During this HopTour through Latin America, in each hotel where I stay, the same questions come back: “Where (the hell!) are hidden my future hotel guests? How could I reach them more efficiently?”. And we start then to talk about their Hotel Marketing Strategy.
I thought that this article could be helpful to give an overall overview of which are (according to me) the five essential steps to develop a smart hotel marketing strategy. It’s great to have an amazing hotel, but if your future potential guests don’t know that it exists, it’s never going to get filled in!
Well Understanding of your Market
Start with a traditionnal SWOT:
- Opportunities & Threats of your environment
- Strenghts & Weaknesses of your Hotel
Followed by a detailed demand & offer analysis:
- What is your Hotel Customer Segmentation?
- Who are your competitors?
Hotel Website, the Central Pillar
I met hotels who tell me about developping “international social media campaigns”… but they don’t even have yet a great and efficient website. So, please, please, please, it’s important to prioritize! Your website is often the first impression that future guests will have about your hotel. If it’s not convincing, you might have to say them “Good Bye” even before you could have said “Hello”…
What is a great and efficient website according to me? Have a look at My 10 Tips for a Great Hotel Website.
Many travelers use OTAs (Online Travel Agencies, like Expedia or Booking.com) to compare rates. Also, always more of them go then booking directly on the hotel website directly. It’s very important that when they type the name of your hotel on Google, your website shows up on the first page. Travelers are also looking on Google for specific keywords corresponding to your positioning (for example “Eco-Hotel + destination”). Here again, organic Google searches can be a precious source of business. But here again, you need a good ranking on the first page of Google results. If it’s not the case, don’t worry, it’s something that you can work out using SEO techniques (Search Engine Optimization). If computers are not really your thing, better ask for the services of a professional.
Online Distribution & Revenue Management
I believe that today, google organic searches and rates comparisons on OTAs are the most important source of bookings. Don’t you agree?
Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)
OTAs means Online Travel Agencies, like Expedia, Booking, Easy-To-Book etc… There are a ton of them on the Internet. They take a commission (12-15%), but are also very powerful. It’s important to manage them well. It starts with setting up nice pages for your hotels on the most important OTAs for your destionation and with great professional photos (from the nice shooting you did previously for your own website 😉 ). And I would highly recommend you to use a good channel manager to help you centralizing your hotel daily availability and rates management, as well as a good PMS (Property Management System) connected to the channel manager to make bookings management automatic and efficient.
Guests Reviews
Another point, which is for me the most important one: you must cautiously manage your online guests reviews. This is today the first souce of recommendation: the “digital word-of-mouth”. I talk here about TripAdvisor, but as well as guests reviews on the different OTAs, and your overall e-reputation included through social medias. “But we can’t do anything, we can not control or decide what guests are writting on Internet” tell me sometimes hoteliers… This is not true, there is a lot you can do. I’ll develop it in details in another article soon.
Dynamic Rate Strategy
Are you selling through many OTAs all connected at your channel manager? Do you have nice guests reviews that you manage well? Ok, let’s start now playing with rates and restrictions, let’s apply Revenue Management techniques to your business! Have a look at my article What is Revenue Management? to get a nice outlook on the subject.
Sales Relationships with Targeted Third-Parties
Depending of your overall strategy and positionning, it might be interesting to develop relationships with targeted profesionnal referents. You need to get a proactive sales state of mind to approach them. Also you might need to design personalised power points presentations for each of them. This might be a more complex and time-consuming part. But if you know where to get the information and the good contacts (using proactively LinkedIn for example), it can result very powerful and efficient.
It’s also important to develop a good relationship with your local tourist board. Make sure to appear in the list of hotels that they might publish on their website, and also make sure that all the people who work at advising visitors are well aware about your property (organise visits or invite them for breakfast 😉 ). If your destination is proactive with its promotion, they might offer you to join them on international trade fairs, this can be a nice opportunity to establish new contacts.
Smart Communication
Write down a media kit and publish press releases to get visibility on targeted markets. Use Social Media with a clear goal to raise brand awareness on your local market. Approach bloguers and magazines adapted to your positioning.[:es]Durante este Hospitality Tour por America Latina, en cada hotel donde me hospedo, me revienen las mismas preguntas: “¿Dónde están escondidos mis futuros clientes? ¿Cómo puedo acceder a ellos de manera más efectiva?”
He conocido hoteles donde me hablan de realizar campañas mundiales en los redes sociales… sin embargo, aún ni sisuiera tienen un sitio web eficaz. Así que les suplico, por favor, ¡de priorizar! Su sitio web es a menudo la primera impresión para posibles futuros clientes; y si no es convincente, puede que tenga que decirles ´adiós´antes de ni siquiera haberles.
What is a great and efficient website according to me? Have a look at My 10 Tips for a Great Hotel Website.
Many travelers use OTAs (Online Travel Agencies, like Expedia or Booking.com) to compare rates. Also, always more of them go then booking directly on the hotel website directly. It’s very important that when they type the name of your hotel on Google, your website shows up on the first page. Travelers are also looking on Google for specific keywords corresponding to your positioning (for example “Eco-Hotel + destination”). Here again, organic Google searches can be a precious source of business. But here again, you need a good ranking on the first page of Google results. If it’s not the case, don’t worry, it’s something that you can work out using SEO techniques (Search Engine Optimization). If computers are not really your thing, better ask for the services of a professional.
Online Distribution & Revenue Management
I believe that today, google organic searches and rates comparisons on OTAs are the most important source of bookings. Don’t you agree?
Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)
OTAs means Online Travel Agencies, like Expedia, Booking, Easy-To-Book etc… There are a ton of them on the Internet. They take a commission (12-15%), but are also very powerful. It’s important to manage them well. It starts with setting up nice pages for your hotels on the most important OTAs for your destionation and with great professional photos (from the nice shooting you did previously for your own website 😉 ). And I would highly recommend you to use a good channel manager to help you centralizing your hotel daily availability and rates management, as well as a good PMS (Property Management System) connected to the channel manager to make bookings management automatic and efficient.
Guests Reviews
Another point, which is for me the most important one: you must cautiously manage your online guests reviews. This is today the first souce of recommendation: the “digital word-of-mouth”. I talk here about TripAdvisor, but as well as guests reviews on the different OTAs, and your overall e-reputation included through social medias. “But we can’t do anything, we can not control or decide what guests are writting on Internet” tell me sometimes hoteliers… This is not true, there is a lot you can do. I’ll develop it in details in another article soon.
Dynamic Rate Strategy
Are you selling through many OTAs all connected at your channel manager? Do you have nice guests reviews that you manage well? Ok, let’s start now playing with rates and restrictions, let’s apply Revenue Management techniques to your business! Have a look at my article What is Revenue Management? to get a nice outlook on the subject.
Sales Relationships with Targeted Third-Parties
Depending of your overall strategy and positionning, it might be interesting to develop relationships with targeted profesionnal referents. You need to get a proactive sales state of mind to approach them. Also you might need to design personalised power points presentations for each of them. This might be a more complex and time-consuming part. But if you know where to get the information and the good contacts (using proactively LinkedIn for example), it can result very powerful and efficient.
It’s also important to develop a good relationship with your local tourist board. Make sure to appear in the list of hotels that they might publish on their website, and also make sure that all the people who work at advising visitors are well aware about your property (organise visits or invite them for breakfast 😉 ). If your destination is proactive with its promotion, they might offer you to join them on international trade fairs, this can be a nice opportunity to establish new contacts.
Smart Communication
Write down a media kit and publish press releases to get visibility on targeted markets. Use Social Media with a clear goal to raise brand awareness on your local market. Approach bloguers and magazines adapted to your positioning.