For organic search, Pezzi said that Swissotel had recently revamped its Web site with SEO in mind. She also said that the company's strategy was to target a mix of broad and
long tail keywords--while always keeping one eye on the budget and the upscale perception of the brand. And she advocated use of negative keywords.
"I always include a high number of
negative keywords in our PPC campaign to appear in the most relevant search results and at the same time reinforce our brand strategy," Pezzi said. "For example, even if I was running an SEM campaign
to promote a tactical promotion, 'cheap' would always be a negative keyword, even if it is a popular search term for 'special offers.'"
As for social media, Pezzi said that the hotelier's marketing team stayed on top of review sites and responded to online complaints whenever possible.