Myrtle Beach Hotels Blog

Perhaps there's hope

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:10:32 -0600

Perhaps there is hope, Myrtle Beach SC has seen consumers begin to book the usually busy Valentine's Day weekend.

Myrtle Beach Hotels on the Oceanfront and those at Barefoot Resort are beginning to reach up to 70% occupancy in advance bookings for the two day weekend.

Consumer confidence seems to be ticking up in the Real Estate Market as well with a sudden increase in interest with increased leads across the board.

Let's see how 2009 develops. For Myrtle Beach as a destination and relocation area, encouraging beginnings are taking shape.

Myrtle-Beach.com

Where are people putting their money today?

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 11:10:53 -0600

For the past 3 decades, Myrtle Beach Hotels, in Myrtle Beach, SC were concerned with one group of people and everything they did... Baby Boomers!!!

As a Real Estate sales person, if your focus today is exclusively bent on Baby Boomers, then you might want to look into selling health supplements, medical/pharmacy sales, juices, and exercise for life products, because the next few years will see them largely spending here.

We all witnessed the chase towards the highest return on investments over the past 20 years. Firs it was technology stocks. Everyone invested here and many got burned. Then it was the stock market as a whole. Once it topped and no apparent great leaps were availalbe, in the late 90's and the 00's we watched the Real Estate boom, fostered by government credit out of control.

Most of these investors were looking for quick and high returns. Personally, I think looking for quick and high returns is much like looking for white tigers. While they do exist, they are very rare. Be careless around them and they will turn around and shred you to bits. Just ask Sigfried and Roy about that.

Today, much of the universe is investing again in technology, especially all aspects of Social Networking for generation X and generation Y. To be totally transparent, Myrtle-Beach.com, has purchased a $700,000 social platform for the purpose of connecting Tourists, locals and businesses in all things Myrtle Beach.

If you love selling real estate, however, and you are making it a career craft, then you also need to be patient and develop lifelong relationships with Gen X and Gen Y. Gen X has now nested and Gen Y is just starting to nest. These mid twenties to early forty somethings see the world very differently from baby boomers. I take full credit for naming this generation Generation Internet or the Internet Generation. Mr. Obama leveraged their way of thinking right into the White House.

So, I would suggest you repattern your thinking to their do's and don'ts.

They don't:

Trust network news
Trust what a business says about itself in an advertisement
Read the newspaper
Follow social conventions (Everything is personal for them from their music, entertainment, etc)
Like Television
Prepare from scratch meals - (nor do they know how)

They DO

Love Technology (especially Ipods, Iphones, video games)
Think green (they blame boomers for destroying the planet they will inherent)
Love organic food (but they often can't afford it)
Have a sense of entitlement (these times may change that)
Trust reviews and friends opinions over advertisers or the news
LOVE SOCIAL NETWORKING (that is where they find out about you - not from you, but others)
Love the idea of community, but don't know how to do it in a non electronic way.
Crave honest, open, and transparent relationships

Want to build a dynamic future for yourself? Learn how and where to sell to these guys. These are today's investors and buyers. Let's track and follow them.

What do you think?

Great local Real Estate Search Terms

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:59:05 -0600

Myrtle Beach Real Estate Sales, based on my last blog and the comments it received are going to be very dependent on managing great search terms. Much of this has to do with internet knowledge and how your individual website is designed.

It appears the internet has created winners and losers. The question is "How to become a winner on the internet"? When it comes to search engines, the clear winner is google. It now represents over 60% of all internet searches.

For our area, the terms Myrtle Beach Real Estate, Myrtle Beach Foreclosures, and Myrtle Beach Real Estate sales are critical google search terms. With that said, there are two ingredients to being on this search term. Prior to 2006, if you had the web covered, you were good with google, but the Iphone changed all of that.

Now as many google map searches are done for a term as web searches, what with all the 3G phones like the Iphone and the Blackberry Storm. Get used to it, google maps searches will soon eclipse web searches for all time and eternity and we won't go back.

What does that mean? If you do Myrtle Beach Real Estate Sales, but your office is in Pawley's Island, you can never make a Myrtle Beach google map and stay there.

if you do have an office in Myrtle Beach that sells real estate, but your website is poorly designed and you have an over 35% bounce rate on that term, good luck, you won't stay on that map for long.

Here is what google is looking for:

RELEVANCY: How relevant is your website for the term that you want to rank on.

HOW THAT IS MEASURED: By how many people click on your site first over other choices on the google page and by how deep into your website that visitor goes. If a guest goes onto your site and then leaves immediately, that is a bounce and it will bounce you off of that term.

SITE INTEREST: How long someone stays on your site and how many pages they view.

HOW IS THAT MEASURED: Simply by page views and time on your site.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR YOU? This month google rolled out its new algorithym. New searches are now individualized based on what each IP user recently searched. For example: If you are always looking for plumbing parts and you enter the search term delta, you'll get DELTA Faucets. If however, you are always on Travel sites and you enter the term DELTA, you'll definitely get an airline company.

End Result: HAVING YOUR BUSINESS and WEBSITE ON A GOOGLE MAP IS NOW CRITICAL

Companies like Myrtle-Beach.com are ranked on key search terms like Myrtle Beach Real Estate Sales.

You can see the term above on the map, if you click the hyperlink words above as probably B.

Myrtle-Beach.com offers help to local Real Estate Agents as they can purchase a placement on Page one of the Myrtle-Beach.com site with video feeds of properties, and as many links as they like. During tough times, every dollar counts and web presence is everything.

JD Redmon, Vice President of Sales at Myrtle-Beach.com is always available for those in the Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Surfside, Conway, Loris, Murrells Inlet, and Pawleys Island areas that want help getting exposure on a Myrtle Beach map term. His number is 843-241-0488 and he works every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Myrtle Beach Hotels see slow start

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:13:59 -0600

Myrtle Beach Hotels on the Oceanfront and those around Broadway at the Beach are seeing a slow start to Summer rentals. With the economic reversals of Fall 2008, Myrtle Beach experienced a slow end to rentals in the period that ran from October through December as well.

"We have seen a soft beginning to 2008", said J Goldstein, manager of Coastal Golf Away. Coastal Golf Away is one of the premier golf vacation companies in the area that runs from Ocean Isle Beach to Pawleys Island. "We are hoping that consumer confidence will grow with the new administration in place."

"The misery index is real high right now", said Christina Taylor, a sales account executive for Myrtle Beach Hotels.

"We are waiting for March". stated Bruce Kligman, owner of Kligs Kites. "For our business, we really don't know the effects until the tourists either come and spend, come and don't spend, or don't come."

Many hotels in Myrtle Beach, SC are seeing reservations for Summer months booked at half of what was on the books at this same time in 2008. "People are just waiting longer this year to make reservations", said Bob Cline, owner of Cherry Grove Realty, a company that does sales and vacation rentals.

While the new administration is promising hope, Myrtle Beach vacation rentals and area hotels just aren't feeling it yet.

Myrtle Beach Real Estate sales have seen a small blip up according to the Sun News recent blog about Condo Lux.

Perhaps we are nearing the bottom of an economic decline or perhaps the bottom is just ahead. It does appear that consumers are worried in general and vacation spending will happen last minute this year, if at all.

What's your opinion? Has the economic recession moved beyond the real estate industry in your area?

Social Network boom or fatique?

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:01:08 -0600

Social Networks are going online now at a rate of over 10 per day.

Established networks like Active Rain, with a proven track record and purpose, have demonstrated a loyal following. Many new social networks, like Pownce, have already bit the dust.

We launched our Social Network a few weeks ago for Myrtle Beach, SC. Since that time we have witnessed several new sites being launched.

While universal passwords are coming to help, it is obvious that a few good national and local social networks will thrive and many other ill conceived concepts will bite the dust in this new shakeout.

What's your opinion? What is the future for Social Networking? Is it a good place to get your name viral?

New look for new Social Site as they are booming

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:24:30 -0600

Myrtle-Beach.com went social last week and already over 100 people have joined.

The Myrtle Beach area site is for locals, tourists, and businesses.

Members are rapidly joining social sites of all varities now as google just released google friends in beta.

The Myrtle Beach site rewards members for inviting visitors, posting videos, creating groups by giving them points that they can trade for discounts or freebies with local merchants.

The current business climate seems to be a productive one for social nest making.

No bambi call me pages, nudity, or non family oriented material is allowed on the site and it will skew towards older members.

Are Social Networks death to your email account?

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:06:07 -0600

With the advent of Social Networking through sites like Active Rain, Myspace, Youtube, Twitter, Trulia, and Myrtle-Beach.com, will the interconnections made on such sites be the end of traditional emailing.

Statistics indicate that there are over 400 million adults currently on Social Network sites. Each of these are writing on walls, leaving comments and connecting outside of email channels.

We recently put up our Social Network at Myrtle-Beach.com. It went live in beta on Friday night. We now have 43 initial members that are joining groups, putting up groups and beginning to connect.

Our intentions were to have tourists, locals, and Myrtle Beach businesses all connect here. We'll see how this experiment turns out.

From the early indications, it appears to me that my traditional email box is fuller now than it has ever been. In fact, my guess is networking on several sites will cause a greater flow of traditional emails, not less.

WHAT'S YOUR OPINION? What has been your experience, if you now belong to more than one social network?

Ocean Resorts joins Myrtle-Beach.com team

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:55:12 -0600

Myrtle-Beach.com announced today that Ocean Resorts has joined our team of top rated Myrtle Beach Hotels and vacations.

Ocean Resorts offers Myrtle Beach Resorts in Shore Drive and Ocean Drive.

Myrtle-Beach.com is a marketing company in Myrtle Beach, SC that works with over 20 area hotels and many different Myrtle Beach Real Estate professionals.

Our social networking sites help connect local businesses and realtors with over 1.25 million tourists.

Plantation Resort joins Myrtle-Beach.com

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:39:49 -0500

Myrtle-Beach.com announced today that Plantation Resort has joined its advertising team.

Plantation Resort features rooms, efficiencies, one bedroom condos, two bedroom condos, villas, and penthouses.

If your group needs a great Myrtle Beach vacation and traditional Myrtle Beach Hotels just are not what you are looking for, we suggest you look into the many golf vacations and family vacations offered by Plantation Resort.

Call 800-845-5039 for more information.

Will Obama be good for Real Estate?

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:29:19 -0500

Wealth Redistribution and Bail outs. Obviously those of us who are in the Real Estate profession or in marketing the Real Estate profession are at the center of politics this Fall 2008.

Polls indicate that Senator Obama has a commanding lead.

Should he become President, how will his policies affect our industry? Will taxing small businesses and large corporations that make more than $250,000.00 in income help move the over supply that currently exists in our unsold product?

Are Bank Bailouts, Insurance Bail outs, and Bank takeovers by our government good for our industry?

I really would like your input here. I will be marketing Myrtle Beach Real Estate products for our local area in 2009 and I have more questions right now than answers.

What to do while I wait to buy or close?

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:09:31 -0500

Myrtle Beach Home sales are picking up again. Good news.

If you are waiting to close, looking for a short term renta while waiting, or just sitting the market out until you feel the price falls farther... Myrtle Beach Condos at Barefoot Resort are now available through the end of February for only $875 all inclusive.

This price will include the pool, ammenities, lights, heating, and all that is Barefoot Resort and Barefoot Landing.

Currently Unit 434 in River Crossing, pictured here, is available at this price. This is a 2 bedroom/ 2 bath condo and it won't be available long. To see this property click here

While there, check out the outstanding golf courses onsite at Barefoot Resort.

A Myrtle Beach effort worth noting

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:30:45 -0500

Coastal School Ministries is proud to be a part of a national Released-time program. Briefly, released-time gives students in our public schools an opportunity to take Bible as an elective off-campus, with parental permission, during the school day. Horry County Schools have approved released- time county-wide! St James Middle School was the first pilot school in 2001. Today, students from both St. James Middle and St. James High school now have an opportunity to take Bible classes 5 days-a-week. Coastal School Ministries transports the students to and from school to a host facility (usually a nearby church who has graciously allowed them to use its campus). We have ministered to over 1,600 middle and high school students. And, in January 2007, the state of SC approved released-time for credit to high school students! We would love to have your support in reaching these teenagers for Jesus! Coastal School Ministries is a non-profit organization that relies solely on donations from individuals, businesses, and churches in order to carry out this vital ministry. Find more about us at www.coastalschoolministries.com.

Volunteer Opportunties

Donate

Contact

Testimonials

For more information call Dawn at 843.293.0446

Coastal School Ministries - A safe place in an unstable world.

Holiday Sands North joins Myrtle-Beach.com

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:28:36 -0500

Myrtle-Beach.com announced today that Holiday Sands North Hotel has joined its marketing on its Myrtle Beach Hotels site.

Holiday Sands is among the top Oceanfront Myrtle Beach hotels for family get aways and group gatherings.

If your real estate group wants a well established Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotel with good customer reviews, make your next Myrtle Beach visit a stop here.

Holiday Sands North has two Oceanfront Towers to choose among. Onsite, you will also find a spacious oceanfront lawn, lazy river, indoor pool, outdoor pool, and one of the best central locations.

Near Holiday Sands North, your group will find Broadway at the Beach, Market Commons, Nascar Speed Park, The Carolina Opy, and world class golf courses.

Make your next gathering in Myrtle Beach a safe bet by choosing Holiday Sands North.

Condominium Rental Services joins Myrtle-Beach team

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:07:27 -0500

Myrtle-Beach.com announced today that Condominium Rental Services added its property management firm to the collection of neighborhood Myrtle Beach sites, including Myrtle Beach Hotels and Condos, Myrtle Beach Condos Direct, Myrtle Beach SC, and Myrtle Beach Hotels SC.

Condominium Rental Service is an Oceanfront Property Management Rental Firm offering outstanding condos for rent in North Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Condominium Rental Services is currently accepting a limited number of high end 3 bedroom condos on Oceanfront properties in North Myrtle Beach, including Asheworth, Prince Resort, Avista, Windy Hill Dunes, North Shore Towers, Crescent Sands Crescent Beach, Bay Watch, Laguna Keys, Barefoot Resort and a select few Oceanfront and second row beach homes.

Condominium Rental Services has been established in the area for nearly two decades and brings an attention to detail that is unsurpassed in the area.

As you are selling Real Estate in Myrtle Beach, should your new home owner be searching for the best in a rental company that produces high net revenues, call Dot Bernat at (843) 272-3662. Condominium Rental Services does not sell real estate or compete with local realtors in sales.

When you are approaching new buyers, be sure to check out our blog on 5 things they should look for in purchasing a rental property.

Marketing yourself in an Obama Presidency

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:19:10 -0500

While I am not a prophet, it does appear that Senator Obama has a good lead in his contention for President. Chances are strong that an Obama presidency would witness a gushing, early honeymoon period from a press that genuinely embraces his personality and his ideas.

Unfortunately, we are still a divided country and much of the Southeast, rural population centers, and working Joe's will initially detach and become concerned about their personal fortunes and our National direction. This will lead to safety internalizing around family for both those for Obama and those against. Internalizing on Family issues, sports, movies, and community will be a natural result of an Obama victory.

With that said, social networking will find new heights in traffic and online trust will grow as people connect with people online. The currency of all business is trust. Social Networking will become a trusted place to explore, explain, and express.

If you are making Social Networking a marketing strategy for your real estate concern, look for quality contacts and not quantity. One strong lead through a network of ongoing trust will lead you to something more powerful than the old paradigm of frequency and reach.

As many businesses in Myrtle Beach are finding, Social Networking on sites like Myrtle-Beach.com and Active Rain is more about managing and building your good name with potential clients. Creating trust is really what Social Networking is about.

An Obama victory will give you attentive ears for people who think like you do. Social Networking will put a powerful law of attraction at your disposal. Please remember the Law of Attraction, however. We attract who we are, not what we want.

Hard Rock Theme Park investor writes off investment

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:38:41 -0500

Our Myrtle Beach Hotels Active Rain blog, earlier posted why we felt Hard Rock Park missed the mark.

Today, Sept. 3rd, our local paper The Sun News, has released news stating that the chief investor has completely written off his investment.

We laid out key reasons we felt the park failed. Feel free to read our blog on Hard Rock Park and give us your opinion.

You can do so by hitting the first Hard Rock Park Topic Cloud on your left.

Thanks,

David

Myrtle Beach Marketing

Are customer reviews good for Real Estate Agents?

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:57:04 -0500

Some Myrtle Beach Hotels never saw it coming. Overnight, sites like Tripadvisor.com and, later, search engines including Yahoo and Google allowed customers to review each property online.

Those caught unaware, were exposed, unprepared, and now are having a hard time renting rooms at any rate: Some examples are here: Hotel One and Hotel two .

Others hotels were running a well oiled, customer oriented machine and got results like these: Great Reviews .

Search portals, like Google, Yahoo, and Myrtle-Beach.com are going to a Real Estate Agent customer review opportunity.

DO YOU THINK CUSTOMER REVIEWS ARE A POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE MOVE FOR MARKETING AN AGENT or AGENCY?

If you are a Myrtle Beach Real Estate Agent, we would like your input on the move made by Myrtle-Beach.com specifically.

Why Hard Rock Park missed the mark in Myrtle Beach, SC

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:27:10 -0500

Myrtle Beach Hotels Oceanfront were thrilled to hear that a well known national chain, like Hard Rock Cafe, had intentions of spending $450 million dollars to build a theme park in a central downtown location. Property managers, who rent Myrtle Beach Condos, ratcheted up annual expectations to homeowners for increased Summer returns. As of this writing in late August 2008, with just the Labor Day Summer weekend remaining, it is clear that the park has underperformed in its first Summer out of the box.

The Park opened to great fan fare with South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford appearing and a sold out Rock and Roll concert that featured the Eagles. Afterwards, attendance, which was budgeted at over 20,000 guests daily, rarely averaged over 5,000 visitors on its best days.

In this age of branding, marketing, and finding a customer niche, I think it is wise to reflect on how exactly a one half billion dollar expenditure in a prime tourist destination somehow failed to find an audience. Below are five reasons I believe the Park has yet to realize its potential. I would welcome any feedback.

Wrong Theme: Hard Rock Park, themed its concept on baby boomer era bands including Led Zeppelin and The Moody Blues. Baby Boomers no longer are the prime audience for thrill rides. Their children and grandchildren have no vested interest in bands from the late 60's or early 70's. The park would have been better off theming itself after Hannah Montana, Sponge Bob or the like. The kid appeal that came from the central theme of the park was very poor.
Too small of a foot print: The park bought a depressed location on the waterway where an outlet once stood. For the dollars spent in this area, Hard Rock Park could have placed the park at the split between highway 501 and the new Highway 22 expressway. Greater acreage at a cheaper price per acre would have created more park and rides. This would have more than made up for the travel time down an expressway with no traffic signals. The park now is just too small when compared to Kings Dominion, Six Flags, or Carowinds.
No property management or Hotel ownership: In my opinion, if you are going to spend $450 million in the local economy, buy an Oceanfront Hotel or get in the property management business. Hard Rock Park, at the onset, had no real partnerships or solid relationships with any area Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Hotels.
No prior experience: Hard Rock is primarily a cafe, hotel, and casino operation. The firm had no prior experience in the theme park business. A wise move would have been to pair up in partnership with a theme park operator like Six Flags. The idea that 13.4 million visitors come annually to Myrtle Beach, SC caused the park to believe prior experience was unneccessary. Perhaps that was brash thinking on the park's behalf. Rides, that were promised at the opening of the park, were either completely shut down or operating on and off. Much of the park was still unoperable and unavailable for visitors well into June 2008.
Some bad timing: While $4 gas can't be entirely blamed for the poor start of Hard Rock Theme Park, high gas prices did not help. Many tourists, who were strapped for vacation dollars this Summer, just did not find the park worth the $50 initial price tag per person in tight economic times. The park began discounting by mid Summer.

In summary, dollars invested will not create an audience if you have a poor themed message, a lack of customer focus, poor partnering, and minimal experience in your fundamental business model. Let's learn from the mistakes made by this giant as we navigate through our own Real Estate entities and Property management concerns.

What's your opinion? Do you think Hard Rock Park had a successful first Summer run?

Mark,

I think you have hit it in ON THE HEAD. Hard Rock Park bought billboards, radio, and TV in S.C. The park theme is built on Music Nostalgia.

Would it not have been better for today's younger (thrill seekers) under 35 if they had built?:

Download Lane (Something thrill ride centered around downloading)
Ipod Mania
Rhapsody Row
Utube video river

I know there are copyright issues and partnerships required here, but the theme did not meet the audience in my opinion, so no one even went.

They did exactly what you said. Customers went online and googled Hard RockPark Myrtle Beacch. Here are the reviews for you to see yourself. 53 reviews that run from yawn to needs improving.

Hard Rock Park should have hit social media, ipod users, and myspace and facebook much harder in my opinion. The rides should have been centered around concepts that are appealing to today's 17 year olds. I honestly feel they missed the mark. Read the customer reviews and give me your opinion.

What Myrtle Beach Hotels know about marketing (Do you agree?)

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:34:18 -0500

Myrtle Beach Hotels, on average, spend up to and beyond $300,000.00 each on advertising annually. For a 240 unit condo hotel, this comes to about 4% to 6% of annual gross income.

As our firm is now helping Myrtle Beach Real Estate agents advertise their products, we are finding that some hotel marketing truths are transferable and some are not.

I am putting this information forward in the hopes that I can get some good feedback from high performing Realtors to determine if the media shift is universal. Here is what the Hotel industry has learned about where to invest their monies in this changing media age.

A uniquely designed, easy to navigate website: No matter how high your site ranks on search terms, it is critical that the site have good content and is easy to navigate. It should create Attention, build Interest, draw out desire, and have a call to action. These four navigational functions should be very easy for the visitor to follow. A good call to action for hotels is a strong online booking engine. What is a good call to action for a Real Estate website in your opinion?
Key Search Term Optimization: Google controls 54% of the market, Yahoo is 25%. The rest follow. Knowing the key search terms for your product is essential and ranking for them on page one or two (preferabbly one) is just as critical.
Social Networking sites: Not only will sites including: Active Rain, Pownce, Twitter, My Space, You Tube, Face Book, Delicious, among others get your site much needed optimization, but can result in direct customers when you post correctly. These sites have millions of visitors combined and are a good way to get your name out.
Strong recommendations on Peer Reviewed sites: For hotels, sites like Trip Advisor, Google Reviews, and Yahoo reviews can be life or death. Look carefully at the mistakes some hotels have made as customer reviews are coming your way via Google and Yahoo soon.
Referral Sites: Being on a good referral site, like Myrtle-Beach.com or Myrtlebeachhotelssc.com sends up to 25% of traffic to Myrtle Beach Hotels. Referral sites like expedia, Trip Advisor, Chamber of commerce sites, Hotels.com, travelocity and more are also important. It is best for a hotel to use a site that does not require it to discount its prices.
Direct Mail to a hotel's own internal customer list. This was once a number one source of business. A good internal customer list is still very important, but the fact that this now ranks #6 says a lot about where the internet has taken us.
Billboards: This can help hotels get much needed last minute traffic on busy interstates or major highways near the hotel. It is not as valuable as above, because it leads to last minute reservations and shorter stays. HOW DO BILLBOARDS WORK IN REAL ESTATE?
Trade Association materials: Myrtle Beach Hospitality does its own site, emailer and mailer as does Golf Holiday. These out perform any external associations, magazines, and newspapers. DO TRADE ASSOCIAIONS WORK IN REAL ESTATE?
Magazine ads; Publications like Southern Homes and Gardens, Golf Magazine, Golf Digest, Trip South, Conde Nast, and such were once a required expenditure. Most hotels are bypassing these all together. Only chain hotels are largely using these now and explicitly for branding, not for immediate sales.
Newspaper Ads: Hotels aren't even going here at all anymore. Is this still a strong product for REAL ESTATE LISTINGS. I know it once was.

Please respond below. I would appreciate any comments.

If you are in the Myrtle Beach area, and list Myrtle Beach Condos, let us know if we can help you promote your listings or service.

Is the mass (traditional) media age over - What's your opinion?

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:45:37 -0500

It happens everytime I meet as a consultant with a group of Myrtle Beach Hotels, who want to advertise on our various sites. They cosistently ask the same question. How do we stop these social networking sites, where customers are able to rate our properties? Can you help us with that?

This always leads me to my disertation on the new media versus the old media. I would like comments from readers on this page, Do you agree that traditional media is coming to an end?

OLD MASS MEDIA

The mass media period truly began with the introduction of the radio in the early 1930's and first started to diminish in 2004 with the advent of Social Networking and newer phone technologies. The mass media formula was about messaging and was a simple formula to follow. It involved FREQUENCY AND REACH. An advertiser came up with what was usually either a catchy or exagerated message about his product or service and then broadcasted that message to as many people as many times as he could.

Most advertisers and ad sales people are still living in the Old Mass Media era, even though the train has left the station for a new paradigm. This is one reason why our local Myrtle Beach Newspaper lost over $4 million last year.

The truth is, we all fear change and resist it.

NEW SOCIAL MEDIA, much like early America

The central reason, Myrtle Beach Hotels and Myrtle Beach Condo Rentals hate the new media is because it is so much like the pre-mass media era. Unfortunately, no one was around to remember what life was like before radio.

In early America, if a butcher in town put his thumb on the scale weighing the meat, everyone in town knew it. If a blacksmith did a shoddy job, the word got out. If your wife or husband slept around or was the town drunk, it was very hard to keep this information private. The new media is so much a cousin to early America that individuals, like Paris Hilton, and most advertisers, who have been hiding behind Mass Media are now finding their business practices exposed and are caught 100% off guard.

In the December 2007 Harvard Business review on media, the issue is clear. Consumers are becoming more and more in control of the process.

HOW DO I SUCCEED IN THE NEW SOCIAL AGE:

Our Myrtle-Beach.com city portal, which will be distributed to over 240,000 Horry County and Georgetown County locals beginning this Fall 2008, is going 100% to a star rated, customer reviewed website in late September. The ratings will look much like our current, Myrtle Beach Hotels, SC site here. Below are three reasons why we are doing this and why it will work for Real Estate Agents, Retail Stores, Hotels, Property managers, Restaurants, etc.

Consumers under the age of 35 do not trust mass media. They will trust a peer review over a message from an advertiser 10 times out of 10.
Iphones, Blackberries, and internet phones have limited screen space. A star rating system that is comprised from a compilation of consumer reviews gives a snapshot of how credible this advertiser operates.
Being known today is not so hard. How a business or agent is known is what is critical in the new Social paradigm.

HOW DO I MAKE THIS WORK FOR ME?

Be honest in your dealings with every client
Be open about your products and services (Don't exagerate)
Be transparent in your operations. If something is currently down or not functioning properly, be the first to say so.
If you are on a peer reviewed site, ask your new home buyers to rate your efforts on that site. Happy customer ratings will lead to more leads, listings, and sales.

THIS WILL BUILD TRUST IN THE NEW PARADIGM MARKET PLACE allowing you to excel where others flounder.

If you are a person of integrity, you should embrace this new paradigm. Over the next decade you can build a dynamic business. The way a business or agent conducts himself or herself is now a key component to marketing.

If you are in the Myrtle Beach area and want to learn more about marketing your agency or yourself, visit our Myrtle-Beach.com area portal.

Myrtle Beach Rentals

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:59:15 -0500

Myrtle Beach Rentals, in today's highly developed market for Myrtle Beach Hotels, can be the difference in carrying the entire note on a $1 million dollar Oceanfront investment, or having up to half of that investment covered with tourist revenue.

As a rental investor, who has purchased a rental property, it would appear that the burden of providing this income would rest squarely on the property management firm. However, because the property manager has not invested in your Myrtle Beach Condo rental, his company's income needs can often be in direct conflict with your own needs to subsidize your mortgage through rentals.

When you feel your condo is under performing and you are not getting income that is on par with the overall market at several competiting hotel concepts, or units within your own complex, below are five good questions to present to your Myrtle Beach property manager, to determine if you are being effectively represented.

These questions are listed in order from most important down.

Ask your rental manager these important questions:

How many units, if any, does your rental management firm own in this building?: Inherent conflicts exist in rentals, when the owner of the property management firm, his partners, or family actually own competing condos in the same unit where you have purchased. The natural tendency is to rent management owned condos first in soft periods.
How many discount online travel companies do you work with? How much of your total rentals do they represent?: We have all seen the ads for these National discount travel sites like: Expedia, Hotels.com, Travelocity, and the like promoting low fare hotel rentals. These are powerful sites, but they largely produce price loyal clients. They beat down the rental rate on your condo and create a long term discount climate that will affect your property values and rental history. WHY WOULD YOUR RENTAL MANAGER USE THESE?: He has to keep up his payroll and housekeeping. His split on even discount rentals provides him with ongoing income. He can cut his own marketing costs, throw out a low rate, and traffic your unit to death to cover his own expenses. These rates are not publicly posted, so he can hide the fact that he is under pricing the value of your rental every day. As a savvy investor, ask him not to put discount online travel guests in your unit.
What internal marketing promotions do you have scheduled for the upcoming season? In tight times, this is the first place a property manager will try to save money. Unfortunately, his savings will most likely lead to fewer high dollar rentals for your condo or home investment.
Where does your website rank on these common key words with yahoo and google?: (Your Hotel's name), Myrtle Beach Condos, Myrtle Beach Hotels, Myrtle Beach Resorts, Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Hotels, Myrtle Beach Vacations, Myrtle Beach Golf, Myrtle Beach Golf Vacations, and Myrtle Beach Condo Rentals. If your rental is in another town, substitute that town name for these key word searches. Almost 80% of all traffic today does some form of Internet search. If your rental manager is spending little or no money getting on page one for some of these terms or buying pay per click on page one of these terms, he does not have your best interests at heart. While he does not have to rank on all of these, he should be page one or two on atleast your Hotel name and two other key phrases. Page one is preferred.
What are my/(our) options for improving my rentals this year with your firm?: Your rental manager should be a partner with you in renting your condo. You should be in the problem, when one exists, together. If your rental manager does not have a plan of attack here, start looking for another property management firm.

If you are in the market for a great buy on a Myrtle Beach Rental home or condo, contact our Myrtle Beach Condos Direct Real Estate advertisers. They are each industry leaders and outstanding professionals.

Buying the most productive rental properties means year round location

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:56:35 -0500

Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotels are often the only consideration many home buyers are aware of when it comes to making a rental property purchase. These concrete and steel structures dominate the landscape and are often a draw when making Summer vacation plans for many future purchasers. The problem with focusing only on an Oceanfront condo purchase is that Myrtle Beach, S.C. has three distinct travel seasons that cater to tourists with different needs and desires.

Another issue that relates to purchasing Oceanfront is the cost. Prices for two bedroom, two bath Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Condos generally start at around $395,000.00 even in today's soft market. Traffic for tourism in these condos often plummets after the Labor Day summer season ends and often does not pick up again until Valentine's Day. Spring Myrtle Beach Vacations in these units often consists largely of weekend stays. This will create a revenue disparity, as the mortgage on these off months remains constant while revenues are slim to none.

A better alternative for savvy investors are Myrtle Beach Condos on luxury Myrtle Beach area golf courses. Premium golf courses like Tidewater Plantation, Grande Dunes Golf Courses, and Barefoot Resort offer several advantages in year round business that Oceanfront properties can not match. Prices for a two bedroom, two bath condo at Barefoot Resort on short sales this past summer have been as low as $140,000.00. While this is not the normal rate, deals can be found and are abundant. Listed below are bullets for why this price point makes great sense as compared to the rental income realized.

Summer Season rentals keep these properties running at over 80% as the beach is largely at capacity.
Golfers, who come in late September through mid May prefer the convenience of being on course and not driving all over town.
Ammenities at Barefoot Resort, for example, are a stone's throw from the condo and venues like 4 world class golf courses, House of Blues, Alabama Theatre, Greg Norman's Australian Grille, and 64 shops drive Christmas shoppers and golfers directly to renting onsite. The Christmas season in Myrtle Beach runs from early November through December 24th.

Chris Ward, Broker in Charge with Eagle Realty, a prominant Real Estate firm in the Myrtle Beach area, states, "Not only will buying a golf course condo (which there are some tremendous deals on this time of year) benefit you in the long run since golf communities tend to keep an above par standard on the properties surrounding their courses, but rental advantages span above the normal summertime vacationer to the spring and fall golf groups, and also the "snow-bird" renter for a couple months in the winter. This supplemants income usually not there in the winter months."

When comparing price paid to overall rental income potential, golf course condos tend to give a greater bang for your dollar invested. While Oceanfront Condos can see tremendous appreciation in real estate values during hot markets, the carry on the mortgage during down periods just doesn't add up to the total appreciation. When looking for location and price, we recommend that you investigate premium golf course condo concepts.

For more information about these, check with our primary real estate advertisers at Myrtle Beach Condos Direct.

5 Common Mistakes when buying a Myrtle Beach Rental property

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:29:36 -0500

Myrtle Beach Hotels, up and down the Grand Strand, are now largely oceanfront property management firms. These properties can provide offsetting rental income and offer a good long term investment for wise purchasers in this soft market. With ammenities that can include lazy rivers, indoor pools, Oceanfront decks, it is often hard not to make an emotional purchase when considering an investment.

While these ammenities do make for a beautiful environment, hidden factors about the nature of the rental can often make a huge difference for savvy investors.

Listed below are five important factors to consider when making a rental investment at any of the many Myrtle Beach Hotels that run from North Myrtle Beach to Pawleys Island, S.C.

These factors are listed in the order of importance with one being the most important factor.

Find out how many property management firms rent in this particular Myrtle Beach Hotel. Once you have purchased, you want to shoot for competition in renting your condo. Myrtle Beach Condos that are purchased with only one property management rental firm in the building are, in effect, marrying that rental manager. Once this type of purchase is made, you are locked in, at best, with hopefully a benevolent dictator. (or perhaps worse). As far as Myrtle Beach investments are concerned, the more rental managers working in that hotel, the better.
CHECK OUT THE REPUTATION OF YOUR PROPERTY MANAGER ONLINE. Believe it or not, this is a simple process. Visit nationally known travel sites, like Trip Advisor, and type in that particular hotel's name. Example: Myrtle Beach Barefoot Resort. Trip Advisor will give you a local score and lets you read customer reviews. Do not buy a rental property where the hotel name has more than 15% of its reviews as negative. A link example of TripAdvisor.com is here Try to purchase a rental where the property has a score of at least 3 or higher. A bad name will not result in good future rental income.
ASK TO MEET THE HOUSEKEEPING EXECUTIVE AND TALK TO THE MAINTAINENCE TEAM: Your ongoing condition of your investment is critical. Find out about their competence and character. If the rental property manager refuses to allow you to interview this staff, beware.
GET REFERENCES FROM OTHER HOME OWNERS. We recommend at least three who have been with the firm for 2 years or more. The rental manager should provide these.
GO ONLINE AND CHECK OUT THE RENTAL FIRM'S ONLINE BOOKING ENGINE: Online booking engines are up to 30% of all rentals in today's market. A poor online engine that does not show good pictures of your individual unit can leave you with less income.

Follow these tips and you are sure to make a sound investment. For more information click here to speak with one of our advertising agents concerning a Myrtle Beach Condo or Rental Home investment.

Myrtle Beach Hotels have become property management firms

Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing (Myrtle-Beach.com) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:50:57 -0500

Myrtle Beach Hotels, over the past 25 years, have slowly made the migration almost entirely towards the property management concept. Very few independent, non chain hotels are individually owned as of this writing in August of 2008.

Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotels were among the first to become property managed beginning in the last twenty years of the past century. The property management concept, where oceanfront hotels are built selling out each individual condo unit and then managing the concept for the home owners was pioneered in Myrtle Beach by S.M. Johnston. The concept performed well and oceanfront landowners found this a way to raise needed capital to build larger hotels with plush ammenities.

From the 1990's forward, Drake Development scored well with high end property management developments in North Myrtle Beach that included Asheworth, Windy Hill Dunes, North Shore Villas, and the outstanding Barefoot Resort concept. During the Real Estate boom, early in this decade, property owners purchased these high end condos and made great returns as some of these units doubled in value in just a few, short years.

With the onset of the Real Estate Depression that has gripped much of the nation, recent completions in Myrtle Beach including Anderson Ocean Club, Sandy Beach Resort, Oceans I, and the Ocean Blue Hotel have gone largely unsold with area banks holding the notes on many of these condos and some of these developments. Property Management firms are holding the line, however, and vacation rentals are strong on almost all of these new developments. If, as economists predict, we hit a bottom in the next eighteen months, any condo in any of the above developments might prove to be a worthy investment.

Myrtle Beach Hotels with low occupancy tend to be the more traditional, individually owned hotels that have largely disappeared. Even with good occupancy, however, Home owners are not able to meet mortgage demands from the rental income derived from the units that have been converted into Hotel property management concepts.

It is a sure sign that little, if no development will be occuring in the next few years. The fall out from this for the local economy has hurt construction workers, car salesmen, realtors, and all service industry employees. Unfortunately, until the daily rental rate for hotel rooms finds an increase, potential buyers will have little incentive to invest in any Oceanfront Condos unless they are able to find a short sale. Let's hope for a moderate increase in rentals and rental rates so as to help our overall Real Estate Sales. This rate change will require more diversity and a growing pool of new property management firms that are smaller and can compete with one another.