Hospitality is a highly competitive business, especially nowadays, with so many options out there, all of them being eye-catching and promising. Travelers are given a wide variety of accommodation to choose from and this might sometimes come as a challenge for hoteliers, especially for the ones managing an independent hotel.
With this in mind, we have recently released our eBook: Branding Without The Brand Name – An independent Hoteliers Guide To Building Brand Value. The eBook is structured into four in-depth chapters, all of them focused around the most important things that independent hoteliers can and should do in order to thrive off their non-branded status. Now it’s time to start a new blog series and break down those chapters into quick tips so that you get the best possible insights!
We started with a highly relevant topic: in a saturated competitive market, what makes your independent hotel different? Why should travelers choose to book your hotel instead of another one? How do you make the most of your specific traits and features and market them in the online world? These are questions that all hoteliers should ask themselves, especially when managing an independent establishment that, truth be told, cannot rely on a big name and a complex structure to back up the marketing efforts.
Your hotel’s online reputation is known to influence the booking decision
It’s a well-known fact that, apart from personal incentives, such as location and price, travelers base their booking decision on a hotel’s online reputation. Starting from word-of mouth, any business’ reputation is now omnipresent in the online world. Usually, when it comes to a hotel’s online status, you think strictly about dealing with reviews, positive and negative. However, you also need to mind that looking into what guests have to say about your hotel is the best way of acknowledging its most noticeable traits. Something that you became used to and perceive as ordinary it could be a big plus in the eyes of travelers. So the best possible advice that you can get is: before doing anything else, go through a quick Google search and see what travelers have to say about your hotel on the most relevant platforms (TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Google itself). Do your guests love the pool area? The excellent breakfast? Or is the wifi too slow? Seeing things from the traveler perspective can generate brand new ideas that you can further use in your marketing strategy.