10 Top Tips On How To Market A Hotel By Michael Cockman

By Author: Dele Ferguson
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Top 10 questions to ask yourself

You need to answer these 10 questions to ensure that your business infrastructure is sound. There are others issues of course, but if you answer these and take the appropriate hotel marketing strategies steps you will be well on your way to ensuring the success of your ‘hotel’ business, in whatever guise you provide overnight accommodation for visitors to your area.

1. Does your website do its job?

Does the look, feel and utility of your website convince visitors to your site that your rooms are actually worth what you are charging? In a nutshell this is the primary objective of your website.

To test whether your website is working ask a few reliable contacts and see how they react to your question. And before anyone says that websites are expensive, having no guests is even more expensive!

Consider that 75% of your intending guests might look at your site and then take 10% of that potential revenue and that is how much you should consider spending on a website.

2. Can you take room bookings 24/7?

We live in a world of ...
... instant gratification and no one wants to wait for an answer to an email reservation enquiry. If web visitors like what they see they want to get an instant response.

There are plenty of ways that you can get your website to deliver instant bookings; some cost money and some are free and it all depends on what systems you currently have in place to record reservations. Even if you still use a paper diary, introducing online availability does not mean that you have to change what you do now but have to know how to market a hotel.

3. Do you have partners distributing your rooms worldwide?

The Internet has spawned all sorts of intermediaries,in addition to Booking.com and LateRooms.com, who place themselves between you and your potential guest. The main downside of this arrangement has been the increasing costs of distribution but having someone else put your product in front of thousands of potential guests has been an invaluable upside.

Make sure that you are not just increasing your distribution costs. If you can sell your rooms direct then don’t sell them for 15% commission.

4. Do you rely on the Internet for all your business?

There are plenty of ways to generate leads that do not involve the Internet.If you have companies or organisations near to you then you should use the telephone and do some research on their needs for rooms (as well as lunches. meetings and Christmas parties).

Also don’t forget referrals from local shops, taxi companies, schools, MOD and hospitals.

5. Do you jealously guard your online reputation?

Do you know what your previous guests are saying about you? You might well not be interested but othertravellers are.

If someone books through Booking.com or LateRooms then they will be invited to leave a review. On a site like TripAdvisor guests don’t even have to have stayed with you to leave a review. However if the comments are negative you do have the chance to put a response.

If you need to improve your score on these sites then you must encourage guests to leave reviews.

6. Have you been persuaded that social networking is the answer?

No doubt you have been told that you must have Facebook page for your hotel or that Twitter will help your search engine rankings.

All this may be true but before you embark on a social networking strategy think carefully about the implications. A Facebook page that is never updated is worse than not having one at all. Keeping up to date with blogging is very time consuming and might not even be suitable for your business.

7. Do you have a Google Places account?

Much of Internet search is about location. Nowhereis this better illustrated than in Google Places. This is like a mini-website put up by Google that answers visitors’ queries about finding local suppliers. You can put your opening hours and special offers and there is alink to Google maps. All you need is a Google account (free) and then you can set up your Places details absolutely free.

Google maps is also starting to put prices, so will become even more useful to consumers.

8. Do you know your customers and communicate with them?

Sounds obvious but to communicate with your customers and guests you need to know who they are. So you need a list of names and email addresses. In an ideal world you would also send out physical mailings but this is increasingly expensive and your list will soon be out of date.

To set up a mailing list you need to find a company that can accumulate your emails and enable you to do mailings. Some of these auto responder companies allow an element of free use but all are relatively low cost.

To gather emails you need some sort of form available in the hotel as well as a sign-up form on your website.

9. Do you need to care how many stars you have?

This is a difficult question, particularly with the government making various unhelpful pronouncements about the star system. Many of you see the few hundred pounds yearly fee as a cost, not an investment. But thereare plenty of arguments to support participation, not least the fact that you have an external body keeping you up to standard.

If you are in an area with good leisure potential then there is potential from being included in the tourist boards promotions. Many local types of council will not promote venues that do not have a grading and you may be missing out on lots of last minute bookings from local visitor information offices.

10. Are you really convinced that your rooms suit your market?

Business travellers want a double bed, a desk, WiFi and a good shower. Leisure travellers, depending upon their age and reason for travel, want either twins or doubles and often a bath. Resolving conflicting needs of all the available segments can scramble your brain! This will also depict that you’re adopting useful hotel marketing plan to care your customers.

If you only have a few rooms it is vital that you decide which markets you are going for. You can’t please everybody so make a decision. Maybe you shouldn’t take families because your rooms are not quite big enough? Have the confidence to say ‘no children’ and then go for the markets that are trying to get away from them!

Michael Cockman is providing tips on how to market a hotel or develop your hotel internet marketing strategies. To developing your hotel marketing plan please visit: http://www.hotelprofitsystems.co.uk/