Assessing a new calendar year usually revolves around how your hotel can increase the amount of guests you attract and how much revenue you can drive. Every year brings new challenges and potential new strategies, while tried and tested methods always hold strong too. It’s important to take careful note of emerging trends, but you also need to implement marketing plans that are effective for your individual hotel.
Here are eight tactics you should consider including in your 2018 hotel marketing plan:
Tactic #1
Make personalisation a priority
Guests know you have the ability to personalise their experience. With technology and data systems constantly improving, there is no excuse not to understand guest preferences and deliver individually catered services.
Here are some recent stats demonstrating the opportunity:
- Over 80% of online customers say they would be open to switching loyalties if they found a service that better catered for their needs
- 87% of customers think brands need to put more effort into customer service
- 94% of senior-level executives believe delivering personalisation is important to reaching customers
You can use the data you collect from online travel agents (OTAs), your hotel’s own website and direct booking engine, and if you have one, your app to develop a deep knowledge of guest booking behaviour, purchase habits, and amenity preferences. Additionally you should know the complete profile of travellers including age, ethnicity, gender, and reason for travel.
With all this information in your hands, your guests should feel like they’re staying at their grandparents house, with every need anticipated and every desire fulfilled. This is what it takes to entice positive reviews from guests who are increasingly expecting more.
Tactic #2
Recognise that social media is more than a social tool
Social media has long been a playground for businesses to sell their products. Facebook alone has more than two billion monthly users and transactions on the platform are always increasing with more than 50 million small business pages currently active. Twitter and Instagram are similarly popular and even dating sites like Tinder are seeing business advertisements start to filter in.
