In simple terms, emotional intelligence or EQ refers to the ability to understand and manage emotions, both within ourselves and in others. It’s all about being aware of how you feel, and how others feel, and using that awareness to interact socially with grace and empathy.

Picture this: You walk into a room, and without anyone saying a word, you can sense the underlying vibes in the air. You know when someone is happy, upset, or maybe a little stressed out. 

Well, that’s the power of emotional intelligence! But do you know emotional intelligence plays a vital role in the hospitality industry as well? In fact, they go hand in hand like two peas in a pod.

Wondering how? Let me explain further in this blog. 

Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Hospitality

Hospitality, at its core, is all about providing exceptional service and creating memorable experiences for guests. It’s about going the extra mile to ensure their comfort, satisfaction, and delight. And that’s where emotional intelligence steps in as the key ingredient in the hospitality industry.

As a hotelier, emotional intelligence can bring you a multitude of benefits. In this industry, where interactions with guests are frequent and varied, having a high EQ can make a significant impact in providing exceptional service. 

And trust me, by combining your EQ skills with the core principles of hospitality, you can deliver extraordinary experiences, connect with your guests, and create a positive work environment at the same time.

From understanding guests’ needs to creating an effective work culture, EQ skills play a very important role in hotel service. Let’s explore a few of them.

Role of Emotional Intelligence in Hotel Service

Emotional intelligence skills play a significant role in improving the hospitality industry. Here are some ways in which EQ can help to enhance your hotel service:

1. Providing excellent customer service

Have you ever thought about transforming a mere stay into a memorable experience for the guests? If yes, you’re thinking in the right direction but what you need is the right skill. 

When it comes to providing exceptional customer service in hotels, emotional intelligence is like having a sixth sense. With your EQ skills, you can tune in to their emotions, know how they’re feeling during their stay, and respond to them accordingly. 

You can go beyond the standard “How can I assist you?” and offer a personalized touch. Whether it’s suggesting activities they’ll love, or simply being there to listen and empathize, EQ lets us create experiences that make our guests feel truly special and cared for. 

These small moves can sometimes really make big changes in your hotel service, ultimately creating a loyal following of happy guests who can’t wait to return. 

2. Maintaining guest relations

Using EQ is all about understanding our guests on a whole new level, and let me tell you, it makes a world of difference. 

Your EQ skills can help to maintain positive guest relations by understanding guest needs, living up to their expectations and handling their feedback gracefully. It also helps create genuine connections with your guests ultimately building long-term relationships and brand loyalty. 

For Example: By understanding your guests’ preferences and cultural backgrounds, you can offer recommendations for dining and activities that align with their preferences. This gesture not only gets appreciated but builds a connection with your guests. 

3. Effective communication

Communication is the key to creating strong relationships. EQ is a powerful skill that helps strengthen your communication skills, helps to express yourself clearly and listens actively to guests’ concerns. 

EQ enhances active listening, understanding others’ perspectives, and expressing oneself effectively. It helps resolve conflicts and create meaningful connections with guests and colleagues. With EQ, communication has become a powerful tool for delivering amazing hotel service and building positive relationships with your guests. 

Must read: 9 Strategies To Master Guest Communication At Your Hotel

4. Hotel staff training

Emotional intelligence plays a significant role in training your hotel staff as they are the ‘Face of your Hotel.’ It helps them improve how they interact with guests and with each other. 

EQ helps them to understand people’s feelings, listen better, and communicate effectively. Also, it encourages them to keep learning and getting better at what they do.

Plus, adding EQ to their skillset can create a more motivated and productive workforce, which can improve the hotel’s overall performance.

5. Create a welcoming atmosphere

Just imagine, after a long and exhausting trip you go to the hotel for check-in. However, the staff member at the front desk simply started a physical check-in procedure and kept you waiting until all documentation was completed. It’s obvious, you’re going to feel unappreciated and not welcomed.

You might’ve heard it: First Impression is The Last Impression. A warm and welcoming atmosphere is crucial for a positive guest experience and relations. Using EQ skills, you can create an environment where guests feel comfortable and appreciated. 

Staff who display genuine warmth, friendliness, and a willingness to assist can create memorable stays. This positive atmosphere leaves a lasting impression on guests and enhances their overall experience.

6. Stress management

Being a hotelier is not easy, right? The industry can be fast-paced, demanding, and full of unexpected challenges but amidst all these, EQ can be a real game-changer when it comes to managing stress. 

From handling demanding guests to juggling multiple tasks, our EQ skills allow us to stay cool, calm, and collected. When we lead with EQ, we inspire our team members to do the same. 

Remember, you’re not alone in this journey, and with your emotional intelligence by your side, you’ve got to prioritize your well-being and do what it takes to shine in the world of hospitality!

7. Managing guest conflicts

No matter how hard you try, conflicts are inevitable, right? But clear and empathetic communication can help to bridge gaps in understanding and find mutually satisfactory resolutions during conflicts. 

Emotional intelligence can enhance your active listening skills so that you listen to the guest’s perspective attentively and offer alternative solutions that meet their needs while considering the limitations or policies of the hotel. 

Rather than seeing conflicts as negative experiences, you & your staff can use them as learning to identify potential areas of improvement in service delivery 

By using EQ, conflicts can be addressed promptly, resolved satisfactorily, and even transformed into opportunities for improvement and strengthening guest relationships.

Must Read: How To Deal With Guest Conflicts At Your Hotel?

Tips to provide emotionally intelligent customer service in hotels

1. Show empathy and understanding

Put yourself in the shoes of the guest and try to understand their emotions and needs. Show genuine care and concern when interacting with them. Instead of just analyzing their situation, try to empathize with your guests.

2. Continuously learn and improve

Maintain your composure even in challenging situations. Avoid reacting defensively or taking conflicts personally. Respond with professionalism and a focus on finding solutions that improve yourself. Look for win-win outcomes that address their needs while considering hotel policies.

3. Offer personalized service

Tailor your service to the specific preferences and needs of the guest. Show that you genuinely care about their satisfaction by going the extra mile to make their stay memorable. For example; asking for and serving their favourite drinks as a welcoming gesture.

4. Practice self-care

Most importantly, take care of your own emotional well-being to ensure that you can provide the best service to guests. Take breaks, engage in stress-relieving activities, and seek support when needed.

The post Emotional Intelligence: The Key to Hotel Service Excellence appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Well, that’s exactly how urgency tactics work. They are techniques used to create curiosity or scarcity in order to encourage people to take action quickly. 

As a hotel owner, driving bookings on your website is a critical aspect of your business’s success. But with so much competition online, it’s really difficult to persuade website visitors to choose your hotel exclusively.

Don’t worry! We’ve covered everything you need to learn and implement, in this blog. 

Read on to know how to use these tactics to drive more bookings and maximize revenue.

Why using urgency tactics are an effective strategy for hotels?

Urgency tactics are a powerful tool for increasing hotel website conversions. Think about it – we all have busy lives and endless options to choose from when it comes to accommodations. Thus, urgency tactics are mostly used to capture attention and make searchers realize that they could miss out on an incredible experience if they don’t act fast.

Plus, urgency tactics help you stand out from the competition and show your guests that you’ve got something special to offer. These strategies are all designed to create FOMO i.e. Fear Of Missing Out, which encourages lookers to act quickly and secure their reservation. 

Urgency tactics can be in any form, from pop-up messages to countdown timers. They can be triggered by a variety of factors, such as limited-time offers, low stock levels, or high demand. Whatever the form is, it’s all about creating excitement to book with you before they lose the opportunity. 

If this sounds complicated, I am here to help! In this blog, we’ll explore some effective urgency tactics that hoteliers can use to drive more bookings on their hotel websites.

6 Urgency Tactics hotels can use to increase website conversions

1. One-Time Offers

One of the most popular urgency tactics is to offer a limited-time promotion. By setting a deadline for the offer, you create a sense of urgency that encourages customers to act quickly.

You might have seen OTAs using those “Book now and receive 20% off your stay” or “Upgrade to a suite for free if you book within the next 24 hours” on their websites. Undoubtedly, these encourage website visitors to book then and there.

One-time offers are also effective when targeted to specific audiences, such as previous guests or email subscribers. By offering an exclusive one-time offer to these audiences, you can build customer loyalty and encourage repeat bookings.

2. Special Discounts

Let’s say you signed up for a website and it was a 25% discount for first-time buyers. Isn’t that appealing? I mean, who wants to miss this one-time chance? When new searchers visit your website, they may be hesitant to book without some incentive. Offering a special discount for new bookers can encourage them to take action quickly.

Similarly, by using language such as “Summer special price” or “Exclusive offer for new customers,” you can create an immediate need that encourages new bookers to make a purchase before the deal expires.

However, it’s important to ensure that the discounts you offer are sustainable for your business and align with your overall marketing strategy.

3. Countdown Timers

Have you ever had the urge to buy something because of the ‘Deal Ends In 00:02:14 min’ timer? It’s true, we are usually attracted to anything that is visually expressive. A countdown timer is one such visual element that displays the amount of time left before an offer expires, such as a discount or limited-time deal.

You might have seen e-commerce websites using this tactic, as it works really well. Similarly, with countdown timers on your hotel website, you can build excitement among your potential guests.

By showing them exactly how much time is left before an offer expires, you encourage them to take action quickly and make a booking with you.

4. Direct Messaging

Direct messaging or sending notifications to your website visitors or subscribers is always a plus as you can communicate with your potential guests on a more personal level and provide them with a personalized experience. 

One of the ways to use direct messaging as an urgency tactic is to send automated messages to potential guests who have abandoned their booking process.

Using personalized or automated messages, and real-time updates not only increase your website conversion rate but improve your brand loyalty as well.

For example, notifying subscribers about your loyalty programme. Loyalty members might receive exclusive discounts on room rates or complimentary upgrades. This can encourage customers to join the loyalty program in order to receive those benefits.

5. Use powerful words

What impacts the mind of searchers? Influencing words like “quick,” “fast”, ”best price guarantee”, “hurry” and many more. By using these words strategically in your marketing messages, your website visitors will be encouraged to take action quickly, ultimately driving conversions on your hotel website.

You can also use powerful words in your call-to-action (CTA) and encourage potential guests to take action quickly. For example, using CTAs like “Book now” or “Hurry” to encourage a sense of anticipation for potential guests to reserve a room quickly.

6. Low availability alerts

It’s human nature. People are more motivated to act when they perceive something as being in short supply. Notifying your potential guests that – only a few rooms are left or that the room they are interested in is in high demand will make them urge to book with you instantly.

You can display alerts on the website when there are only a limited number of rooms left available for a particular date or at a particular rate. This can stimulate a sense of demand and encourage customers to reserve before the rooms are sold out.

Additionally, you can also encourage your website visitors using popularity notifications such as ‘185 booked this in last 10 days’ or ‘25 people are viewing this right now.’ These can also encourage visitors to book with you promptly.

The post Increase Your Hotel Website Bookings with 6 Powerful Urgency Tactics appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Hotels that manage to keep a keen eye on the trends and happenings, always outplay their competitors and succeed. But keeping a tap on every aspect of the industry doesn’t seem possible.  

But again, you don’t have to know about everything. Even a certain number of hospitality industry statistics could help you ace your hoteliering game.

In this blog, I have listed some of the prominent insights from various aspects of the travel and hospitality industry.

I believe, these global hospitality industry statistics should definitely be on your radar if you want to take your hotel to the next level. 

Important Hospitality Statistics for Hoteliers to Keep In Mind

The key to success in the hotel industry is to continuously find different and new ways to deliver exceptional guest experiences. And for that, you need to understand what’s happening in the entire hospitality landscape.

To make it easier for you, here are some of the prime statistics that you, as a hotelier, should keep on your radar.

What do numbers say about the current state of the industry?

1. The global hotel industry was valued at US$ 628.4 billion in 2021. (TMR)
2. The market size of the global hotel and resort industry, which was $1.52 trillion in 2019 fell below one trillion in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak. (Statista)
3.  In 2022, the global hotel and resort industry market was forecast to reach $1.06 trillion. (Statista)
4. Hotel room nights demand and room revenues in 2022 are expected to nearly return to 2019 levels. Room revenue is expected to reach $168 billion and occupancy is projected to be 63.4%. (AHLA)
5. In 2022, the global travel and tourism revenue will reach over $600 million. (Statista)
6. In 2021, 2,246 hotels opened worldwide, with a forecast increase of 2,805 hotel openings in 2022. (Statista)

What will the hospitality industry look like in 2024 and beyond?

7. By the end of 2031, the global hotel and resort industry market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 8.1% and reach US$ 1.27 trillion. (Statista)
8. By 2023, the global travel and tourism revenue will return to a pre-pandemic amount of over 730 million with hotels being the main contributing segment to this increase. (Statista)
9. The global hotel and travel accommodation industry is projected to have a CAGR of 7% by 2025, resulting in a market value of $1.05 trillion. (Zippia)
10. Room demand is likely to reach an all-time high in 2023 and continue to shoot up in 2024. (Costar)
11. Online sales in the hotel segment will generate 80% of total revenue by 2026. (Statista)

The types of travel people are betting on at present

12. 71% of global travelers want to travel more sustainably compared to 2021 data. (Booking.com)
13. 38% of global travelers look for information on the sustainability efforts of a property before they book. (Booking.com)
14. 78% of respondents think there is still more to do to make more sustainable stay options easier to find for everyone. (Booking.com)
15. Despite global economic and political uncertainty, 72% of respondents feel traveling is still worth it. (Hospitalitynet)
16. 43% of travelers are likely to use virtual reality for their travel choices. (Hospitalitynet)
17. 46% are more likely to travel somewhere they otherwise wouldn’t have if they could experience it virtually first. (Hospitalitynet)
18. In 2023, 42% of travelers want to go on a break that focuses on their mental and physical health. (Hospitalitynet)

Technology’s pivotal role in the hospitality industry

19. Around 70% of millennials prefer to book with hotels that offer technologies like contactless check-in and payments. (Eastern Peak)
20. 80% of hotel guests would prefer to download and use a hotel app to check in, check out and check information about the hotel. (Hotel Management)
21. 47% of hotel guests would prefer to order room service if the hotel has the option of ordering via an app. (Hotel Management)
22. With technology, around 93% of hoteliers witnessed the biggest gains in terms of efficiency. (Hotel Operations)
23. Around 89% of on-property respondents are likely to report their teams benefited from technology. (Hotel Operations)
24. More than 50% of hoteliers feel technology companies don’t understand their needs. (Hotel Operations)

How Do Statistics Benefit Hotel Businesses?

The travel and hospitality industry highly depends on numbers and trends. Keeping a tap on statistics helps hotel businesses understand their strengths and what may be working against them.

To get a clear picture, let’s look at the specific benefits of statistics.

Services Recommendation

When a hotel collects detailed information derived from sources, it can analyze that data and predict trends for the upcoming months or years. And this is really important for improving offerings, finding newer and better ways to attract customers, and boosting sales.

For example, research shows that travelers going to hill stations for trekking are more likely to avail of services from the hotel itself. Now, as a hotelier, you should first do your research on the same and if things turn out to be true, you must get your hands into setting up trekking offers and deals.

Revenue Management

Numbers are at the heart of hotel revenue management. Although figures that relate directly to the hotel are usually preferred, ignoring general data from the industry isn’t a great thing to do.

With relevant numbers from the industry, revenue managers can perform better analyses to predict customer behavior and optimize strategies to maximize revenue.

In other words, it all boils down to understanding the supply and demand trends and identifying what actually travellers value the most.

Let’s look at the stat that reads “travel and tourism revenue worldwide will return to a pre-pandemic amount, which is 730 million, and hotels are going to be the main contributors.” For us, this might seem like data about the industry reviving but for hotel revenue managers it is an opportunity to bring in more cash to the register.

Marketing Efficiency

Hotel marketing is definitely one of those aspects that benefits to a greater level with statistics. It allows hotel marketers to understand what exactly travelers are seeking. Once they get a hold of the traveler’s preferences, it becomes really easy to run relevant marketing campaigns.

If you look at the current trends section of the block, it emphasizes highly on sustainable travel. Now, if hoteliers manage to somehow leverage the sustainability quotient in their marketing campaigns, they are more likely to attract guests looking for sustainable stay options.

However, ensure that your efforts to showcase sustainability aren’t relying on greenwashing.

The post Hospitality Industry Statistics You Must Check Before Stepping Into 2024 appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Time flies, but some things don’t change. Even today, guests look for kid-friendly hotels, to spend time with their children, amidst a safe and serene environment without compromising on their quality of vacation.

To attract such guests you need to make your hotel child-friendly. How?

Simple, continue reading…

What is a kid-friendly hotel?

Kid-friendly hotels better known as family hotels, are accommodation facilities that have deployed certain measures with various facilities for kids to enjoy in a safe surrounding.

Let me give you an example. Auchrannie Resort, a beautiful property located in Isle of Arran, United Kingdom, is one of the best child-friendly hotels across the UK. 

The resort offers a variety of services and facilities for families with children, making their vacation a wonderful experience. They have a speciality restaurant that has a separate menu for kids.

Moreover, the property arranges for a babysitter if guests require one. Apart from that, the resort has various activities to enjoy such as bikes for exploring the area, games (basketball, volleyball, tennis), swimming pool (a separate one for kids with lifeguard), spa, and whatnot.

Obviously, even you would like to travel to such properties with your families and enjoy it without stressing about what your kids are doing. 

So, why not make your hotel child-friendly that would compel guests to choose you over others?

How to make your hotel child-friendly and entertaining?

I’m sure, the above example must have intrigued you to find tips to make your hotel kid-friendly. So, without much ado, let me get straight to the ways you should implement at your property. 

1. Allot certain room for families

To begin with, I would suggest you dedicate some of your large rooms (suites or rooms with king-size beds) specifically for families.

The reason why I say this is because it will save your time whenever a family checks in. You can directly allocate them your family room, without even needing it to customise for things like extra beds.

All you need to do is keep those rooms ready for guests travelling with children. 

Just invest in some additional amenities apart from your usual ones, deploy them in the rooms, and voila! It’s done.

You might be wondering what those additional amenities are. Let me answer your question in the next point.

2. Get your rooms ready for kids

Suppose, you offer various amenities to your guests in a room such as bathrobes, towels, dental kits, slippers, and TCM. It’s obvious that those would be for adults and would not be feasible for kids.

So, what to do in such a case?

Simple, invest in amenities that can cater to kids. For example, you can vouch for baby dental kits, small sized bathrobes and slippers, hot chocolate mix for kids, or fruit juice and shakes.

You can promote these amenities on your hotel’s website with relevant pictures. This will help you in fetching more bookings from guests looking for child-friendly hotels.

3. Prepare a customised menu and dishes for kids

Now that your rooms are ready, let’s do something more for the kids who would be staying at your hotel. You know children are cranky in nature when it comes to food. 

Most of the kids are attracted to fast foods like pizzas, burgers, ice creams, and the list goes on. But they are unhealthy, which is another reason for parents to worry. 

This problem gets doubled when they visit any hotel, as kids compel them to order a certain dish, and they don’t even finish it, thereby wasting both food and money.

You can offer a customised menu for kids to deal with such scenarios. The Bedruthan Hotel and Spa, UK, is a perfect reference for this strategy. 

They have dedicated an entirely separate restaurant area known as Wild Cafe for kids. They have curated a special menu for children with specific portion size that’s appropriate for one kid, thereby avoiding food wastage and revenue loss.

You can take an idea from this and implement it to make your hotel child-friendly too.

4. Make your hotel babyproof and entertaining

Another important step you need to take before opening your hotel for family guests is creating a safe environment for kids with activities for their entertainment.

First, you need to childproof your hotel; especially, the family rooms. 

Here are some tips that can work for you:

• Keep hazardous equipment out of reach
• Install soft carpets on the floor
• Place extra cushions in rooms 
• Cover electrical sockets
• Check for any maintenance work
• Avoid keeping any sharp objects in rooms (like cutlery, pen, or pencil)

Apart from that, train your staff to handle emergency situations in case of any accidents. Ask them to take precautionary measures while cleaning guest rooms and floors with children, as a minor mistake can result in a major mishap.

If your property has a swimming pool, keep a separate pool area for kids. Alternatively, you can schedule a separate timing for kids to enjoy.

However, in both cases ensure you keep a lifeguard available for monitoring the children. Also, if your budget allows you, arrange some video games, outdoor trampoline, swings, and slides for kids.

5. Surprise kids with gifts or chocolates at reception

Finally, it’s time to welcome kids at your hotel. But, how to get their attention in the first place?

Welcome them with a small gift like a toy or maybe chocolates. Kids love that! 

This is kind of an ice-breaker. If you manage to get their interests in your hotel at the check-in, trust me, they would enjoy staying at your property.

Moreover, if the kids are happy, the parents would definitely consider booking your property again.

6. Provide the parents with engagement activities

With all the above-mentioned steps being implemented at your property, I’m sure the kids would be engaged for quite a time. But, what about parents?

You need to take care of them too. What I mean is, the parents can now relax without being much worried about their kids, and you can do your part by making their stay more engaging.

Offer them activities like candle light dinner, city tour, or high-tea options. You can also arrange for craft or cooking classes, game nights, or any other options for families to enjoy an evening together. 

The post How To Make Your Hotel Child-friendly? [On-demand Article] appeared first on eZee Absolute.

It made me wonder, if I was a student or part of a military training camp. Eventually, my mentors guided me that both terms are miles apart from each other.

While working in the hospitality industry, I came across various opportunities and ways to do it. So today, let’s find more about SWOT analysis of hotels.

What is a SWOT analysis?

SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats. It’s an old-school way to assess an individual or a business at certain parameters.  

Many hotels adopt this technique before commencing their operations or when they face a critical situation. It gives an overview of all the angles that could affect their business negatively or positively.

But, being a traditional approach, hoteliers wonder if it’s necessary to perform their hotel’s SWOT analysis.

Why should you do your hotel’s SWOT analysis?

Let’s understand the importance of hotels SWOT analysis with a situation.

Say, you own a hotel amidst snowy mountains.  Initially, your property brims with guests. But soon enough, you notice a drop in the bookings. 

To recover from this loss, you deploy impromptu strategies. But none of them work.

The SWOT analysis comes into the picture here. It will give you an outlook of your hotel’s up-selling factors as well as the areas that have a scope of improvement.

How? 

First, let’s take a look and understand the hotel SWOT analysis report.

Here is a brief explanation of each point for better clarity.

Strengths of hotel: These are the key areas highlighted positively by guests. They give you an edge over your competitors. It could be location, food quality, polite staff, and such likes.

Weaknesses of hotel: Your property’s highly criticised aspects, falls under this segment. You tend to lose a majority of guests due to these points. Unclean rooms, rude staff, bad food, and slow services are some of the hotel weaknesses examples.

Opportunities of hotel: Any upcoming events, functions and holidays, which can bring you business are an opportunity. You can also consider any low-performing competitor in this vertical. 

Threats of hotel: What threatens your business? Reduced market share, well-performing competitors, hotel aggregators and so on. These are to name a few. Any factor that sweeps your guests away, is a part of this category.

Once you determine the core aspects of the SWOT, they will assist you in streamlining your focus points. You can then take corrective actions to improve your hotel’s performance.

What factors are to be considered while doing hotel SWOT analysis?

Now that you know what is SWOT analysis in hotels, it’s time to learn about the factors that will help you figure it out.

a. Revenue and forecasting report

I hope you read my previous blog on hotel reports. As stated in it, sales and forecasting reports play a vital role in the hospitality industry. 

An overview of your revenue based reports will give you a brief idea of your hotel’s performance. A gradual drop in the figures should trigger a red alert.

You can analyse the sales reports to see which department is contributing more towards the revenue.

Your priorities should be focusing on the areas where the cost incurred is more than the revenue generated.

b. Understanding market share index

Every hotel has a specific market share index. It provides them with a foresight to plan sales strategies.

In simple words, market share is all about determining your hotel’s performance with respect to your competitors. Calculating it is simple and doesn’t require working on heavy data.

All you need is the total room count of your hotel and other properties in your competitive set.

Let’s assume that your hotel has 20 rooms. You have three competitors, each with 20 rooms.

So, the total market potential would be 20*4=80 rooms per day.

Let’s say, each hotel achieved 50% occupancy every day for the entire week. So, the actual market potential would be, the sum of all the rooms sold in a week by each hotel.

In your case, it would be:

10*7 + 10*7 + 10*7 + 10*7 = 280 rooms.

Once you consolidate the data, it’s time to calculate your rightful and actual market share:

Let’s use this formula and understand your case study.

If we see, your actual and rightful market share are equal. This implies that your hotel is doing quite well in comparison to the competitors.

c. Competitor Analysis

In any business, competition is a MUST. Even in the hospitality industry, you will be the best until you have a compset (competitor set).

It’s quite simple to understand. If I were the only accommodation provider in my vicinity, it would make me rank at the top.

However, the real challenge would be when a new hotel opens in the same locality. The market share will split into two. 

It will be a tough competition. Guests will choose a hotel providing a better quality of services.

Similarly, during hotel SWOT analysis, it’s crucial to determine your compset. It will guide you in gauging your potential threats. 

Eventually, you can redefine your marketing strategies and work on your weaknesses to stay ahead of the game. 

So you can see, competitor analysis is quite an important step here.

d. Hotel reviews

Reviews are a pivotal factor during SWOT analysis of hotels. They provide a 360-degree view of any property’s best and worst features. 

Most of the OTAs and reviewing websites have keyword-based searches. If guests click on a specific word in the reviews tab, it shows them all the feedbacks related to it. 

It’s the best tool for hotels to analyse their most praised and criticised points by the guests. It helps them in understanding the property from the guests’ perspective.

How to prepare a hotel SWOT analysis report?

So, with all the mise-en-scène and mise-en-place ready, it’s time to create the hotel SWOT analysis report.

Although there are various ways to do it, I would suggest going with the quadrant method. Why?

1. It’s easy to understand
2. All the aspects are available on a single platform

It’s similar to using a graph in mathematics. Once you have created quadrants, start listing strengths and weaknesses of the hotel.

As I said earlier, use reviews to accomplish this task. You can opt for a reputation management tool. It will share a comprehensive report of positive and negative points from all the booking websites you are listed. 

After listing these points, check for upcoming social events in your city. Don’t forget to consider any carnivals, feasts, holidays or corporate conferences.

I would recommend exploring new market segments such as solo travellers, corporate guests and staycation as well.

This leads us to the last part of the SWOT analysis for hotel – Threats. As I said, disregarding your competitors is a grave mistake. 

I would suggest considering their reviews, market share, ADR, ARR and other verticals while mentioning threats. It will give you an accurate position of where your hotel stands in comparison to your competitors.

With all the relevant updates done, it’s time for you to use this report and make the necessary changes to be your guests’ best choice.

The post Here’s How You Can Do Hotel SWOT Analysis Effectively appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Whether planning or on a trip, travelers turn to TripAdvisor to compare prices of hotels, flights, and cruises. They also visit the site to book popular tours and attractions, as well as reserve tables at great restaurants. 

For that reason, TripAdvisor for hotels has proved to be the largest and most profitable channel.

So, in this blog, I am bringing the best ways to help you make the most of TripAdvisor.

Right from setting up your listing to acquiring bookings from it; I have covered A-Z of TripAdvisor for hotels.

Let’s begin with,

Why should hotels have a listing on TripAdvisor?

Well, before I start, let me give you some shocking highlights:

Source: Travel Media Group

Along with this, by the year 2020, the site draws

Source: TripAdvisor Media Centre

Now, the website is also available in nearly 50 countries and in dozens of languages.

TripAdvisor is known for its Popularity Ranking. This ranks hotel based on their scores from travelers.

• A survey carried out by Forrester states, a massive 81% of those surveyed said reviews are important, with just 3% saying they are not.

• Statistics by MGHworld suggest that over two-thirds of customers will avoid booking a hotel after reading one to three negative reviews.

Well, all these statistics sustain the fact that your target audience literally TRUST TripAdvisor.

Hence, neglecting TripAdvisor listing can turn out to be a significant mistake for your business. 

Having known the importance, let us understand,

Steps to claim your TripAdvisor business listing

You’d be surprised to know that nearly every hotel in the world is on TripAdvisor. 

Since a TripAdvisor Business Listing already exists for your hotel; you can either claim the existing listing or create a new one for yourself. 

By claiming your listing, you can access the tools needed to improve your reputation. This helps to get you more exposure and opportunities to build your brand.

You can check if the hotel is listed by visiting – Tripadvisor Listing.

If your business appears in the search results, it means your listing already exists on TripAdvisor. 

To claim, click on your business name and click the “Claim Your Business” option to sign up for TripAdvisor’s Management Center.

On the other hand, if you don’t find your business in the search results, here’s how you can add your TripAdvisor listing.

You can start creating a new listing by visiting – List your business on Tripadvisor.

On this web page, select your business type from – Hotels, Restaurants, Attractions, or Vacation Rentals. 

The process for adding your business and creating a listing on TripAdvisor is quite easy.

Following are the steps to create a new or claim an existing listing:

Step 1: Fill out the basic information about you and your business

Make sure that this information is correct and updated. Because TripAdvisor will send a message to the email address listed here, once the listing is published.

Step 2: Pin your business’ location on a map

TripAdvisor recommends you to drop the marker as close as possible to the entrance of the business. If it doesn’t have an entrance, drop the marker at its “geographic center.”

Step 3: Provide property details such as:

• Total number of rooms
• Price range
• Minimum stay requirements
• If you have on-site staff and security
• Details on front desk staffing
• If bathrooms are en suite
• Included amenities

Step 4: Describe your property

Add a property description. This helps users learn more about the business. It must be written in the local language, and it shouldn’t contain HTML code, contact information, or text in all caps.

Step 5: Add your profile photo

Firstly, you need to upload your business profile photo. This image will be displayed on the listing and serves as the first impression for users.

TripAdvisor guidelines state that the photo should be in a JPG or GIF file format and a maximum file size of 100 KB. (Without any borders or logos.)

Step 6: Hit “Submit”

After performing all these steps, all you have to do is submit the application. Verify that you are a representative of the business by clicking on the box at the bottom of the form. Then click the “Submit” button to send the application.

Once everything is done, TripAdvisor editors will then verify the details and send you a confirmation email.

This part of the process takes about five business days to complete.

Now let’s see,

Ways to optimize your listing on TripAdvisor

Along with having a listing, you need to optimize it in order to yield better results. Here are a few ways to do that:

1. Verify your information

Confirm that all the details on your listing are correct. 

Once you’ve registered, double-check that your business’ name, address, phone number, links to your website, and email is correct. 

You can make any edits in the Management Center by clicking "Profile" in the top menu and selecting "Manage Listing”. 

This will allow you to update or add information. As an official representative of the business, your edits will override any existing content.

Further, add a description of your property. Make sure that your property’s description content is rich, attractive, and helps you stand ahead of your competitors. 

In addition, include information about opening times, seasonal activities, suitability for children, or groups; everything that will help travelers select your attraction.

In this way, you can add a brand new listing on TripAdvisor.

2. Upload photos

The photos as well as videos of your property and your surroundings help travelers to set an expectation of their stay beforehand. 

The more the photos, the better will be the engagement.

As TripAdvisor says, businesses with 30 or more photos have 41% better engagement than those with 10 or fewer.

You are entitled to upload an unlimited number of images. Make sure you let travelers see what they can look forward to, whether it’s an adventurous walking tour or a beautiful outdoor park.  

Once you have a few pictures, select one as your primary photo to create a strong first impression amongst travelers.

3. Add booking links to your listing

TripAdvisor has partnered with external companies to allow travelers to make bookings directly from your listing. 

If you would like to get a ‘Book Now’ link on your listing, register your business on Viator. If you’re already a Viator supply partner, add more products here (sites available in English only).

Within each listing, TripAdvisor shows rates of other hotel booking sites like Booking.com and Priceline. However, you can set your own rate on TripAdvisor.

With the ‘Book Now’ button, customers can reserve a stay through TripAdvisor instead of going to another travel site. 

In addition to the button, there’s an ability to show live rates and overall availability on the listing page.

4. Add attractions in your listing

Attractions are to be added to the “Things to Do” section on TripAdvisor. 

To join this list, attractions must meet the following requirements:

• Shall be interesting to travelers
• Should meet TripAdvisor’s animal welfare policy
• Must be open or taking reservations for a future opening date
• Have an official name and permanent address
• Must be open to the public for at least 12 consecutive weeks

The sole exception to these requirements is “Performances”; such as specialty shops, museums, or nature areas that are at one venue for at least 24 consecutive weeks.

You can sign up as an attraction by following the same process on TripAdvisor Owners page. The only difference is that you select “Attractions” as the listing type.

After having your listing optimized, let us find ways on,

Ways to improve your TripAdvisor ranking

Your hotel’s ranking on TripAdvisor plays an important role to enhance online presence and get more bookings.

Popularity Ranking is based on user reviews and reflects your standing against other businesses within your geographical location. 

In addition, your property’s popularity ranking is important because it helps you appear higher in the search results.

TripAdvisor ranks your property based on these three main factors:

IMPORTANT: Asking customers to leave reviews is a great idea, but offering incentives is against TripAdvisor’s policy.

In con, along with quality and quantity, you need to ensure a consistent flow of strong and positive reviews. 

Remember,

More reviews help build confidence faster.

Moving ahead, let’s understand, 

How to drive more bookings from TripAdvisor?

The ultimate aim of your listing is to GET MORE BOOKINGS. So, here are some ways through which you can get more bookings from TripAdvisor:

1. Optimize your ranking in search results 

Search results pages are instrumental in helping travelers sort through all the accommodation options available and find the one that’s right for them. 

When travelers land on a search page, they’ve chosen their destination — or narrowed it down — and they’ve started to build a list of hotels that will become their consideration set. 

Below are a few examples of common pages a traveler may land on.

To sum up, your goal is to get noticed on any of these pages according to your property type.

2. Review Management 

The way you manage your reviews has a great impact on your presence and plays an important role to get you more bookings. 

With 100s of reviews written every minute, it’s easy to fall behind. 

More than half of TripAdvisor users will not book a property that does not receive any reviews. 

Lastly, to compete on TripAdvisor, you MUST earn positive reviews on a regular basis. Let me tell you how you can get a consistent review: 

a. Ask for reviews

Well, it is obvious, if you don’t ask, you don’t get it. Ask your guests to leave a review or feedback. Begin asking happy guests to leave a review.

Also, after they check out, you can send a thankyou email and in that, you can ask them to review you. 

b. Get along with TripAdvisor Review Express Program

One most important benefit of TripAdvisor for hotels is the Review Express Program. It is a free, powerful email-based review collection program that makes it easy for hotels to invite recent guests to submit reviews on TripAdvisor.

TripAdvisor has recognized several booking engines and hotel software vendors, as TripConnect Premium partners (which by the way, eZee is).

If you enroll in this program with a premium partner, TripAdvisor itself sends emails to collect feedback automatically from your hotel software or booking engine.

In the same vein, you can track the performance of your different email campaigns on the Review Express Dashboard. You’ll see valuable metrics from each campaign such as the number of total opens, clicks, and reviews received from the email.

c. Custom Reminder Cards

Another great way to get more TripAdvisor reviews is by creating reminder cards that you can print and distribute to guests at the front desk.

TripAdvisor itself offers these types of cards. Here’s how to get them:

• Under the “Marketing Tools” tab in your Management Center select “Promotional Tools”
• Click on “Order Now” under Business Cards
• Choose “Business Cards” in our promotional shop
• Click on the reminder cards that fit your business. You can customize it as well.

Important Tip: Distribute these cards at checkout, the end of a meal, or when the tour comes to an end to remind guests to write a review when they return home. 

d. Reminder Flyer

Ask your guests to write about their experience by giving TripAdvisor’s downloadable flyer.

The downloadable flyer can also be found in your Management Center, under “Marketing Tools”.

The flyer is available in many languages, for your guests visiting from all over the world.

Important Tip: Hang this flyer in a high traffic area as an effortless reminder to your guests as they pass. 

Now, in these different ways, you will be able to collect enough reviews.

But, is that all?

Not really! Because collecting reviews is just a part of the whole shebang.

Further, another significant aspect is to RESPOND to them regularly.

Responding to reviews is a vital element of managing TripAdvisor listings. It tells customers that their opinions are vital and you care about every piece of feedback regardless of its sentiment.

In fact, 45 percent of consumers say they are more likely to visit a business that responds to its reviews.

TripAdvisor alerts you when you receive a review. So, you can respond to those reviews ASAP.

When done well, responding reviews can enable higher bookings for your property.

Here are some review response templates that might help you to respond quickly and correctly.

3. Add TripAdvisor Widgets on your website

Include the free widgets on your own website which TripAdvisor offers. These help you to showcase a TripAdvisor rating and encourage customers to leave reviews on the listing page.

Above all, review widgets can increase conversions on your site and provide social proof that your business is trusted by other consumers.

You can check out the Widget Center to see which widgets are available for a listing.

Besides, you can have the following widgets on your website:

• Rated on TripAdvisor Badges: There are three variations of this widget, which shows the listing’s overall rating and review count.
• Review Snippet Widget: This displays the listing’s rating and snippets of recent reviews.
• Write-A-Review Widgets: These widgets encourage customers to review the business on the website.
• Review Widgets: A “scrolling showcase,” that features your recent best review.

4. Participate (and win) in Travellers’ choice awards

TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence award is one of the most desired badges for businesses in the travel sector. 

It can set your business apart from your competitors and give you more visibility.

They have been handing out the Certificate of Excellence since 2011 to honor hospitality businesses, that deliver consistently great service across the world.

An average of only 10% of businesses listed on TripAdvisor receive this Certificate of Excellence. 

Since there is no specific application process for this; the achievement is earned by businesses that are able to collect great reviews and high ratings on TripAdvisor.

To get the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence, you must:

• Maintain an overall rating of 4 out of 5 stars
• Have a minimum number of reviews (TripAdvisor doesn’t specify the actual number)
• Must be listed on TripAdvisor for at least 12 months

The award winners are announced every year by the end of May. This means that your business should be listed onTripAdvisor for the entire 12 months between 1st April and 31st March, to be eligible for the award.

Note: The certificate validity is for one year from the issue.

5. Join the different TripAdvisor Programs

This travel giant offers a wide range of programs for the business to help them showcase the best of their property. 

a. TripAdvisor Instant Booking Program: 

With TripAdvisor Instant Booking, travelers can reserve hotels and accommodations directly on the site. 

This is indeed a great way for TripAdvisor businesses to capitalize on the website’s traffic. (After all, travelers are more willing to book when they don’t have to leave a trusted site like TripAdvisor.)

As a paid feature, TripAdvisor Instant Booking:

• Lets potential guests see your live rates and availability on the site.
• Allows travelers to click on “Book on TripAdvisor” from your listing.
• Gets you bookings directly through your trusted connectivity partner.

Above all, TripAdvisor Instant Booking brings reservations to hotels by working with several certified connectivity partners.

Furthermore, connectivity partners include booking engines, channel managers, and property management systems. (You may view TripAdvisor’s list of connectivity partners here.)

Well, it is based on a “Pay for Stays” commission model. This means that you need to pay TripAdvisor only for the bookings that turn into stays.

There is no upfront investment and no long-term commitment required to sign up.

b. TripAdvisor Affiliate Program: 

The affiliate program allows you to leverage the TripAdvisor brand to enhance your content. Additionally, it helps you to earn a steady revenue stream on hotel traffic.

It provide users, access to content covering 795 million reviews and 1.4 million places to stay.

c. Start a Sponsored Placements campaign:

Put your listing above search results with Sponsored Placements.

It is a new advertising solution that puts your property in front of potential guests on key pages. 

Besides, most of the properties think, that the only way to influence TripAdvisor search rankings is to maintain a large number of excellent reviews.

But, the Sponsored Placements now help low-ranking hotels appear at the top of the search results.

However, the new ads are only differentiated from the rest of TripAdvisor’s listings by a grey ‘Sponsored’ label next to the name of the hotel. Apart from the grey label, the ads look the same as the organic listings beneath. This enables them to target consumers searching for hotels in their destinations and gain bookings.

Therefore, Sponsored Placements present an excellent opportunity for hotels to increase their visibility on this hugely influential website.

So, this is what all I could share about benefits of TripAdvisor for hotels.

FAQs

In conclusion

TripAdvisor for hotels is a huge advantage for the entire hospitality industry. Make the most of it. Share positive reviews on social media and marketing materials.

In short, when used effectively, TripAdvisor can help you reach more customers.

So, create a solid plan and leverage TripAdvisor to grow your business.

The post What are The Benefits of TripAdvisor for Hotels? [End-to-end Guidebook] appeared first on eZee Absolute.

I’m sure this question would tickle your guests’ minds every time they plan for a trip, as the current crisis has put the travel and tourism industry to a standstill. 

Though we also see that tourism is being recovered in some parts of the world, and the first thing that is about to bounce back is domestic tourism.

So, in this blog, I am going to provide you with advice on how to attract domestic travellers at your hotel. 

Whether you are still in lockdown, preparing for restrictions to be lifted, or open to domestic travel; these are ideas that you can put into practice to win guests and regain revenue.

But, before that let’s understand,

What is domestic travel and why would people prefer that post the pandemic? 

Domestic travel. You must be familiar with this term right? Well, it’s all about exploring your own home country. 

With the uncertainty of what happens tomorrow, it is likely that your guests would prefer to travel internally at least for a while. 

This would make them feel comfortable and have a sense of trust in case of any medical emergencies; as they aren’t much away from their home.

Likewise, a staycation would also be an upcoming trend. These are travellers that prefer to explore places in their own backyards, close to their home city, and connect to their own local culture.

They are probably those who like going on a quick road trip or prefer staying in their own city. 

Besides, the observing change to go VOCAL FOR LOCAL across countries would make your guests go for domestic travel for quite some time.

But, how would you attract domestic travellers to your property? 

All you need to do is, be prepared to cater to their needs and match their expectations.

This would help you to boost your revenue and uplift your business.

So, let’s figure out,

Why should hotels favour domestic travellers? 

By far, there are barely any bookings being made for the future, and the current ones all stand cancelled. 

All the more, international travel hasn’t resumed completely; and the only option available to explore is domestic travel.

So, to give you a closer look at this, I’d like to share with you some data that I have been closely monitoring for the past few months.

Here’s a graphical representation that I observed on the number of bookings received per month in a COVID19 environment.

If we see, these are some of the worst hit times that the industry has faced where the months of April and March remain to be the most affected ones. 

However, with time, we saw things improving gradually. Tourism is once again getting back on track and people have started to plan their trips.

But, there are a lot many factors that need to be looked into to entice the attention of your domestic tourist.

Let me guide you on that below.

What type of guests would be travelling post the outbreak? 

Observing constant changes in the environment and behaviour of your guests, it is unlikely to judge who would be travelling in such a crisis. 

However, initially, you can expect couples who missed on to celebrate their special occasions amid lockdown or small groups of friends reuniting for a weekend break. 

To add on, there would be countless families that might have cancelled their trips during the outbreak. So, you could also witness such a group of guests at your property. 

Apart from this, your repeat guests would be most likely to visit your hotel. For now, trust and familiarity are such factors that would encourage them to come back.

During such instances, you can set limits on the number of base adults staying in one room.  And also, allocate alternate rooms to your guests thereby abiding social distancing. 

For time being, I advise you not to take bookings from countries that have been most affected by the virus.

I’m sure, considering even such minute precautions would benefit your property to stay safe in the long run.

Now, let’s find out ways on how you can attract domestic travellers.

How to attract domestic travellers at your hotel?

With rising expectations of your guests, you need to be well prepared to offer what they are looking forward to. 

The one thing that would be on top of their mind post this outbreak, is SAFETY. And, you definitely need to ensure them a safe stay at your hotel.

Bearing in mind the types of travellers that might visit your property, you must ensure ways to attract them to maximize your revenue.

Adding on, you might have witnessed every second hotel taking a hit during COVID-19, so make sure to have a plan smarter than ever before to get back on track.

Below I have listed down the ideas that would help you to plan and bring in a good amount of domestic guests at your property. Have a look:

1. Reframe your safety and hygiene norms

Constantly focusing and following the guidelines issued by the government, I’m sure you must have rolled out various precautionary measures at your hotel. 

Besides, I would like to mention a few MUST-HAVE measures that everyone at your property should follow. 

On your doorstep, make it a mandatory requirement to perform temperature checks for all your guests and hotel staff.

Along with this, install hand sanitizers across your hotel’s premises.

Further, to create a sense of trust and comfort for your guests, hang posters showcasing the precautionary measures you’ve implemented.

Lastly, make sure that everyone is following the required protocols and that your hotel’s premises, rooms, gym, pool area, restaurant, etc. are disinfected at regular intervals.

2. Impart usage of COVID19 safety kit 

In the old times, you offered complimentary toiletries to your guests. Similar to that, you can now provide complimentary COVID19 safety kits.

Post the crisis, even when things have settled down, you can place such kits in each of your hotel rooms. 

Make sure this comprises a mask, hand sanitizer, gloves, and a face shield (if need be).

Besides, highlight about this on your hotel’s website, social media, and every possible link that reaches out to your guests. 

So, when they make a booking, they are well aware of the safety precautions your hotel is taking.

3. Get in touch via emails 

Emails are not dead and never will be! They have been the most convenient way of reaching out to your guest even during the lockdown scenarios.

Start engaging with your existing as well as past guests. They are the ones who would be more likely to visit your property.

Focus on sending emails like your hotel’s reopening date, safety precautions you’ve taken, special offers, deals, promotions, and more. 

Don’t rush by sending too many emails regularly. Share them at fixed intervals and cater to the cities that are less affected by the virus.

I’m sure this would work and get your loyal guests enticed.

4. Reach out via social media

Social media is the best tool to get you more guests and keep them updated about your hotel. All the more, it helps you to reach out to a much larger audience.

So make sure you add this one in your plan! Be socially active and regularly post about the steps you are taking to keep your property safe and sanitized. 

Once you start receiving bookings, you can also highlight the packages and discounts that you are offering.

I have some ready-to-use social media templates to offer you. (Edit it as per your requirements)

This platform is vast if you have the right strategies for social media marketing then I’m sure you can do wonders and attract maximum guests.

5. Emphasize on your hotel’s location

If your property is situated in a beautiful landscape then you can take advantage by highlighting it. For now, all your guests want is a pleasing environment to stay in. 

And, having the plus of a mind-blowing location wouldn’t be hard for you to gain potential guests. 

However, if it is the other way around, then you can instead portray the various amenities that your hotel offers.

Along with that, do mention about the direct flights that reach out to your location. I’m sure your guests don’t want to be a part of the crowd for a much longer time.

And, having such direct flights to your location can be a plus point for them to choose your property.

6. Set attractive pricing 

One way to stand apart from your competitors is by having attractive and affordable pricing packages for your guests.

We all know that the pandemic has hugely affected all economies. So, the one thing that your guests would prefer is a low-budget stay.

Initially, you can acquire guests at a lower price than what you used to offer previously. 

Once you observe a good inflow, you can accordingly alter your hotel pricing strategies.

Do focus on planning out some really effective pricing combos and discounts. This will surely help your hotel to bring in more bookings.

7. Encourage contactless services

Contactless services are the NEW NORMAL that your hotel needs to adapt to. Like earlier, now your guests won’t prefer getting much in contact with your hotel’s staff.

Their requirements have changed. So, to match their needs, you need to now enable touch-free services at your premises. 

For this, having a guest self-service portal at your property can make your operations much simpler; thereby maintaining a physical distance between you, your staff, and your guests.

Besides, digitalization is the new way that your guests would get attracted to your property.

Right from acquiring bookings to being in touch with them post-departure, make sure you deliver contactless experiences at each stage of your guest’s life cycle.

8. Promote in-room services

Think twice, would your guests prefer to have crowded places at your premises now? No right? Not just your guests but I’m sure even you would fear that!

And post the pandemic or even earlier I’m sure such instances would take place mostly in your dining area or during the morning breakfast buffet.

One way to reduce overcrowding at such spaces is by promoting the in-room services. 

Offer them options like delivering the breakfast at their doorstep.

Make sure that it is delivered completely touch-free. You can advise your staff to ring the doorbell and leave or stand at a distance of 2 meters.

Practicing such things at your property would definitely make your guests feel secured and that you value their safety more than anything else.

9. Set flexible cancellation policies

Cancellation policies can make or break your property post the outbreak. By mentioning make or break, I mean, designing flexible cancellation policies can help you to pull more guests.

Lately, you must have received a lot of cancellations. Reason being, the pandemic of course, and its uncertain lockdown situation.

However, I’m sure you don’t want to witness such a scenario any time further. Thus, make sure you plan a fool-proof cancellation policy.

Don’t be over flexible though, do keep in mind that your guests don’t want to lose any more money in case they have to cancel their bookings due to an unprecedented crisis.

Thus, ensure that you highlight and mention about your hotel’s cancellation policy clearly on all platforms.

10. Collect and promote guest reviews

Feedback and reviews are a great way to encourage and attract more guests to your property. And, they may start to take a different shape in this changing world. 

Your potential guests will always be on the lookout for comments on the cleanliness, hygiene, and safety measures at your property.

And if you highlight them rightly on your website, OTAs, and other meta-search engines then I’m sure they can play a big part in influencing the booking decisions of your potential guests. 

Make it a practice to collect feedback from your guests as soon as they check-out. For this, no need to use the old traditions of a physical pen and paper.

Technology has reshaped. Just like payments have become cashless, likewise, feedback have turned paperless.

So, collect reviews via emails, SMSes, social media channels, and every possible way that lets you do so.

Adding these would definitely help you to entice more guests than your competitors.

Wait… That’s not all! I have some really beneficial links to share below.

Useful links and resources

Essential Requirements and Tips to Reopen Hotel

Strategies to Lift Hotel Business Post the Outbreak

Guidelines on Post COVID19 Protocols for Hotels

Effective Hotel Cancellation Policy

Guide to Discount Strategies

COVID-19 Survival Kit for Hotels

Email Marketing for hotels

Ways to Keep Your Hotel Business Safe From COVID-19

Conclusion

We know time heals everything and I’m sure it will do so for the travel and tourism industry being the most affected one. 

Besides, domestic tourism will be the first one to gear up and get back on track.

Thus, my advice for you as a hotelier would be to consider the new preferences of your travellers, stay well prepared to cater to their needs, and match their expectations.

Start with the various ways I have enlisted above to welcome your guests again. Remember to be empathetic, flexible, and helpful in your approach. 

We will recover and get through this phase too! 

I hope these ideas will attract more domestic travellers to your property and make your business fruitful.

Do let me know how this works out for you (via comments), and if you need any guidance to implement it.

The post 10 Sureshot Ways to Attract Domestic Travellers at Your Hotel appeared first on eZee Absolute.

We are pretty sure, things would never be the same after this phase ends. As rightly said, it’ll be the “NEW NORMAL” that we’ll be living in.

Social distancing, preferring to stay at home, a contactless journey; that’s what people would favor most. Hence, the most important thing currently is, to “survive” and plan the future of your business.

So, we have come up with a COVID19 SURVIVAL KIT for hotels to help you keep your business alive and future-ready.

Basically, these are a list of resources that would help the hospitality industry to overcome the difficulties that COVID-19 brings.

We advise you to refer to each one of these in detail and accordingly plan the best for your hotel business. 

How Hotels Can Be Safe from Coronavirus?

Post this pandemic, as a hotel, there are a lot many preventive measures that you will have to adapt and ensure the safety of your guests. So here, we have given a detailed explanation on the what, why, and how of COVID-19 and which preventive measures should hotels take to assure a safe stay to your guests.

How to Keep Your Hotel Business Safe From COVID-19?

Presently, you might be experiencing a bad time in your business with low to zero occupancies. However, there are still a lot of important things that you should focus on to keep your hotel business safe from this deadly virus. Here, we have listed some simple and adaptable measures that hotels can take to keep their business safe from this downtime.

Strategies to Lift Your Hotel Business After COVID-19 Outbreak

Earlier this year, who would’ve imagined that 3 months into this new decade, global travel will be shut down? Nonetheless, we all are aware that the hospitality industry is the most affected one currently; with no sign of hope when people would resume travel. So, here are some best strategies for you to prepare and lift your hotel business after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Smart Cost-Saving Ideas for Hotels

Efficient operations in hotels are dependent on how well you manage your expenses. And, currently, with no business coming in, we’re sure “saving costs” would be the first thing to consider. Thus, for having a successful business in the near future, here’s how this blog would be beneficial to you. Check out the best cost-saving ideas for hotels and implement the applicable ways to reduce it at your property; ensuring maximum profits.

A Complete Guide to Hotel Email Marketing

Emails have been an evergreen marketing strategy for any business and are the most common means of communication currently. It helps you to engage and connect with your existing as well as past guests in a much simpler way. So, while practicing social distancing, this is the best way to stay connected with your guests and keep them informed about the in and out of your hotel. Here’s where this comprehensive guide to hotel email marketing will help you to understand its importance and rightly implement it at your property.

Simple Steps to do Social Media Marketing for Hotels [Free Templates]

Social media marketing for hotels can do wonders if done right. Needless to say, there are an immense number of users on social media that can give you great business opportunities. And, at present, it is the safest and effective way to engage with your guests. Thus, while you’re not occupied with operations right now, it’s the perfect time for you to focus on it, improve your presence, and promote your property. Here, as a part of the COVID19 survival kit for hotels; you can find out some great ways to make the most of your hotel business through social media.

Read here

A Complete Guide to SEO for Hotels [FREE Checklist Inside]

In this digital age, having a website has become a necessity for hotel businesses. As we know, most of your audience lands on your website through the search engines. So, it is absolutely necessary to appear on the top of the search engine results.

Moreover, the better your online presence is, the higher will be your bookings. And, now, as you have plenty of time to invest in your business, this is exactly what you can focus on. So, our COVID19 survival kit for hotels includes a complete guide on how to improve your hotel website by performing SEO; through some simple and actionable steps.

How to Effectively Design Hotel Booking Confirmation Email? [FREE Templates Inside]

Confirmation emails are very important as they give an acknowledgment to your guests for the booking they have made. However, not just sending an email is essential, instead, sending the RIGHT one is more important. And, we are sure you must be doing so. But, now is the right time to re-check if your confirmation emails have all of these necessary details. For this, we have designed a complete guide that shows you how to make the best hotel reservation voucher along with some ready-to-use free templates.

Read here

How to Respond to Negative and Positive Hotel Reviews? [FREE Templates]

Reviews are the face of your hotel. It can be good or bad. But, they are a great way to promote your business, it’s branding as well as attracting more guests. So, why not focus on that now amid your lockdown time? All you got to do is respond to them well and on time, thus providing a great customer experience.

Check out if you have missed responding to any of your previous reviews. If so, this blog will guide you all about how to respond to hotel reviews (especially the negative ones) along with some free templates inside.

Read here

Proven Ways to Increase Low Season Hotel Occupancy

Low seasons can make or break a property, particularly if budgets are already tight. And, if your hotel is already operating on threadbare profit margins, any significant dip in bookings and revenue can spell disaster.

Because of this outbreak; we are sure that you may face a low season crunch even after the pandemic has receded. So, we want to share a great way to attract more bookings at such times in this COVID19 survival kit for hotels. All are proven strategies to help you come across as a winner in these tough times.

Powerful Hotel Pricing Strategies to Implement

With no pricing strategy, it is almost impossible for hotels to grow successfully in the hospitality industry. So, if you don’t want to lose your customers and competition in the market once the lockdown ends; then start thinking on the RIGHT room pricing. Here, we have listed the effective pricing strategies for you to implement and understand better with some great examples inside.

Best Hotel Promotion Ideas You Can Use

If you don’t promote your business it will definitely die. And, if you don’t do so now, your guests would probably forget you by the time COVID-19 ends. However, if done in a proper way, it’ll help you to attract more guests as well as enhance your business revenue in the near future.

So, for you, here are the sure-fire ideas of hotel promotion. Start applying them now to make your business future-ready.

Great Ways to Increase Direct Bookings on Your Hotel Website

Commission-free bookings are of course more profitable than those coming from OTAs. In a post COVID19 era, direct bookings would earn higher importance; mainly because they’d lower your guest acquisition cost.

So, in this COVID19 survival kit for hotels, we’re sharing some of the best ways to increase direct bookings on your website along with ways to save up on your OTA commissions.

Hotel Digital Marketing Strategies to Get More Bookings

Hotel digital marketing, nowadays, plays a vital role in revenue generation for hotels. Having said that, in today’s era, most of the guests search for a hotel online i.e metasearch engines, social channels, Google, Yahoo or so.

Thus, to get more bookings post the COVID-19 phase, it is crucial for you to be where your guests want you to be. And, this can be done when you apply some great digital marketing strategies that we’ve listed here. Go through each of these and see which ones can be most effective for you.

How to do Upselling in Hotels? [Remarkable Ways Inside]

Upselling is a great opportunity to enhance the average revenue that a hotel makes from its guests. Doing so can help you to encourage your guests to pay more for a similar but higher quality product.

So, this is a great way to cope up with the expenses that you’ve lost during these months of lockdown. It’ll guide you here, on what it is, its benefits to hoteliers, why should you do so, and what are the various ways of upselling in hotels.

Practical Methods to Increase Repeat Guests at Your Hotel [Easy to Apply]

Naturally, post the pandemic it’ll be difficult for you to attract new guests to your property. So, repeat guests would work the best during that time. And, as we are aware that, repeat guests are like an investment for a hotel.

The more the investment (your loyal guests), the more will be the return (business ROI). In this COVID19 survival kit for hotels, this blog will help you in applying some powerful tips to increase repeat guests at your property as well as get better business profitability.

Ways to Improve Hotel Guest Experience

Right from the time when your guests have booked their stay, until they are leaving your hotel, and even after that; guest experience plays a very crucial part. Moreover, if your guests are happy, they would possibly recommend others to visit your hotel; thus gaining more guests as well as revenue.

So, not only after the pandemic, but even later this is one very important thing that you should focus on to achieve greater business. Explore some great ideas here to improve your hotel’s guest experience.

How to Reduce Last Minute No-show & Booking Cancellations at your Hotel?

Naturally, when you receive a booking, you would sometimes come across no-shows or cancellations by your guests (the reasons could be any). Also, we know, lately, you have experienced a lot of booking cancellations. And, we are sure you don’t want that to happen anymore. So, here are some ways through which you can reduce your last minute no-shows and booking cancellations at your hotel.

Essential Hotel KPIs to Track Your Performance [Free eBook]

Any business, big or small needs to watch its performance periodically to evaluate its success. The key performance indicators (KPI), therefore, are used at various levels to determine the overall success of your business.

Moreover, once things settle down and your operations are back on track, you should definitely analyze and focus on measuring your hotel’s performance at various levels. To help you with it, in this blogpost (eBook), we have listed the most essential hotel KPIs along with tips and actionable steps.

Read here

Top Hotel Revenue Management Strategies to Adopt [BONUS Inside]

Revenue management is all about selling, the right room to the right guest at the right moment at the right price and on the right platform. Moreover, it is a process of analyzing your customers’ demand and offering the best rates to them.

Thus, to optimize your revenue and attract more guests, post the pandemic; here are some solid hotel revenue management strategies that you can adopt to make the most of your business.

Read here

The post COVID-19 Survival Kit For The Hotel Industry appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Must be ALMOST NEVER?

Even if you had, it must be 10-20% of the time! (Isn’t it?)

But you see my friend, the hospitality industry practically revolves around GUESTS and guest experience!

So even if you don’t want to, you NEED to shift your focus to providing a better guest experience, sooner rather than later.

Yet, many hotels ignore this fact. Instead, they focus on only one thing. Bookings. (Agreed?)

So, here’s what I’ll address in this blog about the guest experience you impart at your property.

Enhancing guest experience in hospitality: Why is it important?

At the moment, you must be delivering a decent (Read: ORDINARY) guest experience. But people don’t remember “decent”. They remember “EXTRAORDINARY”.

They remember personalized experiences, which connect with them. On the other hand, as technology advances (and evolves) your guests’ expectations also increase.

That is why it is essential for you to give your best shot when it comes to the guest experience.

• Your satisfied guests are a powerful marketing tool: Your happy guests will recommend your hotel to their family and friends. Through such recommendations, your hotel will welcome more guests.
• Positive guest experience is one of the best ways to build your brand: Satisfied guests will definitely give you good reviews. And you know one positive review possesses the power to draw 100 more guests. So with that, you can drive more revenue as well as bookings. 
• One bad experience can lead 25% of guests to choose your competitors: You can suffer from a loss of these three important aspects of your hotel business:
  • Guests
  • Revenue
  • Reputation

Now that you know the significance of excellent guest experience, let me tell you how you can make your guests happy. 

Right from the time when your guests have booked their stay, to the time when they are leaving your hotel; you have to impart the best guest experience at every stage. 

Thus, enhancing guest experience in a hotel is a never-ending process.

That’s why I have divided the ideas to enhance guest experience in different stages of your guest life cycle. 

Improve your hotel guest experience with these 17 simple steps. Let us explore them one by one in detail.

How to enhance the guest experience before arrivals?

As a matter of fact, a guests’ journey with your hotel starts much before they are at your doorstep.

Now you’ll question me, HOW?

Generally, guests search for your hotel either on Google, OTAs, or metasearch engines.

To get more information about your hotel, they would explore your website. (Having said that it is crucial for you to have a hotel website. If you don’t have one, get it today!)

Provide an easy booking process

In any industry (especially hospitality), the first impression is the last impression! As we discussed above, your website is the first point of contact with your guests. 

You must have an excellent hotel website that has all the necessary information along with your hotel’s high-resolution photos and videos. (Attractive enough to impel your website visitors to book directly from your website.) If you don’t have one, get it today!

#Protip: Other than website, also ensure that you have all the required information of your hotel on OTAs. Your listing on each OTA should be right and optimized. 

As soon as they get landed on your website, their experience with your hotel begins at that very moment.

You can also display some ongoing deals or offers on your website to keep your visitors glued. 

Most importantly, integrate a booking engine with your hotel website to let them book easily. Along with this, provide them with different options to contact you, in case they have any queries. 

Well, how quickly your response to their queries is also important. (Certainly, you CANNOT AFFORD to neglect or miss any single query.) 

Well, here you can explore the options of having a website chatbot to answer your guest inquiries and solve them right there. This will save your time and efforts, and even increase your website conversions. 

When they land on your website, their experience with your hotel begins at that very moment.

Initiate communication before arrival

As soon as your guests have booked their stay, your first instinct is to send them a booking confirmation mail or hotel reservation voucher. 

Well, you can turn this formality procedure into an opportunity to interact with your guests by sending them nicely designed booking confirmation emails. In this email or voucher, you can highlight your hotel’s amenities such as pick-up service, parking facility or so. 

Other than that, send them personalized emails and messages, thanking them for choosing your hotel. You can also inform them about ongoing deals, promotions, packages, events, and concerts to be organized in your locality (If there are any).

You should not miss out sending an email just a day before they are arriving to be in touch with your guests.

In that email, you can add the Google Maps link to your hotel’s location to help them reach your hotel easily. (Don’t forget your contact details.) Or moving further, you can also keep them posted about your region’s weather and other details. 

#PROTIP: Fetch your guests’ birthdays and anniversaries from your guest database. Send them messages and emails on/before their special occasions. Combine your wishes with some undeniable offers for them. (You can apply this strategy in any stage of your guest’s life cycle.)

Believe me, these gestures will surely have a great impact on your guests./guest experience

Offer early check-ins

There are many instances where you would get requests for early check-in. 

I would suggest you should never deny those requests. Because by just managing their early check-in you are doing a great favor to them. Naturally, they will appreciate this and will form a great impression of your hotel. 

By managing their early check-ins, I don’t mean to make them wait in your hotel’s lobby or corridors.

If your hotel policy permits, you can lead them toward their rooms. And if in some cases, any vacant room isn’t available, you can arrange their seating in a relaxation area or serve them with tea/coffee from your in-house restaurant. 

These are a few ways to improve guest experience in hotels, even before they have arrived!

Now, let’s see,

How to enhance guest experience on arrivals?

Basically, your guests’ journey starts immediately after they have booked their stay with you. Since the first impression is the last impression, it becomes IMPERATIVE for you to give your best shot, when it comes to managing their arrivals. 

Ensure smooth check-ins

Would you like to wait at the front desk of a hotel after a long journey? That’s a clear NO.

Similarly, your guests wouldn’t appreciate waiting for too long at the front desk.

Treat the customer like you would want to be treated. Period!

Brad Schweig

In this era of Alexa and Siri, it would be a disgrace if you don’t give a chance to your guests to perform self-check-in. 

These days, self-check-in kiosks are in trend to improve the hotel check-in process. Some hotels opt for a smarter option and that is – mobile self-service portal. From this portal, guests can perform self-check-in, check-out, request for the extra services, oversee their bills and several things. 

With such technology, 

• You can automate the communication between the front desk and guests.
• You can deliver an excellent guest experience. 
• And the best part is your front desk personnel can welcome your guests with a sparkling smile. 

Address your guests personally

When it comes to customer experience, personalization is the key. 

And let me tell you,

Your guests simply LOVE personalization!

Of course, they don’t exactly know about the term. But yes, they will remember you if you make them feel valued through “personalized” services. It is a surefire way to improve your hotel guest experience. 

Basically, you can train your desk personnel to greet your guests by addressing their first name or last name, instead of just greeting. If you’re going to welcome international guests, prepare your staff to greet them in their regional language.

For example: “Hi. Good afternoon, Mr. Hannes. Welcome to Avalanche Resort. Hope you have a pleasant stay at our resort.”

#PROTIP: Never address your guests with the room numbers. I repeat NEVER! (It makes them cringe!!)

Such extra efforts can enhance your guest experience to another level.

Other than these two methods, we have listed numerous other ways to enhance your guest experience at arrivals. Explore them from here. 

#PROTIP: If you can, have a 360-degree video or VR walk-through of your entire hotel, room types, facilities, and even nearby scenic destinations.

How to enhance guest experience during-the-stay?

This is a very important stage in your guest life cycle, where you have to be very careful with your services. Well, I have listed some assured ways to enhance your hotel guest experience during the stay as well.

Ensure cleanliness and maintenance

Believe me, most of the complaints on your front desk are for cleanliness. (and it totally ruins your guest experience.)

You can overcome this issue with a simple arrival list. Generate your daily arrival list from your hotel software and ensure the housekeeping of rooms beforehand. As per the total arrivals, arrange the staff shifts and make them available to serve the arriving guests. 

Nevertheless, you shouldn’t ignore the linens and towels. Always, verify that you are keeping fresh, clean linens and towels. 

You should also check whether the electronic appliances in the rooms are in working condition or not. Now, practically it won’t be possible for you or your staff to check all the electrical appliances. 

These days, hotels opt for smart maintenance. They install sensors that detect leaking taps or faulty lights which can trigger actions to either repair or replace them.

When you know the issue beforehand, you can arrange an alternative room easily. 

Moreover, some hotels have smart electric appliances in which there are quarterly maintenance reminders to keep them up-to-date. When all your appliances are maintained or on a regular basis, you’d hardly have any maintenance issues. 

This will reduce the number of complaints from the guests and will be an add-on to your hotel guest experience.

Level up your in-room amenities 

Looking at the current scenario, I’m sure WiFi must be among your basic amenities.

As more guests opt to travel with laptops, smartphones, and wearables, ensure that your hotel Wi-Fi is equipped to handle the extra bandwidth needed by all these devices.

Some hotels offer a temporary Netflix or Amazon Prime account to the guests. You can see if you can offer that. On the same lines, some hotels offer a library of movies with regional subtitles. 

Moreover, these days, tech-savvy travelers have high expectations from hotels. 

You can provide them keyless entry to their rooms. (Keyless doors that open automatically when the guest arrives is one thing that is in trend these days.)

Other than that, you can have voice-chat enabled rooms with assistants like Amazon Alexa. Hotels can configure Alexa to allow guests to control and adjust the in-room features.

You can explore other such smart IOT-enabled solutions from here. 

Offer your hotel’s relevant amenities (quickly!)

During your guest’s stay, offer them your hotel amenities by sending them messages. (You can even reach out to them personally.) 

Now, I would recommend offering amenities by knowing the type of your guest. If your arriving guest is a business traveler, then you can offer him meeting spaces or co-working spaces at your hotel. 

Similarly, if they are leisure travelers you can offer them a spa or steam bath. Or you can even offer them guided tours to your locality. 

Your guests will certainly admire these endeavors from your end. 

Amid all these activities, don’t forget to ensure the promptness of your service. Your guests definitely won’t prefer a delayed room-service. 

Make sure that you serve them quickly with whatever they have asked for. 

#Protip: Whenever your guests request for any service, you should inform them the approximate time by when you will deliver the requested services. So your guests can know for how long they have to wait exactly.

Train your staff to be attentive

Your staff is the ultimate point of contact for your guests, so it is essential to train them to deliver a better guest experience. Pay attention to your staffs’ qualities in the following areas:

Communication

Around 71% of the people love to hear their own name.

• Instruct your staff to welcome their guests by calling out their last name. For instance: “Hi. Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs.”
• Teach them to be polite in any situation.

Observation

Observation is one of the important skills that your staff should have for remarkable guest service.

Let these examples explain to you better.

• If your staff is checking-in a group of guests who are tired after a long journey, then they should offer them some refreshments.
• If there’s a group of young adults or teens, then they should suggest to them nearby musical concert or offer coupons of bar and pub.
• They should also have the agility to walk around the common areas and interact with your guests by asking about how they’re enjoying their stay.

Appearance

Your staffs’ appearance and body language has a huge impact on your guests’ experience as well as on your hotel’s reputation.

• Make sure your staff is dressed up in neat and pressed uniforms/clothes.
• They should have a welcoming body language. (Trust me, it impacts your services a lot.) A timid and lazy body language won’t impress your guests at all.

Give complimentary services and gifts

It is important for you to show the guests that you care and for that, it is important to create emotional triggers.

People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Teddy Roosevelt

Trust me, offering these small gifts and goodies enrich your hotel customer service.

This is how you can create emotional triggers:

Example 1: Let’s say, a family with kids is staying in one of your rooms. You can put some toys in the room before they check-in. You can also ask if they require babysitting services.

Similarly, for the newly-weds, you can keep a bottle of complimentary champagne.  

Example 2: From your arrival list, find the number of guests who are checking out early. You can offer your drop-off facilities to those guests.

In the above case, if some of your guests have taken the continental plan then, you can make arrangements for breakfast before they depart or can ask them if they would like to take the breakfast along with them.

Remember their preferences

As I said earlier, personalized guest service is a surefire way to please your guests. 

Advanced hotel management systems help you achieve this at a pretty good level. These systems save your guest preferences along with their basic details. Whenever the guests come back, the system remembers this and alerts you to make arrangements accordingly. 

Even the smallest things like newspaper, coffee flavors, room view, floor choice; the system keep a track of all this information. 

In such a case, your front desk personnel can greet your guests like this,

“Hi. Mr. Hannes, welcome to Avalanche Resort. We have already kept extra linens and a black coffee as you have requested during our previous stay. Enjoy your stay.”  

(*Mr. Hannes goes all smiles*)

This is how you can deliver a personalized guest experience. 

These are really small gestures, but trust me, it will have a great impact on your hotel guest experience. Your guests will certainly remember these extra efforts and appreciate them.

Engage with them on social media platforms

At present, social media has become an inseparable part of people’s life. You might have noticed, as soon as the guests have entered your hotel, they’ll instantly post their check-in on Facebook.

And this is followed by taking quick selfies, tagging your hotel in their pictures and other such activities.

Now, your part is to respond to all these activities. It’s the perfect time for you to engage with your guests. Your instant responses will encourage them to post more content and create memories with your hotel on social media platforms.  

Ensure that you like, comment and share this user-generated content and spread it on all your social media platforms. To simplify this process, we have FREE Facebook and Instagram post templates.

(Even if it is as small as a star rating! Respond, share and celebrate!)

Thus, impart the best hotel customer service experience and empower your online presence too!

Listen to your guests’ complaints patiently

Listening is of great significance when it comes to guest satisfaction. Be all ears to your guests, when they are requesting, suggesting or complaining.

Whenever you listen to their complaints calmly, they are more receptive to the offered solution.

Active listening helps to avoid any miscommunication. It ensures that the expectation of the guests is clearly understood.

By adopting these ways, you can easily enhance your guests’ experience during their stay. Now let’s talk about how to enhance their experience at departure.

How to enhance guest experience on departure?

Your role of imparting the best guest experience doesn’t get over on departure. Even at departure, you have to ensure certain things. Let’s explore them:

Provide easy check-out process

Just as check-in, make sure that you have an easy check-out procedure too. 

To assist you in that, advanced hotel software can be at your rescue. Every day you can generate a departure list and based on that, get their pending bills ready. 

If there is a group of guests staying at your hotel, then dividing or merging their charges, you should perform all these activities beforehand. 

Reach out for feedback

Last but not the least, reaching out to your guests to ask them about their stay is also one of the key hotel guest satisfaction ideas. 

Encourage your guests to give you reviews on different platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, your website, OTAs, or travel websites like TripAdvisor.

Now, taking reviews is not enough. Spare time to respond to all your reviews punctually, especially to the negative reviews.  

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

Bill Gates

For a punctual response to all your online reviews, you can consider having a review management software. (And to assist you more, we have ready to use FREE review response templates as well)

Suffice to say, analyzing your reviews will help you find out the strengths and shortcomings of your hotel. Based on suggestions and comments, re-train your staff to ensure that those errors and mistakes are not repeated.

Also, send a small thank you note to guests and invite them to visit again to experience the change.

These are some of the assured ideas to enhance the guest experience in hotels during the stay. Now let’s see, how can you stay in touch with your guests post-departure 

How to enhance guest experience post-departure?

You may ask that after the guests have departed, how can I deliver a better experience to them? 

Well, don’t you want to bring them back? See, there would be 100s of other options available when they want to book their stay. Among all these options, how they will remember you and choose your hotel again? For that, this is how you can stay connected with them after their departure. 

Engage with them post-departure

Once your guests have left your hotel, it doesn’t mean that he’s not going to come back. 

Send them regular newsletters, deals, and offers.

It is in your hand, how you stay in touch with them. To do that, you can send them monthly newsletters and promotional emails highlighting your deals, offers, newsletters, and so on. 

Make sure that you don’t send it too frequently, and that your emails go in the spam box.   

Make efforts to bring them back

There are a plethora of different accommodations options for your guests. The industry is getting more competitive day by day. 

Amidst these 1000s of the other options, if some guests are choosing you, then you should certainly reward them. For that, loyalty programs are an assured way. You can reward your repeat guests as well as attract new guests to enroll in your loyalty programs.

Don’t follow the stereotypical rewards of giving a free stay for a day unless certain points are collected.

Innovate your loyalty programs and always offer them something of real value such as a free drink on the second visit, late check-out facility on the third visit and other such rewards. 

#PROTIP: Managing your loyalty programs gets better with loyalty program software.

In addition to this, whenever they are staying at your hotel, greet them personally, ask them about how their stay was at your hotel, walk an extra mile to fulfill their additional requirements. Here are some more ways to increase repeat guests at your hotel.

Leave no stone unturned when it comes to serving your repeat guests.

Key takeaways

The best hotel guest experience is all about:

1. Personalized touch
2. Accuracy
3. Punctuality
4. Extra efforts from your end.

That's it!

Conclusion

I’ve already mentioned at the beginning of this blog post that the hotel guest experience you impart will have a direct impact on your revenue, as well as reputation.

Besides, there’s never a one service fits all. Your hotel will encounter a variety of different guests – demanding, fussy, rude, calm, understanding.. and the list continues.

You have to deal with all this ethos calmly and put your best foot forward in making your guests’ stay memorable.

Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.

Walt Disney

Delivering the best hotel customer service experience can be a marketing as well as a revenue-generating strategy.

Try all of these guest satisfaction ideas for your hotel and make headway for better business.  Share this blog if you liked it in your networks!

The post 17 Ways to Improve Hotel Guest Experience appeared first on eZee Absolute.

For hotels, social media can not only help to promote the business, but it can also create a strong online presence. 

97% of guests use social media to share pictures of their trips.

Meaning, hoteliers get the chance to showcase their property and attract more guests through a hotel social media marketing strategy. 

So, if you are looking for a social media strategy for hotels that will effectively promote your business and establish a strong online presence, this article is for you. 

In this article, I will explore some sure-shot ideas for using social media to promote your hotel and develop a successful hotel social media marketing strategy.

First and Foremost, Identify Your Audience

Before implementing any social media marketing strategies for hotels, you have to understand how do hotels use social media to attract customers. 

The answer to this is really vast. However, there’s one aspect of it that you must know – knowing and understanding your target audience.

Meaning, that you as a hotelier should get fully acquainted with your audience.

For that, let me show you some real-world stats.

2 in 5 millennials admit that hotel and travel images on social media influence their booking.

This proves that millennials won’t select a hotel for their stay without ”social proof.”

Your credibility on social media plays an important role in your guest’s purchase decision. Basically, by carrying out your hotel’s social media marketing, you get a chance to impress your guests even before they visit your hotel.

The type of your audience certainly depends on the services you’re offering at your hotel. AND of course, your hotel location.

To understand them better, dig out some past data and find out which type of guests visit your hotel often. Are they couples, millennial travellers, corporates, families, or groups?

On the other hand, your target audience counts as well. Let’s say, at present, you are welcoming families and groups, but now you want to target corporates. So, you may definitely need to come up with some new hotel marketing ideas.

Here are some fresh hotel promotion ideas in that case.

All you need to do is define a precise database of your audience and strategize your hotel’s social media marketing accordingly.

Top-Notch Social Media Marketing Strategies for Hotels

Now that you have a better understanding of your target audience, it’s time to learn how to effectively promote your hotel on social media. 

In this section, we will provide you with insightful hotel social media marketing tips to boost your marketing game. 

From crafting a solid strategy to implementing it, these tips will help you make a difference in your hotel’s social media presence. 

So, read on, learn, and start implementing these strategies to see the results for yourself.

1. Facebook –  create a profile, go live, run ads!

When I talk about the best social media marketing strategies for hotels, Facebook always tops the list. And I don’t really need to mention the popularity of this mass media platform. Being the most accessed social media platform, it gives you a bunch of opportunities to advertise your hotel.

That goes without saying, Facebook is indeed an inevitable social media marketing approach for your hotel.

Create your business profile

First things first, create your property’s business profile. Make sure you add the required details and COMPLETE your profile. Once done, perform the following steps to get your Facebook page rolling:

1. Create a new Facebook page. Name it under your hotel’s brand.
2. Add a PROPER profile and cover photo for that page. You can also keep a video as a cover.
3. COMPLETE your page’s profile by adding information like description, category, address, phone number and everything else.
4. Keep your username such that people can identify you.

Some hoteliers neglect this feature, but it actually has a significant impact on your Facebook followers. An amazing cover photo as shown below can catch your audience’s attention. You should also keep changing your cover photo every now and then.

After having your profile built, the very next question that comes is:

As a hotel, what should I post on Facebook?

Facebook is the best medium to share your content.

Why? Because it has no barrier of word limits, links, or video size. Following are some types of posts that you can do:

1. Nearby scenic destinations and eye-catching pictures of your hotel’s interior and exterior.
2. Short videos.
3. Stories and live videos.
4. Special offers, promotions and deals.

But naturally, only posting is not sufficient, right? The next important aspect is engagement.

How can I increase engagement on my hotel’s Facebook page?

Here are a few ways through which your Facebook page can acquire higher engagement.

1. Encourage your guests to use check-ins or location tags on photos and videos. In return, you can offer some attractive rewards.
2. As things stand now, live videos have the highest engagement.
3. With Facebook, you can run interesting contests as well.

For example:

Win a 2D/3N couple package at Royal Beach Resort. Get a chance to enjoy the luxury by following three simple steps:
- Like our page
- Like this post
- Tag your three friends

Trust me this works like wonders! It increases engagement on your posts and will attract a pretty good number of guests.

Add-ons: Facebook ads for hotels

Facebook ads help to target fresh audiences or even existing audiences who have visited your website earlier but have not taken any action.

Running Facebook Ads can help you in a long way to:

1. Increase your direct bookings. 
2. Promote attractive offers and discounts.
3. Target a large audience.

Here’s a complete guide to start Facebook Ads for your property.

You can also download FREE Facebook Ad templates to help you get started.

2. Instagram – reels are the new deal!

Instagram is the second most popular social media network followed by Facebook. Both of these social media networks are interlinked with each other. Everyone is aware that Instagram is primarily known for pictures and video sharing.

However, now there’s an upcoming trend of reels followed by live videos, stories, advertisements, and boomerangs.  

Currently, Instagram is the fastest growing media platform with 1 billion active users monthly.

Statista

Plus, millennials are the biggest consumer group on this platform.

And just to remind you, the human brain processes images 60K times faster than text.

Let’s proceed toward how to bring the best out of this most cherished social media for your hotel.

Create an Instagram Business Profile

Similar to Facebook, create your hotel’s Instagram business profile. Make sure you include all the required data in your business profile.

IMPORTANT: Do not miss out on adding your hotel website link in the bio!

You’ll be asked to connect your Instagram profile with your Facebook business page. DO THAT.

Plus Instagram now lets you experience cross messaging between Facebook and Instagram. Update it and you’ll be able to respond to all your queries from any of the applications you use.

As a hotel, what should I post on Instagram?

Since the platform is particularly for pictures and videos, consider posting high-resolution and interesting pictures of your hotel’s ambience, services, and amenities.

Naturally, the users desire to see the content that interests them, don’t they? It’s not really a tough cookie!

You see, travellers (and Instagram users) tend to like visually appealing posts. So you can share travel tips, local food tips, images of your surroundings, upcoming events, and discount offers.

Don’t forget to add these with the new trend of reels. You can capture and post short videos or a bunch of photos with enchanting music of 15-30 seconds.

Use the best suitable hashtags 

Posting without hashtags on Instagram is equivalent to not posting (Yes, that’s absolutely true!)

In fact, images with hashtags see 12.6% more engagement.

In order to have more engagement, you need to first find the relevant and popular hashtags.

And you know what? There are many tricks in adding these hashtags too! Let me share with you the evergreen one.

In case you are not aware there are two types of hashtags:

1. Super-popular– #Instalike #likeforlike #followforfollow #igers #tagfortag and likewise
2. Less popular- #instatravel #hotels #luxuryhotels #boutiquehotel #besthostel #hoteldeals #hotellocation and likewise

My secret source says that it’s important that you use both. However, by using less popular hashtags, you can easily rank high and be found by targeted users. On the other hand, using the most popular hashtags can increase the impressions on your posts.

BONUS TIP: Including a location will help as well. Posts see 79% more engagement when a location is set. Plus, that helps travellers find your hotel when they look for images of your location.

Give a try to these tips and enjoy the surprises these hashtags bring for you!

How can I increase engagement on Instagram?

When it comes to increasing engagement, nothing can beat the stories and live videos. Let’s get ahead!

Post Instagram stories

Instagram launched stories way back in 2016. Since then, there hasn’t been looking back.

With Instagram Stories, you can click on the special moments of your day, ask questions or share any quick updates about your hotel. These stories last for 24 hours which is the primary reason for their engagement with Instagrammers (aka igers!)

If you want a story to stay for longer, add them as Highlights on your profile. 

You must be wondering that apart from posting regular content, adding stories would take a toll on you. Well, that’s not the case.

These stories are just meant to give a glimpse of what is going on in your business. Here are some examples that might be helpful to you in adding your stories.

1. Discounts, ongoing deals, and offers
2. Important announcements
3. A sneak peek into your work (a.k.a hotel) life
4. Running a poll for customer feedback
5. Asking questions
6. Upcoming events
7. Behind-the-scenes pictures and videos of your hotel (#BTS)

Create a unique hashtag just for your hotel brand and include them in all your posts. (Just like we have it for #eZeeTech.)

Ask your guests to tag your page in their photos, add the location, and use your hotel’s hashtag. In return, you should like those images, respond to their comments, and keep the engagement consistent.

Shoot an Instagram boomerang

You can do way more with Instagram than just publishing a picture, a story, or a video. Boomerang takes a burst of photos and stitches them together into a high-quality mini-video that plays forward and backwards.

It also lets you turn everyday moments into something fun and unexpected. With this, you could show some of your hotel highlights, exciting offers, discounts or anything unique you can think of.

Here’s a blog that explains Instagram marketing for hotels.

BONUS TIP: You can also re-post your guests' posts that star you using the Repost app. You can find this app on PlayStore and AppStore.

We’ve also got ready-to-use social media post templates at NO COST.

Get the templates, decide on the type of post you want to do, and get started with social media marketing for hotels.

Share reels

Instagram reels are the latest way to create and share short and entertaining videos about your hotel. They are the newest addition to this social channel. 

Reels let you record and edit 15 to 30 seconds of multi-clip videos with audio, various background effects, and creative tools. 

Having a business account (i.e. public account) helps your feed reach a wider Instagram community.

For all of these tips, your post content is the king. We’ve made some ready-to-use social media post templates free of cost for you.

Get the templates, decide on the type of post you want to do, and start with social media marketing for your hotel business.

3. LinkedIn – share the perfect post

If you’ve been ignoring LinkedIn because of its B2B focus, then think twice. LinkedIn is another most popular social media channel after Facebook and Instagram. 

This platform has over 630 million users on board, from hotel owners to potential guests and even vendors. This untapped potential client base could work wonders for your property.

Create your hotel’s page

Prerequisite: LinkedIn allows you to create a page only if you have an account on it. So firstly create a business profile. (This can be of an owner, CEO, or any designated member of your hotel.)

The next step is to create a company page from your profile. Make sure you add all the required details (on both your profile and the page) to allow your audience to know the A-Z of your hotel business. Once done, ensure that:

1. The name matches your hotel’s brand.
2. You have an interesting and detailed description.
3. Upload a crisp and clean hotel image – Profile and cover picture.
4. Include a link to your website.

Keep a quarterly check on these in case there is anything to be updated or shared with your guests. You can also consider changing your profile and cover photo to maintain engagement.

After having your profile set, the next thing that comes to mind is:

As a hotel, what should I post on LinkedIn?

Social media itself says to share everything that is going in and around your business. But, to attract the right audiences you should post what they want you to post.

LinkedIn is not like any other social media platform. The audience is different, they are here to explore something that is really beneficial to them. 

You can consider sharing posts about your hotel’s amenities, attractive deals, short videos, a virtual tour or so. 

This will help them gain insights about your property and might as well excite them to book a stay.

Just like Facebook and Instagram, here you can add 3-5 hashtags along with your posts to gain higher engagement.

Now, talking about engagement let’s have a look on,

How to increase engagement on your hotel’s LinkedIn page?

Your social media marketing efforts can be considered fruitful only when you are able to gain maximum engagement on your posts. 

Here are some ideas that might help:

1. Start connecting with the right people. 
2. Take the proper steps to grow your followers.
3. Run polls, share carousels, post an engaging story, and try using all the marketing tools given.
4. Join (relevant) groups and share posts to attract more guests.
5. Give a timely response, be it a negative or a positive one. Make sure you acknowledge them with a pleasing reply.
6. Lastly, be ACTIVE, that’s all that matters! 

The opportunities are endless, consider experimenting with this channel and share with me how it turned out for your property.

4. YouTube – capture and publish the best hotel videos

Videos have higher engagement than images and textual content (you will definitely agree with me here).

At present,

YouTube draws 2 billion monthly logged-in users on its platform.

YouTube

And why not?

To tell you the truth, videos on YouTube have a huge impact than television advertising.

That being the case, YouTube marketing for your hotel can get you significant traffic as well as potential guests. Besides, the ‘in-motion’ videos of your hotel are more likely to drive the guests than the still pictures.

As a hotel, what type of videos should I publish?

1. A video tour of your hotel capturing the amenities and services. (Including such videos will excite your visitors to experience the stay at your hotel)
2. Video testimonials of your guests.
3. You can also shoot a time-lapse video of the nearby location covering from sunrise to sunset.
4. Not just an internal tour but also shoot a video of its exterior showing where your hotel is located.
5. Post videos of any events or concerts happening at your hotel.

Now you must be wondering how to manage shooting the video and the investments surrounding it.

Well, you can hire a freelancer to shoot and develop the videos. This will be a one-time investment with a consistent return.

What else can hotels do on YouTube?

After publishing videos, your next goal is to rank them on Google. For that, you have to be very precise in adding a title to your video. Take the help of Google Keyword Planner to determine what title works best for your videos.

Enrich your video by adding some additional tags such as the city, state, and engaging end screens.

Make your video descriptions as detailed as possible. The description should also include links to your website and social media channels, along with a phone number to call directly. Reply to comments left by customers as necessary, particularly negative ones.

5. X (formerly Twitter) – tweet, tweet, short & sweet!

To be honest, X is actually a less prominent social media platform in the hospitality industry. However, with the pace at which its popularity is growing, it would be a major miss if you don’t include it as a part of social media marketing for your hotel!

At present,

There are 368 million active X users worldwide.

Statista

If done correctly, it can actually bring you potential guests and also drive traffic to your hotel’s website.

X does come with the limitation of characters. However, recently it has increased its character limit from 140 characters to 280. I’m sure you would definitely agree that marketing or promoting your hotel in just 280 characters is a tough call to make.

In contrast to this – the character limit urges the millennial guest to use it more. They use it frequently for quick updates, instant feedback on the hotel service, their trip experiences and such likes.

In a nutshell, X is speedy and talky!

As a hotel, what should I tweet on X?

You can tweet about your special deals, offers or recent updates. Using X is really a no-brainer thing. Let me give you a few examples:

Royal Beach Resort is happy to announce 30% off on all the bookings from 6 March to 10 March celebrating Women’s day. Use code WOM30

Or you can do something like this.

The Royal Beach is all in the spree to welcome [person name] on 18th March. Book your room if you want to meet this youth sensation.

How can I increase engagement on X?

When it comes to responding, hotels generally fail to give a timely response (Agree?).

Be it your online reviews, comments on Facebook, tags, re-posts on Instagram or even mentions on X.

Do not miss responding to anyone who has mentioned your hotel page. Even if it is a good comment or a bad one. (If it’s a bad one, you must treat it with utmost priority.) Walk the extra mile to apologize and assure the guest of your high standards.

If you don’t want to leave your reviews unresponded download these FREE templates now!

X allows you to closely follow all the chattering going around within your audience. So keep an eye on those chats and take the optimum advantage of them.

For example: If any traveler has posted a bad experience about the hotel in your region, you can suggest your hotel replying to their tweet. 

Happy Tweeting!

6. Pinterest – create impressive boards

Pinterest is one of those social media platforms that receive less recognition but has been a salient player all along.

In case you aren’t aware, Pinterest is a visual platform for picture sharing.
But when you use Pinterest, it’s PINS, not images or pictures (be careful!).

So, when you upload an image (oops, Sorry a PIN); you can add a link to that PIN.

You can also link all the posts to a specific location. Let’s say you upload a photo of your property and 100 people re-pin it, all 100 pins will still link back to your website.

Set up a Pinterest profile

Set up an excellent Pinterest profile for your hotel. Your profile displays your profile photo, name, bio, and optionally, location. You can edit these details anytime.

Additionally, you can see who’s following you and the boards, topics, and people you follow.

Create your own boards

The pins on Pinterest are organized on the boards. Pinterest is all stacked with these boards. DIY, Quotes, and Fashion are some of the most popular ones. Basically, these boards are like your personal categories, using which you can classify your pins. Generally, Pinterest users follow specific boards or just your profile.

You can post your hotel’s picture with content and link it to your website by listing it on some trending boards. (Or you can simply create your own board.)

A few examples of the boards that you can create are:

1. Boutique hotels
2. Traveller tips
3. Food and drinks
4. Scenic destinations

As a hotel, what should I post on Pinterest?

To talk about Pinterest as a part of social media marketing for hotels, here’s what you can do:

1. Showcase your hotel’s best features viz. your rooms, and amenities.
2. Post photos of everything that makes your local area unique, from scenic destinations, beaches, walking tracks, and mountain views to restaurants.
3. Highlight what people can do near your hotel. (Tip: Create a separate board for family/guest activities.)
4. If your hotel has a restaurant, showcase some attractive images of your toothsome delicacies (#foodporn). And if you don’t, post photos of cafés or food joints nearby.
5. Try giving some helpful advice or information to visitors if you have time.

7. WhatsApp – reach out to 10x audience

I’m sure you must be well-versed with what WhatsApp is and how it works. So let me just help you out with some core features that can be beneficial for your business.

When we talk about active users for WhatsApp this channel beats all the social platforms. It has 2 billion users worldwide. Which is a lot of clients – potential and current to grow your hotel business. 

WhatsApp marketing, though does not allow you to post or upload photos, its messaging lets you reach all your audiences in a fraction of second.

Besides, you can now post stories on WhatsApp that help you to share all the updates about what’s happening at your property.

For business owners, you can consider downloading the WhatsApp Business app. It allows you to register and display your business as a recognized brand for your target audience.

We have a complete guide for hotels to make the utmost use of WhatsApp’s potential. Do check it out.

WhatsApp Business includes:

Business Profile: You can create a profile for your brand to help your guests find valuable information like a website, location, and contact information along with a complimentary profile picture. It also allows you to create a business catalogue sharing multiple images, product or service names, prices, descriptions, links, and product or service codes.

Business messaging tools: Make use of the away message feature to respond to all your messages. This lets you send a prompt reply to anyone sending a message on your registered number. You can set an away responder, a greeting message, or an introductory message (in case they message you for the first time).

WhatsApp Web: You can track all your messages more efficiently and respond to your customers right from your desktop or laptop.

It goes without saying, that this app enables you to share files, images and supports free voice and video calls. (Which helps you to stay connected to all your guests at any time and hour of the day.)

The best thing that WhatsApp offers is, that you can send multiple or bulk messages to as many potential guests as you wish to. All you have to do is create a broadcast group! 

Nowadays your guests are barely away from their phones. This makes it a great opportunity for you to use mobile messaging platforms to communicate with them.

8. Influencers – connect and enhance marketing!

The core idea behind influencer marketing for hotels is nothing but the “Word of mouth”.  

For that reason, influencer marketing is an important aspect of social media marketing for hotels.

Who are influencers?

An influencer (aka blogger) is an individual who has the power to affect people’s purchase decisions because of his/her authority, knowledge, position or relationship with his/her audience. They have built a reputation for their knowledge and expertise on a particular topic.

They make regular posts about that topic on their preferred social media channels. That’s how they generate large followings of engaged people who pay close attention to their views.

Influencer marketing for hotels includes reaching out to influencers who are related to the travel and hospitality industry.

How to do influencer marketing for my hotel?

To start with, find a hospitality industry influencer in your region. Try connecting with them to stay and promote your property. In return, offer them attractive deals, offers, or a free stay. (Tip: Doing this in weak seasons can really benefit you!)

Ask the influencer to take maximum photos and videos when they are staying at your hotel.

Devise a thorough marketing plan once you have confirmed any influencer. This plan should include pre-marketing and post-marketing ideas too.

Later on, use it thoroughly in your social media posts.

Zostel recently did a video with Shivya Nath (The Shooting Star), a famous travel blogger from India who has been on the road for almost a decade.

9.  TripAdvisor –  enhance hotel reviews

It isn’t a hidden fact that TripAdvisor gives ample benefits to hotels and has become the most popular travel website over the years. Adding on, it’s a no-brainer to consider this travel giant as a part of social media marketing for hotels.

Here’s why:

1. The site receives approximately 463 million unique visitors every month.
2. TripAdvisor users have contributed over 859 million reviews and opinions.

TripAdvisor Media Centre

Today, travellers use it to a great extent to determine where to go, who to stay with, what sites to visit. If your hotel’s presence is NOT on this mega travel website, then you are surely missing out.

How to do marketing on Tripadvisor?

Every hotel can write its description, the amenities offered, and everything that makes it unique. You just need to do that with great pictures.

Figure out which category is suitable for you in two ways:

1. As per accommodation type viz. B&Bs, boutique hotels, resorts and such likes. 
2. As per the audience or your services viz. best value, romantic, family-friendly, business accommodation or luxurious.

Get the most reviews on TripAdvisor

The number of reviews on your TripAdvisor account is directly proportional to the bookings you are going to receive.

In simple words,

More reviews = More bookings = More revenue.

TripAdvisor bestows hoteliers with the two surefire mediums to grab more reviews in their bags.

1. TripAdvisor review express program

TripAdvisor is running a TripAdvisor Review Express Program, which helps hotels collect more reviews on the site for free. In this program, TripAdvisor approaches your recently checked-out guests to leave a review for your hotel.

However, you can only enrol in this program if your hotel technology provider is a TripAdvisor Connectivity Partner.

If you want to know how this program works, you can explore that in detail here:

In addition to this, you can also set automatic emails after the guest checks out to collect reviews on TripAdvisor and other online platforms.

2. TripAdvisor traveller reviews app

You can add the very interesting TripAdvisor Traveller Reviews App to your hotel’s Facebook business page (which is free).

Integrating this app will allow your guests to give you reviews on TripAdvisor FROM your Facebook page. Believe it or not, it’s easier for guests to leave you a review on Facebook instead of any other platform.

Key Takeaways

Now that we talked about what should be considered and done in social media marketing for hotels, let’s bring it all together.

By now, you are fully familiar with the entirety of how to carry out your hotel’s social media marketing. Right?

But what next?

Only KNOWING the strategies is not important. Their execution holds a major significance.

So here are some of the essential things to consider for the long-term and fruitful benefits of these social media strategies.

1. Define strong goals

Let me ask you a question here – Why should you start social media marketing for your hotel?

Definitely, you must have some solid reason to do so. But my point is –  convert that answer or reason into your GOAL.

Practising these strategies randomly might not give you the desired results. So set goals to achieve them.

If you are new to social media marketing, your initial goal can be to increase your followers to 10K.

Whereas, if you are an old player, then your goal can be like – Increase the lead conversion ratio through these platforms.

2. Interlink your social media pages

Interlinking your different social media platforms is really important. This will help you have a balanced audience and traffic.

Most importantly, your profile picture and the link to your hotel website should be the same and added to every social media handle.

You should also see if all the corporate information is listed correctly on each and every social media platform.

3. Do cross-posting

Cross-posting is the act of creating a great piece of content and posting it across multiple social media platforms. Eventually, this would help you to streamline your social media strategy across all platforms.

Additionally, it would also invest less time and effort in keeping your social media accounts active and healthy. It can help you to retain your existing audience, broaden your reach and attract new followers.

Active social media channels will help you to grow rapidly and gain more followers.

4. Be consistent on social media

Now, it is not necessary that you have to post every day. But the frequency at which you are posting should be constant.

Let’s say if you are posting every alternate day, then it should remain consistent throughout.

It’s okay to miss sometimes but don’t let that turn into a habit (Because we’re experts at procrastinating!)

You can reach more people by posting content regularly on all platforms. Besides, you’ll easily be able to grow your online presence and drive website traffic.

5. Take advantage of paid advertising

Most of the social media platforms are offering paid ads. In social media marketing for hotels, this is a BOON.

You can get a considerable budget and try advertising on different social media platforms.

I’ve got some great content to help you get started with Facebook and Google Ads for your hotel.

And I’m not asking you to run ads for years at a stretch. Give them a try for a couple of months or so, perform experiments and then decide after you see the results.

The post 9 Excellent Hotel Social Media Marketing Strategies for 2024 appeared first on eZee Absolute.