CA) announced today that its Grand Velas Resort Website (www.grandvelas.com) won the Web Marketing Association's 2007 International WebAward for Standard of Excellence in the Hotel and Lodging industry. The WebAwards sets the standard of excellence for website development worldwide and selects from several entries in the different industry categories. Over 2,400 sites from 40 countries were submitted for the WebAwards this year. Judging of entries is based on design, innovation, content, interactivity, ease of use, navigation, and use of technology. Milestone Internet Marketing outperformed its category and industry average in all of these criteria. A judge from the WebAwards said that Milestone Internet Marketing's site was "well laid out" and "pleasing to the eye." Online marketing for hotelGrand Velas Website Case Study - The Grand Velas All Inclusive Suites & Spa Resort in Neuvo Vallarta, Mexico is a 5-diamond luxury hotel that needed to give their website and web presence rejuvenation. Their old website did not position well for on search engine results, and had low traffic and conversion. Milestone's Strategy - Milestone created a new website for Grand Velas to reflect the resort's luxurious and relaxing atmosphere. The website targeted their key market, which is primarily leisure vacationers, honeymooners, spa travelers, destination wedding guests, and corporate travelers. Results Visitors to the site increased 200% within three days of launching the new website and again increased 30% when RSS feeds and online video for website were launched. Website also generated significant new phone call activity. The resort is ranking high in the first place for several search terms on Google and other search engines. The new website is generating significant additional revenue and has already generated ROI of greater than 10X within a short 6 month period. About Milestone - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone's portfolio of services included Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click marketing, Email marketing, and several Web 2.0 initiatives like Online Videos, Blogs, RSS, etc. Milestone currently works with over 1000 hotels and drives over $500M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading management companies in the US. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs Internet marketing workshops and book. For more information, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com or call (888) 350-8396. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/web-marketing-association-excellence-award.aspxSeptember 20,2007 Wins Gold Adrian Award Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. Wins Gold Adrian Award for Excellence in Hotel Internet Marketing - Santa Clara, CA - September 20, 2007 - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc., (Santa Clara, CA) announced today that its Grand Velas Resort Website (www.grandvelas.com) won the HSMAI's Adrian Gold Award for Search Marketing Strategy in the "Hotel - Individual Property" category in the 51st Adrian Awards Competition. Out of the 1,300 sites submitted for the Adrian Awards this year, www.grandvelas.com was judged as one of the best for Web Marketing by expert hospitality, travel, tourism, and media professionals based on the internet marketing strategies used to promote the resort website. Milestone used the latest Internet marketing techniques including several Web 2.0 strategies such as Online Videos, RSS feeds, Social Media optimization to drive a phenomenal return on investment for the property. The return on investment for the property website in its first year of being live is close to 25X and continues to climb as several of the strategies in Web 2.0 arena continue to play out and drive additional revenue to the property. Milestone developed a new website for the resort in early 2007 to reflect the resort's luxurious and relaxing atmosphere. The website targeted their key market - primarily leisure vacationers, honeymooners, spa travelers, destination wedding guests, and corporate travelers. Once Milestone began promoting the website, visitors to the site increased 200% within three days of launching the new website. Visitors increased another 30% when RSS feeds and online videos for the website were launched. The website also generated a significant amount of new phone reservation activity. Grand Velas All Suites & Spa Resort now ranks high for several search terms on Google and other search engines. About Grand Velas - In Nuevo Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit, Mexico, Grand Velas All Suites & Spa Resort is a member of The Leading Hotels of the World and a recipient of the AAA Five-Diamond Award. Located just 15 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta on Banderas Bay, the resort features 267 ocean-view suites, ultra spacious Spa Suites in the resort's new tower and new three-bedroom and two-bedroom Imperial Suites. Grand Velas Spa is the crown jewel of the resort and a member of Leading Spas of the World. The spa features 20 treatment rooms, over 80 spa treatments, a high-performance gym and exercise room, spa boutique and a beauty salon. About Milestone - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone's portfolio of services included website design, search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, email marketing, and several web 2.0 initiatives like online videos, blogs, RSS, etc. Milestone currently works with over 600 hotels and drives over $75M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading management companies in the US. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs Internet marketing workshops and book. For more information, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com or call (888) 350-8396. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/gold-adrian-award-excellence.aspxSeptember 20,2007In Febuary 2008 during SMX West, I had the pleasure of interviewing the head of Google's Web Spam team, Matt Cutts. He is very well respected in the SEO community for communicating and enforcing Google Webmaster Guidelines. The topic of our conversation was the Impact of Search on the Lodging Industry and Web 2.0. The questions we asked Matt ranged from simple search engine guidelines to very specific questions about the strategies to succeed on search engines. We included questions regarding web 2.0, fresh content, videos, etc., and the impact of these elements on search engines. This 20-minute video interview offers cutting-edge information for the SEO world. So, sit back and open your minds to highly informative insights that will change the way you approach web marketing. Note, due to the size and length of the video, it was broken down into two 10 minute sections. A special thanks to Matt for meeting with us and answering these questions in great depth. We appreciate your time and coaching! Milestone President Interviews Matt Cutts Part 1 Note about video quality: Please excuse the background noise and lighting. Matt is such a famous ‘Search Engine' celebrity that we could only get few minutes of his time in the corridors during SMX West…so, we took out our camera and started rolling. To make it easy for our readers, we summarized the questions and answers discussed in this post. Milestone President Interviews Matt Cutts Part 2 Here is the synopsis of the questions we asked and the explanations Matt provided in his interview with us: Question: What are the top ingredients for any small business that wants to be successful on the net? Response: Content is king! If you want to have a high-quality website you need to have great content, because having great content will enable your website to rank much easier in the search engines. Once you have great content, it is important to focus on how to market your site. Think about various tactics you can use in order to capture your visitor's imagination. It can be anything from contests, newsletters, guides, festivals, etc. However, great content is definitely the primary focus. After great content comes promotion. The question here is how to successfully promote your site? The goal is to drive interest for your website, and in order to do this you need to brainstorm, come up with cool ideas, neat tricks, and other approaches to stirring up commotion about the website. Also think about how your website actually looks in a search engine. The SERP (Search Engine Results Page) lists many different websites and what would entice somebody to click on yours. With Google, through the description tag, one has a good amount of control over what their website will look like in the SERPs. Once you have traffic pouring into your website, the focus shifts to conversion. The key element to conversion is simple and easy to use navigation. Enable the user to convert on any page and make sure all pages are no more than just a few clicks away. A good way to tell whether your navigation is simple is to bring in an outsider and have them try to perform an action on the site without any instructions. If he/she succeeds, then your navigation is simple to use. Question: If you have a very small business with a limited budget, and you are anxious to try everything in internet marketing, what should you try first? Answer: A website comes first, because you want the small business to be able to make money. Or at the very least have a way for consumers to contact the business and even find the business. Then I would say a blog, because if you are a small business you probably have a unique personality and a blog would be a great way to get heard. Question: Many people are scared to have blogs, because they are afraid of negative comments and entries. They do not understand the concept of moderation and do not understand some uses of a blog such as including press releases. How can hotels get around this? Answer: There are many things you can do to get around this problem. You can disable comments all in all or you can easily moderate any comments and only allow constructive comments to go through. It is also important to understand the benefits that blogs have in terms of creating user generated content and the value of this content to search engines. Question: If blogs are the main Web 2.0 channel you recommend, is there anything else you could recommend for small businesses? Answer: Definitely videos. If you are creating a video this is a pretty simple process with great results. All you really need to start with is a tripod, a camera, and a room. Then you quickly record it and put it on YouTube for free. There is very little cost and it's very simple to start out. Question: It is a struggle to explain to small businesses that organic search engine results are a moving target. Instead of focusing on ranking for a specific keyword the goal should be to focus on relevant traffic and how to increase this traffic. Some clients get phone calls or emails from companies saying we guarantee top search results. What do you think? Answer: Everyone gets phone calls and emails from these spammers that promise top search results. However research reveals that most people do not just simply search for keywords such as "San Jose Hotel" instead they search for "San Jose Grand Prix places to stay". Basically look through your logs and see what people are searching for. Or you can look at your traffic and try to optimize for that. Question: What are some other web 2.0 strategies that you would recommend for businesses such as hotels? Answer: Web 2.0 is a great way for businesses to connect to people on a personal level. Whether it is social book-marking, social networking sites, or Flickr photo sharing communities, I think this would be a huge help. In regards to images, if you are going to be staying at a hotel you have never been to, having a virtual tour or video of the hotel would be a reassurance to anyone that they can see what a hotel looks like and you don't have to be scared to stay here. This is a way for a business to have a voice and personality. MySpace and FaceBook are great ways to get exposure in front of consumers and be able to offer consumers helpful information instead of annoying them. Question: This is a common question we are asked- "why should we not buy multiple versions of our domain, misspellings, plurals, etc?" Answer: It is much easier to go with one domain versus 20 domains because it will be much easier for people to remember that domain name and come back to it. In theory, one can buy misspellings but then they should redirect them to the main domain website. What you don't want is a competitor reporting you for spam abuse because you have the same exact website on 20 different domains. Question: I always thought title tags should sound natural and not be keyword stuffed. Nowadays I am seeing companies keyword stuff there title tags and show up high on search engines. What do you recommend? Answer: I would stick to what sounds natural and is best for the consumer. Most sites are ranking high not because of the title tag but because they have a well optimized site that has been around for a while and they simply decided to go over board and stuff the title tag. Google gives some points to the title tag, but it is best to think about the consumer and come up with titles that are compelling. Question: Do you think Google Coupons or online coupons will eventually replace print publications? Answer: There is a place for everything. I do not think just because of Google Coupons and the internet that print publications would disappear. However, I would say that most hotels are not paying attention to all of the opportunities. We have mentioned blogs and videos but local is another huge one! Question: We have been doing a great effort for mobile devices and I think in the past year I have been struggling with what is going to be the future? Should mobile sites be designed for iPhones or SmartPhones? Answer: The short answer to this question is the target market. If your target market is in the United States, it is quite evident that phones are going to get better and smarter, and even have browsers that will be able to support richer websites. So I think the focus should be to concentrate on creating good websites that would look good in mobile browsers as well as regular browsers, instead of creating specialized websites for smart phones only. Question: For a successful website what are the most important steps and the ways to go about research, content, design, and promotion? What is the most fundamental element? Answer: Research is huge and content is huge. If you do good research, you save a lot of work on making the content good. Once you have good content the last step would be promoting it and letting people know where they can find this great content. This is a basic summary of some of the questions and answers asked by Benu Aggarwal and answered by Matt Cutts. To find the video of this interview and the actual dialogue with the full questions and answers, please visit the Milestone Blog (http://blog.milestoneinternet.com). Again, a special thanks to Matt Cutts for his time and support! http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-president-talks-to-matt-cutts-from-google-regarding-best-practices-for-promoting-hotels-online.aspxFebruary 14,2008 Santa Clara, CA - June 12, 2008 - Milestone Internet Marketing announced today the launch of its state-of-the-art, hosted Content Management System - Galexi™, targeted at the hospitality and travel segments. The Galexi™ system enables hotel and restaurant chains and hospitality associations to rapidly deploy and manage websites for their members with great ease at a fraction of the cost of existing systems in the market. The sophisticated Content Management System is among the first of its kind targeted at small-to-midsize portal platforms for hotel and restaurant chains, management companies, and state and city hospitality associations. The platform is offered as a hosted solution, does not require major hardware or software installations, and can be accessed from any computer. The Galexi™ CMS platform is targeted at multiple applications such as intranets, websites for Cities and Associations, brand websites for hotel and restaurant chains, and database driven websites for individual hotels. Flexibility and Scalability Some of the key challenges with the existing systems in the market are limited flexibility and scalability. Galexi™ enables brands and associations to develop and remove websites in a matter of minutes. The system allows for the dynamic addition and deletion of menus and sub-menus. Brands can feature and rotate time sensitive specials and offers on the home page and load an inventory of packages and specials that each individual member website can select. The system scales from a simple single website to incorporating hundreds of websites. Seamless Integration with 3rd Party Interfaces Galexi™ enables seamless integration with third party services such as brand booking engines, third party booking services, weather.com services, Trip Advisor, etc. The tool comes with advanced authoring tools integration. Additional modules such as photo galleries, interactive Google Mash-up (for destination, city etc) can be added with relative ease. Search Engine Friendly Drives Higher Revenue In addition to the flexibility and ease of management, Galexi™'s main attraction are the search engine friendly features that result in higher revenue from the search engines for websites developed on this platform. The system is designed to be search engine friendly from the ground up and offers users the ability to add and modify meta-tags, alt-tags (image tags), etc easily. Each individual website can be assigned a search engine friendly domain address and each page within the website can be given a search engine friendly name. Clients have the ability to add several Web 2.0 and Social Media channels such as Blogs and User Generated Content modules depending on the budget and marketing requirements. "We are excited about the potential of this system based on the results of several of our initial implementations that have gone live on this platform. The customer feedback regarding ease of use, lower maintenance cost, and ability to change content easily on the system has been very positive. We have seen a tremendous increase in website traffic and revenue for several of our initial implementations that have gone live," said Anil Aggarwal, CEO of Milestone Internet Marketing. Some examples of Galexi™ implementations announced today include the following: www.bestwesternpremier.com - Best Western International's portal for Premier Hotels worldwide. More than 90 individual hotel websites are built within the portal. www.hershahotels.com - Hersha Hotels portal platform with over 55 individual hotel websites built within the portal platform. www.vistarez.com - Brand website for Vista Hospitality. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-internet-marketing-inc-launches-galexi-content-management-system-for-hospitality-and-travel-market.aspxJune 12,2008Santa Clara, CA - July 23, 2008 - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc., (Santa Clara, CA) announced today that it has won the IMA's Outstanding Achievement Awards for its design and optimization of the Ginn Reunion Resort's Blog. Out of hundreds of sites submitted for the IMA Awards this year, http://blog.reunionresort.com/ was judged as one of the best in the Blog and Hotel/Resorts categories by expert hospitality, travel, tourism, and media professionals.  The judgment was based on the internet marketing strategies used to promote the blog as well as merit and success in achieving its objectives. The Interactive Media Awards™ recognize the highest standards of excellence in website design and development and honor organizations for their outstanding achievement Ginn Reunion Resort was looking for a way to engage their customer base through social media whilst increasing revenue.  Milestone responded by developing a concept and creating a blog to promote the destination, and position the resort as an expert of the Orlando market.  The resort partnered with local attractions, restaurants, and other demand drivers to provide useful articles and permit user-generated comments for others to read. This strategy is one of industry's first implementations and greatly enhances credibility, branding, and online revenue for the hotel.  The blog's design projects upscale positioning of the resort.  Several plug-ins for permalinks, SEO, title tags, ultimate tag warrior, etc. were activated to maximize the effectiveness of the blog. About Milestone: Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry.   Milestone's portfolio of services included Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click marketing, email marketing, Blogs, RSS, Podcasts, etc.  Milestone currently works with over 650+ hotels and drives over $85M in annual revenue for its clients.  Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and lodging associations and works with some of the leading management companies in the US.   Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs internet marketing training workshops and book.   For more information about Milestone, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com or call (888) 350-8396. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/award-winning-blog.aspxJuly 23,2008Santa Clara, CA - October 1, 2008 - Milestone Internet Marketing, a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry, announced today that it won five awards in the recently concluded Web Marketing Association's 12th Annual WebAward competition. The websites won the Outstanding Websites and Standard of Excellence awards in the Hotel and Lodging category. The websites were judged using seven criteria including design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copywriting, and ease of use. The highlights among the award winning websites were Best Western Premier (www.bestwesternpremier.com) and Intercontinental Toronto (http://www.torontocentre.intercontinental.com) which won the Outstanding Websites Award. Best Western Premier (http://www.bestwesternpremier.com) is developed using Milestone's recently released GalexiTM Content Management System that is targeted for the hospitality chains and brands. The website received an almost perfect score in all categories including a perfect 10 for ease of use. The other 3 websites that won the Standard of Excellence award include the following: Experience Baltimore (http://www.travelguidebaltimore.com) Hotel Renew (www.hotelrenew.com) Wingate Inn Las Vegas (www.wingatelasvegas.com) Experience Baltimore is a Web 2.0 Destination Blog website targeted for Social Media Optimization for a group of hotels based in Baltimore. The website provides information about the destination and at the same time offering the guests an opportunity to interact with the hotels and one another. Intercontinental Toronto and Hotel Renew are both targeted at the upscale luxury segment targeting consumers seeking branded upscale hotels or boutique hotels respectively. Wingate Las Vegas website represents the best in class in the mid-scale branded segment of the hospitality industry. The website won the award for its great appeal, richness of its content, and its search engine optimization that drives significant revenue to the hotel. These awards for multiple websites, each with a different theme and a target market, ranging from a sophisticated 90+ hotels "Best Western Premier" to Social Media enabled "Experience Baltimore Blog," demonstrate Milestone's cutting edge strategies in multiple segments of the hospitality market. For more information about our products and company, visit www.milestoneinternet.com or blog.milestoneinternet.com, or call (888) 350-8396; email: sales@milestoneinternet.com. About Milestone Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone's portfolio of services included Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click marketing, Email marketing, and several Social Media Optimization initiatives like Online Videos, Blogs, RSS, etc. Milestone currently works with over 700 hotels and drives over $85M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading management companies in the US. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLsTM internet marketing workshops and book. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-wins-webawards.aspxOctober 01,2008Santa Clara, CA - January 20, 2009 - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc., a full-service internet marketing agency for hotels, announced today that it won three awards for Search Marketing Strategy in the "Hotel - Individual Property" category in HSMAI's recently concluded Adrian Awards Competition.  Out of almost 1300 sites submitted for the Adrian Awards this year, Milestone was honored for its creative brilliance and best practices in internet marketing for the hospitality and travel industries. The websites were judged using five criteria including marketing objectives, creativity, quality, content, and results.  The highlight among the award winning websites is The Orchard Hotel (http://www.theorchardhotel.com/), which won the Silver Award.  The website's creative design and content highlight this boutique, certified "Green" hotel's mix of classic charm, outstanding service, and contemporary panache for its guests.  The site has experienced phenomenal success even in the short time the site has been live.  Website traffic has increased significantly by almost 40% within the first few weeks.  The website is also ranking high in search engines for extremely competitive keyword terms related to the San Francisco market. The other 2 winning websites judged as one of the best in the category are: - Doubletree Orlando (http://www.doubletreeorlando.com/) - Bronze Award - Reunion Resort's Destination Blog (http://blog.reunionresort.com/) - Bronze Award Doubletree Orlando's website was re-designed and optimized while keeping in mind the usability, relevancy, and the target clientele for the property. The website won the award for its great appeal, richness of content, and search engine optimization.  The online revenue increased by 20X since Milestone started managing the website while at the same time reducing the marketing spend by 50 percent. Reunion Resort's Blog is a Web 2.0 Destination Blog designed to showcase the resort.  It highlights the resort as an expert in the Orlando, FL market. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-wins-multiple-adrian-awards.aspxJanuary 20,2009DALLAS and SANTA CLARA, Calif. (February 4, 2009) - Utell Hotels & Resorts (a service of Pegasus Solutions) and Milestone Internet Marketing have entered into a five-year renewable partnership to augment Utell's market-leading representation support with Milestone's award-winning online marketing services. As the world's largest third-party hotel marketing, sales and representation company, Utell serves more than 11,000 member hotels, which can now benefit from Milestone's top-rated, revenue-driving Internet marketing services. The partnership was forged to relieve the burden on hotels to achieve visibility in a crowded marketplace suffering from dwindling demand, according to Ric Leutwyler, president of Utell. "Utell's member hotels, which already employ Pegasus' distribution and booking solutions, are facing an incredibly difficult task in 2009, along with the rest of the industry," said Leutwyler. "While travel demand may shrink or stagnate, we know that online bookings are actually expected to increase. Given our responsibility to help our hotels succeed, we've aligned with Milestone to provide its award-winning search marketing strategy to our members so they can break through the online noise." Milestone, which offers Internet marketing services including Web site design, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, social media optimization and email marketing, was honored with 11 awards in 2008, including three Adrian Awards for its creative brilliance and best practices in Internet marketing. The company will focus on offering Utell customers tailored solutions that complement their current offering from Pegasus, according to Anil Aggarwal, CEO of Milestone. "With Pegasus' leading solutions provided via Utell, from booking and connectivity to representation, the company is already focused on driving the greatest revenue from the Internet for hotels," said Aggarwal. "Milestone's market-leading Internet marketing services take this online offering to the next level. Our online marketing technology and innovative approach to promoting Web sites - including advanced Web 2.0 elements like online videos, blogs, and social media - make these sites among the most advanced in the hotel industry. As a result, they drive significant return on investment. With a tough economic outlook for the lodging industry in 2009, the combined forces of Utell and Milestone will enable hotels to grab a larger market share and minimize negative effects from damaging market forces." About Milestone Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone's portfolio of services include Web site design, search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, email marketing and several social media optimization initiatives like online videos, blogs, RSS, etc. Milestone currently works with more than 700 hotels, and drives over $100 million in annual revenue for its clients. The company is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands, and works with some of the leading management companies in the U.S. Milestone is well known as a lodging industry education for its "Hotels to HTMLs™" Internet marketing workshops and book. For more information about Milestone products and services, visit www.milestoneinternet.com. About Utell® Hotels & Resorts Utell® Hotels & Resorts is the representation business unit of Pegasus Solutions. This includes both the Utell and Unirez representation services which enable nearly 11,000 independent and small group hotels in over 130 countries to compete globally.Established almost 80 years ago, Utell is the world's largest and most experienced sales, marketing and distribution service for hotels. With a comprehensive international portfolio that encompasses luxury, boutique, value, business and resort properties, Utell caters for a variety of accommodation requirements for both business and leisure travelers. Utell's products and services are used by thousands of travel agencies worldwide in addition to major TMCs, corporations and consortia groups. Visit www.utell.com. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/utell-milestone-partnership.aspxFebruary 04,2009Santa Clara, CA - April 8, 2009 - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. announced today that www.nylohotels.com website won the Best Hotel and Lodging Website Award in the recently concluded Internet Advertising Competition Awards (www.iacaward.org). The website won the award for greatness in appeal, richness of content, and search engine optimization, which drives website traffic and online revenue. The websites were judged using six criteria including creativity, innovation, campaign impact, design, copywriting, and use of internet medium. The awards are produced by the Web Marketing Association (WMA). The judges for the awards are experienced professionals with an in-depth understanding of the current state-of-the-art in advertising design and represent some of the best the Internet Advertising community has to offer. The NYLO hotels website was a result of extensive collaboration between NYLO hotels and Milestone's award winning design and promotion teams. "The website marries NYLO's unique positioning, hotel design concepts, and consumer appeal with Milestone's design excellence and search engine marketing strategies, said Patrick O' Neil, NYLO's Executive Vice President of Operations. He added, "NYLO's modern and chic hotels with contemporary elegance appeal to the hip modern consumer . We needed a website design and online marketing company that would highlight our market positioning and develop a comprehensive online marketing plan that would put us in front of the online consumers. Milestone did a phenomenal job of achieving our goals." The masterpiece website was an outcome of several months of collaboration between the two teams and is developed on Milestone's award winning GalexiTM Content Management System. The results from the website even in the three months it has been live have been spectacular. The visitor traffic to the website has jumped 59% since the website went live. The page views have increased nearly 9X since the website went live 3 months ago, clearly illustrating that consumers are attracted to NYLO's unique market positioning and find the website interesting. Most significantly, the online reservations from the website is up 35% year-over-year for the same three month period. This is impressive given the current economic conditions and decline in consumer spending on hotel rooms industry wide. In addition to the Best Hotel and Lodging Website Award, Milestone also won 2 Outstanding Website awards for excellence in Internet Marketing for the following websites: Brookfield Suites Hotel - the website was designed and optimized while keeping in mind the usability, relevancy, and the target clientele for the property. Since the website went live in July 2008, Brookfield Suites has experienced an estimated 15% increase in monthly bookings compared to the previous year despite the current economy. (http://www.brookfieldsuiteshotel.com/) The Inns of Monterey Blog is part of a comprehensive Social Media Optimization plan for the group of five boutique hotels in Monterey. The blog features Monterey as a destination providing information to consumers about attractions, dining, and things to do in Monterey, and also showcases the five uniquely designed boutique hotels. Utilizing Milestone's innovative social media strategies, the unique daily visitors to the website has increased by 44% since the blog went live in October 2008. (http://www.innsofmonterey.com/) About Milestone Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone's portfolio of services included Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click marketing, Email marketing, and several Social Media Optimization initiatives like Online Videos, Blogs, RSS, etc. Milestone currently works with over 700 hotels and drives over $150M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading management companies in the US. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs internet marketing workshops and book. For more information on our products and services, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com or email sales@milestoneinternet.com or call (888) 350-8396.http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-internet-marketing-inc-wins-best-hotel-and-lodging-website-award-2.aspxApril 08,2009Santa Clara, CA - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc., a full-service Internet marketing company for the lodging industry, announced today that it further enhanced its certifications by becoming a Google Adwords Qualified Company and also receiving Google Analytics Qualified certifications for more employees. These certifications enable Milestone to offer the highest levels of expertise and sophistication to our customers when it comes to paid search and analysis of search traffic and results, while at the same time continuing to invest in education of its employees. In order to become a Google Certified Company, several Milestone employees had to go through extensive training followed by a challenging and comprehensive written exam delivered by Google. By adding to the already large pool of employees who have Google Adwords certification, Milestone is ensuring that it continues to offer the best in class paid advertising strategies and drive higher returns for our clients. Google Adwords is one of the largest pay per click marketing channels for businesses where website owners can create and run ads for their company quickly and simply. However, running an effective PPC (pay-per-click) campaign involves many aspects including constant monitoring and modification, testing, and analysis of the PPC campaign and its results. As a Google Adwords Qualified / Certified Company, Milestone has proven that it has the knowledge, experience, and expertise to achieve results for its clients. Google Analytics is a web analytics tool that allows website owners to track how visitors found their website, how they explored it, and how they can enhance their visitors' experience. With this tool, website owners can create a more effective website, track and analyze search marketing campaigns, improve website performance, increase conversion, and drive online revenue. As a Google Analytics Certified company, Milestone demonstrates top-to-bottom expertise of Google Analytics and the ability to apply analytics data and make improvements to ongoing marketing campaigns for their travel and lodging industry clientele. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-internet-marketing-inc-enhances-its-google-certifications.aspxJune 04,2009Santa Clara, CA - Milestone Internet Marketing announced today the launch of eBuzz ConnectTM Social Media Management System targeted at the hospitality and travel industries. eBuzz ConnectTM is an online Social Media Management system for hotels, restaurants, and businesses to manage online reputation and social media channels from an integrated single interface. In addition to Social Media channels, eBuzz ConnectTM also monitors Online Travel Agency channels such as Expedia and Travelocity. Hotels can measure their performance against social media marketing goals and benchmark their performance vs. competitors using the system. Why eBuzz ConnectTM? Social Media Marketing is the next frontier of "organic optimization." As Social Media sites continue to grow in popularity, it is important for hotels to include these channels in their online marketing strategies, especially when references from these sites are considered important ranking factors by search engines. Hotels that take advantage of this trend and put an effort in managing their online reputation are seeing significant benefits in terms of online placement and increased revenue. Over the last few years, Milestone has collected substantial return on investment data from social media marketing efforts for several hotel industry clients (see GravitiTM for more information). eBuzz ConnectTM is derived from the results of these marketing efforts and focuses on the social media channels found most effective for the hotel industry. eBuzz ConnectTM Key Features eBuzz ConnectTM comes with several features for monitoring and managing online reputation and proactively marketing the hotel on social media channels. Some of the key features include: Converting Social Media into Profits - Monitor, manage, respond (wherever possible) to reviews and comments on social media channels - Monitor performance on OTA channels - Reference Guide for Social Media Marketing - which channels to optimize and how to optimize - Demystifies how hotels can maximize gains and track performance in social media channels Flexible and Powerful Reporting - Actionable General Manager's Summary Report - Dashboard view and desktop delivery - Trend Analysis - data saved for up to 2 years - Brand and group level reporting. Summarize reports by group or region, assign multiple user permissions Set and Manage Social Media Goals - Benchmark performance of hotel on social media channels vs. pre-set goals. Goals can be relative to competitors or absolute goals. Track performance pre- and post- changes at the hotel (construction, management change, etc) Competition Monitoring - Monitoring of performance vs. competition Impact IndexTM - Enables focus on important items. Sort by importance of reviews using Impact Index Rating eBuzz ConnectTM System Architecture The system is designed as a central warehouse for collecting and storing data from multiple Web 2.0 and Social Media sites and the capability to present data to the user in easy-to-read dashboard reports and desktop delivery reports. The architecture provides an easy to navigate social media dashboard with summarized reports segmented by the type of channel such as Travel Reviews, Blogs and News, Photo Sharing, Videos, Bookmarking, and Social Networks and easy ability to drill down into each of the channels. Availability and Pricing eBuzz ConnectTM is available starting June 23, 2009 at the HITEC Conference in Anaheim, CA. The system is available at a discounted launch price in the range of $95 to $195 per month per hotel. Multiple hotel pricing discounts are offered and the pricing can be obtained by contacting Milestone sales rep. For more information about the product and company or to sign up for a free trial, call (888) 350-8396 or email: sales@milestoneinternet.com About Milestone Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone's portfolio of services included Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click marketing, Email marketing, and several Social Media Optimization initiatives like Online Videos, Blogs, RSS, etc. Milestone currently works with over 700 hotels and drives over $150M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading management companies in the US. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs internet marketing workshops and book. For more information on our products and services, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com or email sales@milestoneinternet.com or call (888) 350-8396. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-internet-marketing-inc-launches-ebuzz-connecttm-online-social-media-management-for-the-hospitality-and-travel-market.aspxJune 17,2009Santa Clara, CA -  Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. announced today that it won two awards for its innovative website design and internet marketing strategies for hotels. The websites were judged using criteria such as creativity, innovation, campaign impact, design, copywriting, and usability.  The judges for the awards are experienced professionals with in-depth understanding of the current state-of-the-art in advertising and design and represent some of the best the Internet Advertising community has to offer. Milestone hotel websites recently won the following awards: Best Western Tuscan Inn - Kimpton Hotels (http://www.tuscaninn.com/) won WMA's 2009 WebAward for Outstanding Hotel and Lodging Website.  The Best Western Tuscan Inn website was a result of extensive collaboration between Kimpton Hotels and Milestone's award winning design and promotion teams. Prior to Milestone, the property had a website that was not producing much revenue. By redesigning the website and promoting it through online channels, Best Western Tuscan Inn seen remarkable results. Just in January and February 2009, the new website produced over 4X the old website's total 12-months revenue during 2008.  On a month-to-month basis, the total room nights booked increased 30X over the previous year, despite the current economy. Founded in 1981 by Bill Kimpton, every Kimpton hotel features personalized guest services, comforting in-room amenities, specialty rooms and suites, and provides a range of exciting culinary experiences through affiliated top-rated destination chef-driven restaurants.  Kimpton takes pride in its commitment to social responsibility and leads the hospitality industry in ecological practices through its innovative EarthCare programs. Privately held, Kimpton received the highest ranking in customer satisfaction scores by the Market Metrix Hospitality Index for the entire year of 2007, exceeding all other hotel companies, including those in both the luxury and upscale segment. Among the company's newest properties are the Hotel Monaco Alexandria and Jackson 20 restaurant in Virginia, which opened in January 2008, and the Hotel Palomar Los Angeles in Westwood and the adjacent BLVD 16 restaurant. Additional projects are underway in Florida, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago and Virginia. For more information, please visit www.KimptonHotels.com or call 1-800-KIMPTON. InterContinental Boston (http://www.intercontinentalboston.com/) won 2009 IMA Award for Outstanding Achievement for the Hotel/Resort Category. Milestone worked closely with InterContinental Boston to design a clean and sophisticated website and strategically promote it online.  When the site went live in February 2008, Intercontinental Boston experienced a stunning $30K jump in online revenue. On a month-to-month basis, the hotel has experienced over 50% increase in website visitors. These awards are addition to 3 awards already won by Milestone in 2009, including WMA's 2009 IAC "Best Hotel and Lodging Website" Award for NYLO Hotels (http://www.nylohotels.com/). Each of the award-winning websites was created by Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. in an effort to increase online traffic and overall revenue for the hotels through optimized website design and strategic internet marketing. About Milestone Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry.   Milestone's portfolio of services included Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click marketing, Email marketing, and several Social Media Optimization initiatives like Online Videos, Blogs, RSS, etc.  Milestone currently works with over 700 hotels and drives over $150M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading management companies in the US. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs internet marketing workshops and book.   For more information on our products and services, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com or email sales@milestoneinternet.com or call (888) 350-8396. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-internet-marketing-hotel-websites-continue-to-win-awards.aspxJune 17,2009Santa Clara, CA - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. announced today an expanded product offering for Social Media and Web 2.0 strategies for hotels and resorts. The expanded offering will enable hotels to take advantage of up and coming trends in internet marketing and stay ahead of the competition. Mobile Websites The use of mobile phones to access the internet continues to increase.  More consumers and business travelers are going online on their iPhones and Smart Phones to access the internet.  US Mobile penetration is expected to be 94% or 291M users by 2010 (source: eMarketer, May 2009).  67% of travelers and 77% of frequent business travelers with Web-enabled mobile devices have already used their devices to find local services (e.g. lodging) and attractions (PhoCusWright).  Mobile Search is expected to grow at a CAGR of 58.6% between 2008 and 2013 (source:  eMarketer, Sep 2009). Milestone's mobile websites are optimized for fast download time, ease of navigation, and offer key content for easy browsing on a mobile phone screen.  The websites have easy, single-click access to directions, reservation contact number, and dining information.  Consumers are automatically directed to the mobile website when the hotel website is accessed from a mobile phone. Graviti LiteTM - Social Media Starter Plan Graviti LiteTM is a lighter version of Milestone's social media optimization services.  It is targeted to hotels that want to engage in social media but are not certain whether it's the right strategy for their hotel, are concerned about the time commitment, or cannot allocate significant budget to Social Media Optimization effort.  The Starter Plan key features include: •    Enhanced set-up on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr including cross-linking between channels •    Guidance on socializing and promoting hotels on these channels •    Social Media Dashboard for easy access to the channels •    Low budget entry point eBuzz ConnectTM - Reputation Management and Social Media Tracking Milestone continues to add more features and capabilities to eBuzz ConnectTM - Social Media Tracking and Management tool that was launched at Hitec 2009.  The tool allows hotels, brands, and restaurants to monitor and manage their online reputation from an integrated single interface. The tool tracks hotel's presence in different social media channels such as photo-sharing sites, online video sharing sites, blogs, and user generated content sites such as Trip Advisor and Yelp.  In addition to Social Media Channels, eBuzz ConnectTM also monitors Online Travel Agency channels such as Expedia, Travelocity, and Hotels.com. The product continues to gain momentum and market traction with several customers signed up for the program.  Some of the unique features available in the latest release of the software include ability to track specific keywords, most-mentioned positive and negative keywords in the reviews, hotel's top reviewers, hotel's most popular blog channels, and ability to prioritize comments and reviews based on the significance of the channel.  Hotels can segment the reviews by department which makes responding to reviews easier.  The tool gives actionable reports that hotels can use to enhance their marketing efforts and drive additional revenue. To learn more about using Web2.0 strategies for hotels, or to learn more about Milestone's Web2.0 and Social Media services, please visit  www.milestoneinternet.com or email  sales@milestoneinternet.com or call (888) 350-8396. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-expands-product-offering-for-social-media-and-web-2-0-strategies-for-hotels.aspxOctober 08,2009Santa Clara, CA - Milestone Internet Marketing announced today that Aqua Hotels and Resorts has selected eBuzz ConnectTM for Social Media and Online Reputation management for all hotels under their brand.   eBuzz ConnectTM enables hotels to monitor, manage, and respond to reviews  and comments in online channels.  In addition, eBuzz ConnectTM serves as a reference guide for social media marketing efforts and demystifies how hotels can maximize gains and track performance in social media channels.    Aqua is a leading Hawaii-based hotel management company that operates on the cutting-edge of online marketing technologies for hotels.  Aqua-managed hotels and resorts benefit from the company's initiatives, taking advantage of the latest and greatest technology trends. "Aqua has been monitoring social media and online guest reviews for some time and the process has been piecemeal and time-consuming. We evaluated several solutions in the market and selected eBuzz ConnectTM because of its powerful reporting and its ability to provide actionable reports that can help improve service to our guests and eventually increase profitability.  Milestone is the ideal provider for Aqua's internet marketing strategies as the company stays current with the latest online marketing trends and offers cutting-edge technology for the hotel and travel industries," said Amber Watt, Director of Internet Strategy for Aqua. eBuzz ConnectTM expands the already extensive partnership that Milestone and Aqua have on various eCommerce related initiatives.  Milestone and Aqua Resorts worked on re-launching www.aquaresorts.com in Sep 2008 and engaged in wide-ranging promotion efforts.  A newly launched Ilikai Hotel & Suites website, www.hotelilikai.com, increased month over month revenue by 40% in the very first month of its launch. "We are excited about our relationship with Aqua.  Aqua is amongst the most innovative and aggressive hotel groups that we work with when it comes to e-commerce strategies.  A combination of Milestone's leading edge e-commerce tools with Aqua's strategies has provided a punch that has defied the decline in numbers in the travel market in Hawaii," said Anil Aggarwal, CEO of Milestone Internet Marketing. About Milestone Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry.   Milestone's portfolio of services included Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click marketing, Email marketing, and several Social Media Optimization initiatives like Online Videos, Blogs, RSS, etc.  Milestone currently works with over 700 hotels and drives over $150M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading management companies in the US. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs internet marketing workshops and book.   For more information on our products and services, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com or email sales@milestoneinternet.com or call (888) 350-8396. About Aqua Hotels & Resorts Aqua Hotels & Resorts is a full-service management company founded in 2001 by Hawaii hotelier Mike Paulin. The company provides independent hoteliers and individual owners with full-service administration including revenue management, Internet distribution, sales, reservations, as well as individualized and brand advertising and marketing or maximum profitability. Currently representing contemporary hotels and resorts located on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Molokai, there are three full-service properties in the Aqua Resorts group; eight hotels in the Aqua Boutique Collection, each with their own unique features and five comfortable and affordable hotels in the Lite line representing the company's transitional and value product. Aqua Hotels & Resorts has been included in the ‘Fastest 50' growing Hawaii Company list by Pacific Business News since 2007.  Headquartered in Waikiki, Aqua became Hawaii's first employee-owned hotel company in 2008 when it executed an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. For more information on the company and individual hotels, visit www.aquaresorts.com or call 1-808-943-9291.http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/aqua-hotels-and-resorts-licenses-ebuzz-connect-social-media-management-tool.aspxNovember 10,2009Santa Clara, CA - Milestone Internet Marketing announced today it won six new awards for its state-of-the-art hotel website designs and internet marketing strategies in the recently concluded Davey Awards and W3 Awards Competitions. Milestone's recent accolades add more awards to its already impressive trophy case. • The Historic Inns of Annapolis (http://www.historicinnsofannapolis.com/) won a Gold Davey Award and Silver W3 Award. The hotel group consists of three beautiful 18th Century boutique hotels restored with 21st Century luxury. The website was revamped using SEO guidelines followed by extensive online organic promotion, paid search, and social media marketing. Since its launch, the online bookings from the website have jumped from an average of 300 room nights a month to over 900 room nights a month. • The Heathman Hotel in Kirkland (http://www.heathmankirkland.com/) won a Silver Davey Award and a Silver W3 Award. The website showcases the property's refreshing blend of classic elegance, organic ambiance, and modern luxuries. • The Hotel Rouge - Kimpton Hotels (http://www.rougehotel.com/) won a Silver Davey Award. The website features the hotel's vibrant characteristics and contemporary architecture. Hotel Rouge's revamped website has seen a 62X return on investment year-to-date from direct website bookings alone. • The NYLO Hotels website (http://www.nylohotels.com) won a Silver Davey Award. The website was designed as a portal for its boutique hotels. The International Davey Awards focuses on honoring the finest creative work from the best small firms worldwide. In the recently concluded 2009 competition, over 4000 entries were submitted in which no more than ten percent is awarded a Gold Davey. Milestone was awarded 1 Gold Davey and 3 Silver Davey Awards. IAVA's W3 Awards honors outstanding Websites, Web Marketing, and Web Videos created by the best interactive agencies, designers, and creators worldwide. Nearly 3,000 entries were submitted and judged based on a standard of excellence according to the category entered, and scored on a ten point scale by the judges. Milestone was awarded 2 Silver W3 Awards.http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-internet-marketing-wins-six-new-website-design-and-internet-marketing-awards.aspxNovember 18,2009 Milestone Internet Marketing Wins Multiple Adrian Awards: eBuzz Connect Hotel Online Reputation Monitoring Tool Wins Silver in Web Applications Category (Santa Clara, CA - January 19th, 2010 ) - Milestone Internet Marketing announced today it won three silver awards in the recently concluded 2009 Adrian Awards Competition presented by the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI), the largest and most prestigious travel marketing competition globally. Out of nearly 1,100 entries submitted for this year's competition, Milestone was honored for its creative brilliance and best practices in web application design and programming for the hospitality and travel industries. The highlight among the award-winning entries is a silver award for eBuzz Connect™, Milestone's Social Media and Online Reputation Management System, in the Web Applications category. The system enables hotels to monitor and manage online reputation. eBuzz Connect™ serves as an online reputation management guide and demystifies how hotels and businesses can maximize gains and track online performance in social media channels. eBuzz Connect™ offers powerful reporting and the ability to provide actionable reports that can help hotels improve services to customers and eventually increase profitability. Milestone recently presented eBuzz Connect™ at the 2009 Travel Innovation Summit held by PhoCusWright. Milestone was selected amongst a few leading hotel technology innovators to present at this conference. The Travel Innovation Summit represents the next big wave of innovation in the travel industry, and chooses only 30 out of hundreds of competing innovators from around the world to take the stage. The tool received rave reviews at the conference including the following comment from Tnooz Editor: "Probably the best of the social media monitoring tools on (Travel Innovation Summit) show. A very well designed dashboard which includes every area of social media coverage such as TripAdvisor, Facebook, blogs, forums, Twitter et al. The tool also allows specific keyword analysis and the ability to weight the importance of coverage on individual sites. Not a game-changer by any means, but a useful service." - Kevin May, Editor, Tnooz Talking Travel Tech. In addition, Milestone won the following awards for its innovative hotel website design and internet marketing strategies: www.nickhotel.com - Silver Adrian Award www.historicinnsofannapolis.com - Silver Adrian Award The Nick Hotel website (www.nickhotel.com) was revamped following sophisticated search engine optimization (SEO) guidelines, incorporates several Web2.0 features, and is promoted using organic, local, and social media optimization techniques and paid search marketing. Since the site launched in August 2009, direct online bookings have increased dramatically on a month to month comparison. In its launch month of August 2009, the website generated over 300% increase in online bookings compared to August from the previous year. The Historic Inns of Annapolis website (www.historicinnsofannapolis.com) was revamped keeping in mind the usability, relevancy, and the target clientele for the properties. Since the new website launched in late April 2009, website online bookings have increased from an average of 300 room nights per month to over 900 room nights per month. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/MilestonePR_adrianawards.aspxJanuary 19,2010Lansing, MI and Santa Clara, CA - May 13, 2010 - California-based Milestone Internet Marketing and American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (EI) announced today the release of the third edition of From Hotels to HTMLs™: A Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for the Lodging Industry, authored by internet marketing experts Benu and Anil Aggarwal, and printed and distributed by AH&LEI. Topics Covered About the Authors About Educational Institute (AHLEI) About Milestone Internet Marketing "It is with great excitement that we introduce the third edition of our Hotels to HTMLs book. We printed the first edition back in 2003 and so much has changed since then that if you were to go into a slumber in 2003 and wake up today, you'd find it hard to understand all the complexities associated with the internet space today," states Benu Aggarwal, Milestone President and Co-author of the book. "In the fast-paced evolution of the internet, this book gets the adrenaline going and offers new opportunities for hoteliers to excel in this dynamic marketspace." This one-of-a-kind book offers practical, proven information for hotel professionals on all aspects of internet marketing, which hoteliers can use to improve their revenue and internet presence. All the strategies illustrated - from traditional search engine marketing to mobile, social media, e-mail, and website optimization - have been successfully deployed to create good return on investment for different hotels in Milestone's portfolio. The content is based on the authors' experiences working with more than 800 hotels to provide them with increased revenue through effective internet marketing. For hoteliers who don't know RSS from SEO, the book provides practical tips in easy-to-understand language, and offers nearly a dozen handy checklists to monitor a property's internet marketing progress. There are checklists for website design, social media optimization, e-mail marketing, ROI tracking, pay-per-click, and website analysis. "Our objective is that the reader walks away with productive, real-life strategies to enhance their hotel business by utilizing the internet," Benu concludes. From Hotels to HTMLs™: A Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for the Lodging Industry is available for $40.95 for AH&LA members and $47.95 for non-members, and can be purchased from either EI (www.ahlei.org) or Milestone Internet Marketing (https://secure.milestoneinternet.com/hotelstohtmls/hotel-marketing-publications-print.aspx). Topics covered include: Websites: Your Online Front Desk Search Engine Marketing - Organic Promotion Local Search Engines Pay-Per-Click Advertising Social Media Strategies for Hotels Are You Ready for Mobile? Measuring Success of Your Search Engine Marketing Effective E-Mail Marketing - Booking Rooms and Building Relationships Website Analysis Tools Internet Marketing Tips and Checklists [back to top] About the Authors: The book is authored by principals of Milestone Internet Marketing, an award winning provider of internet marketing services to the lodging industry. Benu Aggarwal is the Founder and President of Milestone and is the key driver for technology and strategies deployed by Milestone to increase revenues for its clients. CEO Anil Aggarwal brings significant technical and marketing management experience and ability to organize technology and strategies in a cohesive, well productized form. About Educational Institute: Established in 1953 as a nonprofit educational foundation of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the Educational Institute's mission is to support AH&LA by becoming the preferred provider to the lodging industry, hospitality schools, and related hospitality industries both domestically and internationally by developing and providing quality resources to train, educate, and certify hospitality professionals. About Milestone: Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone's portfolio of services includes Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click Marketing, Email Marketing, Hotel Internet Marketing, Hotel Website Design, and several Web 2.0 initiatives like Online Videos, Blogs, RSS, etc. Milestone currently works with over 800 hotels and drives over $250M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with the leading management companies in the US. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs book and internet marketing workshops. Press Contact: Teresa Soriano-Villaruz Sales and Marketing Associate Direct: 408-200-6871 Email: pr@milestoneinternet.com Website: www.MileStoneInternet.com [back to top] http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/third-edition-complete-guide-to-hotel-internet-marketing.aspxMay 13,2010Santa Clara, CA - June 8, 2010 - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. announced today that its experts will be discussing its popular social media strategies at the upcoming major hospitality industry conferences - AAHOA, HSMAI Conference, and HITEC.  The focus in these educational sessions is to provide concrete ideas and case studies for hoteliers to implement social media and internet marketing strategies at their hotels. Internet Marketing and Social Media - AAHOA, Chicago, June 17, 2010.  Benu Aggarwal, founder and president of Milestone Internet Marketing and a well recognized expert in internet marketing strategies for the travel industry, will share creative internet marketing strategies including Social Media, SEO, SEM, for the hospitality industry at the AAHOA Women's Conference.  In addition, she will speak about the fine art of balancing personal life with high-energy and busy work life. To register for this event, click here. Social Media in 30 Minutes a Day - HSMAI Revenue Management and Internet Marketing Strategy Conference, Orlando, FL - June 21. Kimberly Ercius, Director of Business Development of Mileston, is a recognized speaker in Social Media and Internet Marketing Strategies.  In this session, she will introduce the audience to proven social media tools and best practices managing social media if given only 30 minutes a day. She will focus on how to manage the most important social media channels and review tactics for engaging with customers on these channels. For more information or to register, click here. Social Media Strategies for the Lodging Industry - HITEC, Orlando, FL - June 23. Anil Aggarwal, CEO of Milestone and a well recognized speaker and co-author of "From Hotels to HTMLs: A Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for the Lodging Industry", will discuss how hoteliers can effectively use social media tools and strategies to boost customer engagement, loyalty, and online revenue. To register for this event, click here. For more information about Milestone's Hotels to HTMLs workshops, send an email to info@milestoneinternet.com.http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-internet-marketing-discusses-social-media-and-internet-marketing-strategies-for-hotels-at-hitec-hsmai-and-aahoa-conferences.aspxJune 08,2010Santa Clara, CA - July 22, 2010 - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. announced today that it was the recipient of multiple awards for its creative hotel website designs and innovative Internet marketing strategies in three recent Internet marketing competitions. The honors came from the Interactive Media Awards, Summit International Awards, and Communicator Awards whose judges represent some of the best the Internet advertising community has to offer. The Interactive Media Awards™ recognizes both individuals and organizations for the highest standards of excellence in website design and development. Entries are evaluated using five criteria: design, content, feature functionality, usability, and standards compliance. Four Milestone-designed websites won for Outstanding Achievement in the Hotel and Lodging category: Nickelodeon Suites Resort (http://www.nickhotel.com/) Marquis Los Cabos (http://www.marquisloscabos.com/) InterContinental Los Angeles (http://www.intercontinentallosangeles.com/) The Red Lion Denver Southeast Website (http://www.denverseredlion.com/) The Summit International Awards recognizes and promotes exeptional marketing, advertising, and design/interactive pieces of communications. Entries were judged based on strengths and quality of objectives, execution, and persuasive communication. Three Milestone-designed hotel websites were honored: InterContinental San Francisco (http://www.intercontinentalsanfrancisco.com/) - Silver Award) Flatiron Hotel (http://www.flatironhotel.com/) - Silver Award River Terrace Inn (http://www.riverterraceinn.com/) - Bronze Award The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program that recognizes communications professionals for their creative excellence. The competition is stiff, as more than 7,000 entries are received from across the U.S. and around the world. Milestone-designed hotel websites took home two awards for Interactive Distinction: InterContinental Los Angeles (http://www.intercontinentallosangeles.com/) - Silver Award Hotel Urbano (http://www.hotelurbano.com/) - Silver Award About Milestone Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is an award-winning Website Design and SEO firm, and a leading provider of Internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone's portfolio of services included Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click marketing, Email marketing, and several Social Media Optimization initiatives such as Online Videos, Blogs, and RSS. Milestone currently works with over 850 hotels and drives over $250M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading management companies in the U.S. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs Internet marketing workshops and book.   For more information about our products and services, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com, email sales@milestoneinternet.com or call (888) 350-8396http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/award-winning-hotel-website-designs.aspxJuly 22,2010Santa Clara, California (September 4, 2003) Milestone Internet Marketing, a leading provider of Internet marketing for the hotel industry, has produced a comprehensive handbook on Internet marketing for the lodging industry, called "From Hotels to HTMLS - A Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for the Lodging Industry." This comprehensive guide, the brainchild of Milestone Founder and President Benu Aggarwal, is a complete step-by-step guide created to provide awareness and education of the Internet as the most powerful marketing tool in today's business environment. "The hotel industry has been lagging behind in understanding and harnessing the Internet, and it's time for hoteliers to realize that our target audience has changed, as well as the way people are looking for hotels," said Benu Aggarwal. "This book was written to create awareness and to provide education about what it takes to create strong Internet presence and how to develop a website so that it produces real results. Hotel owners really need to comprehend that unless your website is optimized to work with the search engines, it's just sitting out there on the web. That's like having a fast car with no wheels." "From Hotels to HTMLs™" is a concise and easily relatable guide to understanding the vast marketing potential of the Internet, creating effective websites, and the significance of search engine optimization. The book is designed as a step-by-step approach to understanding the elements of Internet presence, developing websites, the role of search engines and directories; global distribution systems, travel sites, email marketing, and writing compelling customer focus web content that maximizes your site's presence. It was designed to help owners make the right decisions about web marketing and to offer information that will protect them against unethical practices that could ban their websites from search engines in the future. "Hotel marketing has turned upside down in the era of the Internet, and those hoteliers who are not actively learning how to make the Internet work for them will fall behind quickly in this new competitive landscape," says Chip Conley, President, Joie De Vivre Hospitality, Inc. "Benu Aggarwal's "From Hotels to HTMLs™" handbook is the best source I've seen for explaining this new landscape, as well as providing tactical strategies for maximizing your hotel's exposure on the Internet. If the Internet scares you, this guide is a practical and easy-to-understand method of becoming an expert overnight. It is well organized and very usable." "This guide really shows what it takes to create a strong web presence," adds Rick Tipton, president, American Hotels, Inc. "What we all need to realize is that it's not all about having an attractive website, but having a website that can produce results. This guide makes it clear that we have to change how we approach our target audience. It touches on all aspects of Internet marketing, and it is written by someone who truly understands hotel marketing. I highly recommend it for all lodging industry managers." "This is a very informative handbook, and unlike most technology books written for a non-technical audience, it does not bore you," Dilip Patel, owner, Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites, Mountain-View. "The book is written so anyone will understand it." "The Internet is a disruptive technology that hoteliers will need to adapt to," concludes Vimal Kumar, general partner, Silicon Valley Hotels. "This book is perfect for those seeking to harness the Internet." For information on how to obtain a copy of "From Hotels to HTMLS - A Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for the Lodging Industry," visit the Milestone website at www.milestoneinternet.com. Milestone is a full-service marketing communications firm, specializing in internet marketing strategies and website development for the lodging industry. Founder and President Benu Aggarwal is a recognized expert in internet marketing, search engine optimization, and e-commerce strategies. Benu has written several articles on internet marketing and website development, and has been a speaker at industry workshops and conferences. Benu has combined her hotel industry experience with search engine optimization technology to create Milestone's proprietary technology, MileSearch™, currently utilized by Milestone clients throughout the U.S. Milestone's multi-talented team of award-winning designers, copywriters/editors, programmers and photographers encompass 30 years of industry experience and a profound love for what they do. Milestone is a preferred e-commerce vendor of InterContinental Hotels and has a client list that includes, Choice Hotels, Best Western International, Sheraton Hotels, Hilton Hotels, Cendant Corp., US Franchise Systems, Silicon Valley Hotels, and several high-tech and venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/hotels-htmls-handbook-press-release-090403.aspxSeptember 04,2003(Santa Clara, CA - October 12, 2010 ) - Milestone Internet Marketing Inc., announced today that its experts will be discussing its popular internet marketing and social media strategies at upcoming conferences for the search technology and hospitality industries - Eye for Travel's Travel Distribution Summit, Search Engine Strategies Conference, and Wisconsin Lodging Conference and Tradeshow. The focus in these educational sessions is to provide hoteliers concrete ideas and case studies for successfully implementing social media with their internet marketing strategies. Combining Social Media with SEO Strategy - Travel Distribution Summit, Chicago, IL - October 14. Anil Aggarwal, CEO of Milestone and a well recognized speaker and co-author of "From Hotels to HTMLs: A Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for the Lodging Industry", will discuss how hoteliers can effectively combine the use of social media tools and search engine marketing strategies to boost customer engagement, loyalty, and online revenue. To register for this event, click here. Local Search Ranking Factors - Search Engine Strategies (SES) Chicago, IL - October 21. Benu Aggarwal, founder and president of Milestone Internet Marketing, a well-known expert in internet marketing strategies for the travel industry, and co-author of "From Hotels to HTMLs: A Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for the Lodging Industry", will share internet marketing insights on the difference between local and organic SEO, as well as factors and criteria needed in order to rank high on local results. To register for this event, click here. Internet Marketing: SEO & Local Search and Universal Search & Social Media (a two-day event) - Wisconsin Lodging Conference and Tradeshow, Green Bay, WI - October 25 & 26. Brad Brewer, Regional Business Development Manager (Central US) of Milestone, is a recognized speaker in Social Media and Internet Marketing Strategies. In his first session, Brad will discuss the difference between local search and global search, and how to utilize directory listings to drive relevance to the website. In his second session, he will discuss how hoteliers can maximize their social media efforts, track results, and monitor the online buzz about their hotels For more information or to register, click here. For more information about Milestone's Hotels to HTMLs workshops, send an email to info@milestoneinternet.com.http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/milestone-internet-marketing-discusses-social-media-and-internet-marketing-strategies-for-hotels-at-the-travel-distribution-summit-ses-and-wisconsin-lodging-conferences.aspxOctober 12,2010Santa Clara, CA - November 9, 2010 - Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. announced today that it continued its award winning spree with recent multiple awards for creative hotel website design, internet marketing strategies, and innovative web applications technology. The honors came from the prestigious web award competitions including HSMAI's Adrian Awards and WMA's WebAwards. The highlight among Milestone's awards is the Computer Software Standard of Excellence Award for eBuzz ConnectTM - Social Media Tracking and Online Reviews Management System. eBuzz ConnectTM is the industry leading application to track and manage online reviews and social media for the hotel industry. Milestone competed against the best of the best in hospitality and technology. Milestone's work was judged to be exceptional by expert hospitality, travel, tourism, and media professionals who represent some of the best the Internet advertising community has to offer. Adrian Awards Competition presented by the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI), is the largest and most prestigious travel marketing competition globally. Out of nearly 1,100 entries submitted for this year's competition, Milestone was honored for its creative brilliance and best practices in website design and internet marketing for the hospitality and travel industries. Milestone's award-winning hotel websites: Rocky Gap Lodge and Golf Resort Website (www.rockygapresort.com/) - Gold Award Wyndham Garden Hotel Manhattan Website (www.wyndhamnyc.com/) - Silver Award Aqua Hotels and Resorts Blogsite (blog.aquaresorts.com/) - Silver Award Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens Website (www.kyotograndhotel.com/) - Silver Award The Web Marketing Association's WebAward recognizes individuals responsible for developing some of the most effective and best websites and software on the internet today. Entries are evaluated based on several criteria such as design, innovation, content, technology, ease of use, etc. Milestone's WebAward winning entries: eBuzz ConnectTM (www.milestoneinternet.com/html/online-social-media-management-system-for-hotels.asp) - Computer Software Standard of Excellence Award InterContinental Los Angeles (www.intercontinentallosangeles.com/) - Hotel and Lodging Standard of Excellence Award Aqua Hotels and Resorts (www.aquaresorts.com/) - Outstanding Website Award In addition, Milestone has won the following awards for its exceptional hotel website designs and internet marketing strategies: Nickelodeon Suites Resort website (www.nickhotel.com/) - Silver InterContinental New York Barclay website (www.intercontinentalnybarclay.com/) - Silver Aqua Bamboo and Spa website (www.aquabamboo.com/) - Silver Marquis Los Cabos website (www.marquisloscabos.com/) - Silver Days Inn Hollywood website (www.daysinnhollywood.com/) - Silver Nickelodeon Suites Resort website (www.nickhotel.com/) - Outstanding Website Award Nickelodeon Suites Resort (www.nickhotel.com/) Marquis Los Cabos (www.marquisloscabos.com/) InterContinental Los Angeles (www.intercontinentallosangeles.com/) The Red Lion Denver Southeast Website (www.denverseredlion.com/) InterContinental San Francisco (www.intercontinentalsanfrancisco.com/) - Silver Award Flatiron Hotel (www.flatironhotel.com/) - Silver Award River Terrace Inn (www.riverterraceinn.com/) - Bronze Award InterContinental Los Angeles (www.intercontinentallosangeles.com/) - Silver Award Hotel Urbano (www.hotelurbano.com/) - Silver Award ---------------- Press Contact: Teresa S. Villaruz Tel: 408-200-6871 Email: pr@milestoneinternet.com Website: www.milestoneinternet.com Blog: blog.milestoneinternet.comhttp://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/2010-award-winning-hotel-website-designs.aspxNovember 09,2010Santa Clara, CA - November 16, 2010 - Milestone Internet Marketing announced today the release of eBuzz ConnectTM 1.3, the next generation of the award-winning online Social Media Management solution that allows hotels, restaurants, and travel businesses to monitor, manage, and respond to reviews and comments in various online channels from an integrated single interface. As social media continues to grow in popularity, an increasing number of hotel guests are inclined to share their experiences with the world through these channels. It is imperative for hoteliers to keep an eye on what is being said about their hotel in the online world. Moreover, hoteliers can use this as a way to gather information needed to improve services, brand perception, and increase hotel bookings. However, it can be a tedious process for hoteliers to log in to every single social media channel, scan through hotel mentions, identify items to focus on, and determine the plan of action. eBuzz ConnectTM provides a consolidated view of hotel's position on all the review channels, online travel agencies, and social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. Milestone launched the service initially in 2009 and has continued to invest in the tool adding more features to make the tool more actionable and focused on driving revenue. For eBuzz ConnectTM 1.3, Milestone focused on four important elements that will further help hotels take more actions and generate revenue from their social media efforts: Easily identify the most important social media factors and items that needs hoteliers' attention Industry's first tool to integrate workflow for coordinating responses to reviews between different personnel and departments of the hotel Easily view the activity on channels and how effective the hotel staff is utilizing the channels Tracking return on investments The enhanced version of eBuzz ConnectTM minimizes the time hoteliers need to spend tracking and sorting through social media and online reviews mentions, and gives them more time to focus on actionable items to increase guest satisfaction, customer loyalty, online traffic, and overall hotel revenue. The restructured dashboard provides a single screen on which all the relevant information is available at a glance. "eBuzz ConnectTM has significantly helped us improve our quality of services at our hotels and has had a direct impact on our revenue," said Gary Gutierrez, CEO of HRI Lodging. "Our team uses eBuzz to monitor the social media channels and engage in conversations with our customers, which has improved our profile with our customers as well as helped us land new customers that were previously staying with our competitors. Tool's new internal workflow feature has made it very efficient for our teams to review the comments and determine action plans," he added. eBuzz ConnectTM 1.3 recently won the Web Marketing Association's Outstanding Achievement award in the Web Applications category. Previously, eBuzz ConnectTM won the HSMAI's Silver Adrian. For more information about this product and Milestone, or to sign up for a free trial, call (888) 350-8396 or email: sales@milestoneinternet.com.http://www.milestoneinternet.com/newsroom/press-release/next-generation-online-reputation-management.aspxNovember 16,2010