Today’s Revenue Manager has access to more “intell” about their ideal target market and its purchase behavior than ever before. Subsequently, they are in a better position to develop online strategies. But by working more closely with DOSMs (Directors of Sales & Marketing), they’re able to improve the hotels’ overall performance even further.
In the last several years, I’ve witnessed a growing number of revenue managers express interest in learning more about digital marketing, particularly on property. So, I was excited when Sojern invited me to participate in their recent webinar, “How Digital Marketing Can Transform Revenue Management.” In case you missed it, here is a brief recap of what I covered during the webinar. I would encourage everyone to watch the full recording for more detail.
Your Hotel Website Impacts Your Bottom Line
A 2017 study by Fuel and Flip.to found that your hotel website is the most influential factor when travel shoppers are researching and making accommodation decisions. More influential, in fact, than word of mouth, OTAs, search engines and review sites. That’s because they trust that you’ll provide the most accurate information about your property. For that reason, up to 60% of OTA consumers will visit your website before making a reservation on an OTA site, according to Triptease. And that’s your opportunity to capture their interest and convince them to book direct instead.
The Goal of Your Hotel Website
We know that having a one-to-one relationship with your guests is important on many levels, the most obvious being that it’s the most profitable transaction. According to Kalibri Labs, direct bookers deliver 9-18% more net RevPAR than other guests due to upsell and ancillary revenue opportunities. Therefore, the goal of your hotel website is to capture more of them, using third-party websites and OTAs to smartly to supplement online sales efforts. Unfortunately, I see a fair share of hotel marketers falling short of their objectives, often because their website isn’t focused on the things that really matter.
Oh Website, Where Art Thou?
One of the biggest problems hotels face is online discoverability; travel shoppers can’t even find their website, let alone book through it! This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – the ability to rank organically in search engine results – comes into play.
