Communication in the hospitality industry

As it might seem that with the hospitality industry moving towards providing a digital guest experience, inside communication in hotels is no longer an essential point of attention. The truth is with all of the recent changes towards digitalisation and focusing on guest experience, communication in the hospitality industry is more crucial than ever, and now even on a larger scale. Your job now is to provide effective communication inside your company on multiple channels to create the best experience for your guests.

What is effective communication in the hospitality industry?

Effective communication in the hotel business is a two-way process of exchanging opinions, knowledge, ideas, findings and data between the management and employees in a way that the message is received and understood clearly.

Two-way communication is absolutely crucial  to

• keep employees engaged and increase morale to keep the employees connected to the company
• solve problems better and faster
• encourage the free flow of information in both directions
• facilitate constant growth of both management and employees.

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The goal of effective communication in your hotel is to provide working communication channels and to convey clear information amongst your team to create a better customer experience.

An important factor in delivering information effectively is to use the types of communication and the medium in the right way. This increases the odds of the receiver getting the message, understanding it correctly and remembering it. 

The types of communication in a workplace are:

• Verbal and non-verbal communication.

Verbal communication is the use of words to share information and is also the most used type of communication in hotels. This is the easiest way to share ideas and when done right you can avoid misunderstandings easily.

Non-verbal covers pretty much everything else: body language, tone of voice, eye contact, intonation and facial expressions. It is an important addition to verbal communication if congruent to get your point through. When used correctly, good non-verbal communication leads to better communication with less confusion, and better rapport.

• Formal and informal communication.

The purpose of formal communication is to get the information across in a professional business manner. Use formal communication when communicating with people outside your company, sending the first email to someone and communicating certain types of official information with your staff.

Informal communication is a casual conversation between coworkers or depending on your company, also between you and your staff. It is important to get to know your employees and always communicating formally is not the way to get there. Often an informal conversation is the best way to get two-way communication going, and build trust and company culture. But do keep in mind that you are still at work and it is crucial to keep a balance between formal and informal communication.

• Horizontal and vertical communication.

Horizontal communication is the communication between individuals, teams, groups, or departments in an organisation at the same hierarchical level. You can benefit from it by having a more open discussion and better collaboration which leads to less duplication of work where responsibilities may overlay and better innovation. Conflicts and issues are solved more quickly. The only downside of this form is that it slows things down as everything needs to get checked and confirmed by management.

Vertical communication happens between people, teams, or departments of a company at different hierarchical levels. For example, between you and your staff members. It works both ways, it is the exchange of information between all members of the company. Vertical communication is essentially two-way communication.

• Written and visual communication.

Written communication is anything that involves writing it on paper or typing it into a message. It includes emails, Slack, texts, PowerPoint presentations or notes for references, info sheets on the wall and so on. It is a great way to do follow-up, explain a process step-by-step, provide status updates or just have some long-term information (for example goals for each month) provided in the staff room for the team to go over when needed.

Visual communication handles more than just words, it is images, graphs, videos and other visual displays to get the message across. Visual communication is a great way to get the audience’s attention and deliver the message across using a mixture of communication styles. Use visual aids in your presentations, when trying to explain difficult topics or sharing a large amount of data. Showing visual data and graphs is also a strong tool to be clear and factual in your message.

5 Key Elements For Hotels To Improve Communication

1. Set up channels for communication. Sending information via different channels is an important way to deliver the information right and get the staff more engaged. Set up digital and mobile channels to reach all employees, also the non-desk ones. Deliver big news or changes first verbally to create trust and openness. Send in the documentation or other formal stuff via email, so it doesn’t get lost in the chat. There’s information that’s not urgent but needs to be seen and understood by all the staff members – put it on a board in the staff room. Choosing the right medium for each piece of information you need to deliver is a crucial point of effective communication.

2. Understand and know your staff members. Getting to know your staff members and how they operate is a must to deliver information. People are different and that’s why you have to individualise, not only your guests but also your staff members. Understand your staff, know their professional goals, how they interact and how they engage the best. In addition to being fundamental to leadership, knowing your employees is also a way to more effective internal communication.

3. Make sure your communications are well-timed. Deliver the information, both urgent and non-urgent on time. Non-urgent information is not something that has to be found out last minute, it is information that doesn’t need immediate action but still needs attention and time to prepare. Not being able to deliver timely communication will lead to staff having low morale and being incapable of providing a good guest experience.

4. Get feedback and follow up. Encouraging your employees to share their feedback creates stronger two-way communication and establishes company culture. By asking for feedback you are letting your team know that they are involved and heard which as a result helps with building trust and higher work morale. Letting your employees communicate with you also gives insight into any issues that the management might not be aware of.Hold weekly informal meetings to follow up with last week’s events, goals, and problems and find out your employee’s views and feedback on them.

5. Emphasise the importance of communication with your staff. Make sure your team knows that communication is the number one priority at work. Encourage them to take time weekly or even daily to inform themselves about any news or updates within the company. Strong internal and external communication is the key tool to success and needs to be at the core of each staff member to be effective.

Conclusion

There are several types of communication and different ways to improve each one of them. Work out a plan and challenge yourself and your staff to start setting up communication. Prioritising communication in your hotel will benefit you in multiple ways. It increases the performance and morale of your employees. It allows you to have better results at every level of the organisation and make better use of resources. It favours making quicker and clearer decisions and therefore gives you more time to focus on your job. 

When figuring out the best way to build or boost your guest satisfaction in your hotel, following your guests on an emotional level is a crucial step. Despite emotions being known as a relative aspect, an emotional journey map provides a clear understanding and data of your guests’ feelings throughout their stay. Learn how to upgrade your customer journey map with this innovative technique.

What is an emotional journey map?

The emotional journey map is a UX research technique to visualise and map customers’ emotional experiences through their interactions during various actions of their stay.

It is an extension of the usual experience journey map that visualises the process that the guest goes through to accomplish a goal, but an emotional journey map gives this some more closure.

Simply said, it allows you to know how your guest feels at each touchpoint with you during their whole hotel experience.

The emotion can be represented by a graph from moments of frustration to delight or by adding pictograms or emoticons to the specific steps of the journey.

The goal of emotional journey mapping is to understand customers’ emotions and improve the quality of your guest experience, providing consistency and a smooth experience at all touchpoints on the journey.

Why do you need an emotional journey map?

An emotional journey map allows you to add another objective dimension to your customer journey map to see the emotions your customer goes through at every stage of the experience. This can help your team to make sense of and have a visual aid of the systems and learn to improve the quality of your guests’ touchpoints. An emotional map will increase your customer satisfaction, positive feedback and reviews, bookings and revenue.

It helps your hotel team to 

How to create an emotional journey map?

1. Create a user persona – to get started with creating the map we need a user. User persona will represent an average guest or one type of guest (if you would like to create a map for each customer group) of your property. Each user has different expectations and needs so it is good to be comprehensive and create multiple maps to understand different personas present on your property.

• Draw a simple picture of your user.
• Give them a name.
• Make sure to specify who the user is.
• Use the standard user story format: As a… I need… so I can

Example: As a young 32-year-old mother of 3 children…

2. Create a scenario – going forward we need a scenario that addresses their expectations and what they need to accomplish their end goal. The scenario could be about experiences with events, processes or objects. Use scenarios that are likely to happen or have already happened in your hotel.

Example: As a young 32-year-old mother of 3 children I need a hotel that has child care and entertainment facilities so I can relax and rest after a long work year without always taking care of the kids.

3. Goals and tasks – now it’s time to identify the goals and the tasks. Each journey has different goals with separate tasks.

A goal is a higher-level action the user needs to complete. For example, in this case, the mother wants to relax and rest from a long work year.

A task is a lower-level action the user needs to achieve the end goal. For example, in this case, a mother needs to find a hotel with childcare or entertainment opportunities.

‘Therefore, the mother has to complete the task of finding the right hotel to reach the goal of a relaxing holiday.

Example:

• The customer journey is to go on a vacation with children.

• The goal is to relax and not worry about the children 24/7.

Solution: in addition to entertainment facilities have a person who keeps an eye on the children, so the parents don’t have to at all times.

• The task is to find a hotel that offers what the family needs.

Solution: market your hotel well and highlight all the facilities and experiences that you offer, so the possible customers have a clear image of your property as the right place to book.

Try to come up with 1-4 goals and 1-10 tasks per user persona.

4. Use contextual inquiry research and in-depth customer interviews to gain understanding and real data.

• You aim to ask questions to better understand their world, the context and their experiences with your hotel.
• In these discussions, you’ll also be asking the customers about their emotions connected to their experience to understand how and why they felt a certain way at each touchpoint, stage and interaction during their journey with you.
• Listen actively and try to also get information out of analysing how they speak or what words they use to describe their experience.

5. Making sense of all the data

• Use affinity clustering to organise all of your customer discussions, experiences, emotions, feelings, thoughts and customer actions according to their similarity, relevance and importance.
• Have a team work through the data to form patterns.
• Sort the conversations into clusters by customer journey stages, steps, thoughts and feelings during each interaction.
• Themes emerge and this is when customer emotions are identified.

6. Connect the individual evaluation points based on the data to form a line.

• Draw a line graph to illustrate the story of a person’s emotions throughout the different touchpoints and interactions. Do so for each different persona created. Use colours to distinguish them from each other.
• Emoticons and an emotion graph show the customer’s highs and lows throughout the whole journey, from the beginning to the end.
• Add customer’s words, sayings, and expressions to give closure to the perspective.

7. Analyse the journey and generate improvements.

• Evaluate both, highs and lows to gain insight and understand the journey.
• Bring out points and opportunities to improve the customer’s experience interacting with your property.

Keep in mind

• Base your emotional journey map on research and not opinions.
• Start small and be efficient.
• Identify and focus on what is the most important.
• Embed it into your organisation and engage the whole team to lean into it.
• It has to be organic and continuously evolve.

The importance of guest experience in the world of hospitality is rising at a high pace. To be successful and remain competitive, hotels must provide an excellent experience rather than just reaching the basic level of expectations. Your hotel has to provide a stay beyond the guest’s hopes. So how do we achieve that? What do guests long for? This article will answer all your questions, but first things first.

What is guest experience?

Simply put, the guest experience is the overall satisfaction of your hotel’s guests before, during and after their stay. More explicitly it means that at each stage of their stay certain aspects create an emotional reaction, which helps customers determine if the experience reaches their expectations. During this process, a decision, whether to also recommend your hotel to fellow travellers is made.

These groundbreaking aspects can be anything from a simple booking and a quick check-in pre-stay experience to a smiling and helpful staff member at the hotel lobby during the stay.

Why is it important?

In the present-day digitalised world, hospitality in general relies on online reputation. Travellers research and make their decisions based on reviews and pictures more than ever before.

Increase guest satisfaction

According to Tripadvisor’s statistics, up to 81% of travellers frequently read reviews before booking a place to stay, with 78% focusing on the most recent reviews. Furthermore, the top reason (87%) for people writing reviews is simply to share good experiences with fellow travellers.

For this reason, complying with travellers’ needs and expectations is the most important thing to do. Satisfied guests contribute to your hotel’s positive reputation management and boost revenue through referrals and repeat business.

Decrease costs

Keeping your customers happy is the key factor in bringing in new potential guests. According to a study by Bain & Company, acquiring a new customer can cost 25-95% more without satisfied guests. Focusing on guest experience increases guest satisfaction which as a result creates long-lasting relationships with the right customers, brings in new ones and keeps your costs down.

How to achieve an excellent guest experience?

Top-notch guest experience can be achieved by truly understanding the emotional journey map and analysing how to make each touch point pleasant and easy for them. If you don’t have one, make one: here’s some help with that! https://guestjoy.com/blog/emotional-journey-mapping—what-is-it-and-how-you-should-do-it/(opens in a new tab)

Once you have found the positive experiences that seem to work, it’s time to evaluate the outcome. Ask for feedback, consider it and create a loyal relationship with the customer.

The 3 main components of the guest experience

The key to enhancing the customer experience is to concentrate on those 3 components also known as “the three C’s:”

• Communication
• Convenience
• Choice

Communication

Your guests long to be heard, informed and taken into consideration. Good communication skills by your staff and contact options in your hotel allow you to listen to your guests’ needs, answer questions and solve problems and value their feedback. Guests will be more open when they feel connected, which leads to better guest experiences and customer loyalty.

Try enhancing your communication by

• sending a detailed pre-arrival email to simplify the check-in process.
• Encourage your guests to get in touch either at the property or online by making it easy for them.
• answering their questions and solving problems quickly.
• thanking them for staying with you, asking for detailed feedback and considering it.

Read about the importance of the hotel’s external and internal communication here (link to article)

Convenience

Guests are becoming more and more time-poor. Doesn’t matter if it’s a business trip and working or holidays and spending days discovering the area. Guests need convenience, they need a worry-free stay.

Try enhancing your guests’ convenience by

• providing a self-check-in option and having a ‘skip the queue’ key pick-up desk.
• working together with local tour guides and restaurants to save guests some time with research.
• provide a transfer from an airport.
• include a special requests section when booking a room so that you can provide essential amenities for each type of traveller.

Choice

The highly competitive hotel industry is constantly raising the bar for guest experience and therefore a big part, if not the most important one of it, is now personalisation. Giving each customer choices to create their stay according to their expectations and helping them experience the place the way they want to, is the real key to your guest’s heart. This also allows you to show that you care about your customer and the things they care about.

Try giving your guests more options by

• offering personalised packages (for example spa treatments for bleisure travellers, tour buses for Boomers, local food/drink tasting experiences for Millennials or Gen Z travellers etc.)
• Let your guests decide when they need housekeeping (a sign of environmental sustainability).
• asking about any special occasions.
• having different ways to contact the hotel staff (telephones in the rooms for older guests, online self-service for the younger crowd.)

Other notable points of creating an excellent guest experience are:

• Clean and tidy hotel
• Safe and secure
• Aesthetic and comfortable
• Electric sockets and lamps next to the bed
• Noise control
• Helpful attitude by staff members
• Fast service time
• Good value for money
• Provide free and fast Wi-Fi
• Share clear directions about getting around the property and the local area

Know your customers to provide an experience exceeding their expectations: the types of guests

When in the process of working with the three C’s, it is also important to know your main crowd and audience to enhance the experience towards their profiles’ desirable preferences. Different profiles are attracted by various styles of hotels and that’s why it’s crucial to know which ones your place already appeals to. And then make it better!

1. Boomers

• Born between 1946-1964.
• A few longer trips a year.
• They often have a higher travel budget and more time to spend.
• More likely to unplug their phones and communicate in person.
• They are after an authentic local experience through food and culture.
• More likely to book sightseeing tours with pick up and drop off through hotels.
• Like going for loyalty programs.

1. Millennials

• Born between 1981-1995.
• They make up 31% of the world’s population with an estimated 200 billion dollar spending power.
• More likely to book shorter vacations with different destinations to fit working schedules and see more places.
• Technology users – booking trips and researching.
• They want to experience a new culture.
• Like sharing their travels online.
• They get inspired by social media posts, mostly Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

1. Gen Z

• Born between 1996-2010.
• Technology users and less likely to unplug.
• Like doing their research based on others’ experiences.
• Don’t like sightseeing that feels too touristy and tend to not visit insta famous places.
• Desire flexibility.
• Eager to learn and experience local life.
• Budget-conscious, but ready to spend more if it means experiencing something special.
• Environmental consciousness – they appreciate sustainable choices.

1. Business or bleisure travellers

• Travelling for one purpose: work.
• Their days are long and full of meetings.
• Interested in restaurants and cafes with a calm working atmosphere.
• Need a high level of convenience and comfort when coming back to the hotel to rest.
• Bleisure travellers also make time for leisure activities and might extend their business trip into a long weekend to see the sights.

1. Families

• Slightly more millennials than boomers are doing multi-generational travels.
• Mainly doing research and booking online (74% in the past 5 years).
• They want to have shared experiences.
• Prefer to have a learning element in their travels.
• Tend to choose hotels that have kid-friendly programs/amenities and events.
• The main goal is to book a place where everyone is entertained and happy

1. Wellness travellers

• Mostly females between 18-34.
• They travel to take a break from stressful everyday life or to boost their physical and mental health.
• They find retreats via Google search, friend referrals and Instagram posts.
• Mental health is ranked as the top wellness priority.
• Also interested in working out and other wellness options.
• Environmentally conscious – sustainability influences their decisions.
• Prefer all-inclusive packages – they want to switch off from their everyday life of making decisions.

Conclusion

Guest experience is a hospitality business’s main indicator of quality service. To remain relevant, it can’t be anything else than excellent. Polishing your hotel’s ability to deliver a top-class guest experience can be done by knowing your customer, understanding their needs and style of travelling and giving them what they expect at every touchpoint they have with you, from pre-arrival to post-stay. Exceptional guest experiences also launch a positive cycle of high guest satisfaction and a good online reputation which in turn will lead to more new and repeat business while keeping the costs down. 

The digital guest experience continues to be the golden pathway toward an excellent customer experience. The world and how we live have already changed and now is the time to change how our organizations operate as well. Your customers expect personalized experiences that resonate across all your channels. And this is something a great digital guest experience will achieve. This is where your future success lies.

What is a digital guest experience?

Digital guest experience is the aspect of your CX journey that refers to all of the online interactions a customer has with your property. It is your online presence, social media, your hotel’s website, a mobile app or any other virtual touchpoint. Essentially, any engagement between you and your customer through the Internet is considered a digital guest experience.

The goal of digital customer experience is to process and deliver a smooth experience across individual customer touchpoints by using unified digital communications as a service.

Know what your guests need

The modern-day guest is always connected, therefore prefers to self-serve and have instant personalized communication with the property. And that at every point of the customer journey.

• Personalized self-service
• To feel safe, secure and clean
• Convenience and comfort
• Instant communication

Research shows that only 8% of the guests would feel comfortable checking in and out at the front desk and up to 40% of guests are more likely to still leave a positive review if an occurred problem is solved quickly. To provide this high level of fast communication, convenience and choice, technology and digital guest experience come to the rescue.

“Hotels now have the choice to act upon the guests’ demand for a digital option such as digital check-in, mobile keys and more. Digital alternatives are no longer cool “add-ons,” offered only by early adopters, but a hygiene factor that guests expect as part of their hotel experience,” according to Zaplox’s President & CEO, Tess Mattisson.

Trends influencing the digital guest experience in hotels

Digital technology

Ahh.. digitalization – the rise of digital technologies to change business models and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities. Everything and everybody is online! It is a trend affecting every industry and perhaps in a good way.

In the hotel business, it allows you to

• fully know your guests: their profile, purchasing behavior and unique preferences.
• create a hyper-personalized experience and serve customers to get what they want almost exactly at the moment they need it.

This data also helps you in analyzing strategies already at work and make smart decisions about managing your hotel even better.

Staying unique in a competitive market

Most travelers prefer hotels that have a good ratio between the value of their money and a unique localized experience. If they feel your services and the quality of stay are offered at a good value, they tend to be less critical and more likely to give you a break with minor inconveniences.

Guests also appreciate a property that knows its niche. While it might seem that digitalization shapes all businesses to be no different from each other when it comes to the pre-stay experience, it can actually help you enhance the unique image online that your property has. Make sure to find the perfect visual aids and a style of engaging with the customer to create an unforgettable experience.

What makes a good digital guest experience?

1. Simple and convenient digital experience for users browsing websites and channels to become potential guests.
2. Prompt and effective communication across all channels – answering questions, and solving issues.
3. Providing a personalized service experience – understand your guest and their needs, and give every guest the service they need.
4. Simple systems and actions for all users.
5. Consistency is the key – provide a consistent quality of all the steps on the customer experience journey across all channels.

Tips to improve the digital catering of your modern traveler at each stage

Pre-stay

This is an underestimated part of the guest experience. Pre-stay is the time when your guest can let you know their expectations before arriving at your property. Having control over your own booking engine lets you prepare for each guest’s needs to create a customized experience.

1. Personalize – let your guest choose how they would like to enhance their experience at your property.
2. Simplify – make the check-in process smoother and more convenient.

In-stay

Here begins the reality if your property has reached and exceeded the guests’ expectations. A high level of attention by your hotel’s team can make your guests’ stay more memorable. Good service and efficiency go a long way.

1. Help – provide information and the comfort of communicating any issues or questions instantly if they should occur. This allows you to solve them and not risk breaking your guests’ good experience.

Post-stay

A positive guest experience ends with a post-stay follow-up about their stay with you. This helps you collect feedback and increases guest loyalty.

1. Understand – thank your guest, gather immediate feedback and create surveys to get an idea of your guests’ experiences.
2. Invite – encourage guests to continue engaging with your property by creating bring-back campaigns.

In the hotel industry, everyone wants to stand out and make their guests feel special. Most of all, they want their guests to return. And I’m sure you do too!

Presenting your potential customers with last-minute offers or a welcome drink upon their arrival will only get you so far. To be successful in such a competitive industry, you must guarantee the best professionals are on your team. Although this strategy applies to all departments, hiring a talented hotel marketing manager is halfway to success!

Key responsibilities of a hotel marketing manager

Simply put, a hotel marketing manager is responsible for developing a marketing strategy and promoting the hotel business. Their central goal is to increase hotel revenue and profitability.

To do so, your marketing manager must know your hotel business inside out. Moreover, they must build an effective strategy that matches your hotel’s vision and brand tone. You want to keep your potential guests close, not push them away!

To help you find your rock-star marketing manager, I’ll let you know about their key responsibilities:

• Build hotel marketing plans to promote and develop the hotel brand;
• Use customer satisfaction surveys to improve customer relationships;
• Create a customer loyalty program;
• Develop strategies to encourage customer reviews; 
• Define budgets for advertising;
• Comply with the marketing budget goals;
• Achieve revenue goals;
• Build solid partnerships with advertising agencies and third-party channels;
• Monitor competition;
• Supervise the marketing team;
• Present creative strategies to bring in more direct guests.

Since digital marketing is the cornerstone of hospitality marketing nowadays, you might want to hire a professional with a deep understanding of these strategies. It’ll save you time and money!

What profile should you be looking for?

Now, you’re getting to the fun part: finding the ideal candidate! But first, you must know what features your candidates must have. I’ll give you a few hints!

Qualifications

A degree in marketing or business management is a must-have for a marketing manager position. It’ll provide the candidate with the essential knowledge only a college degree provides.

Work experience

Ideally, look for someone with experience in sales or demonstrable experience as a marketing supervisor. Additionally, try to find a candidate who worked in hotel customer service teams, such as receptionists or concierges. This way, you’ll have a professional who knows hotel operation and business management.

Skills

Although most of the marketing manager’s daily tasks take place inside an office, sometimes they also represent the hotel in hospitality events. Thus, to act as the hotel’s spokesperson, there are a few traits your candidate must have:

• Exceptional communication and negotiation skills;
• Strong analytical expertise;
• Striking decision-making experience;
• Use creativity to develop new strategies;

Nevertheless, always consider your hotel’s needs when hiring a marketing manager. Every hotel has its own peculiarities. As a result, what works for your competitors, might not work for you!

Salary range

According to Salary.com, the annual salary range of a hospitality marketing manager is 92,000$ to 130,000$, while the average salary is 110,000$/year in the United States. However, the salary range might vary according to the hotel location, candidate experience, and hotel budget.

When it comes to the hotel industry, marketing plays a key role! Every organization relies on powerful marketing campaigns to promote business. As a hotel marketer, your job is to build a bullet-proof campaign that your guests won’t resist!

What is hotel marketing?

Before we get started, I’ll give you a quick definition!

Marketing for hotels refers to all actions taken to promote a hotel. It sounds simple, right?

Yet, as you become an experienced hotel marketer, you’ll discover how complex your job can be. You’ll realize that hotel marketing affects and is affected by other departments within the hotel. Moreover, global incidents that are way out of your control will also influence your hotel business.

The secret is to find a strategy that helps you foresee upcoming events and take your hotel business forward!

Why is hotel marketing important?

Even if you’re new to the hospitality industry, you know that without clients, you’ll have empty rooms in a hotel struggling to survive. So, your goal is to generate hotel revenue by encouraging potential customers to make a reservation!

How can marketing strategies for hotels help you reach your goal?

– Understand customer’s behavior and needs;

– Find gaps in the travel industry;

– Show your guests why your hotel suits their needs;

– Contact your most loyal customers.

Hotel marketing offers incredible opportunities to promote your hotel. All you need is to focus on the right hotel marketing ideas!

Key components of hotel marketing

Knowing the hotel industry like the palm of your hands will come in handy when planning your marketing goals. However, it’s not enough. You must know which marketing strategies will make an impact on your hotel brand.

Digital marketing

Ever since the Internet, the world has never been the same! But I’m sure you already know this! Regardless of the industry, businesses worldwide had to adjust to a new reality, where consumers are well-informed and in control of their purchases.

And the hospitality industry is no different!

With online marketing, hotels are open for new reservations 24h! Travelers can book a room at any time, wherever they are. For hotel owners, this is an excellent opportunity to find new markets, rely less on traditional word-of-mouth, and get more direct hotel bookings.

So, what must you know about hotel digital marketing?

Hotel’s website 

It’s the starting point of any digital marketing strategy. Any reliable business has its own webpage. So, if you want your customers to take you seriously, you must build an engaging hotel website design. It’s your opportunity to build an online presence. Moreover, it will be your home online and how you present yourself to potential customer.

Travelers will check your hotel facilities, which services you provide, and where you’re located. Take one step further and add a booking engine to your website. This way, potential guests will check your room availability and make a direct reservation.

While building your website, always remember to provide an excellent user experience and a design that matches your hotel brand. To help you stand out from your competitors, use content marketing to build blog posts focused on your target audience.

Search Engine Optimization

You simply can’t design a digital marketing strategy and not include this powerful tool. I’ll be clearer… One cannot exist without the other!

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, makes your hotel appear on the first pages of any search engine. Why is it so important?

Google, the world’s number one search engine, ranks websites using crawlers and indexing pages according to their authority and relevance. Besides, the artificial intelligence supporting Google’s search algorithm recognizes and understands the meaning behind each search query.

This means that your hotel will appear on the first search results page, even when the travelers aren’t searching for your hotel’s exact name. They might be looking for the best place to stay at your location or the closest hotel to an event they will be attending.

Although it sounds simple, any SEO strategy takes time and effort to accomplish the desired results. So, you should focus your hotel marketing efforts on these concepts: 

• Keyword research – helps you understand your guests’ needs;
• Original and engaging content – allows you to stand out from your competitors and rank for specific search queries.
• Technical SEO – programming stuff that will make your website incredibly fast.
• User experience – simplifies the guests’ journey and increases conversion rates.
• Backlinking – your guests and other businesses will build links to your website, helping you be recognized as an authority in the hospitality industry.

Google’s services

Google helps businesses worldwide by providing incredible marketing tools.

One of them is Google My Business. Once you create a company profile on the search engine, your hotel will be listed on the results page, similar to a digital business card. There your guests can find guest reviews, your address, contacts, and location on Google Maps.

Additionally, you can use Google Ads to build an advertisement campaign. It’s an excellent way to reach out to potential guests.

Yet, there’s another tool Google developed, specifically for hoteliers.

Google Hotel Ads is a metasearch engine where travelers can find all the information they need to book a room. How does it work?

When a guest searches your hotel name on Google, they’ll see your hotel details, availability, lowest rates, and location. This is the Local Universal option.

On the other hand, with the Map Results option, when a potential customer isn’t sure where to stay and searches for “hotels in New York”, Google Hotel Ads will display a map with all the hotels listed on the search engine in that specific area. 

Once a customer selects your property, Google will show them the best available rates in online travel agencies and your website. In a few clicks, you’ll receive new bookings with little effort.

After your digital marketing strategy is set, you must analyze its results. Google Analytics offers you thorough information on how well your campaign is doing.

So, what data can you retrieve from Google Analytics?

• Analyze your website performance
• Know who your potential guest is and where they’re located
• Understand how clients find your hotel website.

This information will help you optimize your website performance, improve your SEO and feed your hotel marketing plan.

Social Media

In its early beginnings, social media platforms intended to connect us with our friends and family. Today, it’s one of the most powerful tools in hotel marketing.

Why?

• Your hotel gains more visibility;
• You get instant feedback from your guests;
• It’s easier to identify customers’ needs;
• Increases direct bookings;
• Improves brand awareness;
• Boosts your online reputation.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg!

Social media channels are where people spend most of their time online. Also, it’s where people find inspiration for their next travel destination. So, if you don’t want to miss out on the chance to promote your hotel, you must build a social media campaign, have an active presence and develop an online reputation.

Depending on your target audience, define which social media platform best suits your needs. If you’re a business hotel, perhaps LinkedIn will help you gain visibility with business travelers. On the other hand, if your target market are newlyweds or families with small kids, Facebook and Instagram are your best options.

Either way, there are some content ideas you can use in social media posts:

• Post high-quality photos of your hotel facilities and services. Potential guests want to know what you do best;
• Share your customers’ positive reviews;
• Promote your location;
• Increase direct bookings with special offers;
• Take advantage of user-generated content;
• Engage with followers through contests and giveaways.

Social platforms are a great reputation management tool. Moreover, you’ll be closer to your hotel guests, inspiring them to leave positive reviews and make a reservation!

Building partnerships

Marketing in hospitality is a colossal task that you can’t take on your own. Besides the significant amount of information you need to build a successful hotel marketing plan, you must always be on the lookout for the constant changes in hospitality. Building partnerships will help you promote your property to a broader public!

Third-party channels

Especially when you’re starting to promote your hotel, third-party channels will help you gain much-needed visibility. They have the clients you need. And you have the facilities travelers are looking for. It’s the perfect combo!

So, who are third-party channels exactly?

Third-party channels include all companies in the global distribution system, online travel agencies, and metasearch engines. Whether your potential guests search for your property online or through a travel agent, they will find all the information they need with a push of a button.

Besides making it easier for guests to book a room, for you, it’s a fantastic opportunity to promote your hotel across different markets. To make your life simpler, consider getting a channel manager. It will help you upload your rates and availability, showing them in real-time to anyone making a new reservation.

To make this partnership work, you must guarantee all third-party channels have the same information. As a result, both guests and partners will see you as a reliable hotel brand and you’ll elevate your reputation.

Of course, these benefits all come with a price… Third-party channels will charge you a commission on each new booking. However, you shouldn’t focus solely on this. In the business world, you must invest to profit!

Local partnerships

As a hotel marketer, this may be the last thing on your mind. However, local partnerships are one of the best resources of a successful hotel marketing plan.

This strategy promotes your hotel by showing off your location’s best features. Wondering what kind of partnerships would benefit your hotel? I’ll give you a few examples:

• Guided tours;
• Beauty services;
• Babysitting;
• Doctor’s house call;
• Transportation;
• Dog sitting;
• Laundry services;
• Museums.

I could make an endless list. However, you must ask yourself this: What services your hotel lacks that would enrich your guests’ stay? Aim for those! Contact local businesses and negotiate a partnership that’ll benefit everyone!

Improving guest experience

And here’s the final key to a successful hotel marketing strategy!

Investing all your time and money in an unbeatable marketing campaign is worthless when your customer service fails. In simple words… your guests will come with high expectations, then they’ll leave your hotel hoping never to return!

How does it affect your business?

Well, bad experiences are easier to remember. According to Association for Psychological Science, it’s a survival instinct inherited from our ancestors. If a guest had such an unpleasant stay at your hotel, why should they ever return?

Furthermore, an unhappy guest is more likely to find other accommodation options among your competitors and leave negative online reviews for everyone to see. In the end, the cost of poor service and a bad review is shattering.

As a hotel marketer, how can you improve customer service?

Get a customer relationship management system! This powerful software, also known as CRM, will assist your hotel staff in providing exactly what guests are expecting.

A CRM, like GuestJoy, connects you with your guests and gathers their preferences to help you build a more personalized customer experience and improve positive reviews. With GuestJoy you can speed up the check-in process, sell additional services and manage your clients’ feedback.

Moreover, you can set up an email marketing campaign based on what your guests enjoy the most. Use their email address to present special offers and encourage your guests to leave a review.

Also, consider gathering with team leaders of other departments. It’s your chance to find out your guests’ needs and how you can solve them.

Finally, your human resources department can help you hire the best talents and identify your current employees’ training needs. Although these strategies aren’t directly related to marketing, they will definitely impact your marketing strategy.

Conclusion

The internet changed how people travel. As a result, the hospitality industry became increasingly fast and constantly changing.

This is why marketing in hotels can be overwhelming.

As a hotel marketer, you must have a broader view of global events while paying attention to the details that will elevate your customer experience. Moreover, building a successful hotel marketing strategy involves understanding the industry’s past while setting your eyes on the future.

Fortunately for you, there have never been so many tools to help you manage the information flow and accomplish your marketing goals. Get your GuestJoy demo today! You’ll see how easy it is to fulfill your guests’ needs.

Hotel marketing helps you reach out to prospective guests and promote your business. And without it, you would struggle to succeed!

This portion of your daily job is probably the most important. As a hotelier, you must promote your hotel’s facilities and services, attract new guests, and encourage loyalty. Sound simple?

Well… hotel marketing is much more than that!

Considering the hotel industry has over 700.000 hotels worldwide, investing your time (and money!) in an effective hotel marketing strategy is paramount. Although travelers’ needs change over time and global events affect the way people travel, all in all, the hotel marketing principles remain the same.

In this article, I’ll offer you a complete overview of hotel marketing so that you can successfully promote your hotel.

What is hotel marketing?

Hotel marketing refers to the tools and strategies set in place to promote a hotel. The purpose is to bring in as many new guests as possible, and to retain past customers.

In simple words, potential guests are eager to travel and possibly visit your hotel. All you have to do is show them your hotel’s best features!

Knowing your target audience and your competition well will help you achieve your goals. If you succeed, then your hotel will be taking more bookings than ever before. 

Why is hotel marketing important?

Without guests, there’s no business. Showing potential guests that you are available and why they should choose you over your competitors is the role of hotel marketing.

Additionally, it’s your chance to build a brand your customers trust. And if they trust your hotel, then they are more likely to tell their friends, and book with you again for future stays!

• Knowing your guests

Once you understand what your guests want, it will be easier to offer exactly what they are looking for. So, how will you find out your guests’ deepest desires?

Well, a good place to start is with the online reviews for your property! You’ll have an insight into as to why they booked a room at your hotel. Also, you can find out what services your guests enjoy the most. Was it the superb dinner they had in your restaurant? Or the relaxing massage in your spa? Perhaps it was the wifi connection speed?

With this information, you can offer each guest precisely what they’re after!

• Showing your hotel off

Making guests aware of your hotel’s best qualities is crucial. It might be sprawling gardens in a country estate, a stunning beach view, or something else unique at your property.

Making potential customers familiar with the best things about your hotel is key to winning them over. Some common ways to raise awareness to these things is to use email marketing, social media, or user-generated content.

Another way to do it is using promotions and special offers. Everyone loves a good deal, and I’m sure your guests are no different! When business is slow, presenting lower rates or a complimentary room upgrade will definitely capture your customer’s attention.

• Keeping your guests close

Top-notch service is the key to success. But in order to encourage a guest to return, you must keep them close. How? Using modern-day technology, of course!

Digital marketing plays a key role when it comes to customer engagement. Through social media, you can show your long-time customers what you’ve been up to. And through email marketing, you can send them exclusive one-of-a-kind offers!

Digital marketing in the hospitality industry

The rise of the internet was a turning point in world history. Every business worldwide faced a new challenge: adapt or cease to exist. As a result, marketing strategies changed drastically. They became more focused on the company’s online presence and customers’ buying intentions.

Considering people spend most of their time online, most hotel marketing campaigns happen on the internet. If you are not using digital marketing, then you’re missing out on incredible opportunities!

Why?

• It’s measurable

Through digital marketing, you can actually measure your campaign’s effectiveness. Explore Google Analytics to learn more about how your visitors discovered your hotel. This is also a great tool to find your target audience, understand user behavior, analyze conversion rates, and improve ads and SEO content.

• It’s cost-effective

In the old days, marketing was only accessible to big companies. Advertising was expensive, leaving small companies out of the competition. However, since digital marketing is considerably cheaper, any hotel can benefit.

• It helps you find your audience

Through online marketing, you can find specific customers. Depending on their demographics, location, and preferences, you’ll have the chance to develop a strategy focused on promoting your hotel to the right visitors.

• It’s where people spend most time

According to “Digital 2022” report, an average internet user spends around 7 hours online! Whether it’s professional or personal usage, we spend most of our waking time browsing the web. This is why the internet is the perfect location to promote your hotel! People go online to search for accommodation options, compare rates or check on guest reviews before booking a room.

• It’s personalized advertising

With online marketing, you can direct your message to specific groups of customers based on their preferences and make them feel you are speaking directly to them. Email marketing is the most used option when it comes to personalization. You can segment your audience, and provide personalized information on promotions and services that truly captivate your guests.

Hotel marketing strategies

Over the last century, travelers’ needs shifted, and the hospitality industry needed to adjust on several occasions. As a result, hotel owners are avid “people-readers”, constantly identifying new trends that satisfy the modern guest and lead the hotel business forward.

Define what makes you different

Research your competition. Learn how they work. Find out their strong points and weaknesses. Finally, ask yourself some questions: Why is your hotel better than the one down the road? What do you offer that your guests won’t find anywhere else?

This exercise is the perfect opportunity to realize how your hotel will stand out among others. Focus on showing potential guests something that your competition lacks.

Are you targeting families? Or maybe you offer pet-friendly accommodation, where families can enjoy their vacation at your hotel with their fur babies!

Map the booking journey

A customer journey map is a powerful tool since it helps you understand why some of your guests take long before completing a reservation. Additionally, you’ll have a clear insight into your customer experience and how you can improve. So how do you go about it?

• Create a buyer persona
• Define your goals
• Identify the touchpoints and stages
• Retrieve data from customer surveys to compare results
• Map future customer journey stages

Reward direct bookings

Every hotelier knows how important direct bookings are to hotel revenue. Besides saving a massive amount of money each year, direct bookings are also proof your guests trust your business!

So, why shouldn’t you thank them?

A complimentary room upgrade, a fruit basket in their room upon arrival, or a special discount are small gestures your guests will definitely enjoy! Let them know you appreciate their preference. That they are valuable to you. That you care about their happiness!

Promote the location

Marketing your hotel is important. However, potential guests aren’t booking a room only because of the amazing and expensive décor! They want to explore the surroundings. To explore your location’s history and culture!

Show your customers why they should stay at your hotel:

• What is there to do?
• What can they visit?
• What tips can you offer that only a local would know?

To complete this “information package”, you can build partnerships with local businesses. This way, you can offer services that you don’t provide on your hotel property and will help your guests learn more about your location.

Invest in the marketing budget during the reservation peak season

Do you know when your property’s occupancy is at its highest? If you don’t, then you’re missing out!

Knowing the time of the year when your customers book more rooms is a great marketing opportunity! Explore the advantages of email marketing or social media advertising to reach your target audience and get more bookings. Is there a world-class event happening close to your property? Learn what that specific audience is looking for, and present your hotel as a perfect solution.

Improve your customer service

Yes… I know you’ve heard it a thousand times… But, the truth is that your customer service must be top-notch from the very beginning and even after your guests have checked out!

You might have a bullet-proof marketing strategy, but if your customer service fails, all your efforts will be in vain. Ensure that your staff are well trained. A customer-first mindset is a key to guaranteeing your hotel is successful. However, to accomplish this goal you must provide your employees with the right tools.

Build a customer loyalty program

Repeat business is important to any organisation. But in the hotel industry, it’s essential. Having returning customers means that you’ve successfully met their expectations. So, providing them with exclusive offers, such as special rates or free room upgrades, is a way to reward their loyalty. Additionally, you’ll ensure that they will keep coming back!

Most hospitality businesses segment their customers into different levels, depending on the previous number of stays. Each new reservation will grant points or discounts that can be redeemed on the next reservation. Find out which enrich your guest experience and what services you can offer.

Take advantage of technology

Nowadays, visiting a distant hotel is easier than you think! With virtual reality, you can offer potential guests a guided tour of your property. Show them the stunning facilities and incredible services you have at their disposal in promotional content.

Provide guests with the means check-in online or visit a virtual concierge. This way, your customers will be able to make restaurant reservations and spa appointments or check for information on activities and places to visit from the convenience of their own smartphone or computer.

5 ways to successfully promote your hotel

Although marketing offers several strategies to promote your hotel, there isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” solution. Regardless of the approach you choose, it must be aligned with the campaign goals and property needs. To help you get started, I’ll let you know the best ways to make your hotel stand out!

1.    Build a strong online presence

Most of your guests are miles away from your location. Yet, you can still keep in touch! Developing your hotel’s digital presence will help you reach a wider audience while updating your most loyal customers. How?

• Web design

This is your digital “home” and where you present your hotel to potential guests! So, it’s important to guarantee they will easily find what they’re looking for. A user-friendly web page will help your guests virtually explore your property and make a reservation.

• Content marketing

Your website can be so much more than showing great hotel photos and booking a room! Along with your user-friendly website, you can build a blog and offer video content, presenting the services provided, your location, and events happening in and around your hotel.

To do so, I’d suggest getting a content management system. It will help you organize and schedule our posts and avoid duplicate content. The best part is that it is so easy to use you don’t need a team of experts to take full advantage of its potential.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In today’s digital world, SEO is definitely the most powerful tool you’ll find!

When people search online for their next destination, they often choose the first results appearing on the search engine results page. Why? It’s simple! Travelers understand Google ranks the most reliable options for their search query first. In their minds, booking a room with a hotel raking first place is likely a safe choice.

Because of this, if you’re looking to outrank your competitors, then you must definitely invest in SEO. It will help you please Google’s algorithm and lead you to top page results.

• Use on-page SEO so that Google sees you as a reliable source of information. Keyword research, optimized visual content, and backlinking are a few strategies that will definitely help you.

• Paid advertising will only take you so far. For Google’s algorithm, organic traffic is much more valuable since your website gets visitors without you investing money. You’ll get better results if you improve your website content and use social media to promote your business.

Google Analytics provides clear information to understand user behavior and intention. By monitoring your SEO strategy, you’ll be able to make needed changes that will help you reach your goals.

• Conversion rate optimization

Once potential customers visit your optimized website, you must do everything you can to ensure they don’t leave without booking a room!

Improving your CRO, or conversion rate optimization, means that you are actively guiding your visitors through the sales funnels and convert them into paying customers. You can set an e-mail marketing campaign and dedicated landing page providing an exclusive offer, or developing an optimized website and prompting visitors with calls to action.

• Remarketing

Remarketing is another strategy you can use to bolster your conversion rate.

Imagine someone visiting your website. You can clearly see what they were looking for but, for someone reason, they left without booking a room. Why did that happen? Maybe they found a better offer elsewhere? Or maybe, they just didn’t have enough time to complete the reservation!

With remarketing, you’ll be reminding your visitors about their buying intentions so that they return and finish the booking process. Email marketing campaigns and social media ads are usually the most used options.

2.    Manage your guests’ preferences

In a people-centered business such as the hotel industry, knowing your guests well will help you succeed. As your hotel brand grows, so to does your customer base. For that reason, it becomes increasingly harder to know every guest by name.

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is the perfect tool to help you meet your guests’ expectations. Besides saving contact details, you’ll have the opportunity to collect detailed information on their preferences and reservation records.

With a CRM platform, you’ll have a unique database to keep your customers engaged. Besides, you can use this valuable information to build a loyalty program and boost repeated guest reservations.

3.    Email your guests every now and then

Email marketing campaigns are a cost-effective strategy that’s perfect for up swinging direct bookings and increasing customer loyalty.

However, before reaching out to your customers, ensure that you have their permission to use their contacts for marketing purposes. In Europe, the United States, and Canada, for example, there are strict regulations when it comes to data protection.

A CRM tool is key to building an email marketing campaign. You can segment your guests and offer them valuable and exclusive offers they will love.

4.    Engage your customers through social media

Scrolling through social media has become a routine for most of us. Without even realizing it, we find ourselves reading the news headlines, checking on what our friends have been up to, and following our favorite celebrities.

In fact, users stated they felt inspired to travel after seeing their friend’s social media posts. And more than 70% said that they post photos of their vacations on social media.

For hotels, this is the perfect opportunity to promote business! Besides posting content on hotel facilities and services, you can use it to engage with customers. Offer last-minute deals or limited availability for exclusive offers. The fear of missing out will be so overwhelming that your guests will definitely book a room!

5.    Work side by side with third-party channels

I know that as a hotelier, commissions are at the front of your mind when it comes to third-party channels. Even though you might be eager to convert these commissions into direct revenue for your hotel, they do serve a purpose: third-party channels help you gain visibility with a broader audience that you would struggle to find on your own!

• Global Distribution System (GDS)

Travel agencies and travel operators use this system to get better deals with hotels when making a reservation for their clients. For hotels, it means defining contract rates, allotments, booking windows, and blackout dates that no other partners will have access to.

If you’re new to the hotel industry, this might seem tricky. Yet, with a channel manager, you’ll be able to upload the contract information to the system. This way, your hotel availability is always updated.

• Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)

As a traveler, if you haven’t booked a room with a tour operator or directly with the hotel, chances are that you used an online travel agency. The same happens to your customers!

Popular platforms, such as Booking.com or Expedia, show your property to millions of potential guests worldwide. By defining the search filters, travelers will find your hotel, among others ranking for similar rates, services, and location.

Because of that, you must use high-quality photos of your hotel and encourage guests to leave positive online reviews on their stay. Hopefully you’ll outrank your competitors, and potential guests are more likely to book their stay with you!

• Metasearch

Another way to use third-party channels to your advantage is using metasearch. Ever heard of this before? In a few words, metasearch engines, such as Trivago or TripAdvisor, gather information on hotel rooms and present it to potential guests.

For guests, it’s easier to compare rates and services and find the best deals. However, their journey to complete the purchase will be longer, as they will be redirected to different third-party websites.

To overcome a high abandonment rate, guarantee that guests will see the same rates for each room type or use a remarketing strategy. If your guests get lost along the journey, they will easily get back on track to complete the reservation.

How to build a solid hotel marketing strategy

Designing a marketing strategy is key for your business to succeed! Whether it’s a boutique hotel or an international hotel chain, you can get great results with proper planning. Now that you know which marketing strategies professionals use, it’s time to put your knowledge to good use!

1.    Build a business summary

The marketing plan intends to provide clear information on your hotel to marketers and other professionals dealing with the communication strategy. For that reason, start by clearly identifying your hotel. Include the hotel’s name and location. Additionally, state your mission, vision, and values.

2.    Conduct extensive market research

A comprehensive analysis of your competitors and customers will help you identify the right resources to reach your target audience.

Identify the market and your competitors

Start by researching the current state of the travel industry. Then, decide which date is most important and how you’ll use it to predict future trends and growth projections.

At this point, you can use a SWOT analysis to identify your competitors. It will be your chance to identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You’ll be able to state what their business lacks and how you can fill in the gaps.

Identify your target audience

Your ideal customer will be the one buying your services. That’s why you must know who they are! Once your market research is complete, it will be easier to identify who is more likely to stay at your hotel. That will be your target audience.

Demographic information, such as age and gender, will help you understand your customers. However, it is also important to consider their location, profession, education level, preferences, and needs.

3.    Define your marketing goals

Your goals should be crystal clear! People around you must understand your vision and what you hope to achieve. Besides which, it will be easier to analyze your campaign success in the future.

One way to master your goals statement is to use the SMART strategy. This method stands for goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

How does this apply to you?

Let’s say that for your next marketing campaign, your goal is to increase your revenue on direct bookings by 15% until the end of the year. Using the SMART strategy, it would look something like this:

• Specific – ask yourself who should be in charge of this goal and what you need to accomplish it. Be as detailed as possible.
• Measurable – using numbers is a great approach to attain a measurable goal. In this example, the 15% increase is as clear as it can be.
• Achievable – identify which strategies you must put into action to attain your goal. It can be offering a lower rate for repeated guests or walk-ins or depend less on online travel agencies.
• Relevant – for your plan to succeed, it is important that your goals are meaningful to your company. It will allow you to focus on what’s important.
• Time-bound – when mentioning “until the end of the year” you are identifying until when you will take this goal into action.

4.    Pinpoint your budget

Establishing a budget is a crucial phase where you guarantee you have enough resources to accomplish your goals. Once you’ve done your market research and identified who’s your target audience, it is time to decide how much you are willing to spend. A well-designed financial plan will help you decide on the marketing channels.

5.    Marketing channels

Now is the time to set your plan in motion!

Decide how you want to reach your audience. If you’re just starting and are lucky enough to have a big budget, then go for sponsored content, pay-per-click, or native advertising. On the other hand, if you’re managing a hotel with a small budget, then put all your efforts into social media, email marketing, and personalized advertising.

With these tips, I’m sure you’ll create a thriving marketing plan!

Key concepts you must know

• Allotment – refers to a number of rooms hotels must always have available to a specific travel agency.
• Blackout dates – Upon signing a contract with a travel agency, the hotel defines specific dates that cannot be booked by travel agents.
• Booking window – refers to the period between a reservation being made and the guest’s arrival.
• Brand awareness – refers to how familiar customers are with a brand and its products or services.
• Conversion – refers to the moment when a visitor turns into a paying customer.
• Consumer behavior – studies how customers satisfy their needs and desires when choosing, buying, and using goods or services.
• Marketing channels – refer to the activities, people, and organizations that promote products and services to customers.
• Personalization – refers to using personal information to promote products and services to a targeted customer.

Final thoughts

Hotel marketing plays a vital role in today’s travel industry. Considering accommodation is one of the largest expense people have while planning a trip, it is no wonder it quickly became a multi-billion dollar industry.

For this reason, hotel marketing has the job of connecting the right guests with the right services. It offers them the opportunity to enjoy the best customer experience, starting with the booking process.

However, the success of any hotel marketing strategy lies in other equally important factors. Impeccable customer service will highly affect your guests’ intent to return. Consequently, it will affect your ability to attract new customers and increase revenue. And, with a less income, it will be harder to improve your hotel facilities or pay better wages for high-performing employees.

As you can see, an effective marketing strategy will help you bring in potential customers and win repeat business. Yet it still matters to all departments within your hotel.

Guaranteeing your strategy is aligned with the service provided isn’t always easy. However, GuestJoy will help you achieve your goals effortlessly. With GuestJoy, you can present upsell opportunities, concierge services like online check-in, collect feedback an encourage positive reviews online, and much more. Take a moment out of your busy schedule and request a demo today!

Resources

For further readings, we recommend you the following articles:

• Hospitality Statistics – https://hoteltechreport.com/news/hospitality-statistics
• The future of hotel marketing – https://www.cvent.com/en/blog/hospitality/hotel-marketing-trends
• Modern History of the Hospitality Industry – https://hoteltechreport.com/news/modern-history-hospitality-industry
• COVID-19: The great hospitality reset – https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/great-hospitality-reset

In the hospitality industry competition is fierce! Every day, travelers worldwide choose between hundreds of accommodation options at any price range.

So, how will you stand out in the hotel industry? How will you show potential guests you are exactly what they need and desire? Through an effective marketing strategy, of course! 

Which are the best marketing strategies for hotels?

Although there isn’t a “one-fits-all” solution in hospitality marketing, there are basic strategies that will help you increase revenue, reservation rates, and customer retention.

However, before deciding which is best, you must build a hotel marketing plan based on your hotel needs. It will help you clarify your mission and goals. Besides, it will be the perfect opportunity to identify your target audience and your competitors and check what is happening in the industry.

To help you get started, I’ll present you with some of the best hotel marketing strategies.

Reward direct bookings

When it comes to hotel revenue, direct bookings are the holy grail! Every hotel marketer knows they must rely less on third-party channels to increase profits. Thus, the hotel receives the full payment instead of paying a commission on each new reservation.

How to increase direct bookings?

There are many ways you can encourage your guest to book directly with the hotel. And some of them are easier than you think!

• Invest in SEO

Search engine optimization is the perfect tool to build a strong online presence. Start with a user-friendly website that your hotel guests can easily find. Present an intuitive built-in booking engine to encourage direct bookings. As a bonus, use social media channels and email marketing to stir up their appetite for a getaway.

Since people spend most of their time on smartphones, why not build a mobile-friendly website? Plus, upload high-quality images of your property and optimize the website content. You must guarantee your hotel ranks first in the page results! It will make your hotel pop!

• Build a Loyalty Program

Customer experience is paramount in any hotel business. Besides providing excellent service, your guests must feel welcomed! Encourage them to book directly by providing exclusive offers through a loyalty program.

How can you make this happen?

–  Offer a room upgrade or a late check-out;

–  Provide special rates for repeated guests;

–  Apply a discount on hotel services;

–  Offer VIP amenities;

–  Provide a welcome drink and private check-in.

Besides rewarding direct bookings, you will also improve your guests’ overall satisfaction. A happy customer is the best marketing strategy! They will be more likely to return and tell their friends and family how wonderful their experience at your hotel was.

• Improve communication with your guests

Hospitality is a people-focused industry. Hence, effective communication is a powerful tool you must use to build a meaningful relationship with your guests!

From the booking process, until the guests check out, you will use different communication channels. A customer relationship management software will help you provide a personalized guest experience. You’ll know their preferences, and it will be easier to assist them before, during, and after their stay!

Take advantage of social media

According to a study published in 2019, 52% of consumers say they were inspired to plan their next trip after seeing their friends or family’s social media posts.

These results show us how user-generated content transformed the way people travel. Since travelers look for recommendations based on others’ experiences, social media is definitely an improved version of word-of-mouth.

Because of that, you must use social media! How?

• Build a profile and include links to your hotel website and email;
• Invite people on your contact list to follow your property profile;
• Promote follower engagement with surveys and incentives;
• Post content on the local area, its landmarks, and main attractions;
• Post new and updated content frequently;
• Interact with followers and other businesses that mention your property.

Facebook and Instagram are the most influential social media in the travel industry. Although it’s possible to use the same content on both platforms, each has its own subtleties. Before posting, remember who your target audience is and which is the best way to reach them.

Alternatively, you can use paid advertising. Similar to Google’s pay-per-click (PPC), you can define your target audience and build a marketing campaign focused on direct bookings, customer experience, hotel services, or any other goal you might want to achieve.

Reconnect with guests through email marketing

Along with social media, email marketing is one of the easiest and most affordable strategies. In fact, it is responsible for 42£ of return on investment for every 1£ spent! For this reason, email marketing it’s a favorite among hotel marketers.

With this powerful tool, you can reconnect with long-time guests. Let them know about special offers, new add-on services, or the newly decorated facilities! Most of all, let them reminisce on the wonderful time they had last time they visited.

By sending them a message, you’ll be reminding your guests you are open for business and looking forward to welcoming them! You can also use email marketing once your guests checked out. It is a great opportunity to collect feedback on their stay!

How can you take advantage of email marketing?

Although it is one of the easiest ways to promote your hotel, there are some details you must consider:

• Choose your target audience;
• Define your campaign goals;
• Build a mailing list;
• Develop an appealing email template;
• Decide how often and at what time you want to contact your guests.

You can do it the old-fashioned way: using a spreadsheet with all your guests’ emails and names and sending it in Bcc from your email address. Or, you can optimize your precious time and use customer relationship management software.

A CMS integrated with your property management system will allow you to gather details on your guests’ preferences to improve their experience. Additionally, a CMS allows you to use an automated email marketing strategy.

All you have to do, is choose a template, customize it and send personalized messages to your clients. It will help you bring in more direct bookings and build a solid relationship with your most loyal customers.

Before exploring all the benefits email marketing offers, you must learn about the current email laws. In the United States, Canada, and Europe, specific regulations protect clients’ personal information. As a result, before sending any message, make sure your customers authorize you to use their contact for any marketing purposes.

Establish a local partnership

When choosing their next destination, your guests consider a few details before deciding. They will analyze the hotel services and facilities and check the online reviews.

However, one crucial factor is the location! Where is the hotel located? What is there to do? Are there any museums, natural landmarks, restaurants, or amusement parks?

As fascinating as your property may be, it’s very likely that your guests are eager to explore the surroundings. Because of this, I recommend building local partnerships to improve the guest experience.

Review your local area for services you don’t provide. It can be anything from dry cleaning to dog sitting or even a hairdressing appointment. As long as it adds value to your customer’s stay.

Additionally, show your customers the region’s history and culture. Collaborate with other business owners for a cooking class or a guided wine tasting tour. Promote a historical tour to show your customers all the details about the must-see places near your hotel.

The options are endless! As a result, your best strategy is to know your guests well and offer them unique experiences!

Marketing on Third-Party Channels

Whether you’re about to open a brand-new hotel or “refurbish” a marketing campaign, third-party channels are perfect to increase your property’s visibility.

The goal of third-party channels is to gather information on accommodation options and help prospective customers compare rates, services, and guest reviews.

As any hotel owner, I’m sure you dread the expensive commission fees. However, you shouldn’t focus on this downside! A partnership between you and a third-party channel helps you bring in new guests. Who knows? Perhaps some of these guests might convert into direct bookings!

So, who are the third-party channels?

GDS – Global Distribution Systems

In the 1950s, the increasing demand in the hospitality industry, especially for flights, led airline companies to offer add-on services, such as accommodation or car rental. This resulted in the creation of the first GDS.

Nowadays, travel agents worldwide use the GDS to check on hotel availability and get special rates, usually 30% cheaper than the retail price. How does this work?

The hotel’s property management system, or PMS, provides real-time rates and availability to the GDS and online travel agents through a channel manager. As new bookings arrive, the room inventory is updated to avoid overbookings. Once there are no more rooms, sales are automatically closed.

Where to find a GDS?

The most respected GDS in the hospitality industry are Amadeus, Sabre, and Galileo. Combined, these three organizations operate in more than 200 markets. They connect travel agents to airline and railway companies, car rentals, cruise lines, and accommodation businesses worldwide. With the right channel manager, you’ll be able to connect your property to a GDS.

Beyond that, the GDS offers you a few perks you don’t want to miss:

• Great opportunity to identify new markets;
• Another way to increase revenue;
• Travel agents worldwide have access to your property regardless of time zone differences;
• The reservation volume is larger than direct bookings;
• Corporate clients often outsource their business trips to travel agents, which makes GDS perfect for attracting business travelers;
• For travel agents, it’s easier and faster to book a room through the GDS.

Although the GDS offers a competitive advantage, you’ll be bound by a contract. Simply put, you cannot change rates as you will or close sales for travel agents and sell the rooms directly. A well-drafted contract will definitely come in handy to avoid such issues.

If you’re new to the hospitality industry, don’t be put off by how detailed the GDS is! Take some time  to understand how it works, and you’ll have a team of expert tour operators promoting your hotel worldwide!

OTAs – Online Travel Agencies

Since the internet appeared, the travel industry has changed drastically! Overnight, people could book hotel rooms, rent cars, and reserve flights without relying on travel agencies.

And the best part is that travelers could compare rates themselves or check for excellent reviews! It’s no wonder why online travel agencies, such as Booking .com, Expedia, or Trip.com became so popular!

For you, OTAs are another marketing opportunity!

It means you can list your property and provide high-quality photos and add-on services that will make you eclipse your competitors. Additionally, you’re free to decide about room rates or how many rooms you want to sell.

Even though OTA’s will help improve your online presence, they will charge a commission fee between 15% to 20% on each reservation.

If you promote your hotel on several OTAs simultaneously, then I’d recommend getting a channel manager. It will be easier to update rates and close or open sales according to your room availability. With a few clicks, all your partners will have updated information.

Metasearch Engines

In the early days of the internet, information was scattered all over the web. As a result, travelers would struggle when deciding which hotel to choose.

Metasearch engines, such as Trivago, Skyscanner, or TripAdvisor, appeared as a solution to this problem. Often labeled “information aggregators”, meaning they collect data hotels provide to OTA’s and present it to potential customers.

Nowadays, when your customers search for your hotel online, they will see several websites showing different rates and booking conditions for the same dates and room type.

To promote high conversion rates and increase revenue, you must provide the same information to all online channels. Also, you can add your hotel website and invite prospective customers to a direct booking.

Conclusion

Building an effective hotel marketing strategy will help you achieve success. However, it won’t happen overnight.

So, you must combine different strategies to maximize your hotel visibility. From third-party channels to email marketing or building local partnerships, your actions must focus on improving the guest experience.

Satisfied customers will be more likely to leave a positive review, return and bring in their friends and family! Moreover, remarkable customer service will help you stand out amongst your competitors and make the difference potential guests are looking for!

Today, information is available anywhere and at any time! As a result, the modern-day traveler is well-informed and in control of their travel plans. They know exactly what they need and where to find it.

As a hotel owner, your digital marketing plans must focus on promoting your property where your potential customers are. However, the internet is a vast place. So, how will your clients find you?

I’ll show you bullet-proof digital marketing tactics you can use!

What is hotel digital marketing?

First things first! Do you know what digital marketing for hotels is?

Basically, it refers to all tools you use to promote your hotel on the internet. The goal is to build a reputation online and become a recognizable hotel brand. You’ll be closer to your customers and potential guests. From posting on social media to contacting your guests via email, the options are endless.

Why should you promote your hotel online? 

An effective digital marketing approach will help you eclipse your competition, making it easier for your guests to find you online and book a room! 

Key hotel digital marketing strategies

In such a vast world as the internet, how will you know where to promote your hotel? Or what’s the best strategy to reach your ideal customer? 

In hospitality marketing (as in life), climbing a mountain only seems impossible until you take the first step!

1. Register your hotel on Google

Google is the number one search engine worldwide. It’s the primary source of information on any topic. And it’s also where most travelers search for their next destination. So, it’s paramount that you use Google My Business and Google Hotel Ads.

How does it work?

Google My Business lists your hotel on search engine page results, similar to a digital business card. When searching for your hotel online, your guests will see your hotel name, contacts, location on Google Maps, online reviews, and services available.

This strategy will help you gain more visibility and organic traffic. Besides, your guests will easily find your contacts and address. Booking a room or contacting your hotel has never been so simple!

The best part? Google My Business is free to use!

On the other hand, Google Hotel Ads allows potential clients to see and compare room rates and availability online when looking for your hotel. 

When they decide to book, Google Hotel Ads will display a direct link to your website. It’s a great way to increase revenue and not pay a commission to OTAs.

2. Build your hotel website

It’s the best strategy to present your hotel online! It’s your digital home. And where you show potential guests all your hotel has to offer! Besides, your website is the perfect tool to increase revenue through direct hotel bookings.

Here’s a few digital marketing tips you must have in mind!

Think mobile-first

Smartphones are the most used device when browsing the web. In fact, it’s where people spend most of their time online. So, to reach your target audience, the user experience must be your priority.

Why?

When searching for their next destination, travelers prefer user-friendly websites where it’s easier to navigate and find clear information. If your website displays information in such small letters that you’ll need a magnifying glass, then potential guests will look elsewhere!

Use content marketing

Travelers are looking for the ultimate experience! With so many hotels to choose from, why book yours?

A well-defined content strategy will help you present your hotel differently. Build a hotel blog to promote your location and services. It’s a fantastic opportunity to show landmarks and activities close by.

How to take advantage of content marketing?

– Interview the hotel staff about their role in the guest experience;

– Create video content on local landmarks;

– Offer high-quality content about local culture;

– Write about what’s new at your hotel;

– Remind your guests about upcoming events.

Regardless of the type of content you choose, remember to prompt potential guests to book a room. 

Call your guests to action

Your website is up and running. And your blog is ready to educate potential guests about your location. But, there’s one thing missing… 

What’s worth having a mobile-friendly website if your guests can’t book directly? 

Encourage them to start the booking process using several call-to-action opportunities. Yet, you must be careful not to overdo it. Otherwise, they will be put off by your pushiness.

Additionally, use a built-in booking engine. It’s a great way to convert! As a hotel marketer, it’s your chance to increase revenue, rely less on third-party channels, and provide real-time availability.

3. Invest in SEO

For travelers to see your website, search engines must find it first! And to do so, you must use search engine optimization, or SEO, the cornerstone of digital marketing!

The impact of SEO is staggering! It helps your hotel build a solid online presence, gain visibility and increase organic traffic. How? It will make your website rank first on the search engine results page. 

So, how can you use SEO to your advantage?

Analyze website data

Google Search Console (GSC) is a powerful tool that helps you analyze the website’s performance. How powerful? It allows you to gather precise information on your guests’ behavior and how they navigate your website.

What data can you retrieve from GSC?

• Your hotel website’s average position to a query;
• Which is the click-through rate;
• Identify your high-ranking pages;
• Compare your website performance on mobile devices and desktops;
• Check which websites link to you.

There’s much more in-depth information you can collect from GSC. Yet, these are a good starting point to plan your digital hotel marketing strategies!

Research Keywords

Do you know what words your guests use online when searching your hotel? If you don’t, then you’re missing out!

Keywords represent travelers’ intention when looking for your hotel online. When you analyze which keywords they use, you can build a strategy focused on solving their needs.

How to use keywords to optimize your website?

• Target long-tail keywords;
• Keywords should naturally fit your high-quality content;
• Avoid keyword stuffing. It sounds robotic. People and search engines don’t like it!

These strategies will help search engine crawlers find your website. As a result, you’ll rank higher when travelers search for their next trip!

Optimize On-page and off-page SEO

Optimizing your on-page SEO means you’ll present information that search engines will easily find. Use target keywords in titles, headings, descriptions and content. It will help your rank on the top results page!

On the other hand, off-page SEO helps you build your website’s authority. How? Through backlinking! 

As a hotel marketer, use this strategy to have high authority websites in the hospitality industry pointing to your hotel website. The reward: search engines will see you as a reliable source and rank you higher!

How to build a backlinking strategy?

• Post relevant content that’s valuable to your guests;
• Partner with travel bloggers to share engaging content on your hotel;
• Publish articles about your hotel on high-authority hotel industry blogs;

Once you’ve optimized your off-page SEO, monitor your backlinking strategy performance. If there’s a broken link pointing to your website, your ranking position might drop.

Improve your website’s loading speed

No matter how good your hotel’s digital marketing campaign is, a slow website will undermine all your marketing efforts.

Potential guests know there are other hotels around the corner and won’t wait for your website to load. As a result, they will leave before completing the booking process. Additionally, search engines will notice your website’s loading speed and penalize your ranking position.

4. Social Media

Social media is a must-have in hotel digital marketing. Social media content helps you reach your guests, build brand awareness, and get more direct bookings. 

Why is social media critical to hotel marketers?

Online users spend one-third of their time on mobile devices. Moreover, almost every online user is active on social media! Thus, if you’re not promoting your hotel on social media, you’ll be missing on fantastic opportunities.

However, before posting on every platform, you must choose one that suits your digital marketing goals. 

Facebook

As a hotel marketer, Facebook is the perfect digital marketing tool to build a meaningful relationship with your guests. Besides engaging with customers, you can build a Facebook group to present your latest special offers, hotel trivia, and positive reviews. Additionally, use Facebook Ads in your remarketing campaign. It’s the perfect tool to improve your conversion rate!

Instagram

It’s the most popular social media platform among younger generations. In fact, 71% of its users are millennials. Why should you remember this number? Millennials travel more than the previous generations and make up the grander portion of current travelers.

So, sign your hotel up on an Instagram business account and show off your hotel’s best features! Post stories and reels to show what’s new. Engage with followers through polls and surveys. Build a give-away campaign to find new followers! The options are endless! 

Moreover, your potential guests find inspiration on travel related content! So, why not use influencer marketing to promote your hotel? Influencers’ followers might become your new guests!

LinkedIn

If you’re looking to promote your hotel to corporate markets, LinkedIn is the platform you need! LinkedIn users are professionals looking for relevant information for their businesses. So, you must target B2C clients. How? Post engaging content highlighting your conference rooms, company retreat services, or team-building facilities to event professionals.

5. Email marketing

It’s one of the oldest techniques in digital marketing! And the one most hotel marketers prefer! 

Studies show email marketing offers a staggering ROI of 36$ per each 1$ spent! It’s the most cost-effective strategy! Yet, there are other benefits in using email marketing.

• Email users are everywhere;
• It’s less intrusive than a phone call;
• Helps you build brand awareness; 
• Allows personalization and automation;
• And it’s the fastest way to communicate with your guests;
• It’s a great tool to promote customer retention.

Yet, to successfully build an email marketing campaign, you must follow a few steps.

Build a contact list

It’s the first stage of every email marketing campaign!

Ask your guests to fill out a contact form upon arrival at the hotel. As an alternative, use your optimized website to encourage potential guests to subscribe to your newsletters.

Regardless of the method you choose, guarantee you have your guests’ permission to send them promotional content. You don’t want to be labeled as a spammer!

Personalize your emails

Once your contact list is ready, segment your email audience, build specific landing pages and send them personalized offers. Depending on your digital marketing goals, you can develop an email marketing strategy focused on family vacationers, corporate travelers, or backpackers.

Reach your guests on the right moment

Email marketing and customer journey mapping are the perfect combo! Together, these strategies will sky-rocket your chances to convert!

Once you’ve identified your guests’ needs during each stage of their customer journey, you can guide them through the email funnel. 

I’ll give you an example.

Joe is an old guest that subscribed to your newsletter a while ago. He read your latest email and visited the personalized landing page but hesitated in booking a room. 

You can help Joe decide! Provide further information on your customer service. Let him know how your hotel has changed since his last visit! Offering a special discount, VIP amenities, or a late check-out might help Joe decide.

Send follow-up emails

A few days after your guests’ check-out, send them a satisfaction survey and thank them for choosing your hotel. They’ll feel appreciated and you’ll collect precious data on how to improve your customer service.

Use email marketing to build an online presence

You can’t optimize emails to achieve the highest rankings on Google. However, you can use this strategy to generate organic traffic. 

Ask your guests to visit your website, follow your hotel’s social media pages or leave positive reviews on Tripadvisor. It will help you bring in new visitors and build a reputation!

How can you take your email marketing campaign to the next level? GuestJoy helps you find your guests wherever they are through email marketing. Segment your target audience, use customizable templates, and send them personalized information that will help you convert!

Conclusion

Whether you’re running a small B&B or an international hotel chain, hotel digital marketing will help you promote your property worldwide. Besides, it offers you a varied selection of methods and strategies that you can tailor to your hotel business needs.

One of those tools is GuestJoy! Alongside email marketing, GuestJoy software helps boost your reputation online, connecting your guests to TripAdvisor and Google. Additionally, you can send your guests surveys that will allow you to monitor your hotel’s performance. Book a demo, and explore GuestJoy’s services.

Last week we celebrated the amazing achievements of two of our customers – Hotel Clark Budapest, and Sligo Park Hotel – who were placed in the Top 25 Hotels in Europe and Top 25 Hotels in Ireland, respectively.

This week we continue admiring the accolades earned by 3 more of our customers in Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best awards for 2022!

Rated 21 in the Top 25 Romantic Hotels💕 in Europe

Maison Bistro & Hotel

“Charming ambiance with a bit of history; 17 unique designer rooms; Cellar a’la Maison; personalized services”

Budapest, Hungary | Website

Rated #9 of 405 hotels in Budapest

Ranking 5.0 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢 based on 535 verified reviews

Set in a building dating back to 1464, and with a two-storey cellar beneath it, it’s little wonder that Maison Bistro & Hotel has been named in the Top 25 Romantic Hotels in Europe!

We asked Viczkó Attila, the Hotel Operations Manager for Maison for his thoughts about being bestowed one of the Best of the Best.

“As we all know the pandemic had devastating effects on our industry; we also suffered a lot, but we managed to reopen in July 2021. This award is the perfect recognition of the hard work of our team. We literally emerged from our ashes, but we kept our heads high and delivered a truly professional performance”, he stated.

“I believe Tripadvisor has a huge power on the customers’ decision-making process, and being in the top 25 of their European listings is like a dream come true for us. I hope that more and more people looking for an unforgettable, romantic hotel experience will find us in the near future.”

When asked how the award might continue to bolster the hotel’s reputation, Attila said “Being amongst the Best of the Best in Europe is a chance we cannot miss when it comes to our communication. The listing is for a whole year, so we plan to make it visible on our booking engine not to mention our social channels. This award will be communicated periodically, we will mention it wherever we can.”

We were curious to know what Attila thought set Maison apart from other properties that resulted in them being listed as a Best of the Best property. He immediately spoke highly of his staff: “I believe that we have a team of true professionals who seek to deliver a perfect hotel experience. The overall attitude and our common goal is that our guests shall be happy and taken good care of throughout the entire stay.

“There is no secret in this, it is a question of passion and devotion I think.”

Attila concluded with some comments about his partnership with GuestJoy:

“I also would like to thank Guestjoy for playing a vital role in our guest experience. We have been using it for years, and Guestjoy has proven that it is great tool of Guest communication.

“The back-end is very easy to configure, provides a loads of data for decision-making, and guests are also happy with the letters and announcements they receive, they are happy to respond and engage. Our pre and post stay communication via Guestjoy opening and closing the guest journey are the icing on the cake.
“I would also like to emphasize the world-class support of Annika and Andrew; thank you guys“.

Well we certainly appreciate the kind words – but the real test is to see what guests thought. Here are some of the most recent comments on Tripadvisor:

“The staff was very friendly, professional and helpful on all levels. The interior design was absolutely stunning everywhere in the building. Our room had a private little terrace which was an absolute unexpected surprise and a great hit! The level of cleanliness in the room and the building was flawless.
We are very grateful to the staff for making our stay so very comfortable and enjoyable”

“Their aim is very simple: All they want to do is make you happy and smiling during the stay.
And boy, they do succeed; from the first step in hotel till check out – everything was fantastic.
First, the location in heart of Buda district – cosy little gem – not an ordinary hotel in building full of history.
Breakfast was superb, and definitely you shouldn’t stop here – try their bistro menu – a curated choice of dishes to die for! Definitely a place to return. A must choice to consider for everyone who wants to spend some quality time in Budapest.”

“We couldn’t praise the Maison Hotel more highly. A great choice for the Castle Hill/Buda area. Sound and soft night’s sleep in the peaceful courtyard room and every amenity we could wish for. Breakfast was fresh and tasty with a good variety of nice hot dishes to choose from (special shout out to the Hungarian scrambled eggs) along with the buffet. We ate dinner here too, which was delicious and a great wine menu. What made Maison stand out for us are the lovely members of staff who were gracious, friendly, and made the stay a ‘home away from home’. Thank you.”

Clearly, Attila was right when he praised his staff; it seems nothing is too much trouble and guests love the care and attention the receive. Congratulations!

Heading from one continent to another, but maintaining the romantic theme, we find ourselves on the west coast of Canada…

Rated 3 in the Top 25 Romantic Hotels💕 in Canada

Abigail’s Hotel

“Life is too short to be conventional; discover a splendour and charm that has been lost to the ages and uniquely exists at Abigail’s.”

Victoria BC, Canada | Website

Rated #1 of 44 hotels in Victoria

Ranking 5.0 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢 based on 1,487 verified reviews

Located in romantic downtown Victoria, British Columbia, Abigail’s is a boutique bed-and-breakfast hotel that blends historic accommodation with a distinctive and charming guest experience.

It is an adult-only, intimate 22-room property that is housed in a 1930s heritage Tudor mansion. Its special atmosphere blends the romance and charm of the past with the comfort and convenience of modern accommodation. Known internationally for its cozy ambiance, dynamic three-course breakfasts and personalized, professional and courteous service, interwoven with elegantly appointed guest rooms.

Here, we have a property that is no stranger to being featured as one of the top properties in its market for many years, and this isn’t their first Best of the Best 😲

We spoke with Allison Fairhurst, General Manager of Abigail’s, about what this year’s award meant for them.

“It is an honour to be recognized by TripAdvisor again this year”, started Allison.

“We have been included amongst the top 10 hotels in Canada for Romance and Small Hotels for the past 10 years and it means so much to us. TripAdvisor is a valuable hotel partner and is an important contributor to our success, we are so thankful to our guests who take the time to provide such lovely feedback.  Many guests comment that they booked us based on the positive reviews.”

That is a powerful message on the value of good reviews, indeed!

Allison continued: “Our staff look forward this award every year, they have such a vested interest in the hotel, it’s like a second home for many and we all treat it as our own.  I think the quality of service is what sets us apart, the small size of the hotel allows us to go above and beyond to exceed the expectations of our guests.

“Our core values are exceptional service, respect and integrity, teamwork and passion and continuous improvement, these are what drive the team and are the backbone of the hotel.  We are a unique property in Victoria in that we are a cross between a small luxury hotel and B&B, so we are able offer more personal service to our guests, they are like family and many have been staying with us for years. 

Absolutely wonderful to read. Without a doubt, when you have great staff, they enable great experiences.

When we asked how Abigail’s will use the award in a promotional sense, Allison replied “We have already posted the award on our website, it will go out in our next newsletter and we will also display a copy in our lobby once we receive it.”

Finally we asked Allison what, if any impact GuestJoy has had in their operations and impact in being awarded Best of the Best.

Said Allison: “Guestjoy has played a huge part in securing the award, the number of reviews we are receiving has dramatically increased and we are once again ranked the #1 hotel in Victoria as a result. 

“Guestjoy is so easy to use and has greatly improved guest relations and communication, we have found the announcement feature to be especially useful in advising guests of construction notices while we are expanding the hotel. 

“The upsell feature has greatly increased add-on revenue and promote our complimentary services.

“Overall, switching to Guestjoy has been one of the best decisions in improving customer relations.”

Such pleasing words from such a well-respected hotel are indeed great to hear; we’re glad that we could have a positive impact!

But the real positive words come from the guests – let’s have a look at some of them now:

“Abigail’s hotel was just a lovely stay to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary. Super cute rooms and the breakfast was better than I was expecting. Would recommend for anyone wanting a unique, romantic, or quaint visit to Victoria”

“We loved Abigail’s. It looks great and is clean and well-maintained. The room was spacious and pretty — and it had a fireplace! They serve an amazing breakfast, and when you sit down at the table you can see the menu and a weather forecast — so helpful.
I cannot say enough about the friendliness, helpfulness and pleasantness of the staff from the second we got there to the moment we left. They did everything they could to make us feel special and enjoy our stay.”

“Judy and the entire staff from the front desk, to the kitchen staff and the housekeepers were very courteous, kind and just wonderful. Chef Gerald’s breakfast were some of the best we ever had. My wife and I were here for our honeymoon and we will definitely be back. this will be our home away from home, we felt like family and they treated us like royalty.”

Wow – absolutely glowing endorsements from many which really paint the picture as to why Abigail’s is so highly coveted! An incredible achievement!

Finally, we’re back in Europe to discover bigger isn’t always better when it comes to hotels!

Rated 4 in the Top 25 Top Small Stays – The Netherlands

Luxury Suites Amsterdam

“One of the finest Five-star boutique hotels in Amsterdam, where guests enjoy a luxurious and tailor-made stay.”

Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Website

Rated #10 of 419 hotels in Amsterdam

Ranking 5.0 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢 based on 747 verified reviews

Luxury Suites Amsterdam, an exclusive luxury hotel based in an excellent location, is an earthly paradise with a breath-taking lavish interior and a delightful canal view.

Featuring 25 uniquely-styled suites, ranging in size from 50 and 90 square metres; all of which provide the perfect amenities to guarantee a luxurious stay.

We asked Wladimir Schrijver, General Manager of Luxury Suites what it meant to be listed as Best of the Best:

“First, I am extremely proud of my team! Being rated as the “Best of the best” is an honour and a challenge, but we are extremely grateful to our guests who made this happen.

“We are a small team and most of the team members are friends with each other.

“As a General Manager, I know all my staff by name and most private backgrounds. We have a very open working structure with short lines. This makes it a special place to work.”

Wladimir also talked about the value of supporting his team: “I believe in training and supporting my staff where and whenever I can. This way everyone is more flexible in connecting with our guests so guests experience the best stay in Amsterdam.”

When we asked how it felt, Wladimir replied “The Award really means a lot to us. In Dutch we would say: dit is de kers op de taart (it is the cherry on the pie). We work hard so some acknowledgment of that hard work is always nice to receive.

“Guests look and read the reviews. I also do the same before I travel somewhere. You always get a good impression of the property you will be staying.

“Of course, we will use this Award to promote ourselves on our own website, Facebook and Instagram.

About the partnership with GuestJoy, Wladimir stated “GuestJoy can make sure that guests enjoy a fast and speedy check-in. Also packages can be pre-booked to make their stay even more unforgettable. The whole package makes part of the great feeling our guests enjoy before arrival. We call it “pre-holiday-fun”.”

“Pre-holiday fun” – We love it! But so to do the guests love Luxury Suites. Take a look at some comments;

“I have traveled the world and found this to be the best hotel and staff I have ever experienced. Wonderful stay. Beautiful neighborhood. Excellent service and overlooking the canal. I would stay here anytime I am in Amsterdam. Thanks to the staff.”

“I’m thrilled to write this absolutely glowing review. I’ve travelled all over the world including Amsterdam a half dozen times. Luxury Suites is one of my favourite hotels anywhere. Everything about it is perfect. The location is ideal: on a quiet “island” close to the action yet calm. The staff could not be friendlier and more attentive. I almost feel they are like family. Peter the concierge is both super friendly and very professional. My room is spectacular: very large with double French doors opening to the sunshine. The cleaning staff does such an uutstanding job. Etc etc. You get the point. Just book this place and you will be happy.”

“We loved our short visit to Amsterdam, in part due to our wonderful stay at Luxury Suites. The breakfast was delicious and the staff went above and beyond with their helpfulness. Extra compliments to Olga who was so kind and helpful in selecting great restaurants for us to try. And, we were surprised coming back one night when birthday balloons and chocolates had been placed in our room, as we were celebrating a birthday during our stay. Excellent hotel”

This is indeed what it looks like when hotels go above and beyond. Huge congratulations to Luxury Suites Amsterdam for such stunning results!

Are Tripadvisor reviews like these important to your property?

Reading the reviews of other guests is still one of the biggest influences on a guest’s decision to book their stay at a property.

Good quality reviews are critical to your property’s reputation and performance!

Did you know?

All the Tripadvisor reviews / review excerpts published in this article were collected via GuestJoy!

With GuestJoy’s Feedback module, you can effortlessly boost the number of quality Tripadvisor reviews listed for your property. Watch your ranking and rating skyrocket, and you too can be a potential winner of a Traveller’s Choice award – maybe even Best of the Best!

Our Feedback module is just one part of the GuestJoy CRM for hotels.

If you want to know how we can transform your property, get in touch with us today 😉

Last week, we talked about the amazing success story this year that was 2 in every 3 GuestJoy customers being awarded Travellers’ Choice from Tripadvisor.

This, on its own, is a remarkable feat! However, there was even more incredible news – 5 of our customers were also awarded Best of the Best.

This is truly next-level – Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best award winners are among the top 1% of listings on Tripadvisor.

So we decided to feature and celebrate these properties, beginning with arguably the 2 highest accolades… Let’s begin!

Starting with an amazing outcome for one of our Hungarian customers:

Rated 24 in the Top 25 Hotels in Europe

Hotel Clark Budapest

“Where tradition and modern times unite in an exclusive, personalised, and stylish manner.”

Budapest, Hungary | Website

Rated #1 of 405 hotels in Budapest

Ranking 5.0 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢 based on 1,118 verified reviews

Hotel Clark is perfectly situated in downtown Budapest, looking onto the Chain Bridge; one of the most emblematic historic sights of the city. The hotel is in close proximity to a number of World Heritage Sites sites, including the Buda Castle funicular, located just across the street.

Opening in one of the most enviable locations in Budapest in 2018, Hotel Clark has relied on GuestJoy from the following year to ensure their guests had an experience befitting the hotel’s incredible design.

In addition to a modern guest experience, GuestJoy helped Hotel Clark to cement the number one rating for all hotels in Budapest – an incredible achievement given they opened in 2018 in what is one of the most competitive markets in Europe.

“Guest satisfaction, as well as online reputation behind it, is crucial for us; and GuestJoy is playing an inevitable part in the process” said Ádám Szakáczki, Head of Revenue and Reservations.

What makes this accolade even more impressive, is that it’s the second year in a row that Hotel Clark has achieved Best of the Best!

Being listed in the top 25 Hotels in Europe is an amazing achievement – receiving the honour 2 years running is even more prestigious, when you consider that 16 of this year’s top 25 were not listed last year!

Here is a hotel where you can have the utmost confidence that you have not only made the right choice, but you have truly made the best choice.

Concluded Ádám: “We are looking forward to another year full of successes achieved together with GuestJoy!”.

But what did their guests have to say? Here are just a few of their recent reviews:

“Little hotel with a BIG heart. The friendliness and professionalim of the staff just made our stay perfect, right in the middle of a beautiful city of Budapest. We just want to say a BIG thank you to all the crew (from the houskeepers to the top management). Hope to visit CLARK one day again.”

“Beautiful hotel & the staff were excellent, rooms lovely & clean & the location is fantastic. Great views out over the Danube and easy access to all parts of the city. definitely a must for your bucket list“

“This hotel was amazing. The staff were unbelievable. It was the best service we have ever had in a Hotel and we travel constantly. The concierge was first class!
The restaurant downstairs and the rooftop bar served beautiful well thought out cocktails and delicious food. And don’t get me started on the lolly jars! 120% recommend!”

“Beautiful hotel, great views, impeccable service and comfy beds.

First time staying at hotel Clark for my boyfriends birthday! I would like to thank the whole front office team for their help with setting up the surprise in the room and for the extra gestures . Special mention to Adam Szakaczki, Aniko, Boroka and Dorottya! They truly have a 5* service and it’s consistent through all the departments, everyone was so warm and nice. Thank you to Mate (the FOM) for an incredible welcome upon arrival, super smooth, kind and friendly, he truly made us feel at home.

Couldn’t recommend this hotel enough and can’t wait to come back! Keep up the amazing work!”

Amazing opinions from extremely satisfied guests – you would expect no less when you’re rated Best of the Best – among the top 25 hotels in Europe! Congratulations again to Hotel Clarke Budapest!

Moving to the very western edge of Europe now on the emerald isle, we find ourself in Ireland:

Rated 17 in the Top 25 Hotels in Ireland

Sligo Park Hotel

“Explore Sligo and Stay with the Best at the Sligo Park Hotel and experience all Sligo has to offer“

Sligo, Ireland | Website

Rated #1 of 8 hotels in Sligo

Ranking 4.5 🟢🟢🟢🟢◻️ based on 537 verified reviews

A contemporary styled hotel in lush landscaped parkland, one mile from the vibrant town of Sligo. Each bright, modern room is designed with guest comfort in mind. The bar and restaurant serve the best of local ingredients in a relaxed setting popular with locals and guests. There is a superb health and leisure club and it’s also a very popular wedding venue.

Being named on of the 25 best hotels in Ireland is no mean feat.

Anyone who has stayed in Ireland knows that Irish hospitality has a special warmth to it. Often referred to as “handshake hospitality”, staing at a property in Ireland starts with a warm, genuine greeting to a place where they know your name.

And add to that, that the competition is quite tough (which is great for guests!), and you will soon realise the significance of that Best of the Best rating!

Therefore, huge congratulations must go to Sligo Park Hotel. They have been using GuestJoy for 18 months now to enable their guests to simply and easily customise their stay with upgrades and add-ons.

General Manager Gerard Moore thanked his committed staff and a multi-million euro programme of investment, with helping to push the Sligo Park Hotel into the top spots.

“We are especially delighted to feature in this list as the votes come from guests and Tripadvisor has a very rigorous process. That means this is authentic recognition of how we are regarded by guests and that means a lot to us. Our amazing staff have played a huge role.

“We have also benefited from investment in our conferencing facilities and have been fortunate to have hosted many successful events held by leading national bodies and organisations.”

More than €5million has been spent by owners Lee Hotel Group on a complete refit of the Sligo Park’s 136 bedrooms, the bar and restaurant, conference and banqueting, lobby and leisure facilities, as well as the grounds, carpark and entrance.

“In essence, it’s a new Sligo Park Hotel,” says Gerard, adding that he is looking forward to a strong spring-summer season with a mix of both domestic and international visitors.

A ‘Stay With The Best’ campaign is currently leveraging the hotel’s place on the Wild Atlantic Way and capitalising on people’s renewed appreciation of the outdoors following two years of lockdowns and other public health restrictions.

“Sligo has it all, beaches, mountains and lakes, which is why we say, ‘Explore Sligo, Stay With The Best’ – and the best is the Sligo Park Hotel,” adds Gerard.

All this is so fantastic to read, but let’s now hear from the guests themselves:

“Are recent stay in Sligo park hotel has been one of the most memorable hotel stays we have experienced. From receiving a room upgrade upon arrival, to restaurant staff making sure we had a great table for dinner. The staff exceeded our expectations and always had a smile. I can not recommend this hotel highly enough and look forward to our next stay.”

“We booked to stay 2 nights as we were attending a wedding in sligo and the staff could not be more accommodating from the minute we made the booking. All staff were brilliant from front desk to housekeeping. We will definitely be back.”

“Hotel seems to be recently updated – everything was fresh, clean, bright & modern. Bathrooms were modern & spotless. Staff were exceptionally friendly & helpful. Really had a wonderful stay. Would definitely recommend this hotel to others & would happily return.”

“We had our wedding in Sligo Park Hotel in March 2022 and I cannot recommend this hotel highly enough. Whether it’s a big occasion like a wedding or just a short stay the Sligo Park is just about the very best hotel I’ve been to in Ireland.

They really go to the Nth degree in helping with all the bits and pieces leading up to the wedding and the staff’s experience is second to none. I’d like to especially thank Orla for all her help and guidance in the lead up to the wedding, she made everything so easy and put us at our ease straight away.

The staff are all amazing, anything you ask is not a problem. They are professional, kind, helpful and you’re always met with a smile. Best staff I’ve seen in a hotel bar none.

Our wedding guests were treated like kings and queens from start to finish. The reception was amazing, The Prosecco and canapés on arrival were brilliant. The function room was stunning and the food was exceptional. The chef Chris has an unbelievable team and the service from the staff was amazing.

The rooms are spotlessly clean, they are cosy and the beds are so spacious and comfortable. The Leisure center is brilliant too.

If you are thinking of booking the Sligo Park hotel for your wedding I cannot recommend it highly enough.”

With ringing endorsements like that, it’s little wonder that Sligo Park Hotel claims a place in the top 25 hotels in Ireland; truly a Best of the Best.

Once again, huge congratulations to our wonderful customers for achieving such a high levels of service, providing such memorable stays for their guests, and truly being among the best of the best.

In part two of this article, we will be looking at 3 more GuestJoy customers who were awarded Best of the Best in the following categories:

• Most romantic hotels in Europe
• Most romantic hotels in Canada
• Top small stays in The Netherlands

Who will they be?! Stay tuned and find out!

Want to know how your property could win these awards?

It’s every hotelier’s dream to be listed as Travellers’ Choice, let along being Best of the Best.

Obviously, first and foremost is to have well-trained staff who are excellent at their jobs! Secondly, to provide your gets with a stand-out experience while at your property, and hopefully they will write a review of their stay on Tripadvisor.

But what contributes to a great guest experience? GuestJoy is a platform for hotels of all types to help make their stay that bit smoother, more memorable, and hassle-free; along with encouraging guest loyalty.

A CRM specifically designed for hotels, every facet of GuestJoy helps your guest have a fantastic time at your property, and helps bring them back for a future stay.

One part of GuestJoy is our Feedback module, which at the right moment, actively encourages guests to review their stay on Tripadvisor, resulting in more reviews on your listing and thus improving your rating and ranking over time.

Talk to us to see how we can transform your guest experience. And who knows? It might just be your property being awarded Travellers’ Choice – or even better, Best of the Best – in future!

It’s that time of year again – Tripadvisor has announced the properties that have earned a Travellers’ Choice award for 2022.

And it goes without saying that we are thrilled to find that two in every 3 GuestJoy customers we awarded the accolade!

What are the Travellers’ Choice awards?

The Travellers’ Choice awards honour travellers’ favorite hotels based on the reviews and opinions collected from travellers around the world on Tripadvisor over a 12-month period.

Tripadvisor’s awards fall into two levels: Best of the Best and Travellers’ Choice.

Travellers’ Choice recognises hotels that earn consistently great reviews. Travellers’ Choice award-winners are among the top 10% of listings on Tripadvisor. Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice honours select hotels that consistently demonstrate a commitment to hospitality excellence.

Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best is the highest honour. The award takes into account the quality and quantity of traveler reviews and ratings, and ranks the very besthotels in specific categories and geographic areas, as rated and reviewed by travellers. Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best award winners are among the top 1% of listings on Tripadvisor.

5 GuestJoy customers awarded “Best of the Best”

As fantastic an achievement it is to have a property awarded “Traveller’s Choice”, we were blown away to find that 5 GuestJoy customers took home a Best of the Best award – a truly amazing feat!

We plan to feature each of these 5 properties separately in the near future, as operating on such a level deserves individual recognition! So stand by for those announcements – but just as a teaser, those 5 customers were in the following categories:

• Top 25 Hotels – Europe
• Top 25 Hotels – Ireland
• Most Romantic Hotels – Europe
• Most Romantic Hotels – Canada
• Top Small Stays – The Netherlands

Traveller’s Choice 2022: Customer highlights

2 in every 3 customers is a massive number, so we couldn’t possibly feature them all here; however, we wanted to at least tip our hat to some of our favourite properties to win the award this year – so here we go, in no partuclar order!

Hotel L’Embitu

Tallinn, Estonia | Website

Starting on our home soil of Estonia, Hotel L’Embitu is a luxury 4* Superior hotel in the very heart of Tallinn’s City Centre.

We love the modern sophistication of Hotel L’Embitu; one of Tallinn’s newest hotels.

Featuring 125 enchanting rooms and gorgeous suites, a rooftop restaurant with a charming Tallinn city view, and a wine and tapas cellar in the historic renovated part of the hotel, the mix of old and new is cohesive and stylish.

Here are some of the most recent comments guests had on Tripadvisor:

“Impeccable service, room, breakfast and SPA.”

“Perfect weekend for couples. Excellent and rich breakfast, nice and private spa, stylish rooms with all necassary. Very good location near to Old Town and city center, shopping mall. Strongly recommended!“

“I usually do not use superlatives, but this time I will. Fabolous, fantastic, amazing etc. The hotel is new – only 1 year old, modern and very stylish. Perfect finishing quality and top design. We had a room with private sauna – very relaxing and refreshing. Great view onto park, good atmosphere and very delicious meals and good wine selection. I would certainly recommend this hotel for special occasions and celebrations. Thank you L´embitu for this wonderful stay. We´ll be back:)”

“The room was very beautiful with very comfortable bed and beautiful bathroom. The spa was a nice place to relax. The restaurant served tasty food and breakfast was very good with plenty of different items. Will be my number one choice in the future.”

Bohinj ECO Hotel

Bohinj, Slovenia | Website

Next we move from the city to the beautiful sprawling mountains of northern Slovenia.

Located in Triglav National Park in the Julian Alps, Bohinj ECO Hotel is the first and only ECO hotel in Slovenia. It has also been awarded with an international Green Globe Certificate for sustainability.

It is also the most awarded hotel, winning different prizes and awards from public and professionals – and of course, Travellers’ Choice 2022!

There is an abundance of facilties on site – including aquapark, cinema, 8 conference halls, bowling, wellness, restaurants, and more. Plus with it’s sublime location, there are year-round activities available, including winter sports, hiking, biking, golf, natural wonders, watersports, fishing, and more!

Let’s hear from their guests via Tripadvisor:

“I would recommend Hotel Bohinj eco. Everything was perfect. Hotel cleanliness, friendly staff, wellness area, organized ski bus just in front of the hotel. A very good idea for me was yoga, in the evening after skiing. That is the best combination 👍All the best, and thank you Bohinj Eco hotel, you made my holiday, even more beautiful 🥰”

“We’ve visited ECO Hotel for several times now, but every time they pull out something to impress us even more. Beside incredible location, excellent wellness,… the staff is heart of this hotel and after day or two, you’ll feel like home.”

“We were there second time and again everything was great. Friendly stuff, nice hotel, delicious food, good wellness and they also surprised us because we came back second year.”

“Me and my boyfriend took a weekend trip to Bohinj. We really enjoyed the surroundings and the hotel service of the hotel. The value was great for the location. Also breakfast and dinner at the hotel were top notch, we were so full, we did not eat lunch during the day. We will come back 🙂“

Carlton Hotel, Dublin Airport

Dublin, Ireland | Website

The bigger the city, the busier the airport. The busier the airport, the more airport hotels you will have. Just as with any other type of hotel, competition is fierce, meaning that online reviews are crucial.

With that in mind, we congratulate the Carlton Hotel Dublin Airport for their Travellers’ Choice 2022 award!

More than just a place to lay your head, the Carlton features a wide range of services, including multiple restaurants and bars, meeting and conference spaces, and even caters for weddings!

A commendable aspect of the Carlton’s success is how well they know the various guests that frequent the property, and how well they target each with various upgrades and add-ons to suit their stay type.

Now, over to Tripadvisor:

“Stayed overnight for business. Excellent room and facilities, very comfortable. Spacious, well ventilated and well equipped with most things you would need. Bed very comfortable and excellent WiFi throughout“

“Front staff was very nice. Check-in and check-out were easy. Room was clean and spacious. Wifi worked well. Convenient shuttle to-and-from the airport that ran on time. There are places to eat at the hotel and it is an easy drive into Dublin.“

“I stay here all the time. All the staff are brilliant and friendly . They make you feel like you are at home. Absolutely love the bar staff. Was staying on my own and they made sure I was ok all the time.“

“We stayed at this hotel on our recent trip to Dublin and were very impressed! We chose a balcony room which was definitely worth the extra money as the view of the planes coming in was fantastic, my son loved this. Very happy with the service. Location great as bus stop across the road to get in to the city which was only 3 euros. Very friendly staff and room very clean, perfect for our mini stay!“

The Mangosteen Ayurveda & Wellness Resort

Phuket, Thailand | Website

Head 10,000km from Dublin towards the east and you can end up in Phuket, where you will find The Mangosteen Ayurveda & Wellness Resort.

The number one Ayurveda Resort in Thailand, and member of Healing Hotels of the World, The Mangosteen is a family-owned and managed health boutique resort with authentic Ayurveda & Wellness Spa.

The resort offers packaged retreats, such as AyurYoga Panchakarma Retreats, Yoga Retreats, and various Healing Programs.

A relaxed tropical environment, quality accommodation and service, healthy nutrition, high end spa treatments and daily activity schedule are coming with every retreat program.

A key to the success of the Mangosteen is the connection the guests will have with everyone at the resort; including meeting the owner/operators very early in their stay.

Let’s see what past guests have said on Tripadvisor:

“A great place to stay. Wonderfull resort, a kind of paradise. Extremely friendly and service-minded staff. Great pool and houses. Great food in the restaurant and good Wine from the cellar. We can only recommend Mangosteen as a great place for a relaxing vacation.”

“Wow! What a great place. Between the staff, owners and the facility/grounds it was an amazing place to be in Phuket! We arrived tired and left refreshed. Thank you Mangosteen. Some highlights would be the personal service feeling without being too much. Food was great, cooking class, candlelight dinners.Massages are wonderful. The owners Hajo and Rose even arranged a few Muay Thai classes for us”

“The perfect place to relax, recharge and restart with new energy. I did 9 day Ayurveda programme. I felt home, always well taken care of and the messages and treatments were excellent and professional. I enjoyed every single moment very much and managed to reach my objective: relax and recharge. I’ll be back.”

“The property was calm and I could enjoy the pool, the massage, the yoga in a very relaxing way. The massage are EXCELLENT and the Yoga teachers are absolutely great. I needed a week to disconnect was just perfect.“

Coyote Bluff Estate

Montana, United States | Website

Finally, we head over the Pacific to Montana, where you will find Coyote Bluff Estate.

Nestled atop 32 acres, it features year-round breathtaking views of Flathead Lake, Mission Mountains, and the Flathead Valley.

Guests are always astounded at the beauty of this 10,000 square-foot custom designed luxury lodge, featuring over 17 different wood species and the rustic elegance that surrounds them.

Whether it’s the perfect romantic getaway, a vacation to see Glacier National Park, or looking for an elegant alternative to a hotel; Coyote Bluff Estate is designed to provide the comfort and luxury of a fine private residence.

In addition, they offer a full range of services designed to meet all guest expectations from the moment of arrival.

A truly world-class property that stuns guests as much with the highest level of service as much as the surrounding scenery, a look into the Tripadvisor reviews definitely paints a picture:

“Our stay was perfect from start to finish, from our arrival wine and nibbles to the freshly baked pastries for breakfast. The whole property is simply stunning, as are the views and the service to match. This is a 5 star property in every way and we would give plenty more if we could! We couldn’t find ANYTHING to criticise and we are visiting again next year!”

“You cannot fathom the experience you will have at Coyote Bluff. We are world travellers and this has been our favourite. The hosts have thought of absolutely every little detail from music choices in your room, to alcohol selections, to concierge help with making suggestions or even booking dinner reservations! We cannot wait to come back. In fact, I second guess doing this review because that means it’ll be booked even more!! Don’t hesitate. Book it!“

“This property and home was astonishing! The view was incredible and pictures cannot do it justice. We had such a peaceful and wonderful stay and will definelty be back! The hospitality we were shown was really amazing!”

“A stay at this property is as close to perfect as you will find. Everything exceeded our expectations from the accommodations, unbelievable scenic views, hospitality of the hosts, and awesome fresh baked morning pastries. It was truly a stay we will never forget. If you book a stay you will not be disappointed.”

So there you have it – literally a fraction of GuestJoy customers who were awarded Traveller’s Choice in 2022! What an absolute joy to read of the success of our customers – and let’s see how much better next year will be!

Are Tripadvisor reviews like these important to your property?

Reading the reviews of other guests is still one of the biggest influences on a guest’s decision to book their stay at a property.

Good quality reviews are critical to your property’s reputation and performance!

Did you know?

All the Tripadvisor reviews / review excerpts published in this article were collected via GuestJoy!

With GuestJoy’s Feedback module, you can effortlessly boost the number of quality Tripadvisor reviews listed for your property. Watch your ranking and rating skyrocket, and you too can be a potential winner of a Traveller’s Choice award – maybe even Best of the Best!

Our Feedback module is just one part of the GuestJoy CRM for hotels.

If you want to know how we can transform your property, get in touch with us today 😉

Hotel marketing helps you reach out to prospective guests and promote your business. And without it, you would struggle to succeed!

This portion of your daily job is probably the most important. As a hotelier, you must promote your hotel’s facilities and services, attract new guests, and encourage loyalty. Sound simple?

Well… hotel marketing is much more than that!

Considering the hotel industry has over 700.000 hotels worldwide, investing your time (and money!) in an effective hotel marketing strategy is paramount. Although travelers’ needs change over time and global events affect the way people travel, all in all, the hotel marketing principles remain the same.

In this article, I’ll offer you a complete overview of hotel marketing so that you can successfully promote your hotel.

What is hotel marketing?

Hotel marketing refers to the tools and strategies set in place to promote a hotel. The purpose is to bring in as many new guests as possible, and to retain past customers.

In simple words, potential guests are eager to travel and possibly visit your hotel. All you have to do is show them your hotel’s best features!

Knowing your target audience and your competition well will help you achieve your goals. If you succeed, then your hotel will be taking more bookings than ever before. 

Why is hotel marketing important?

Without guests, there’s no business. Showing potential guests that you are available and why they should choose you over your competitors is the role of hotel marketing.

Additionally, it’s your chance to build a brand your customers trust. And if they trust your hotel, then they are more likely to tell their friends, and book with you again for future stays!

Knowing your guests

Once you understand what your guests want, it will be easier to offer exactly what they are looking for. So, how will you find out your guests’ deepest desires?

Well, a good place to start is with the online reviews for your property! You’ll have an insight into as to why they booked a room at your hotel. Also, you can find out what services your guests enjoy the most. Was it the superb dinner they had in your restaurant? Or the relaxing massage in your spa? Perhaps it was the wifi connection speed?

With this information, you can offer each guest precisely what they’re after!

Showing your hotel off

Making guests aware of your hotel’s best qualities is crucial. It might be sprawling gardens in a country estate, a stunning beach view, or something else unique at your property.

Making potential customers familiar with the best things about your hotel is key to winning them over. Some common ways to raise awareness to these things is to use email marketing, social media, or user-generated content.

Another way to do it is using promotions and special offers. Everyone loves a good deal, and I’m sure your guests are no different! When business is slow, presenting lower rates or a complimentary room upgrade will definitely capture your customer’s attention.

Keeping your guests close

Top-notch service is the key to success. But in order to encourage a guest to return, you must keep them close. How? Using modern-day technology, of course!

Digital marketing plays a key role when it comes to customer engagement. Through social media, you can show your long-time customers what you’ve been up to. And through email marketing, you can send them exclusive one-of-a-kind offers!

Digital marketing in the hospitality industry

The rise of the internet was a turning point in world history. Every business worldwide faced a new challenge: adapt or cease to exist. As a result, marketing strategies changed drastically. They became more focused on the company’s online presence and customers’ buying intentions.

Considering people spend most of their time online, most hotel marketing campaigns happen on the internet. If you are not using digital marketing, then you’re missing out on incredible opportunities!

Why?

It’s measurable

Through digital marketing, you can actually measure your campaign’s effectiveness. Explore Google Analytics to learn more about how your visitors discovered your hotel. This is also a great tool to find your target audience, understand user behavior, analyze conversion rates, and improve ads and SEO content.

It’s cost-effective

In the old days, marketing was only accessible to big companies. Advertising was expensive, leaving small companies out of the competition. However, since digital marketing is considerably cheaper, any hotel can benefit.

It helps you find your audience

Through online marketing, you can find specific customers. Depending on their demographics, location, and preferences, you’ll have the chance to develop a strategy focused on promoting your hotel to the right visitors.

It’s where people spend most time

According to “Digital 2022” report, an average internet user spends around 7 hours online! Whether it’s professional or personal usage, we spend most of our waking time browsing the web. This is why the internet is the perfect location to promote your hotel! People go online to search for accommodation options, compare rates or check on guest reviews before booking a room.

It’s personalized advertising

With online marketing, you can direct your message to specific groups of customers based on their preferences and make them feel you are speaking directly to them. Email marketing is the most used option when it comes to personalization. You can segment your audience, and provide personalized information on promotions and services that truly captivate your guests.

Hotel marketing strategies

Over the last century, travelers’ needs shifted, and the hospitality industry needed to adjust on several occasions. As a result, hotel owners are avid “people-readers”, constantly identifying new trends that satisfy the modern guest and lead the hotel business forward.

Define what makes you different

Research your competition. Learn how they work. Find out their strong points and weaknesses. Finally, ask yourself some questions: Why is your hotel better than the one down the road? What do you offer that your guests won’t find anywhere else?

This exercise is the perfect opportunity to realize how your hotel will stand out among others. Focus on showing potential guests something that your competition lacks.

Are you targeting families? Or maybe you offer pet-friendly accommodation, where families can enjoy their vacation at your hotel with their fur babies!

Map the booking journey

A customer journey map is a powerful tool since it helps you understand why some of your guests take long before completing a reservation. Additionally, you’ll have a clear insight into your customer experience and how you can improve. So how do you go about it?

• Create a buyer persona
• Define your goals
• Identify the touchpoints and stages
• Retrieve data from customer surveys to compare results
• Map future customer journey stages

Reward direct bookings

Every hotelier knows how important direct bookings are to hotel revenue. Besides saving a massive amount of money each year, direct bookings are also proof your guests trust your business!

So, why shouldn’t you thank them?

A complimentary room upgrade, a fruit basket in their room upon arrival, or a special discount are small gestures your guests will definitely enjoy! Let them know you appreciate their preference. That they are valuable to you. That you care about their happiness!

Promote the location

Marketing your hotel is important. However, potential guests aren’t booking a room only because of the amazing and expensive décor! They want to explore the surroundings. To explore your location’s history and culture!

Show your customers why they should stay at your hotel:

• What is there to do?
• What can they visit?
• What tips can you offer that only a local would know?

To complete this “information package”, you can build partnerships with local businesses. This way, you can offer services that you don’t provide on your hotel property and will help your guests learn more about your location.

Invest in the marketing budget during the reservation peak season

Do you know when your property’s occupancy is at its highest? If you don’t, then you’re missing out!

Knowing the time of the year when your customers book more rooms is a great marketing opportunity! Explore the advantages of email marketing or social media advertising to reach your target audience and get more bookings. Is there a world-class event happening close to your property? Learn what that specific audience is looking for, and present your hotel as a perfect solution.

Improve your customer service

Yes… I know you’ve heard it a thousand times… But, the truth is that your customer service must be top-notch from the very beginning and even after your guests have checked out!

You might have a bullet-proof marketing strategy, but if your customer service fails, all your efforts will be in vain. Ensure that your staff are well trained. A customer-first mindset is key to guaranteeing your hotel is successful. However, to accomplish this goal you must provide your employees with the right tools.

Build a customer loyalty program

Repeat business is important to any organisation. But in the hotel industry, it’s essential. Having returning customers means that you’ve successfully met their expectations. So, providing them with exclusive offers, such as special rates or free room upgrades, is a way to reward their loyalty. Additionally, you’ll ensure that they will keep coming back!

Most hospitality businesses segment their customers into different levels, depending on the previous number of stays. Each new reservation will grant points or discounts that can be redeemed on the next reservation. Find out which enrich your guest experience and what services you can offer.

Take advantage of technology

Nowadays, visiting a distant hotel is easier than you think! With virtual reality, you can offer potential guests a guided tour of your property. Show them the stunning facilities and incredible services you have at their disposal in promotional content.

Provide guests with the means check-in online or visit a virtual concierge. This way, your customers will be able to make restaurant reservations and spa appointments or check for information on activities and places to visit from the convenience of their own smartphone or computer.

5 ways to successfully promote your hotel

Although marketing offers several strategies to promote your hotel, there isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” solution. Regardless of the approach you choose, it must be aligned with the campaign goals and property needs. To help you get started, I’ll let you know the best ways to make your hotel stand out!

1. Build a strong online presence

Most of your guests are miles away from your location. Yet, you can still keep in touch! Developing your hotel’s digital presence will help you reach a wider audience while updating your most loyal customers. How?

Web design

This is your digital “home” and where you present your hotel to potential guests! So, it’s important to guarantee they will easily find what they’re looking for. A user-friendly web page will help your guests virtually explore your property and make a reservation.

Content marketing

Your website can be so much more than showing great hotel photos and booking a room! Along with your user-friendly website, you can build a blog and offer video content, presenting the services provided, your location, and events happening in and around your hotel.

To do so, I’d suggest getting a content management system. It will help you organize and schedule our posts and avoid duplicate content. The best part is that it is so easy to use you don’t need a team of experts to take full advantage of its potential.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In today’s digital world, SEO is definitely the most powerful tool you’ll find!

When people search online for their next destination, they often choose the first results appearing on the search engine results page. Why? It’s simple! Travelers understand Google ranks the most reliable options for their search query first. In their minds, booking a room with a hotel raking first place is likely a safe choice.

Because of this, if you’re looking to outrank your competitors, then you must definitely invest in SEO. It will help you please Google’s algorithm and lead you to top page results.

• Use on-page SEO so that Google sees you as a reliable source of information. Keyword research, optimized visual content, and backlinking are a few strategies that will definitely help you.

• Paid advertising will only take you so far. For Google’s algorithm, organic traffic is much more valuable since your website gets visitors without you investing money. You’ll get better results if you improve your website content and use social media to promote your business.

Google Analytics provides clear information to understand user behavior and intention. By monitoring your SEO strategy, you’ll be able to make needed changes that will help you reach your goals.

Conversion rate optimization

Once potential customers visit your optimized website, you must do everything you can to ensure they don’t leave without booking a room!

Improving your CRO, or conversion rate optimization, means that you are actively guiding your visitors through the sales funnels and convert them into paying customers. You can set an e-mail marketing campaign and dedicated landing page providing an exclusive offer, or developing an optimized website and prompting visitors with calls to action.

Remarketing

Remarketing is another strategy you can use to bolster your conversion rate.

Imagine someone visiting your website. You can clearly see what they were looking for but, for someone reason, they left without booking a room. Why did that happen? Maybe they found a better offer elsewhere? Or maybe, they just didn’t have enough time to complete the reservation!

With remarketing, you’ll be reminding your visitors about their buying intentions so that they return and finish the booking process. Email marketing campaigns and social media ads are usually the most used options.

2. Manage your guests’ preferences

In a people-centered business such as the hotel industry, knowing your guests well will help you succeed. As your hotel brand grows, so to does your customer base. For that reason, it becomes increasingly harder to know every guest by name.

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is the perfect tool to help you meet your guests’ expectations. Besides saving contact details, you’ll have the opportunity to collect detailed information on their preferences and reservation records.

With a CRM platform, you’ll have a unique database to keep your customers engaged. Besides, you can use this valuable information to build a loyalty program and boost repeated guest reservations.

3. Email your guests every now and then

Email marketing campaigns are a cost-effective strategy that’s perfect for up swinging direct bookings and increasing customer loyalty.

However, before reaching out to your customers, ensure that you have their permission to use their contacts for marketing purposes. In Europe, the United States, and Canada, for example, there are strict regulations when it comes to data protection.

A CRM tool is key to building an email marketing campaign. You can segment your guests and offer them valuable and exclusive offers they will love.

4. Engage your customers through social media

Scrolling through social media has become a routine for most of us. Without even realizing it, we find ourselves reading the news headlines, checking on what our friends have been up to, and following our favorite celebrities.

In fact, users stated they felt inspired to travel after seeing their friend’s social media posts. And more than 70% said that they post photos of their vacations on social media.

For hotels, this is the perfect opportunity to promote business! Besides posting content on hotel facilities and services, you can use it to engage with customers. Offer last-minute deals or limited availability for exclusive offers. The fear of missing out will be so overwhelming that your guests will definitely book a room!

5. Work side by side with third-party channels

I know that as a hotelier, commissions are at the front of your mind when it comes to third-party channels. Even though you might be eager to convert these commissions into direct revenue for your hotel, they do serve a purpose: third-party channels help you gain visibility with a broader audience that you would struggle to find on your own!

Global Distribution System (GDS)

Travel agencies and travel operators use this system to get better deals with hotels when making a reservation for their clients. For hotels, it means defining contract rates, allotments, booking windows, and blackout dates that no other partners will have access to.

If you’re new to the hotel industry, this might seem tricky. Yet, with a channel manager, you’ll be able to upload the contract information to the system. This way, your hotel availability is always updated.

Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)

As a traveler, if you haven’t booked a room with a tour operator or directly with the hotel, chances are that you used an online travel agency. The same happens to your customers!

Popular platforms, such as Booking.com or Expedia, show your property to millions of potential guests worldwide. By defining the search filters, travelers will find your hotel, among others ranking for similar rates, services, and location.

Because of that, you must use high-quality photos of your hotel and encourage guests to leave positive online reviews on their stay. Hopefully you’ll outrank your competitors, and potential guests are more likely to book their stay with you!

Metasearch

Another way to use third-party channels to your advantage is using metasearch. Ever heard of this before? In a few words, metasearch engines, such as Trivago or TripAdvisor, gather information on hotel rooms and present it to potential guests.

For guests, it’s easier to compare rates and services and find the best deals. However, their journey to complete the purchase will be longer, as they will be redirected to different third-party websites.

To overcome a high abandonment rate, guarantee that guests will see the same rates for each room type or use a remarketing strategy. If your guests get lost along the journey, they will easily get back on track to complete the reservation.

How to build a solid hotel marketing strategy

Designing a marketing strategy is key for your business to succeed! Whether it’s a boutique hotel or an international hotel chain, you can get great results with proper planning. Now that you know which marketing strategies professionals use, it’s time to put your knowledge to good use!

1. Build a business summary

The marketing plan intends to provide clear information on your hotel to marketers and other professionals dealing with the communication strategy. For that reason, start by clearly identifying your hotel. Include the hotel’s name and location. Additionally, state your mission, vision, and values.

2. Conduct extensive market research

A comprehensive analysis of your competitors and customers will help you identify the right resources to reach your target audience.

Identify the market and your competitors

Start by researching the current state of the travel industry. Then, decide which date is most important and how you’ll use it to predict future trends and growth projections.

At this point, you can use a SWOT analysis to identify your competitors. It will be your chance to identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You’ll be able to state what their business lacks and how you can fill in the gaps.

Identify your target audience

Your ideal customer will be the one buying your services. That’s why you must know who they are! Once your market research is complete, it will be easier to identify who is more likely to stay at your hotel. That will be your target audience.

Demographic information, such as age and gender, will help you understand your customers. However, it is also important to consider their location, profession, education level, preferences, and needs.

3. Define your marketing goals

Your goals should be crystal clear! People around you must understand your vision and what you hope to achieve. Besides which, it will be easier to analyze your campaign success in the future.

One way to master your goals statement is to use the SMART strategy. This method stands for goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

How does this apply to you?

Let’s say that for your next marketing campaign, your goal is to increase your revenue on direct bookings by 15% until the end of the year. Using the SMART strategy, it would look something like this:

• Specific – ask yourself who should be in charge of this goal and what you need to accomplish it. Be as detailed as possible.
• Measurable – using numbers is a great approach to attain a measurable goal. In this example, the 15% increase is as clear as it can be.
• Achievable – identify which strategies you must put into action to attain your goal. It can be offering a lower rate for repeated guests or walk-ins or depend less on online travel agencies.
• Relevant – for your plan to succeed, it is important that your goals are meaningful to your company. It will allow you to focus on what’s important.
• Time-bound – when mentioning “until the end of the year” you are identifying until when you will take this goal into action.

4. Pinpoint your budget

Establishing a budget is a crucial phase where you guarantee you have enough resources to accomplish your goals. Once you’ve done your market research and identified who’s your target audience, it is time to decide how much you are willing to spend. A well-designed financial plan will help you decide on the marketing channels.

5. Marketing channels

Now is the time to set your plan in motion!

Decide how you want to reach your audience. If you’re just starting and are lucky enough to have a big budget, then go for sponsored content, pay-per-click, or native advertising. On the other hand, if you’re managing a hotel with a small budget, then put all your efforts into social media, email marketing, and personalized advertising.

With these tips, I’m sure you’ll create a thriving marketing plan!

Key concepts you must know

• Allotment – refers to a number of rooms hotels must always have available to a specific travel agency.
• Blackout dates – Upon signing a contract with a travel agency, the hotel defines specific dates that cannot be booked by travel agents.
• Booking window – refers to the period between a reservation being made and the guest’s arrival.
• Brand awareness – refers to how familiar customers are with a brand and its products or services.
• Conversion – refers to the moment when a visitor turns into a paying customer.
• Consumer behavior – studies how customers satisfy their needs and desires when choosing, buying, and using goods or services.
• Marketing channels – refer to the activities, people, and organizations that promote products and services to customers.
• Personalization – refers to using personal information to promote products and services to a targeted customer.

Final thoughts

Hotel marketing plays a vital role in today’s travel industry. Considering accommodation is one of the largest expense people have while planning a trip, it is no wonder it quickly became a multi-billion dollar industry.

For this reason, hotel marketing has the job of connecting the right guests with the right services. It offers them the opportunity to enjoy the best customer experience, starting with the booking process.

However, the success of any hotel marketing strategy lies in other equally important factors. Impeccable customer service will highly affect your guests’ intent to return. Consequently, it will affect your ability to attract new customers and increase revenue. And, with a less income, it will be harder to improve your hotel facilities or pay better wages for high-performing employees.

As you can see, an effective marketing strategy will help you bring in potential customers and win repeat business. Yet it still matters to all departments within your hotel.

Guaranteeing your strategy is aligned with the service provided isn’t always easy. However, GuestJoy will help you achieve your goals effortlessly. With GuestJoy, you can present upsell opportunities, concierge services like online check-in, collect feedback an encourage positive reviews online, and much more. Take a moment out of your busy schedule and request a demo today!

Resources

For further readings, we recommend you the following articles:

• Hospitality Statistics – https://hoteltechreport.com/news/hospitality-statistics
• The future of hotel marketing – https://www.cvent.com/en/blog/hospitality/hotel-marketing-trends
• Modern History of the Hospitality Industry – https://hoteltechreport.com/news/modern-history-hospitality-industry
• COVID-19: The great hospitality reset – https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/great-hospitality-reset

As Spring slowly takes hold and begins to warm things up, you’re probably looking forward to (or not looking forward to – no judgement!) the busy high season. High occupancy, good vibes, and revenue figures that are pleasing to the eye.

But prior to that busiest time of year, there’s good cause for you to focus more on room upgrades at your property. In fact, it wouldn’t be hyperbole to say that you should never underestimate the value that room upgrades bring to your business, notwithstanding your guest!

The revenue 💸

It might seem obvious, but it bears repeating: empty rooms are missed opportunities, and the first opportunity missed is the additional revenue.

Despite the fact that we’re arguably at the point of “Covid-normal”, I’d hazard a guess that there are many properties doing so well that they could do without a nice bump in the bottom line.

So if you don’t have particularly high occupancy yet, this is the best time to make lemonade from those lemons you have. And let’s not forget that selling upgrades frees up lower tier rooms, which are more likely to be booked, yielding – you guessed it – more revenue!

The referrals 🗣️

Poke around on Google and you will quite easily find multiple studies that state a sizeable majority of guests check property reviews as part of the booking process. However, there is an even greater influence on the booking process, and that’s word of mouth.

Providing such a good experience that a guest gives your property an organic referral should be what we aim for with every reservation. Room upgrades are one of the easiest ways to make your guests’ stay more memorable, more enjoyable, and therefore potentially get them to drop your name in conversation.

Picture it: two friends, work colleagues, whatever you like. One says they’re thinking of booking a stay in Barcelona for their Summer break. The other immediately chimes in and recounts how they stayed at your property not long ago on their Barcelona trip, that they took a room upgrade and they were so happy with it, they loved the view and especially the luxurious bathroom, and so on… It would be a safe bet that they would be looking up your property after such a glowing referral! That’s the power of word of mouth.

The rebookings ❤️

Following on from a great stay in a higher category room, a happy guest is far more likely to re-book with you because of their past experience.

Now of course, there is a portion of guests for whom this would never apply, and that’s fine. But there are many reservation types that would factor this in to their decision making process when they are planning to return to your part of the world:

• Larger cities: I know that I couldn’t do everything I want to do in London with just one stay!
• Celebrators: Guests who stay with you for a special occasion are more likely to book again after having such a good experience the first time round
• Event travellers: Whether it was for a concert, sporting event, or anything else really – if a guest had such a good first stay with you, why risk going with an unknown quantity?
• Regular holidaymakers: There is always a portion of guests who enjoy going to the same city, town, or village as part of their routine, for example an annual break. Make yours the property they want to keep returning to.

5 ways to help maximise upgrade conversions

And now, here are the most important things to do to ensure you can convert as many guests as possible:

Timing is everything

Why didn’t your guest opt for a higher category room when they made their booking? The answer is simple.

When making the initial reservation, most guests are conservative. Since this is the biggest expense of their trip along with flights (if applicable), they are using their booking wallet. They’re trying to keep the overall cost down.

But as time for their trip draws closer, they open their vacation wallet. The emotion of the journey invites them to enjoy and live a little. Thus, presenting guests with the chance to upgrade to a better room not too long before their arrival is going to yield the best results.

Incentivise the guest

Sometimes your guest might need a little bit of gentle persuasion in order to splash out. Consider teaming your room upgrade with an added bonus; for example, if the guest takes the upgrade and dines in your restaurant, they get a complimentary bottle of wine.

Sometimes it’s the little flourishes that you can add which really make the difference in your guest’s mind!

Use a little FOMO

One of the most consistent techniques to apply is that of scarcity. In your communications with your guest, consider using phrases and language that prompts them to take action, lest they miss out on the opportunity.

“We only have a few rooms of this category available – thought you might like to know!”

“Almost sold out at this price!”

“Get in quickly before another guest snaps it up!”

Discounts work!

The other key incentive is displaying a discounted price. It’s consumer psychology 101; if a guest knows that they would secure the deal for a cheaper-than-advertised price, then it’s going to drive conversions.

Who hasn’t wanted to stay in a high-tier room, but never did because of the added expense? Well, even just seeing that “%” symbol can trigger the reaction in your guest that this is going to be their chance.

Don’t just offer the room

Be creative! You know the reasons guests choose to stay with you – or at least you should – target those guests with a room upgrade package!

• Celebrators: If you know guests stay at your property for things like birthdays and anniversaries, cater to them and make a package. Why stop at just upgrading the room? Include extras like wine, cakes, rose petals, flowers, hand-written notes, decorations – there’s so much room for creativity and your guests will absolutely love it!
• Girls’ nights/weekends: When the girls are going to get together, their propensity for splashing out a little more increases. Pair the room upgrade with a bottle of chilled Prosecco and canapes, in preparation for their big night out.
• Older couples: These guests still like to have a splurge; perhaps just not as dramatically as the previous personas. Pair the room upgrade with a sumptuous set menu dinner, tickets to a local attraction, or a delicious selection of gourmet treats – think cheese boards, pate, dips, and so on.

So what do you think? Are you going to revisit your room upgrade strategy? What other guest personas stay at your property, and how could you better engage them?

Remember, aside from pushing up your bottom line, you’re going to provide your guest with a more memorable experience! And that makes it far more likely they’ll think of you for their next booking, or also refer you to a friend or colleague.

Think about this for a moment: How often have you bought or booked something after getting an email from a brand or company?

Probably several times…

And you’re not alone. Many people do so on a regular basis because it’s easy and fun. That’s why email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels today, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Take advantage of this to promote your hotel. Get creative and leverage the guest contact data you already have in your system.

From saving on distribution costs to growing brand awareness and scaling your outreach to new and repeat guests, discover the benefits email marketing can offer your hotel. 

What is email marketing?

Broadly defined, email marketing is a form of direct marketing. It means sending promotional or commercial emails to people who have given you permission to do so. In the marketing world, these contacts are known as your list, your subscribers or your email database. 

Why is email marketing a powerful tool for hotels?

Research shows that email is the most effective marketing channel today with an average ROI of 36. That means for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can generate an impressive $36 of revenue. And yes, that beats all other types of promotion including social media or paid ads. 

There are several reasons why email performs so well. First, it’s a highly accepted form of communication among all demographics from Baby Boomers to GenZ. That means you can use this single channel to reach a wide variety of age groups. 

For many people, email feels less invasive than cold calls, SMS or social media marketing. But since you regularly get right in front of your target audience in their inbox, emails offer a powerful way to build and nurture relationships. 

Email is also highly customizable and flexible. You can schedule and automate it to reach the right person with the right message at the right time during their customer journey. For example, after sending your usual hotel confirmation email, you can follow up with a hotel pre-arrival email full of special offers and useful information.

Finally, you can create targeted campaigns for different guest segments (e.g. repeat clients, one-time guests, new subscribers, various age groups…) to promote specific deals to certain target groups. 

All this makes email extremely effective at driving qualified traffic to your website and generating more commission-free direct bookings. 

Finally, let’s not forget the data and analytics side. With email, it’s easy to test new promotions or message styles. Results are clearly measurable and offer insights into where you’re doing well and where you should improve. 

The increased relevance of email marketing today

Overall demand is still lower than pre-pandemic in many markets, partly because international travel has not returned to pre-Covid levels. It will likely stay that way for a while since many people are still keener on travelling closer to home. 

In this situation, it’s especially important to leverage the connection you have with past guests. Particularly loyal clients who live nearby and can come by car or train are an invaluable source of business today. 

Use email to stay in touch with them and build a stronger relationship with people who have expressed an interest in your hotel. This creates chances to generate more high-value direct bookings that will help get your business through these tough times. 

Here, the high ROI and comparatively low cost of hotel email marketing has another enormous benefit. Since this form of promotion is so cost-effective, it remains viable even if you’re working with a slashed marketing budget. 

How to get started with email marketing at your hotel

A good email management system lays the foundation for your email marketing. It allows you to keep your list organized and to control your email marketing campaigns. 

A generic provider like MailChimp or Mailerlite can be good when getting your feet wet. While these cost-effective email marketing tools offer important basic capabilities, they’re limited when it comes to leveraging the guest data saved in your PMS. Since this is the key to creating highly personalized and targeted campaigns, a more sophisticated solution is needed if you want to get serious about email marketing. 

This is where a specialized customer relationship management solution (CRM) for the hospitality industry comes in. 

It automatically pulls guest data from your PMS via a two-way integration. This includes information such as the number and length of previous stays, which package or rate code they booked, their birthdate, age, party size (e.g. couples or families with kids) and any other relevant details. 

With this data, you can implement a targeted email marketing strategy, segment guests and ensure they only receive relevant emails. This leads to increased open rates, more engagement, boosted email conversion rates and a higher return on investment. 

How to gain more subscribers for your hotel

You probably already have a lot of emails saved in your PMS from past and current guests. They can form the base of your email list. 

Next, it’s time to grow your list of subscribers. Here are a few easy options to consider:

• Add sign-up boxes to your website and offer site visitors a perk (e.g. a small discount for their booking or a destination guide) for sharing their email addresses. This works well among people in the planning process but not for current or past guests as they rarely return to the hotel’s website. 
• Set up a Wi-Fi restriction. Ask for a person’s email address when they sign in to your hotel’s public Wi-Fi and add a checkbox that lets them sign up for your list. This helps you get sign-ups from both in-house guests as well as outside clients visiting dining venues or the spa. 
• Have your receptionists ask guests if they want to subscribe during check-in or -out. While this can bring results, the manual data entry means more work for your team. Here, it’s also hard to prove that the guest opted in unless you store the paper form. 
• Save time and energy by gathering emails with a CRM. Set it up to automatically propose a sign-up during the online check-in, in upselling offers, as part of the directory or while requesting guest feedback. This cuts back on manual work, gets more eyeballs onto your opt-in and makes the subscription process easier for guests. 

Managing your subscribers

Finally, a quick note on email database management and keeping subscribers happy and engaged. 

1. Use powerful, interesting subject lines and body text. Hint at what guests might find inside your email to build curiosity and boost your open rates. Keep it up in the email itself. Present special offers in an intriguing way to drive conversion rates and keep readers wanting more. 
2. Follow the rules. Ensure that you follow the current email marketing and data protection guidelines in your country, e.g. the EU’s GDPR. This protects your guest’s interest and shields you from potential legal issues. 
3. Don’t overdo it. When guests trust you with their email address, they expect you to be respectful of their inbox. Don’t bombard them with endless promotions and irrelevant messages. Instead, leverage segmentation to send a few special offers and updates at appropriate intervals. Ask yourself if you’d be happy to receive each email before hitting send. If so, that’s your green light.
4. Accept farewells. Seeing people unsubscribe is part of email marketing. Respect when someone opts out and don’t contact them again unless they request it. While it may seem unpleasant, your unsubscribe rate is a valuable metric. Monitor it to spot shifts and see if you need to improve your segmentation or email content. 

Ideas for different types of emails to send to your list

Email marketing encompasses several different types of emails. Below you’ll find the three main kinds that are relevant to email marketing for hotels plus some ideas to inspire your next email marketing campaigns. 

• General newsletter: an informative email you send out at fixed intervals, e.g. monthly or every two weeks. 

Share news about:

• The hotel (e.g. awards, renovations…)
• Current or upcoming events and promotions
• Other details that add value for your readers

• Seasonal or limited-time promotion: a standalone email to promote one specific offer. This could include:
  • Flash deals 
  • A last-minute sale, e.g. to drive business on shoulder days
  • Your summer weekend special for local guests
  • The referral bonus for past guests
• Targeted campaign: one or several emails you send to a specific group of guests to promote an offer that’s relevant to them. 

Here are some ideas:

• A special family deal
• Preferential conditions or exclusive offers for your regulars 
• Couples’ getaways
• Any other offers that are geared towards a certain segment

In all cases, the goal is to build or maintain brand awareness, nurture your client relationships and drive sales. That way you stay at the front of people’s minds and they think of you first, when it’s time to plan a trip. This is a fantastic way to drive repeat bookings from past guests and benefit from their low acquisition cost. 

As you can see, email marketing has many benefits for hotels. It’s cost-effective and it offers numerous ways to drive business all while nurturing the relationship with your guests.

And with the right tools, you can take advantage of all this without adding hours of extra work to your day. 

Now, what do you think – how much could your property benefit from this?

GuestJoy now covers even more of the guest journey, ensuring guests have a seamless stay, and hoteliers can update their directories with ease.

Tallinn, Estonia, January 10th 2022: GuestJoy’s mission is to make it easy for hoteliers to provide their guests with a modern experience, and this is further underscored with the release of their new Guest Directory module.

Fitting in seamlessly with GuestJoy’s other modules, Guest Directory is certain to save hoteliers time and frustration, while enabling guests to access important hotel information in a way they expect to in 2022 – using their smart devices.

“Adding a Directory module to GuestJoy’s suite of tools simply made sense,” comments Alar Ülem, co-founder of GuestJoy. “After the initial shock of covid, hotels started to take up our online Check-in module in earnest. It proved that at the end of the day, guests were happy to embrace digital hotel experiences, and so now we’ve modernized the guest directory experience as well.”

The Guest Directory module sits alongside GuestJoy’s other modules, including Check-in, Upsell, Feedback, and Announcements.

Simplicity was the goal in designing the module, explains Andrew Martin, GuestJoy’s Customer Experience Manager. “No hotelier looks forward to updating their in-room directories. In fact, it’s often neglected due to the time and costs involved. That usually results in half-measures being used as workarounds. I’ve stayed in many properties where the directory had single pieces of information “redacted” with a black marker, or entire sections of information covered with a sticker to update it, rather than re-print every directory. So, our focus was to make updating the information in the directory as simple as possible. This means that updating the directory can be done in seconds – instead of days or weeks – and with no cost associated with it.”

We’ve taken a process that could take days or weeks to do and brought that down to mere seconds, without any costs.

Andrew continued to explain the experience for the guest. “We knew that having an app to download was never going to be an option – there are simply too many hurdles with apps.

“First, will the guest actually be bothered downloading and installing an app for what could potentially be the only time they stay in that property? Do they have space available on their device? Is their device compatible with the version of the app? These barriers and more really do make an app a poor choice.

“Therefore, we opted for a web app, which is a website that looks and behaves just like an app on your phone. It’s accessed instantly by scanning a QR code, so it’s quick and easy. There are many benefits to QR codes as well; they can be printed and displayed in the room, as well as in any other part of the property. Also, they can be made to look quite stylish as well.

“With the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, and subsequent rules stipulating certain cleaning measures in hotels (or in some cases, guest expectations of such measures), a physical in-room guest directory was seen as both a complex, time-consuming cleaning touch point on the hotel’s side, and a risk of or being perceived as unclean from the guest’s perspective.

“With the advent of this great new module, hoteliers are in a definite win-win situation; no more putting off updating guest directories, and guests can access hotel information in a manner that they simply expect to in this day and age.” Andrew concluded.

GuestJoy’s Directory module is available on its own, or accompanied by the other modules to produce a seamless, complete guest experience.

About GuestJoy

A complete guest experience platform, GuestJoy enables hotels of all styles and sizes to provide their guests with a modern stay, with upselling, online check-in, announcements, feedback, and a digital guest directory in one.

Reach out to your guests with upsell offers tailored to them before they arrive at your property. Impress and delight your guests with upgrades, services, and products that will enhance their stay with you, all while maximizing revPAR – without your team doing a single thing!

Besides the Upselling emails, you have the possibility to send announcements to a select group of guests based on a date range. No more individual emails!

Our online check-in feature is seamless, easy to use, fast and fully customizable. This will save you time, work and it’s contactless.

Once guests are at your property, they can seamlessly access your digital room directory to find any property information they need – no app download is required.

GuestJoy’s feedback module will allow you to ask for reviews, retarget and handle any issue immediately.

What does a hotelier need in 2022? Proven, smooth technology. But how can you make the best choice? And what do you need to factor in when implementing new hotel technology? Will the personal touch forever disappear, or will hospitality continue being a face-to-face service?

Annika: Regarding the benefits of upgrading your technology; what is your opinion on technology in hospitality? Should a hotelier keep up to date?

Hendrik Jan: In my opinion, all hotels should do a monthly or bi-monthly check whether they are using software that actually helps them. Compare prices, check features; there are many great websites like Hotelminder, Hotelhero, Revfine and Hoteltechreport to help. 

When you implement new technology, the tech will work for you so you save time. But you still need to make sure other aspects are taken care of and done well. 

A good example; we always wanted to know whether our guests are business travellers or leisure, and what they are most interested in. So we added this into our tech solution. With GuestJoy I can always ask the purpose of the stay, and the guests can fill it out in their own time; no need to bother them personally!

Annika: Guest needs – let’s talk about it! What do you think guests need in 2022, and beyond? How can technology help?

Hendrik Jan: Package deals are always a win. It’s an easy and full option for the guest to pick, a very convenient choice. 

Today’s guests want to be able to pick, mix & match whatever they like from the hotel’s options. You have all these deals and options available, but what if your guest doesn’t like museums? Or do they prefer sports? They do not want to see offers that are not interesting for them. That’s clutter on their screen. It’s crucial that you provide what your guest likes, and content that is customised for them. 

Annika: GuestJoy’s segmentation can come in very handy here. We are able to show ‘romantic’ offers for travelling couples, kids offers for families, and much more. 

Exactly, I love the fact that in GuestJoy I can add segments and make sure that every guest gets an offer that is tailored to their needs. Here I think that technology can predict even better guest needs. You know straight the demographics,  length of stay, room type and etc that is a great indicator for sending out the right offer. This way guests feel more engaged.

Annika: How do you engage with guests in general?

Hendrik Jan: We were using an upselling solution but we felt that it was not enough. You need to do so much more than upselling to guests. Therefore we started looking for a solution that could help us with the entire digital guest experience. We were very happy to find GuestJoy.  

GuestJoy guest experience does the online check-in upselling and reputation management. That is a huge advantage.

Annika: Do you see that the PMS should be flexible? 

Mews and GuestJoy exchanging all the information automatically save me a bunch of time. I appreciate how both softwares have multiple functionalities. 

The moment I heard that guests can enter credit card details into GuestJoy I was sold. Guests can now fully check-in, on their own time without any of us working at the front desk. 

Annika: And when you choose tech, do you base it on local opinions or general reviews? What’re your criterias?

Hendrik Jan: I need to be able to trust the product. The brand, the promises they make.

Obviously, investment and return is key, but it’s not often available immediately. It’s always nice when the hotel tech company has some data, possibly from another hotel. I’d like to see how a tool is used and what it brings to other properties.

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About Hendrik

Hendrik Jan Jenner is the Revenue Manager of Luxury Suites Amsterdam and Black Label Hotels He started out working in a restaurant to finance his studies, but after an interest in leadership and performance analytics, he took up a role in restaurant management. 

Soon, the desire to master the art of hospitality was born in him and he was able to switch to a hotel position as Revenue Manager. His employer supported him to get a degree from the University of Cornell in Hospitality, and since then he has been working in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 

Back when I worked in hotels, we never had a chance to try out integrations. To be honest, I didn´t even think about it. But maybe I should have, because one of the reasons I left hospitality was that I was always occupied with too many monotonous tasks.

In other words, I just got tired.

We can easily jump into some of the basic tasks that I had to do every day. First of all was housekeeping.

It was madness to change the status of the rooms every single minute. Sometimes guests would wait in the lobby and I’d run to find one of the cleaning staff to double-check if the room had been cleaned.

It’s hard to imagine this happening today, because housekeeping solutions like Optii give you that sort of information instantly.

The notion of manually filling out a paper form in this day and age seems archaic to most travellers now.

There was a revolutionary moment – when we started using a channel manager. I could finally take some time off!

However, it was not uncommon that when I was jogging, travelling, or doing whatever pleased me and I had to stop all my activities to close availability in every OTA. And trust me – sometimes I was too late!

Perhaps one of the worst examples was when I was holidaying in Spain, and got a call saying the hotel was overbooked. I spent the next 2 hours sorting that out.

(But some say that overbookings are a way to make revenue 😀 A good question for revenue managers??)

In most of my roles, upselling and cross-selling too were tasks required of me.

At one point we had too many coupons and discount codes for services and upgrades to give to every arriving guest.

So, we decided to design an envelope with our own logo. It seemed like a brilliant solution: You give it to the guest and don’t have to explain anything at all. So we waited and waited for our guests to start checking the envelope and buy our services.

Looking back now, none of it was ever going to work effectively.

But as strange as it sounds, we never looked for different solutions, nor considered changing our PMS. It never occurred to me because I was too busy designing envelopes, changes prices, chasing housekeeping, and communicating with guests.

Then, there was guest feedback to deal with.

Here is a business card with TripAdvisor review instructions:

We would give these to these guests who were happy enough that we thought they would leave us a good review. And if one was given to the wrong guest… 🙈

Laughable today, because guests expect a hotel will request their feedback from a post-stay email or SMS.

I think that hospitality has taken huge steps forward and now all that can be managed automatically. We still see similar patterns in some hotels but I am sure that the pandemic will slowly shift these mindsets.

In an ideal world, we should start with the PMS (Property Management System). It is the foundation of the hotel. There are numerous cloud-based solutions that connect with hundreds of supporting and complementary systems.

I remember one of my challenges was selling room upgrades. There was huge earning potential, but we ended up upgrading guests for free. In today’s world, it shouldn’t happen anymore. At GuestJoy, we have built two-way integrations with the most well-known PMS vendors to facilitate the possibility to upgrade rooms automatically.

The process would go something like this: Guests get a pre-stay email with possible upgrade options. When the guest browses them, only see the available room types. The guest can see pictures and what is included in the room, and if they find the offer attractive enough, click Book. This changes the room type in the PMS. It is not only a perfect guest experience but also increases upgrade revenue by 30%. That’s how seamlessly the process takes place!

Another regular question is about the early check-in or late check-out. I think hoteliers are asking too much from their guests by making them request it via email; again, you can create an upsell offer looking something like this and they can request it immediately.

Upselling is not complicated. Just gather all your additional services and add them to Guestjoy and start your digital guest experience.

The popularity of checking in online for hotel stays has dramatically increased over the past 12 months, and with good reason. The very notion of a guest manually filling out a paper form in this day and age seems archaic to most travellers now.

Seamless two-way integration takes care of it all, both providing the guest with a smoother arrival, and freeing up staff from repetitive manual labor. An added benefit is that it’s not only convenient for the guest, but also paperless to keep the environment green.

Times have changed so much and I’m sure will change even more in the coming years. Thanks to innovation it will attract more youngsters to join hospitality and run businesses very effectively. Who knows – I might even return to it myself someday! 😊

Hospitality has changed forever. Gone are the days of carefree travelers. The future is for safety-conscious guests who at least for now try to minimize any physical contact and enjoy their vacation or business trip. To provide a good service to this new breed of travelers means you also have to change. The key is digital transformation and it will help you solve two big problems many property managers are experiencing

Your current hotel experience is not what your guests expect

During the pandemic, e-commerce has risen by 19%. This means more and more people are accustomed to online ordering and self-service. This trend has moved to hospitality. Online offers convenience that is hard to rival. Most young people hate the fact that they must go to a front desk to clear an issue or call to order something. Guests just expect more.

The self-service low-touch traveler trend was already here before the pandemic, now it merely accelerated. The modern guest does not like to go to your front desk to ask for help. They want to use their phone, to customize their experience. They want to let you know immediately if something is bad. They want to order services using their smartphones, not browse the directories next to the phone. If your property is not able to provide that, your guest satisfaction will be significantly lower.

Solution

The solution is digitalizing the guest journey to enable all these things. To allow the guest to reach out to you when THEY want, using a device they are most comfortable with, their phone.

We found that 84% of consumers are more inclined to do business with organizations that offer self-service options, but only 61% agree that organizations are providing easy, convenient self-service.

Forbes

It will improve your guest satisfaction. More and more studies show that guest satisfaction is higher when guests are engaged vs passive guests. Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ choice is a testament to that.

Finding good people is hard

This leads to our second problem. This is the biggest internal challenge most hoteliers face with. There are many articles about hoteliers being unable to find people (article, article) and this could have a massive impact on recovery. There are many reasons behind it. One is definitely low salaries. The hospitality industry is notorious for that. If a front-office worker earns 25% of the salary a manager does, where is the motivation?

The second issue is seasonality. The hotel business has always been seasonal. But at least it was predictable. But now with the pandemic, countries go into lock-down semi-randomly. Try to find people working in this environment. Let alone investing time into training them.

Solution

By digitalizing your guest experience, you reduce the reliance on the workforce significantly while maintaining the same service levels. Those hotels that embrace this, will outperform those, who are stuck in the old way of doing business.

Service industry automation is coming and will change a lot. It will impact the livelihood of some people. But that is the harsh reality. Fewer employees mean reduced cost and by automating some aspects of the customer service, your staff can focus on less menial tasks thus actually earning more tips.

Conclusion

The hospitality industry is changing. First were the OTAs, then came AirBnb and now the pandemic. Change is something you shouldn’t be afraid of. It creates opportunity. If your business model was struggling before, use this moment to adapt and do things differently. By embracing technology, you will stay ahead of the hotel across the street. I know it is tempting to go back to your old habits, but you will risk becoming obsolete.

The cooperation between Hotsoft PMS and GuestJoy takes digital guest communication to a completely new level. The world won´t be the same anymore and also hospitality needs to take a new course. Digital guest communication is becoming part of our daily life. Online check-in to fasten the check-in process or choosing suitable services before the actual arrival date will make life more comfortable for the guests but also takes away repetitive tasks from a receptionist. The result will be a better digital guest experience and not less important is the time-saving.

How does it work?

The two-way API interface between Hotsoft PMS and GuestJoy enables hoteliers to create digital guest experiences using a single product. Once the integration is set up, the data flow between Hotsoft and GuestJoy is seamless. Updates made in GuestJoy appear in the guest folio.

Key benefits this new two-way integration brings

• Update check-in data in the PMS without manual entry
• Update orders and add to guest folio
• Upsell goes straight to invoicing
• Real-time room availability check and automated room upgrades
• More frequent updates (once an hour vs once a day with the old one)
• More segmentation fields

About GuestJoy

Leading Guest experience platform. The preferred choice among modern hoteliers who want to digitalize their guest experience but avoid using multiple standalone systems. Designed to simplify the life of you and your guests. GuestJoy is trusted by hundreds of properties in 25 countries.

About Hotsoft

Hoist Group’s HotSoft PMS is an industry-leading Property Management System (PMS). It has proven its value for over 1,500 multi-property groups, small and large hotels, B&B’s, Spa’s, Resorts, and various other hospitality businesses.

It enables you to manage all your daily hotel operations easily. It gives you control of your booking process as well as your guest journey. It helps you implement an end-to-end Mobile Guest Journey including online reservation, mobile check-in and check-out as well as mobile room keys.

HotSoft PMS is a single, easy-to-use, seamless cloud-based PMS solution that comes with a wide choice of modules you can choose from.