The Power of Promotions

This is the third blog in the Hotel Marketing 101 series. Check out the first and second posts of this series and be sure to check back every Tuesday for more Hotel Marketing tips. In the next Hotel Marketing blog, we'll discuss online promotions.

Hotel Marketing 101: The Power of Promotions

For many hotel owners, running a promotion seems like giving away inventory. Considering the frightening state of the economy, some hoteliers feel like they have no choice. Others still play the price match game with their competitors, making it incredibly difficult to manage revenue effectively. Here's a few suggestions on profitable promotion techniques to help you move some inventory without giving it away.

There are 6 necessary elements to a promotional campaign:

1. Define your objectives. Of course, the primary objective is to make more money but clearly defining the reason for the promotion, such as sales dropping by 20%  last quarter, is essential for your success. Outline the value of the promotion, be it holiday-specific discounts, complimentary add-ons, group discounts, etc.
2. Know your target audience. While it is true that blanket promotions can work, they can also do a lot of harm in regard to your hotel's perceived value. Design promotions to groups who travel frequently to your destination, be it business travelers, sports fans, avid bird watchers. You get the idea.
3. Specify your timeline. A simple but necessary step is outlining the start and end date of the promotion.
4. Analyze your margin after the discount. Without a proper pricing analysis, your promotion could do more harm than good. Resist picking a number out of thin air and do some basic math. Evaluate your margins on each room type and subtract the discount from it. If the leftover margin is not sustainable you'll have to be more creative.
5. Getting your promotion to the target audience. There are a variety of ways to run promotions. One of the simplest is through social media. Online Travel Agents (OTAs) are another great promo channel (be sure to set those up with your Central Reservations Service provider or PMS interface so that it is visible in those channels). Most importantly, promote deals on your website and within your booking engine!
6. Define what equals success to you. Success looks different to every property so define what works to meet your specific needs. For example, sales have increased by X% this month, leading to X% increase in revenue because of this specific promotion or add-on.
7. Ok, I lied, there's 7. Keep going. If this promotion doesn't work, try something new. If it does, keep going!

Some Outside-of-the-box Promotion Ideas

So you don't want to do a steep price discount and I can't say I blame you, but that shouldn't stop you from finding creative ways to make more money. While potential guests come in all shapes and sizes, they all have one thing in common: they want to know they got a good deal.

• In every scenario, the promotion has to back out to your desired ADR. One way to achieve this is through a price mark-up of 20% that you then discount by the same amount. You sell the room at your desired rate and have increased the perceived value to the customer.
• Participate in an OTA promotion. Sites like Priceline, Travelocity, Hotwire, etc are a great place to run last minute deals while also improving your visibility on these sites. For InnLink customers, we just ran a Priceline promo that was quite successful for our customers. Important note on OTA promotions: your promotion discount is on top of the percentage you pay to OTAs per reservation.
• Tacking on an extra night during the off season or on Sundays when business is normally slower.
• No fees package that includes free wifi, parking, hotel shuttle, etc.
• Reach out to your local Convention and Visitors Bureau to see if they have any partnership opportunities. Perhaps they are willing to market your property on the destination's website.

Marketing with Social Channels

This blog on Marketing with Social Channels is the second post in our Hotel Marketing 101 series. In the next post, we'll tell you how to use advertising campaign tools to promote your business.

Hotel Marketing 101: Marketing with Social Channels

In the increasingly-competitive world of travel marketing, hotels have to be creative in promoting their properties. Property owners should be careful to use appropriate social channels to help grow their business. Deciding where to begin can be a daunting task if you're doing it on your own, and an expensive undertaking if you hire someone else to do it for you.

For starters, you need to know your typical guests and where they are looking when researching travel. Know what brings visitors to your area and be part of the conversation that is happening around your destination. Maybe your destination is known for specific landmarks, maybe it’s the location of an annual convention, maybe it’s a popular place for weddings. Knowing why people visit allows you to fully engage with them. Highlight the unique aspects of your area and your property with image and video galleries, and give site users the ability to share across social channels. Invite visitors to share their travel experiences, leave reviews for your property and easily interact with your website.

Don't have a website? You can easily create a simple, yet effective, website using sites like Wordpress.com.

Next, choose the appropriate channels for promoting your property. First and foremost, your own website should be the number one source of information about your property. A blog is a great way to engage potential guests while also providing fresh content on your site (think organic SEO). Always include social media sharing icons and subscriber options on each blog post as well.

Quick tip: E-newsletters are a great way to stay relevant and visible to potential visitors. If you want to do it yourself, try an email provider like MailChimp which is free-of-charge and has pre-designed templates for ease-of-use.

Facebook is an excellent channel for engaging a diverse audience. Post links to your blogs on your hotel Facebook page to generate and maintain reciprocal traction. Invite local residents to contribute their own stories and images. Most importantly, monitor your page for undesirable content and be sure to respond to user posts in a timely fashion.

Twitter can be an excellent tool for allowing you to build report with local tourism partners by announcing last minute travel deals, hotel promos, activities and upcoming events.

Develop your social media goals around these three criteria: visibility, relevance, and simplicity. Spreading your efforts across all channels may increase your visibility but greatly reduce your relevance and simplicity of access to qualified viewers. Set realistic goals for the social channels you have chosen and give it time to develop.

Leading the Conversation

This is the first post in our Hotel Marketing 101 series where we will be giving you the necessary information to successfully market your hotel and increase reservations.

Hotel Marketing 101: Leading the Conversation

Imagine this scenario; you overhear two teenage girls having a conversation in a coffee shop. One girl is talking about how her parents are buying a car for her birthday and the other is talking about what a jerk her boyfriend is. What you have just witnessed could be called a conversation, the only problem is that there’s no filler. Nothing that is relevant to you, no pertinent information exchanged just fluff and nonsense.

Great marketers will tell you that what fuels a successful marketing machine is quality content. The hottest website design is pointless without rich, well-crafted content. A brochure is just an attractive piece of paper if it doesn't say anything relevant. Likewise, conversation between two people is pretty boring if neither of them is really saying anything. Yet content is something few business owners invest in developing, leaving potential customers with half the story.

Take a moment to evaluate your website content. When is the last time you updated it? Are you communicating pertinent information to your potential guests? It is easy to view your own website with blinders, believing that you've accomplished the important task of just having a website. But does it effectively communicate what potential customers need to know about your business? Ask a friend to read through your website. Or better yet, think about a product you would like to purchase. Go to a few websites and research that product. You can easily see the gaps in information as you desperately search for details like product dimensions, available colors, or even which store has it in stock right now. Unfortunately, these gaps in information can also happen on your website and they can equal potential revenue loss as frustrated customers turn elsewhere for the information they seek.

Now more than ever, consumers are making purchasing decisions on an emotional level but more importantly they are researching a greater variety of sources before making these purchases. So first you must be found, be where they are looking for information, and be the richest source of information. Don’t give away this opportunity and corresponding revenue to Online Travel Agencies (which we went over in one of our posts about OTAs).  And finally, use your content to really communicate who you are to potential customers. Lead the conversation, and avoid blowing a lot of hot air.

GDS, OTA, and metasearch - Oh my!

Managing the Online Travel Space

I’m sure you’ve heard these terms thrown around our industry but exactly how they interact with hotels can be tricky, even for the most seasoned hotel owner. Correctly navigating these channels are of utmost importance to your success so let’s take a moment for a brief overview.

The Global Distribution System, known simply as GDS, was first created by the airline industry for managing flight reservation data but has since grown to 4 major companies; Worldspan, Amadeus, Galileo, and Sabre, and include inventory for flight, hotels, car rentals, etc. The GDS is accessed by traditional and online travel agents (OTAs), airlines, hotels, car rentals companies, as well as Central Reservation Services (CRS) like InnLink to manage and process reservations. Hotels can utilize a CRS like InnLink to manage their GDS connections, rates, and inventory or contract with each GDS individually and manage all inventories independently.

How to Be Found

OTAs, such as Travelocity, Priceline, and Hotels.com, were created to give guests access to hotel reservation booking while bypassing a traditional travel agent. Today, OTAs are the source of a large portion of all travel bookings and independent properties may find themselves dependent on them for reservations. There is a cost to this exposure however, which typically reaches 25% of each reservation made through the OTA. Fortunately, the tides are turning and travelers are using many sources like TripAdvisor and OTAs as a research source before finally booking using the hotel’s website.

Metasearch is a relatively recent development in the travel industry but the idea has existed for quite some time. Metasearch basically expands the search parameters a guest can use to find a hotel, pulling from a variety of sources.

In early 2013, TripAdvisor launched their metasearch pilot for hotels which allows users to search for hotels based not only on name, but also on factors like location, price, property type, and chain while also cross-referencing with TripAdvisor review types.

Google Hotel Finder works on the same basic premise, dedicating a specific Google search engine just for finding hotels. It gives the guest the option to book directly from the search window or visit the hotel’s website.

GDS, OTAs, and metasearch are a solid foundation from which to build your hotel marketing strategy. Ultimately, reservations made through your website are the most affordable for your business. In the next few months, we will explore more ways to stay competitive with OTAs. Until then…

Marketing, what is it good for?

In recent years, the Marketing profession has been perceived negatively as many larger corporations have abused their powers to persuade the masses to purchase anything from Chia pets to cheeseburgers. It is true that these tactics of creating need and perceived value can be used in a harmful way, but at their best they create renowned brand recognition, generate sales, and develop strategies that  lead companies to long-term growth and prosperity.

Below are functions of a typical marketing department:

1. Identify and befriend your customers.
2. Know your market and monitor your competition.
3. Create and propagate the corporate brand.
4. Recruit and direct outside vendors.
5. Foster Innovation.
6. Simplify your internal communications.
7. Strategize effectively within a finely-tuned budget.
8. Develop a strategy that completes specific goals and delivers expected ROI.
9. Observe, adapt, anticipate, plan, execute. … and be ready to improvise at a moment’s notice.

The Marketing department of InnLink is no different. Comprised of just two people, Mary Beth Folger and Victoria Vanderveer, our Marketing department supports the needs of 4 distinct brands and develops marketing strategies that support the goals of each brand in the marketplace. They handle both internal communications and any client-facing element of our business to inspect it for branding, messaging, and consistency. The Marketing department meets with internal clients to develop campaigns and coordinates with outside vendors to pursue work required beyond the capabilities or time constraints of the team. Perhaps the most important function of marketing, however, is researching our industry as well as our competition to ensure we remain effective and relevant to our customers. This function is at the root of every product and service that we develop. But while it is Marketing's specific, assigned task to be customer-focused, it's important to remember that all departments contribute to a positive experience for the customer.