While Hilton and Starwood have come up with good basic approaches, all brands will have to find ways to distinguish themselves because everybody will be trumpeting their Chinese speakers, tea kettles and congee.

The world's best concierges know that matching a guest's experience with their personal preferences and needs is essential to their success as a hospitality provider. And as a whole, the travel industry is often scrutinized on its ability to deliver satisfying customer experiences -- online or in person.

As marketing grows ever more complex and intertwined, finding ways to link your brand to the glow of another and build upon a partner's existing customer base and affinity can provide powerful synergies if the approach is well thought-out and effectively managed.

Only time will tell whether the amount of a discount will matter less in a luxury environment: will it simply be the matter of there actually being a discount (not normal in luxury) or will it need to be enough to make something previously seeming unattainable now within reach.

Expedia, through its advertising arm Expedia Media Solutions, decided to take the OTA-supplier relationships a step further, recruiting nine travel brands as partners in a massive Facebook campaign that cost a lot of money but produced significant results.

Sure it's exciting to see the growth of mobile bookings, but it really is only the beginning of what mobile can deliver to your business, and more importantly to the traveler. The real winners will be those brands that are looking at mobile to service their traveler, not simply to sell.

Make sure you provide a remarkable travel experience. That's essential. Then follow this checklist for forging stronger consumer connections.

The biggest area for travel marketers to apply this learning is in e-mail marketing. Keeping customers from opting out means being frugal with our e-mail messaging. We need to learn from our customer's past behaviors to ensure that what we send them is of interest and meaningful to them. Over-emailing will just create mass opt-outs, reducing our databases and hurting what can be one of our most effective conversion mediums.

Some hotel companies are going to have to decide which way they're going in the unstoppable move to keeping their guests connected at all times.

A reluctance to share user reviews on their own site says a lot about a brand.