The hotel industry is fighting pretty hard right now for customers thanks to the success of private vacation rental companies such as AirBnb. There are some hotels around the world which are never likely to have issues because of the way in which they do things. Just last week for example I was in the impressive Bicycle Casino Hotel in California which has so much going for it from its casino and its entertainment suite that it will always have people coming through its doors. For smaller hotel owners however, the best way to fight against the new trend is to go big online and ensure that you have a solid online profile which will attract customers. If this sounds like something that you may need, here is how to go about it.
Social Media
One of the best ways in which you can market your hotel and give it a brand which people can warm to, is to be highly active on social media. At the every least you should have a profile with Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. The key to using these channels is to constantly show off the cool things that are happening in your hotel, give guests sense of what they can expect if they stay in your place. You don’t have to be the bets hotel in the world, to look like the best hotel in the world and with smart social media usage you can really sell your hotel. Don’t be afraid to add a human touch to your social media account, the more that you engage with people, the more trust you can build.
Exposure
Very few people actually book hotels directly on the hotel website and the large majority of people are using sites such as booking.com and Expedia. In order therefore to boost how many customers you are getting in, you need to make sure that you are being featured on all of these websites. Be careful with this as all of these sites encourage reviews from people who have stayed at the hotel and before you put your hotel on these sites, you must ensure that you provide exceptional service and quality as a bad review can kill you.
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a strategy which digital marketeers employ so that you can appear on the top pages of the search results for a certain set of keywords. And so if you have a hotel in Dallas for example, the best case scenario is that when people search on Google for ‘Dallas hotels; the idea is that your hotel features on the top pages. The reason why this is so important is because customers don’t look beyond the first page or two of the search results and if you are’t first, you may as well not exist. Invest in SEO if you want your hotel to stand out from the crowd.