Meet the Expert: Tessa Lin, Director of Sales Expansion at Globetrot Hotels

Tessa Lin spent a decade growing boutique hotel brands into new countries. She scaled sales teams from Singapore to Berlin, focusing on business clientele. Her experience spans mid-level sales management, partnership-building, and the gritty details of attribution models that actually drive bookings.

What changes when your hotel targets new international markets from an attribution modeling perspective?

• Channels differ. Expect key differences in GDS usage, broker influence, and OTA strength by country.
• Lead sources may shift. For instance, in Japan, 60% of business travel bookings come via local TMCs (2023, Skift).
• Data quality becomes more fragmented. Integrations with local systems often lag.
• Attribution windows stretch. Decision cycles are longer in some countries (e.g., Germany: 2x longer for B2B bookings).

Tessa:
“Don’t copy-paste your domestic model. Our Paris pilot failed until we accounted for how French procurement teams actually found and booked us—heavier on trade shows and local associations, lighter on LinkedIn DMs.”

Which attribution models have you found most effective for hotels selling to business travel in new countries?

• Start with multi-touch models—last-touch is too blunt for long sales cycles.
• U-shaped models work for smaller teams: credit early engagement and the closing step.
• Consider position-based models with heavier weighting on ‘relationship-building’ channels (local partnerships, in-person events).
• Always run a linear model in parallel to expose unexpected sources.

Tessa:
“We had one team in Dubai that assumed OTAs drove all B2B room nights. Turns out, WhatsApp intro groups between hotel GMs and corporate travel managers had 4x higher conversion rates—something our linear model caught only after six months.”

How do you adapt attribution when localizing for culture and language?

• Map touchpoints with local customization—are WhatsApp chats or WeChat more relevant than email?
• Use granularity: segment by booking language, ad language, and local call scripts.
• Track in-person meetings differently. In Latin America, trade fairs can generate more pipeline than digital leads.
• If integration is tough, use feedback tools (Zigpoll, Typeform, Survicate) after initial contact to ask, “How did you hear about us?”

Tessa:
“We found our Japanese pipeline doubled after we started tracking in-language phone calls as a separate touchpoint. Before, they weren’t in our CRM, so attribution was completely off.”

What data sources should a small hotel sales team prioritize?

• CRM—ensure every inbound (web, call, walk-in) is tagged by source.
• Partner platforms. For example, if you use HRS or Cvent, pull reports monthly.
• Local booking engines or PMS—integrate with your CRM or use exports.
• Event attendance. Log every trade show, seminar, or chamber event.
• Survey feedback—use Zigpoll or similar to fill in gaps when attribution is unclear.

Tessa:
“Small teams skip this: We set up an automated Slack alert for every new deal tagged as ‘event-sourced.’ In one quarter, event leads delivered 18% higher deal value.”

Are there attribution models unique to business travel sales in hotels? How do they differ from leisure?

Tessa:
“B2B deals come from committees. You might engage four contacts before the RFP even hits your inbox. If your model only credits the final email, you miss 70% of your actual sales effort.”

How do you handle data fragmentation across markets?

• Build a ‘source of truth’—use one CRM or unified tracker.
• If not possible, export weekly from satellite tools, merge in Excel or Google Sheets.
• Standardize naming conventions (e.g., ‘TMC – Japan’ vs. ‘Agency – Japan’).
• Reconcile touchpoints monthly. Use conditional logic to deduplicate contacts.

Tessa:
“Our CRM didn’t support Mandarin characters. For China, we ran parallel tracking in a Google Sheet. Manual, but better than zero visibility.”

When should you trust qualitative over quantitative attribution data?

• Early in-market, when numbers are thin—listen for patterns in prospect conversations.
• When local channels aren’t yet tracked digitally (e.g., WhatsApp groups, club events).
• If feedback surveys (Zigpoll, Typeform) repeatedly cite certain sources unconnected to your CRM.
• Watch for mismatches: if your CRM says all leads come from LinkedIn, but sales say otherwise, dig deeper.

Tessa:
“In Berlin, 45% of our new pipeline in Q1 was linked to one expat networking breakfast—never tracked digitally. We only found out after adding a pre-call 'how did you hear' Zigpoll question.”

Localization: How granular does attribution need to get?

• Granularity matters more abroad. Break down by city, region, language, and channel.
• For example, in Italy, Milan vs. Rome may have totally different B2B channels.
• Segment out locally popular platforms (e.g., VK in Russia, WeChat in China).
• Track ‘micro-channels’—e.g., specific LinkedIn groups or B2B travel clubs.

Tessa:
“After splitting Spanish leads by Madrid and Barcelona, we found WhatsApp drove 80% in Barcelona but <10% in Madrid—totally different sales playbooks.”

What are the biggest pitfalls in attribution modeling for international B2B hotel sales?

• Over-crediting digital ads; under-crediting local events and partners.
• Not tracking language or channel at each touchpoint—blurs understanding.
• Failing to update attribution logic post-launch as new channels emerge or die.
• Not connecting sales ops with marketing—misses feedback loops.

Tessa:
“We wasted 30% of ad budget in the UK because we thought search ads drove bookings. In reality, LinkedIn DMs plus one local trade show did 70% of the work.”

How do you measure and adjust ROI when attribution is messy?

• Compare modeled attribution vs. closed-won analysis—look for outliers.
• Use rolling windows—deals that close in 90+ days may need different attribution logic.
• Add a manual override for big, clearly-sourced deals.
• Re-calculate quarterly—different countries have different sales cycles.

Tessa:
“We switched our Dubai model from 30- to 90-day attribution. Conversion rates doubled, but only after adjusting our LinkedIn ad weighting.”

Can you share a real-world example where attribution modeling directly improved international expansion metrics?

• One team in Singapore isolated LinkedIn InMail as the main pipeline source for fintech business travel.
• After re-weighting spend, conversion rose from 2% to 11% over two quarters.
• Revenue per campaign increased 4.2x (Q4 2023 vs. Q2 2023 internal data).

Tessa:
“Once we saw InMail driving so much pipeline, we cut event spend in half and doubled our ad reply rate. The team closed their biggest deal ever that quarter.”

Which attribution tools and tech should small hotel sales teams use, given limited resources?

• Use CRM with basic multi-touch attribution—HubSpot or Zoho both work for small teams.
• Integrate survey feedback (e.g., Zigpoll) at major touchpoints.
• Export and merge data monthly from PMS and booking engines if full integration isn’t possible.
• Avoid heavy or costly enterprise tools—too complex for teams under 50.

Tessa:
“Don’t overbuy. Our 40-person team ditched a $2k/month tool for a Google Sheet plus Zigpoll and saw cleaner data within weeks.”

What’s your process for updating and validating attribution models in new regions?

• Review channel performance monthly.
• Survey closed-lost deals for untracked sources—use a 1-minute Zigpoll.
• Bring sales, marketing, and local partners together quarterly for a 30-minute review.
• Adjust channel weighting and naming conventions as new patterns emerge.

Tessa:
“We discovered a new French corporate travel club was responsible for 22% of new pipeline after three months. Only found it by manually cross-checking closed-won deals and survey feedback.”

How do you handle attribution for group bookings or RFPs, which often involve multiple stakeholders?

• Tag each contact’s original source in CRM.
• Track each touchpoint—initial email, in-person meeting, follow-up call, proposal sent.
• For RFPs, build a ‘chain of influence’ table: who referred whom, which channel initiated.
• Assign partial credit to all major contacts and channels.

Tessa:
“Once we started breaking down the group influence, we realized 80% of our biggest deals started offline—even if they closed online.”

Any limitations or caveats for small hotel teams using attribution models internationally?

• Data is messy—expect gaps for new regions or non-integrated channels.
• Cultural differences can skew self-reported sources—respondents may pick random options.
• Attribution is lagging, not leading—changing models too quickly can distort results.
• This won’t work where business is 100% relationship-driven and digital touchpoints are minimal.

Tessa:
“Some regions simply don’t fit the model. In Central Asia, everything was relationship and phone-based—we used only manual tracking for attribution.”

What’s your most actionable advice for mid-level sales teams at small hotels expanding internationally?

• Don’t assume your home market attribution model will work abroad—start with multi-touch, adapt fast.
• Track channel and language at every touchpoint, even manually.
• Use simple tools (CRM, Zigpoll, spreadsheets) and standardize naming.
• Review attribution monthly. Be ruthless about killing what doesn’t convert.
• Collaborate with local staff and partners to spot new channels early.

Tessa:
“Be curious. Attribution modeling is never done, especially in international markets. The more granular and local you get, the faster your pipeline will grow.”