1 Romanian Hotels in the Digital Marketing Present Maria-Luminiţa Cojocea 1 , Monica Maria Coroş 2 ABSTRACT: The current marketing trends and the well-known smart communication devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop, etc.) used on a daily basis by more and more people worldwide and by most of the travel industry customers, are here to stay in the travel and hotel industries and far from becoming obsolete. By ignoring them or by remaining in denial about their popularity and the changes they bring, hoteliers will only end up facing the disastrous consequences of their ignorance. Most of the Romanian hotels are not even in the stage of acknowledging the present technological context, and few are reacting and adapting their marketing strategies, ultimately becoming internationally or locally awarded business models. Nowadays, instant bookings are more difficult to obtain, as customers naturally conduct online individual thorough researches, while trusting peer reviews and social media. Therefore, the question that arises is: What is the present situation of the Romanian hotels in the digital marketing reality and what can be done to convert it from a disruptive change to a beneficial one? The present paper aims at identifying the main issues Romanian hotels face currently related to digital marketing media. A special focus regards the international trends and how Romanian hotels react to them. Key Words: hotels, online, technology, Romania, trends. JEL Classification: L83 1. Introduction and Review of Literature Digitalization is today omnipresent. Consequently, hospitality and tourism businesses are not excused from acknowledging the changes it determines at the level of everyday business life. According to Deloitte’s professionals reveal that: “Whilst the customer has always been king, never before have customers wielded so much power. Organizations today operate in increasingly competitive and international marketplaces, where technology has given both customers and competing suppliers more choice and more access to each other than ever before, and has transformed the way in which customers purchase and consume products. As competition makes new customers harder to find and existing customers harder to keep and satisfy, organizations need a more targeted and continual focus on managing and developing their customer relationships.” [Deloitte, 2012]. With the increasing use of digital media by consumers, more companies implement digital marketing strategies trying to reach their target markets. By the end of 2010, the number of worldwide Internet users was expected to exceed 2 billion; moreover, this huge information traffic is estimated to double every 1 to 1.5 years [Take Smith, 2011]. Obviously, in this context, according to Deloitte [2012], technology must be: easy, mobile and social. Still, the ability to quickly connect, communicate and collaborate seems to be limited for many businesses, tourism and 1 Master student, Master of Hotel Management Services at the Faculty of Business, Babeş -Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, luminita.cojocea@hotmail.com. 2 Assistant Lecturer, PhD, Department of Hospitality Services at the Faculty of Business, Babeş -Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, monica.coros@gmail.com.