Hotel marketing: Stay without rooms but never run out of guests

What is hotel marketing? Hotel marketing is all those strategies you can use to improve the brand of your hotel. All of them can help you to improve your number of reservations and visits. However, this doesn’t end here as it also aims to increase the number of guests, recommendations, good opinions, loyalty, and more.

They are all that set of techniques that help consolidate the hotel in the market and the image of the hotel brand. They also help enhance how your services are viewed by the public.

On the other hand, digital strategies are something that you can’t ignore when it comes to Hotel marketing. Today, we live in a world full of technology and innovation. Because of this, users are always looking for the next new thing and you must be it. For this, you have to be present in all possible channels.

With just a search on Google or social media, hotel offers appear as if by magic within the reach of tourists.

Now, everyone can compare the prices of different places without making any calls. Not only that but it’s even possible to do a specific search according to a specific price range. Thus, allowing the client to find the hotel that best suits their needs.

However, none of this will work if your marketing strategies don’t work at all. Because of this, this article aims at explaining to you the fundamental pillars of hotel marketing. This way, you will be able to create the best strategies for your hotel business. All you have to do is keep reading!

Marketing hotel mix, the basis of the strategies

You may have asked yourself thousands of times what the needs you have to satisfy are. From this, you might have an idea. In short, you must offer a good service, quality, and a price that can be adjusted to anyone and more.

But how can you do this using the marketing strategies, channels, and all the necessary tools?

How to turn all our ideas into reality; without leaving any detail out. For this, we have the Marketing Mix. This is a set of tools and variables that will be the basis on which your marketing strategy will be based.

This way you will know what actions you need to carry out and how.

The first thing you need to know is that organization is vital to achieving your objectives. Because of this, we are going to help you distribute the pillars that you must have in each base. This way you can start to apply and maintain the list of strategies in hotel marketing.

Pillars of the Marketing mix as the basis of strategies

Price

The first thing you must define is the concept of price. Why? Because this is one of the things the customer cares the most about. Thus, you must have it very clear and transmit it in the same way to the public you are addressing. For this, you must define your pricing policy well. For example, some concepts you must define are:

• Brand value.
• Price competitiveness.
• Last-minute offers.
• Special offers.
• Prices for several nights or longer stays.
• Promotions or prices for special dates.
• Rates by type of room.

You must also let your guests know if you have any kind of cost for violations or bad behavior. Remember to do this before they rent a room and not after they make a fault.

Promotion

Here is when the marketing strategies come to play. Once you have defined what objectives you want to meet and select the appropriate channels, it is time for promotion and advertising.

This promotion must be constant and must adapt to new market trends. Because of this, we are going to leave a list of strategies in Hotel marketing. We will explain these in more detail in the next segment, don’t worry.

• Online – Offline.
• Email Marketing.
• Advertising with Banners.
• Your own website.
• Social media.
• Local events.
• Metasearch engines

Processes

The creation and improvement of the processes allow users to save time, act quickly, and in a safe way.

Hotel chains, lodging establishments, and inns among others must make the life of their clients easier. Remember that they are in your business to relax, no to stress over the actions they must carry out. As a result, you will get happier and loyal customers.

Some examples that you can take into account are:

• Ease of booking.
• Complete and simplified information.
• Train receptionists so that information is not missing when it is communicated.
• Ease of payment.
• Payment options. For example, Cash or Credit Card.
• Cancellation terms and conditions.
• Action protocols (Cleaning, breakdown, room, air …)

People

Remember that if a client is in your establishment, is because they are looking to get away from things such as stress, nerves, obligations, and fatigue, among others.

Thus, you need to focus on how you can make happy those people who choose you to be part of their life and travel experience. For this, prioritize their good treatments. For example:

• Personal care.
• Train receptionists to treat the guest well.
• Have flexibility with the client as much as possible.
• Offer quick solutions to their problems or doubts.
• Have empathy with the customer.
• Always have good communication.
• Do not take important information for granted as this could lead to a misunderstanding.
• Be attentive to their opinions or complaints.
• Quick service or immediate attention.

Product

Yes, we know that in this case, you aren’t offering a product that can be taken home. However, think of the client’s experience in your hotel as a product.

This can go from your customer service to even the rooms themselves.

Thus, you must offer the best hosting experience possible for your clients.

If not, well, don’t expect the best results out of your marketing strategy.

Some examples to take into account to offer a good product/service to the guest are:

• Types of rooms.
• Clean common bathrooms.
• Variety on the menu.
• Local knowledge.
• Wi-Fi quality.
• Food areas on or off the premises.
• Good cleanliness and neatness in all areas of the establishment
• Quality of entertainment services.
• Leisure spaces.
• Shopping spaces.
• Quick service or immediate attention.
• Details in the room.

Place

Without a doubt, the first thing that a tourist takes a look at is the place to where they will go. From this, they will start to create their travel plan. Because of this, you must highlight the characteristics that your establishment offers. Remember, tourists need to know exactly where they will be and what options they have around them.

• Location of the Hotel.
• Information to get there.
• Nearby transport.
• Nearby establishments such as parks, squares, restaurants.
• Details of the road.
• If there is any difficulty, mention it.

List of marketing strategies for the hotel sector

Email marketing campaigns

This marketing strategy is perfect to grab the attention of new customers and to keep those who are already in the establishment.

Besides, with it, you can use attractive images and offer amazing promotions. You can also ask them to fill out a form where they can write about their experience in your hotel. This way, you can get their feedback and find out if you need to improve in any area. On the other hand, you can also let them know about new services, and even link them to your website so they can make a reservation. Thus, making their lives a little easier.

Email marketing is a perfect strategy to keep customers engaged and motivated for future bookings. 

Your website must be awesome

Let your website speak for itself. For this, you must transmit what your hotel or accommodation offers. Thus, don’t make a basic website without design and quality. A bad design is enough reason to leave the web without booking.

Your website is the main image of your service. Because of this, the information you provide must be simple and clear. In the same way, the reservation process must also be fast and complete.

Don’t forget about the visual aspect of it. The images you include on your website must be clear and clean. For this, you can hire a professional photographer to get images with the best and highest resolution. On the other hand, you must also use the correct format and proportions for them. Videos are also a great option as they generate a lot of engagement.

Work your brand on social media

Don’t ignore your hotel’s presence on social media. In this case, you must mix both digital and traditional marketing strategies. This way you will get the best results possible.

Today, millennials love to share and have different experiences. Because of this, you must make them part of your social media strategy. For example, you can use platforms like Facebook and Instagram to showcase your business.

Another great way to improve your social media presence is to create and post videos on it. In this case, IGTV, Reels, or 1-minute videos are good options. With them, you can show your audience what your hotel offers and why they should choose you.

Please your followers with the best content possible. Make them want to visit your hotel and experience all it offers. For this, you must present your services and values. All while following a brand strategy built on the value and memory of your brand.

Banner advertising

The tourism sector is very competitive. Because of this, you must stand out and for this, you have to keep up to date with all new trends. In this case, advertising for hotels in digital media has become increasingly significant. Thus, becoming vital to reach and attract potential customers.

Advertising for hotels in search engines such as Google, websites visited by different users, and even on social media will help attract potential customers.

They could visit your website out of simple curiosity to the point of ending up making a direct reservation at your accommodation facilities.

To achieve this, you must create SEO, SEM, and social media strategies. This is why you must hire a marketing company specialized in marketing strategy plans.

Social events

Another way to attract customers and increase bookings is through social events.

For example, you could participate in holiday fairs where many hotel companies and travel agencies show and offer their services to the public.

Or you could also participate in large social events as part of a public relations strategy. This, in turn, will improve your image and brand value to your hosting business while at the same becoming reliable to your new clients.

Digital platforms a challenge to face today

With the advancement of technology, your company or business can’t survive using only traditional marketing strategies.

Today, hotel chains and alike face great challenges such as collaborative tourism models. A clear example of this is the famous App called Airbnb.

But this is not the only one. There are many other platforms dedicated to offering hosting, showing a fairly extensive list of options in prices and types of accommodation. Flipkey, Housetrip, Trivago, are just some examples.

The rapid growth of these models and online platforms represent a great challenge for hotel brands that don’t want to join the world of technology.

Revolution is the only key to advance. Thus, if hotel companies want to succeed in the digital era, they must adapt to evolution.

So, as you can see, you must combine traditional marketing strategies with the latest trends. This, if you want your business to succeed.

Many digital platforms offer you the opportunity to advertise or offer your services through them. If you want your hotel business to increase its reservations, you must get to where your audience is this is the most effective way of doing it within the list of strategies in Hotel marketing.

How to face the challenge of digital platforms for hotels?

The positive aspect of technology is that with the necessary knowledge, you can turn it into a very useful tool in your favor.

But, for this, you must read and investigate to know the instruments that you have at your disposal.

Remember that technology doesn’t limit you and that everyone is always welcome in it.

If you don’t know how to face this great challenge that digital platforms seem to be, in this section we are going to easily explain it.

Join hotel metasearch engines

This sure sounds very complicated to you, but it’s very easy to understand and use. All the digital platforms mentioned above, Flipkey, Housetrip, Trivago, Airbnb are metasearch engines.

This tool is preferred by users because it saves time in the process of searching for the best option to go on a trip and because of the simple and fast reservation system.

So when you hear “you must join a hotel metasearch engine” you know what they mean.

These meta-search engines provide the user with results from multiple sources. For example, they offer a list of options sourced from the combination of search engines like Google, Yahoo, reservation websites, hotel web pages, and more.

How can you join a metasearch engine?

As we said before, there are no limits when it comes to the digital world. Thus, the decision to be part of this marketing strategy is yours alone.

That your hotel or accommodation establishment is part of this is known as marketing for metasearch engines. And on the list of strategies in hotel marketing today, it’s a fundamental activity for all accommodation providers.

To appear in a metasearch engine you must first select the app of your choice. Once you have chosen the best app for your establishment, all you have to do is go through a registration. After this, you will get your profile for free. Some of them will ask for some collaboration or others will simply not ask for anything in return.

Don’t forget that your accommodation, hotel or inn must be seen in perfect condition. This means that the images you upload for your users will also be key to attracting more guests. A blurry photo, with a bad angle, without brightness, or good looks will only scare those interested.

BluCactus, your ally in Digital marketing

BluCactus international marketing agency serves clients all over the world. Our specialty? The creation of web designs and SEO positioning in online searches. Besides, our group of experts is dedicated to helping businesses and brands succeed in one of the most competitive sectors in the market, the digital world.

BluCactus will accompany you every step that your brand takes. This goes from the creation of the branding of your business to the creation of content. Our focus is on supporting you with the development of your website or the administration of your accounts on social media.

This online marketing agency, based in Dallas, TX, seeks to strengthen your image as a brand and take it to the next level. Don’t wait any longer to have the help of the best specialists in digital marketing and contact us through our social media or website.

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