Google My Business is one of the fundamentals of effective hotel marketing but it is also frequently the most neglected feature of a hotel’s online presence.
NB: This is an article from Clock
To treat your hotel’s online listing in the biggest search engine in the world as a triviality is a huge marketing faux pas as the search engine relies heavily on the information you feed into its platform, especially when it comes to mobile use.
If a potential guest tries to google your hotel’s name using a mobile device, your google my business listing is the information that will load beside the search results and it will contain all of the information a guest might need to book with you in a concise and easy to access margin.
Your hotel website might not even be updated for a mobile-friendly interface, but your Google My Business listing will still provide guests with easy access to your hotel’s phone number, address, hotel description and up to date business hours.
The platform provides many benefits for hoteliers who are willing to take active advantage of the tools at their disposal, the following are the main reasons why Google My Business should not be overlooked:
#1: It Improves Your SEO Strategy Results
SEO can be quite a time consuming but with tools like Google Posts, you get an additional boost when promoting your business. You can use it to formulate short posts that act as both updates and promotional material.
This would improve your hotel brand’s search results and drive up potential guest interest. If guest searches for your business they would not only be exposed to your hotel’s google listing profile but also with relevant information on recent events, achievements, upgrades and interesting facts about your hotel.
Having an active profile with regular posts speaks well for a hotel’s online presence as it shows that the team behind the hotel is actively involved in building the brand and reaching its target guests.
#2: Opens an Additional Channel of Communication with Potential Guests
Having an additional open channel of communication can make a huge difference in improving your direct booking margins. For once, guests are much more likely to book with you if they can clear up any questions that might be holding them back to begin with. Live chats and instant messaging tools allow for this as a more effective way of communicating with guest prospects online.
The guests themselves also prefer an immediate response from the hotel’s team and that also plays into their consideration of your business. If you have a variety of channels through which they can reach you, such as your Facebook page, your live messaging feature of your Google listing, and your hotel’s direct contact information to front desk and e-mail they are much more likely to get a hold of your personnel in a timely manner and conclude the transaction.
If, say, guests, need to get in touch with a manager or vice versa they can communicate with Google’s live messaging tool which allows both sides to communicate by texting.
#3: Correct Categorisation Will Drive up Traffic
Categorisation is crucial in how well you’ll list once your profile has been set up. Thankfully Google has a detailed database of categories that would best allow you to describe your business.
A good approach to your hotel’s proper categorisation would be to consult your hotel’s marketing strategy and focus on the kind of guests you wish to attract and focus on keywords that would appeal to them, but avoid mass selections. Google’s focus is on content which is consistent and relevant. If you choose all of the options at your disposal you might as well have chosen none at all. Relevant keyword choices will boost up your hotel’s listing online so be mindful of your selection as search results will depend on it.
#4: Create an Up-to-Date Description of Your Hotel
If a guest is looking up your hotel online in all likelihood this will be the first piece of information at their disposal, so make it relevant and up to date. The same goes for the images used, make sure that they represent the actual state of your hotel, and avoid false advertising, by leaving on pictures of the pool if you know it will be out of order for some part of the season.
By providing the guest with relevant easy to access information of your on-premise amenities and services you are actively pulling them along the route of successfully booking with you.
#5: Reviews Will Boost Your Conversions
The Google Reviews function is likely going to be the first contact guests prospects have with other guests’ opinions so having regular contact with it, and responding to every review will play into future procuring bookings.
Responding to negative reviews, instead of trying to remove them will have a positive effect on potential guests as they can see how your team handles any issues that might arise. Hospitality is a personable business and your hotel’s main selling point will always be the people who run it.
Google Reviews showcases your team at work by providing guests with the appropriate attention even after the end of their stay. This gives potential guests an idea of whether your brand is worth investing their money into, and previous guests the opportunity to reconsider their opinion of your hotel and maybe visit again.
