5 Surefire Hotel Marketing Tips to Attract More Guests
Hotel marketing is competitive and it needs a strategy that puts a strong online presence as a primary goal. It’s not enough to have your hotel or short-term vacation rental listed in travel websites. Guests want to know more about your property before they book. We’ve listed top 5 vacation rental tips for hotel and vacation rental owners like you to attract more guests:
Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs have that name for a reason, and statistics show that they indeed encourage guests to become repeat customers. Make your loyalty program more appealing by loosening up restrictions, this usually helps to trigger more interest.
Some reward ideas include treating your guests for a special day out, providing them with an exceptional level of service, or additional services or products at a discounted rate.
Virtual Tours
Utilize the power of virtual reality by giving your guests a virtual tour of your hotel or vacation rental. Indeed pictures are worth a thousand words, but it becomes more powerful if you engage the senses of your guests. A virtual tour “transports” them to your place where they can experience its value even before their stay.
Virtual tours also allow your guests to see what their room would be like. Removing the guesswork further convinces them of the value they can get.
Update Your Blog
Blogs are another hotel marketing tool to attract more guests to your property. You can engage guests and customers directly through your blog. However, updating your blog might be a real challenge if you have no idea what to say.
Here are some suggestions to keep you going:
- Testimonials – Balance both good and bad reviews, so the blog doesn’t appear too promotional or spammy.
- Quotes – Pick up a couple of quotes from time to time to show the feedback of guests that stayed with you.
- FAQs – Use the comments and create an article or FAQ page that addresses common issues and answers to questions.
- Photos – Create photo essays of places and landmarks near your short-term vacation rental.
- Local culture/stories – Showcasing the culture, stories, and events of your neighborhood can pique your guests’ curiosity.
Digital Guides
Not everybody checks manual hotel brochures these days, however any guest would appreciate some help to navigate through the city or find places. Creating digital guides for your location would be a benefit that can bring a lot of value added for your guests. You can create a pdf or compile links of recommendations in one file accessible on a mobile phone.
24/7 Customer Service
You’ll never know where in the world a particular guest is located. This means that questions about your hotel or vacation rental can come in at any time during the day or night. 21st century customers expect an answer to their concerns and questions as quickly as possible.
If you can respond in 60 seconds your guests will definitely appreciate it. You might want to think of having bots in place for automated messages when you are not around just to keep your guests at ease. Therefore, it is best to have a 24/7 live chat service to ensure every query is served even after your business hours.
Having a strategic hotel marketing will help you put your hotel or short-term vacation rental in front of guests. There are more ways how to market your hotel and attract the guests you desire. Be creative and think outside of the box – you’ll never know if that crazy idea will give you a boost in revenue!
