We’ve worked with more than 5,000 accommodations in the past two years running online HealthChecks and providing marketing and booking/distribution tools.
Sadly, only a very small percentage do their online marketing well in our experience, and as a result leave a lot of business on the table.
Typical failings include no fresh content, no upsells or promotions, no Tripadvisor responses etc
NB: This is a viewpoint from Len Cordiner, chief executive of Hotel Link Solutions.
This was reinforced in a recent study we did on a cluster of 63 similar types of accommodation in the Pacific Region.
All had been equipped in the past three years with the latest responsive websites and booking/distribution tools.
Looking at total booking numbers and revenues for the 12 months to end April 2016, we found that just four properties from this group generated more than 50% of the total revenue and bookings through online channels.
A staggering result …so we began to drill down.
Sorting the good from the bad
The poor performers were almost universally guilty of a "set and forget" mentality.
They now had a nice SEO-friendly, responsive website, a booking engine, and the two to three online travel agency channels they used previously set up in their channel manager.
The belief (hope) was that they could tick the online marketing box now as "done", and get back to their day job.
The properties doing well on the other hand were not doing anything dramatic.
They had simply taken a very structured approach to doing lots of little things well; in the process leveraging much of the capacity of the tools they’d been provided.
They used the live chat, they proactively sought feedback, they ran specials and upsells, they broadened distribution, they added more content to their websites, etc.
Lessons learned
In reality it was little more than good housekeeping ...the little things done every day, every week and every month to grow their business.
There were no magic bullets in the online marketing they were doing.
Simply, they were doing lots of things, most all of them running in parallel.
Importantly they were measuring everything they did, focusing on the activities that got results and constantly fine tuning as they went.
So we set about building a good housekeeping style guide to capture all this best practice and put it down with key insights that accommodations can implement immediately.
Based on what we’ve learned from successful accommodations, there are tools/functionality we recommend are switched on all the time … like live chat, specials/promos, booking extras, best price guarantees etc.
These are all features most good booking engines and websites provide.
Then, follow the daily, weekly and monthly “good housekeeping” tasks we’ve identified as delivering the best outcomes.
These housekeeping tasks range from proactively managing social media and content marketing to continuously building out distribution.
We’ve tried to ensure it is suitable for any level of knowledge, supported by real-life examples and links to further reading.
Make sure you have the right tools before you begin
Of course some accommodations reading this guide will find they are handicapped by the lousy tools they have currently (e.g. websites which are not responsive; very slow to load; difficult to update; and booking engines which are likewise hard to use, lack basic functionality, lack booking prompts etc.), so we’ve detailed both the tools you need and the features to look for when selecting a provider.
The reality today is that most independent accommodations will be able to source excellent websites and booking/distribution tools for under US$100 per month capable of supporting all the housekeeping tasks we recommend.
There is really no excuse to hold back.
Finally we try to demystify some of the more advanced digital marketing techniques which can be deployed, advocating a cautious “test as you go” entry.
Again there are no magic bullets here.
You will need to work with a good agency, try many things, measure everything you do, and zero in on the ones working for your business.
NB: This is a viewpoint from Len Cordiner, chief executive of Hotel Link Solutions.
The full guide can be downloaded here.
NB2: Hotel online marketing image via Digitalista for BigStockPhoto