Hotel owners are increasingly focusing on generating direct bookings in the ever-changing hospitality industry. We understand that hotel owners face challenges in creating effective hotel marketing strategies and hotel business strategies.
Although the ideal scenario would be to manage everything on your own, relying only on your revenue-management strategy and hotel marketing may not suffice. Online travel agencies are a very popular way to book hotels. In recent years, many consumers have become so accustomed to booking through online travel agencies that they no longer even think about doing it on the hotel’s website. Many people have become loyal to OTAs, believing that they offer lower rates than the brand.com websites of hotels.
How could hotels not want to (or be obliged to) cooperate with OTAs?
Then there’s the other side… do we want this ‘help?’ Were we to give wholesalers steep discounts or pay high OTA Commissions, would that make us more dependent on OTAs? )?
The margins of hotels are drastically reduced due to the high fees they pay to third-party websites to sell their rooms. Recently, the ‘trend” has shifted back to redirecting business away from OTAs and directly to hotel websites with the goal of winning direct clients.
Direct bookings are gaining in popularity, thanks to marketing campaigns by large hotel chains. Travelers begin to search for cheaper room rates and discounts, which aren’t always available via the OTAs. It’s time to start driving bookings off the OTAs and onto your website.
Hilton has launched a new program called “Stop Clicking Around.” IHG claims that ‘Your rate by IHG rewards’ has increased digital revenues by 7% and mobile payments by 32%. Marriott, Starwood Choice, and Best Western are also fighting the OTA war with a program that guarantees the best rates, or better rates, for their loyal customers.
This article will give you some insight into this topic and ideas that you can incorporate into your marketing and sales strategies.
The six best hotel marketing strategies to increase your Revenue
In order to maximize Revenue, hotels must implement the best hotel marketing strategies to keep up with the latest marketing trends. Xotels will reveal the six most effective strategies for your hotel.
Great Hotel Website Design Is the First Step in Success
A well-designed and optimized hotel website is essential for direct bookings. The best-designed hotel websites reflect the character of the hotel and are attractive. They are also user-friendly, with a simple booking engine. Neglecting keyword research and SEO can have a negative impact on your website’s visibility. Step one is to create an amazing website, and Step two is to make sure travelers easily discover it.
Focus on improving the ranking of your website. Include detailed information about your hotel’s amenities and include high-quality videos and images. Use keyword research to focus on consumer searches and develop themed landing pages that have special offers. Include reviews from guests to highlight positive experiences. HTML2_ Implement a booking engine with streamlined features to simplify the reservation process. You should also optimize your website to work on mobile devices as more and more people book via their smartphones. Should invest in marketing and design for hotels to avoid losing out on direct sales.
Choose a web design company that has experience in the travel industry and can show you how their hotel websites have generated direct sales. Make sure they use a CMS that is open-source, such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, so that you can have complete control over your site. Avoid Flash, as search engines have difficulty reading Flash websites. This makes ranking more difficult.
SEO for Hotels: How to be found on the Internet
Even the smallest Independent Hotels can apply SEO or search engine optimization to ensure a professional, consistent presence on the Search Engine Result Page and the SERPs by using some basic elements and SEO strategies. Search engines like Google change their algorithms over 500 times per year and introduce new features. All these changes affect how SERP search results are displayed. Hoteliers, you must take a proactive stance in terms of content creation and SEO.
The King of Content is
Successful hotel websites are more than just informational sites. They inspire and captivate their visitors. This increases the time visitors spend on your site, encourages them to explore multiple pages, and reduces the bounce rate. It also signals search engines that you are a valuable website and deserve higher rankings.
Mobile Optimization has become increasingly important as mobile searches continue to be the most popular. Google penalizes websites with poor mobile capabilities. Make sure your content is mobile-friendly and offers a seamless experience on all devices. Monitor mobile visitor behavior to improve engagement and increase conversions.
Keep an eye on the traffic to your site. Check your rankings, analyze engagement insights, and Track organic traffic with tools such as Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, and Bing Search Console.
Use technology and seek professional help to improve your search visibility. A content management system, preferably one that is open-source (CMS), allows for real-time changes to the content of a page, its metadata, images, and much more. Use CMS to train your staff and use its features to identify high-performing pages, search visibility, and competitor performance.
It is essential to maintain a consistent and optimized local SEO strategy for hotels. Search engines will give preference to listings that are consistent across all established portals. This results in a prominent position on the search engine result pages. Verify and maintain your local profiles across platforms such as Google My Business (Google My Business), Yelp, Bing, and others.
Build credibility by using links!
The way that links interact with your site is one of the most important ranking factors!
Search engines can learn about specific websites or pages by analyzing links that point to them. Links from high-value and trustworthy sources (like.edu and.gov) signal to the search engine the page/site linked is also responsible and thus worth a prominent placement in search results. It is important to monitor and audit inbound links regularly so that you can gain credibility and avoid penalties for spammy links. Link Management Strategy is the key!
Content is your friend! Content that is engaging and informative will help the travel planner! Avoid boring and generic descriptions. Attract the visitor. Share local information, such as events, interactive maps, and other local information. Show you’re the best destination!
Do not exclude from other digital marketing opportunities such as paid search, banner ads, email marketing, and reservation retargeting. Turn your hotel website into a revenue generator.
SEO Elements For Hotel Marketing
Follow these strategies to optimize your hotel’s website for search engine optimization. Title tags are an important part of your website. The title is displayed in organic search results as a clickable section. It also improves rankings when you include your key phrase in the title. Titles must be concise and aligned with the content of the page. To properly represent your pages and to help with ranking, every title tag should contain these three elements:
You can only use 2 or 3 keywords on a page for maximum results. Your ranking potential will be diluted if you use more keywords. You will need to create several landing pages that target different keyword combinations.
