Over 70% of hotels receives less than 35% of its direct sales online reservations.
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| Online hotel marketing strategy for 2016 |
This time of year many of the CEOs and Sales give the finishing touches to their sales and marketing budgets and plan 2016, the best time of year, just before the start of the season RFP (request for proposals, for their acronym in English). Here are the keys to planning online hotel marketing strategy for next year.
Page web.- The most important part of any online strategy is the website of the hotel. Important aspects to consider or at least to raise the suppliers or technical staff:
- Responsive design, because now Google penalizes pages that do not have it searches through mobile in.
- Promoting customer feedback, showing them that you increase online conversions.
- Upgrade the photos if they have more than three years, because they are key to the hotels.
- Hang videos fundamental in the sales process: a video about it on your website is a big selling point because Google also loves.
- Quickly Update content: does not seem to leave this task to others is the best idea when we live in an age where content is king. Refresh the web should be a matter of minutes.
- Web in different languages: numerous studies show that when the hotel page is translated into the language of their customers are more likely to book there directly.
- Landing pages and pop-up windows: if you can add to the site are very effective in capturing and retaining user data.
Booking engine
- The booking engine should be easy to use for the user. Many of them are great for revenue managers, but a minefield for the client, so from Hotelient recommend compare it with Booking and see the results.
- Show ons or extras when booking, as it is proven to increase revenue more than if exposed during the process. Booking does not and in those first moments the client surely what you are doing is to compare the prices of the hotel with an OTA.
- Create different booking engines for special offers: place the booking engine more and more pages with only some of the promotions of the hotel is vital to increase revenue. In Hotelient advise ask the provider if you can create something.
Connectivity
If the channel manager can not connect to Google, TripAdvisor, Trivago and other metasearch engines, look for alternative solutions.
- Separate the channel manager of the booking engine, because the success of the latter will depend on how the supplier invests to keep up with industry trends, so that separating both enable the hotel to move more freely between providers without discomfort.
Advertising / SEO
- If the hotel is already investing in Adwords but is not connected to Google HPA (Hotel Price Ads), the entrepreneur has to solve. Google also RLSA (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads) has better conversion rate and can be a smarter investment.
- The ads 'retargeting' have proven to be an interesting investment because studies show that customers visit about 20 pages before deciding where to book.
- The hotel should make sure your site is updated on keywords, description and SEO titles on all your pages.
- SEO is not just backlinks. Google uses over 200 algorithms, so do only one thing is not enough.
Reputation
- Reputation is the key not only to monitor but also to encourage direct sales.
- The hotel therefore must generate online reactions of customers to promote them through their social networks, website and videos.
Social media
- If the Community Manager is only promoting offers and showing pictures and videos of the hotel, the employer should ask him to stop or even replace him.
- Social networks have to do with storytelling, interaction and conversation. A rule of thumb is that only 20% of the content should be promotional; the rest should focus on the destination, events, interesting stories, interviews, etc.
- Create a YouTube channel with hotel videos, interviews and guest reviews it is also a great tool. 40% of all searches is video and this percentage is expected to rise to 70% by 2018.
Other technologies
- Social WiFi: solicit clients that connect to free WiFi through their social media profiles should be obvious to the hotels. This not only get more followers, but also get your e-mail that can be added to its marketing database.
- The concierge apps should be mandatory that give customers information about the hotel, including offers, events and more. According to recent studies, 85% of smartphone users prefer applications to mobile websites. The apps also reduce the cost of printing brochures and new directories. (See: 'Apps vs. mobile websites in the hotel sector', published by News HOSTELTUR tourism).
The consultant John Kearney is convinced that there are many more areas in which to think, but considers that these are a good start.
A recent study by Kearney reveals that over 70% of hotels receives less than 35% of its reserves for direct sales online. With the implementation of each of the points raised has managed to increase by 60% direct bookings while working in hotels. "It can be done and do not need to break your marketing budget for it."
And he concludes, "we can not live without the OTA, but we can take advantage of great technologies to ensure that we work for the hotel is getting a fair share of direct bookings." (See: 'Hotel Distribution: far be left to the OTA').
Page web.- The most important part of any online strategy is the website of the hotel. Important aspects to consider or at least to raise the suppliers or technical staff:
- Responsive design, because now Google penalizes pages that do not have it searches through mobile in.
- Promoting customer feedback, showing them that you increase online conversions.
- Upgrade the photos if they have more than three years, because they are key to the hotels.
- Hang videos fundamental in the sales process: a video about it on your website is a big selling point because Google also loves.
- Quickly Update content: does not seem to leave this task to others is the best idea when we live in an age where content is king. Refresh the web should be a matter of minutes.
- Web in different languages: numerous studies show that when the hotel page is translated into the language of their customers are more likely to book there directly.
- Landing pages and pop-up windows: if you can add to the site are very effective in capturing and retaining user data.
Booking engine
- The booking engine should be easy to use for the user. Many of them are great for revenue managers, but a minefield for the client, so from Hotelient recommend compare it with Booking and see the results.
- Show ons or extras when booking, as it is proven to increase revenue more than if exposed during the process. Booking does not and in those first moments the client surely what you are doing is to compare the prices of the hotel with an OTA.
- Create different booking engines for special offers: place the booking engine more and more pages with only some of the promotions of the hotel is vital to increase revenue. In Hotelient advise ask the provider if you can create something.
Connectivity
If the channel manager can not connect to Google, TripAdvisor, Trivago and other metasearch engines, look for alternative solutions.
- Separate the channel manager of the booking engine, because the success of the latter will depend on how the supplier invests to keep up with industry trends, so that separating both enable the hotel to move more freely between providers without discomfort.
Advertising / SEO
- If the hotel is already investing in Adwords but is not connected to Google HPA (Hotel Price Ads), the entrepreneur has to solve. Google also RLSA (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads) has better conversion rate and can be a smarter investment.
- The ads 'retargeting' have proven to be an interesting investment because studies show that customers visit about 20 pages before deciding where to book.
- The hotel should make sure your site is updated on keywords, description and SEO titles on all your pages.
- SEO is not just backlinks. Google uses over 200 algorithms, so do only one thing is not enough.
Reputation
- Reputation is the key not only to monitor but also to encourage direct sales.
- The hotel therefore must generate online reactions of customers to promote them through their social networks, website and videos.
Social media
- If the Community Manager is only promoting offers and showing pictures and videos of the hotel, the employer should ask him to stop or even replace him.
- Social networks have to do with storytelling, interaction and conversation. A rule of thumb is that only 20% of the content should be promotional; the rest should focus on the destination, events, interesting stories, interviews, etc.
- Create a YouTube channel with hotel videos, interviews and guest reviews it is also a great tool. 40% of all searches is video and this percentage is expected to rise to 70% by 2018.
Other technologies
- Social WiFi: solicit clients that connect to free WiFi through their social media profiles should be obvious to the hotels. This not only get more followers, but also get your e-mail that can be added to its marketing database.
- The concierge apps should be mandatory that give customers information about the hotel, including offers, events and more. According to recent studies, 85% of smartphone users prefer applications to mobile websites. The apps also reduce the cost of printing brochures and new directories. (See: 'Apps vs. mobile websites in the hotel sector', published by News HOSTELTUR tourism).
The consultant John Kearney is convinced that there are many more areas in which to think, but considers that these are a good start.
A recent study by Kearney reveals that over 70% of hotels receives less than 35% of its reserves for direct sales online. With the implementation of each of the points raised has managed to increase by 60% direct bookings while working in hotels. "It can be done and do not need to break your marketing budget for it."
And he concludes, "we can not live without the OTA, but we can take advantage of great technologies to ensure that we work for the hotel is getting a fair share of direct bookings." (See: 'Hotel Distribution: far be left to the OTA').
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