Hotel Promotional Ideas

A rocky start to the next decade , the question a hotelier should always be asking is

• Who is staying in my hotel?
• Why are they staying?
• Where are they arriving from?
• How do I keep them coming back?

The answer to these questions makes the job of a hotelier a lot easier.

These are challenging and but ideal times to rethink your marketing strategies and try out new tactics to drive more traffic to your website and draw more bookings at your hotel or resort.

Action Plan

• You need to WOW your guests.
• You need to give them reasons to talk about their experience.
• Shower your guest with moments that they leave feeling excited and inspired making them want to share their experience with the world.
• People like to do nice things for nice people. Give them a reason.

In the digital world, having a website and social presence is highly important as it is an easy way to showcase your distinction and put forward the best representation of your hotel online. In the modern world, where the use of mobile phones and laptops rises every day, more than 63.5% bookings are made online. Before the year ends, it’s important to expand your marketing strategy.

Here are 8 tactics you should consider in your hotel marketing plan.

Tactic #1

Our Guide

The most common thing all the guests look for is nearby tourist attractions before booking a hotel room. In relation to increasing travel devices outbreak, this Guide application provides personalised travel guide which allows its users to explore the surrounding places near the hotel. It also constitutes a facilitation of trip organisation. With the , guests can browse all the available tourist attractions with complete information including opening hours, ticket prices, address and more.

This unique application also helps the hotel authorities by providing essential knowledge associated with guests’ expectations and preferences. With the daily and monthly reports, hoteliers can find out which tourist attractions and local events are the most appealing and frequently used by their guests. The prior features lead directly to significant improvement not only in profitability or marketing but also the overall performance in the hotel industry..

Tactic #2

Promote National Holidays and Events

While preparing your hotel marketing tactics, never forget anniversaries, national and international festivals and holidays. Think about your local community and staffs. Are there any specific dates on the calendar that allow themselves as an excuse to celebrate?

If we talk about the Australia then the celebration for the festive season generally starts from late November to early January. The holiday covers Christmas and New Year including other famous festivals such as Halloween and Australia Day (being Australian) . As we become a multicultural society it becomes easy to show your appreciation to other culture. I am sure most cultures would appreciate the recognition.

Try to set your hotel apart from competitors and celebrate some more usual dates. Here are some dates to remember. Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Queen’s Birthday, Bank Holiday, Labour Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day

Celebrate notable dates on the hotel’s calendar such as the anniversary of the hotel opening or Opening of Amenities

Tactic #3

Update Your OTA Profiles

Recent data has found within the last few years, travelers who visit both hotel and OTA (Online Travel Agents) sites fell from 40% to 30%, while those exclusively visiting OTA websites rose from 48% to 60% therefore, its highly important to update your profiles because customers are likely to visit some famous online booking sites, and the hotel with wonderful pictures and profiles will definitely get more clicks. It becomes even more important if you’ve made changes and upgrades to your resort or establishment to show case the change. Add video and photos to the profile and link them to your website and social media accounts.

Some guest will book out of curiosity while other will come for the experience. Your job is to make it an unforgettable experience.

Tactic #4

Start a Loyalty or Reward Program

A hotel loyalty or reward program is a plan typically operated by a hotel chain. It is a fundamental strategy from the hotel chain in attracting more customers to their properties It serves to attract business travelers or other regular hotel guests to support that particular brand or group of hotels above others when choosing a hotel for their stay. A loyalty program is only as good as the offering and how well it is promoted.

This program commonly has various levels. Recently joined members are awarded some opportunities, such as free WI-FI services or access to VIP amenities to inspire them to enter the scheme. Greater levels in the scheme will give key advantages such as free room upgrades, bonus points, turning 24-hour check-in, and free access to more of the hotel’s amenities, such as buffet breakfasts, specialty lounges, spas, and more. A guest can reach the higher levels by staying to that particular hotel for a great number of nights during the membership year. Loyalty should get rewarded. Nothing speaks louder about your establishment than a returning guest.

Tactic #5

Work Together with Hotel Marketing Specialists

The hospitality industry’s main focus is on creating experiences and relationships with customers and patrons, hence, it is important to promote hotel through marketing programs that inspires customer loyalty while also reaching out to new customers. Mostly, hoteliers aren’t able to make a valuable plan, therefore, there are some leading marketing specialists that offer solutions that solve real-life problems for hoteliers.

Built by marketing experts and real hoteliers, Get to know just what it means to manage a hotel, and created a marketing company around the true needs of the modern hoteliers. Find a local marketing specialist to assist with your promotion. Their local knowledge will help showcase your business in a local market.

Work together with leading OTAs, ensuring the distribution of the hotels is properly managed on all possible platforms so as to create a win-win situation where hotels increase their profits and benefit from the traffic generated from all channels.

Tactic #6

Use Social Influencers to Market Your Hotel

The social media trends keep changing every second, and nowadays, a new concept of marketing has come across, Influencer Marketing. This word can be new for some people but the strategy is smart, and the outcomes are quite impressive. Before getting into depth, let us understand what is influencer marketing.

There are many famous people on the social media who have huge followings, such as famous YouTubers or other related people like travelers etc. Influencer marketing involves using famous people to market your product to a relevant audience.

Here’s how influencer marketing can help your hotel.

People Trust the Influencer: With the increased users in the social media channels, this is the right time to market your hotel. But most of the time, the people’s perception of your hotel is a bit different from what actually it is. People trust the content and recommendations the influencers give to them.

Your Brand Will Reach the Targeted Audience: The influencer is the person whose opinions are trusted by the people. For the hoteliers, the travelers can be the influencer as they are followed by the people who are mostly interested in traveling abroad.

Tactic #7

Gift Vouchers

Hotels can differentiate themselves by offering unique experiences in gift vouchers and it is also a great way to encourage people to try things they might not otherwise buy. Vouchers also allow the hoteliers to reach more customers in a short time. Moreover, it increases the visibility of your property, by attracting new guests.

Being a hotelier, you can give vouchers as a form of a marketing campaign, in line with a loyalty program or as a response to a client complaint.

Tactic #8

Personalize the Guest Experience

The guest experience starts before the guest enters your hotel. Initially, ensure that the website is user-friendly as well as mobile-savvy to enable the user to book a room on the go. You can also reserve rooms for regular visitors. Make sure to utilize available guest data to personalize their stay. You can customize the amenities, and offer facilities according to the guest’s preferences. Moreover, keep a track of their routine while they stay at your hotel to build your service around it.

A Final Thought

Hotel marketing requires a strategy that recognizes the need for a strong online presence. If you are struggling to retain your clients and losing on the revenues, it is the right time to start to re-market yourself on various platforms.

In this era of technology where everything is done online, marketing has become a lot easier, but due to the increasing online presence of so many companies, marketing efforts become difficult to get noticed. However, if done smartly and with right tools, you can get back on track quite progressively.