Managing marketing budgets effectively is crucial for any hotelier aiming to achieve sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive landscape. By carefully planning your marketing spend, you can maximise your return on investment (ROI), attract the right guests, and keep occupancy rates high throughout the year.
NB: This is an article from Userguest, one of our Expert Partners
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One of the key factors in this strategy is recognising the importance of seasonality and understanding your key markets’ booking lead times. Here’s how to manage your hotel’s marketing budget effectively with these considerations in mind.
Understanding Seasonality in the Hospitality Industry
Seasonality plays a pivotal role in the hotel industry, directly influencing demand, pricing, and overall profitability. High season and low season fluctuations can differ depending on your location and target markets, making it essential to tailor your marketing budget accordingly.
- High Season: Marketing spend during these periods should focus on maintaining visibility and maximising revenue through higher conversion rates. However, since demand is naturally high, you might allocate less budget towards aggressive promotions and more towards brand reinforcement, loyalty programmes, and upselling opportunities.
- Low Season: Conversely, low season can lead to lower occupancy and lower average daily rates (ADR). To combat this, hoteliers often shift marketing spend to target deals and discounts aimed at filling rooms. Digital marketing efforts, such as retargeting, paid search, and email marketing, should be ramped up to attract price-sensitive travellers or niche markets like business or solo travellers.
- Shoulder Seasons: Shoulder seasons are the transitional periods between high and low seasons, offering an opportunity for smart marketing. You can capture bookings from travellers looking for lower prices without the crowds of peak seasons. Your marketing budget should focus on targeted campaigns during these periods, such as remarketing to previous guests or launching targeted paid ads to specific demographics.
Adapting to Booking Lead Times in Your Key Markets
Booking lead times vary widely depending on your target market’s demographics, location, and travel behaviours. Understanding these lead times is critical for efficiently managing your marketing budget, as it allows you to optimise ad spend timing for different segments of travellers.
- Long Lead Times:
Travellers from certain markets, such as long-haul international travellers, tend to book well in advance—sometimes six months to a year. To capture this audience, you’ll want to allocate part of your budget early in the year, well before high season.
Invest in branding campaigns, social media promotions, and search engine marketing (SEM) to build awareness and establish your property as a prime choice when these travellers are ready to book.
- Short Lead Times:
Domestic travellers and last-minute bookers tend to have shorter booking windows, often making reservations within a few weeks or even days of travel.
For these markets, allocate a portion of your marketing budget to short-term, high-impact campaigns closer to the desired travel dates. Tactics like flash sales, last-minute deals, or geo-targeted ads can be particularly effective here.
- Group and Event Travellers:
These travellers often book months in advance due to event planning needs. If group bookings are a significant part of your business, adjust your budget to cater to these customers at least six months prior to their arrival dates.
Tailored content, such as event-specific offers and partnerships with event organisers, can help attract this audience.
