However, the booking abandonment rate in the travel sector alone is 81%. These are passengers who would book a plane ticket but will not pursue payment. Hence, it ends up getting cancelled. 

This same scenario happens on hotel websites. Sure, some factors are out of your control. But, there are things a hotelier can do to help reduce booking abandonment (to an extent, if not completely eliminated).

So, if you have been wondering about how to fix hotel booking abandonment, then this article is for you.I have tried to cover all the aspects and help you deal with issues like losing bookings.

Hotel Booking Abandonment and How it Impacts Revenue

Like booking abandonment in the airline industry, hotel booking abandonment is when guests book a room and do not pursue payment. 

Often, hotels wait 24 – 48 hours for the guests to pay for their booked room. This means that their room will be unavailable to accept new guests during that period. 

If the guests pay, good for them and your business. But what happens if they do not? 

This means you have wasted at least a day keeping that reservation on hold and waiting for the guest to complete the booking. This is a day of lost revenue when you could have given that reservation to someone willing to pay immediately. 

According to data, incomplete bookings account for $1.8 trillion in future revenue. And here are five common reasons people abandon their hotel booking: 

1. Travelers were checking how much a reservation may cost on specific dates
2. Guests were shocked by the additional fees
3. The booking process is long and tedious
4. A technical issue on your hotel website occurred
5. You are not offering their preferred payment method

So can you cope with this? Are there any practical ways? Well, the answer is an absolute YES. And this is exactly what is explained in the next point. 

10 Tips to Reduce Hotel Booking Abandonment on Your Website

As mentioned earlier, hotel booking abandonment can hurt your revenue. Luckily, there are ways to mitigate this.

1. Simplify the booking process

Guests do not like it when it is difficult to book an affordable room during their preferred dates. This includes making your site visitors guess whether a room will be available on the said dates and filling out a lengthy form.

That said, you need to ensure that it will be easy for your guests to look for a room and see whether it will be available on their preferred dates. It can also help if you indicate how many rooms are left.

Another thing you can do is reduce the form length. If anything, minimize your booking process to two pages. The first page can be for indicating their preferred dates, number of guests, and choosing the rooms they want to book. The second page can be where they can fill in their payment details.

This is where a hotel management system like eZee can come in handy. It is a comprehensive management system wherein you can handle reservations online and offline. It also allows you to create hotel packages and manage booking rates with ease. 

Make sure that you test out the online booking experience and that it’s simple, short, and efficient. Online bookings on mobile are also on the rise, so make sure that the booking process on these devices goes without a hitch as well.

2. Improve the website’s UX

Aside from simplifying your booking process, another way to reduce hotel booking abandonment is to improve your hotel website’s UX.

The first thing you might want to improve is your calendar’s usability. As much as possible, fill in the check-in and check-out dates with the current date, plus one. Make sure that the check-out date will change accordingly (plus one) whenever a guest picks a new date.

Say, someone chose to book a room for February 12, 2022. The check-out should automatically change to February 13, 2022. That way, it will be easier for your guests to book their preferred room. It can also help to block out previous dates. This is to prevent input errors and invalid date selection.

Other web UX improvements that you can add are a progress bar at the top of your booking page, detailed room information and photos, accurate and comprehensible room rates.

According to Sytian Productions, a website design Philippines company, “When improving your hotel website’s user experience (UX), the key is to make booking or reservation as intuitive as possible. At the very least, don’t make your booking engine look annoying by overcomplicating the booking flow”.

3. Optimize for a mobile experience

One of the reasons for hotel booking abandonment is a poor mobile experience. What I mean by that is many hotel websites aren’t optimised for mobile devices. And this is where they lose the race. 

It's vital to have a mobile-friendly hotel website. After all, it is a revenue stream that you cannot afford to bypass.

But while mobile now makes up 41% of all traffic to travel sites, they’re only responsible for 18% of bookings. Users might still find bugs and other issues while browsing their phones. As such, they won’t hesitate to look for another hotel that can provide them with a much better guest experience. 

An excellent way to ensure that your site is compatible with any device is by investing in a mobile-friendly site builder. The same thing goes for your online hotel booking system. They should look intuitive and easy to use whether the guest is on a desktop or smartphone. 

For instance, guests should quickly find the different types of rooms available on your hotel website. This includes viewing a photo gallery of each room. Additionally, your "Book This Room" button should stand out and be large enough to tap.

Lastly, you should keep in mind that Google aims to make browsing convenient for smartphone users. Hence, you need to ensure that your hotel website functions properly, whether a guest is booking via desktop or a mobile device.

4. Create special offers for direct bookings

Many sites fail to mention this or actively promote it. But how will your target audience know that you want them to book with you directly if you don’t spell it out? 

That’s why you must come up with a special offer for direct bookings. This doesn’t have to be solely focused on the price. This can include giving complimentary drinks on arrival, providing Wi-Fi in every room, or offering an early check-in.

You can also consider upselling other services like organizing a day tour or airport pick-up and dropoff services.

5. Provide clear pricing

When you publish the pricing of each room, ensure that it is inclusive of taxes and service charges. That way, your guests would know what to expect. 

Seeing how a room costs per night can help them decide whether to book a room in your hotel or not. However, presenting an affordable price only to see it increase once they start booking can give your guest the shock of their lives.

What you can do is indicate whether the pricing is inclusive of tax and service charges. Better yet, publish the total costs of booking a room.

Here’s the thing: Some guests wouldn’t mind paying for a premium experience, as long as they make the most out of it. This could mean booking a hotel room with a private jacuzzi, free Wi-Fi, and complimentary breakfast. 

Hence, it would be better to be upfront with the costs. You can indicate the amount a guest needs to add in case they want to enjoy other services like laundry or full-body massage service.

6. Offer various payment options

According to studies, 10% of customers get lost in the checkout stage. Therefore, the more choices a traveler has in paying for their booking, the happier they’ll go through the booking. 

Now, if they fail to find their preferred payment method, they’ll end up frustrated. Although credit and debit cards are some of the most popular ways of buying something online, it isn’t always the case for everyone. 

These days PayPal and other digital wallets like Amazon Wallet and Apple Pay are some of the most widely accepted payment options.

Word to the wise: The payment infrastructure can make or break a hotel. So, make sure, you have got a supremely seamless payment process. 

You can read this blog to learn more about it in detail. Also, this blog is a gem. 

7. Improve page load time

Similarly, a lot of travel bookings get abandoned because of a slow website loading time.

So, make sure that your hotel website is optimised enough to load quickly. Further, website page load time not only reduces booking abandonment but also helps your website rank higher on google. 

Google shows people sites on search results that take less time to load.

Now, how can you improve your page load time? 

One of the things you can do is reduce the image sizes. Because it impacts the website’s load time significantly. Other than that, also pick the best web hosting services that help improve your site’s page load speed.

A hotel website needs to be created strategically and to help you with that, here’s an amazing blog about it. 

Read: Hotel Website Features Checklist

8. Incorporate live chat

Whenever guests encounter issues while booking on your website, they need someone who can help them resolve them immediately. Hence, it would help if you could incorporate live chat on your hotel site.

Doing so can help your guests book a room successfully. It also prevents you from incurring another abandoned hotel booking.

A live chat feature can also be helpful when guests have some questions before booking a room in your hotel.

Speaking of live chat, a hotel chatbot could also be of great benefit. It can not only resolve queries but can also drive more bookings. 

Here’s a detailed blog to help you understand more about it. 

9. Share unique and authentic local stories

The thing is, there’s very little you can do with someone’s budget. Nonetheless, you can enhance your hotel’s perceived value through good storytelling.

Use your site to show what makes your hotel unique from all your competitors in the area.

It might be having loyal staff who have worked with you for years. Another is a restaurant brand that is associated with your hotel. You can also showcase the special events you host for your guests.

Humans love to hear stories since it’s easier for us to connect and remember these stories. So, don’t be afraid to stand out.

The post 10 Effective Ways to Reduce Online Hotel Booking Abandonment appeared first on eZee Absolute.

One great way to get ahead of the curve is to partner with other companies in your industry. 

The hospitality industry is one of the most saturated industries out there. With so many options for lodging, every brand must go above and beyond to make its services stick out. 

Partnering with other brands can be an excellent way to tap into new clientele and diversify your offerings.

Here’s a basic overview of what makes partnership marketing for hotels work and what can trip up even the best-intentioned brands.

What is Partnership Marketing?

Partnership marketing in the hotel industry is a model that uses joint efforts between hotel businesses to boost sales and market share. When multiple brands pool their resources, they can:

• Work together to create strategies
• Develop better products
• Bring in more customers 
• All while extending their core services

Kimpton Hotel Vintage Seattle and PacWesty’s collaboration is a promising example of how independent companies can work with each other to drive success. The hotel teamed up with PacWesty, a van rental company, to offer outdoor explorers opportunities for off-roading in the Pacific Northwest. 

With the partnership, all visitors to the Kimpton Vintage can rent one of PacWesty’s vans. The partnership allows Kimpton Vintage to stay true to its “best-of-all-worlds” image. At the same time, it enables PacWesty to expand its business and reach new customers.

By sharing resources, expertise, and information, these companies can better promote their brands. This leads to a higher likelihood of success for both parties involved.

Importance of Partnership Marketing for Hotels

Partnership marketing for hotels is much more than just a nice-to-have strategy. It’s an inextricable part of building up your brand in the digital age. 

Collaborating with other companies in your niche, industry, or vertical can help in generating more leads, building stronger relationships with customers, and enhancing your brand visibility.

The importance of partnership marketing for hotels is immense. Forging partnerships is a tried-and-true strategy for extending your brand reach. When you partner with other brands that have common interests, you’re doubling the potential of your marketing dollars and creating brand recognition for all involved.

Just look at how New York City’s Mark Hotel is making use of partnership marketing to raise its luxury profile. 

The hotel has figured out an ingenious way to weld upscale brands into its facilities and create an unmatched experience. Years of partnering with elite brands have made Mark Hotel a global trendsetter in luxury hospitality.

Benefits of Partnership Marketing

When it comes to forming strategies around partnership marketing for hotels, there are always doubts and hesitations. Most hoteliers wonder if working with another business will take away from their own brand’s growth more so than it will help. They want to keep the status quo and avoid trying anything new. 

But hotels shouldn’t be afraid of this kind of marketing activities, rather, they should actively seek them out. Forming new alliances can bring you several benefits in the long run. And in this section, I am going to explain just that.

So, if you’re still on the fence about entering new collaborations, here’s a quick look at some of the most obvious benefits.

1. Expands your reach and gets you quality leads

New partnerships can further expand your brand’s reach and bring new customers into the fold. A strategic partnership can help you reach customers who would have never heard of your business otherwise. 

Much like how a fitness company might partner with a yoga studio and agree to show their ads to the yoga enthusiasts within their target market. In the same way, having reliable partners gives your hotel the clout it needs to thrive.

What’s more, your target audience will be more easily persuaded to align with you if they already trust your business partner. 

2. Provides a fresh outlook

Partnerships are all about bringing fresh ideas and new strengths to your business. Working with a new partner introduces you to new ways to market your business and increase sales. 

Each marketing professional brings with them their unique wealth of experience and knowledge to the table. You can take advantage of the insights you can gain by listening to what your partners have to say. And as you draw on their creativity and ingenuity, you’re likely to discover new ideas that will help you stand out in the crowded marketplace.

3. Improves SEO

Another benefit of partnering is the potential to improve your SEO. By promoting each other’s content. This lets both brands gain exposure and aligns them together. 

Link sharing is an easy way to grow traffic and promote SEO, allowing both parties to be featured. This helps both brands gain exposure and aligns them together.

4. Lowers marketing costs

It’s easy for marketing costs to spiral out of control without much to show for it. Most hotels can’t afford campaigns that eat into their capital or product costs. Fortunately, partnership marketing allows you to plug into the same audiences at a fraction of the cost. 

When brands team up, they can create larger promotions while enjoying greater cost savings. Instead of spending too much time and money on separate promotions, two brands can work together to create a single campaign. This creates a win-win situation for both parties.

If you’re wondering what is an example of partnership marketing of this type? It is ‘collaboration’ in hotel marketing. For example, between airlines and certain hotel chains. When you book your flight, you’ll often get a pop-up of nearby hotel deals. In this way, both parties can get in front of their target audience. The result is more bookings, which leads to a higher conversion rate for both parties. 

Partnership marketing in lieu of simple advertising can also reduce the associated expenses of customer acquisition. Seeing as you’ll be reaching an audience that’s already highly likely to be interested in your brand.

5. Strengthens brand reputation

Collaborating with high-profile businesses can boost your image and earn you a spot in the limelight. 

Your industry partners can introduce you to their circle of contacts, spreading awareness of your business and its services. You can either partner with a larger brand to reach a wider audience or with a smaller brand to reach a more niche-specific audience. 

6. Engages customers at the right time

When you work with complementary brands, you can use an integrated marketing strategy to get the most out of your goals. Brands can get noticed by customers who are already interested in their products or services when they are most liable to make the purchase. For example, hotel booking sites show you hotel deals after you’ve booked your flight. 

Then there’s Marriott UK, which partnered with Starbucks to make sure their guests had a nice cup of joe during meetings. Not only does partnership help you engage customers at the right moment, but it also creates a more personalized experience for the users.

Challenges of Partnership Marketing for Hotels

Partnership marketing is an incredibly effective strategy, but it is not without its challenges. Following are a few potential pitfalls you should watch out for:

• Profit-sharing can become a touchy subject for some business partners. Ideally, the decision of how to divide the profits should be made before you sign any contracts. By doing this, both of you will avoid any surprises later on down the road.
• The two of you might not always agree. This is normal for any relationship. But if you can put in the effort to talk things through, you will probably come to a resolution that satisfies both of your needs. 

Getting Started with Partnership Marketing

Building a network of partnerships is key to getting the clout your company needs. However, finding companies that can truly work with you and not against you can be a tricky proposition. 

Here are some of the partnership marketing tips for hotel marketers. Make sure to keep these factors in mind as you look for partners to work with.

1. Identify your objectives

Before you jump on board the partnership bandwagon, understand what you want to achieve through your partnerships. Get a clear picture of your expectations. This will help you pick partners that work for your brand. Having defined objectives will save you from partnering with companies that won’t benefit your bottom line.

2. Choose a business with common interests

The best partnership marketing strategy is also the simplest one. Find something that compliments your business, and then partner with it to offer better value to your customers. 

Hilton London Bankside is the perfect example of how businesses can differentiate themselves through cohesive partnerships. The hotel has created its own niche by choosing to partner with Bompas & Parr, a food design studio. 

Together they created the "world's first" vegan guest suite. This partnership not only created a space with special touches but also introduced an opportunity to create a great story around it.

3. Define what partners expect from you

Establish clear expectations upfront to avoid headaches down the road. To ensure both partners are doing their jobs, make sure that both parties are on the same page. A brand looking to collaborate with you may have different objectives from yours. Look at your differences and work out a strategy that addresses both of your concerns.

The post The Ins and Outs of Partnership Marketing for Hotels appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Many hoteliering enthusiasts gather the courage and start their own venture, but then they find it hard to answer one question – how to manage the hotel business?

A hotel manager must also be a people person, balancing customer service, operations, and employees seamlessly. That’s why all hotel managers need some guidance along the way. 

Here Some Effective Tips for Successful Hotel Management

To help you manage your hotel better, there are certain things you must know and keep in mind. And in this section, I am going to state just that; some points that are going to change the way to handle things at your hotel.

1. Team Mentality

A guest’s experience is not determined by just one person, but by various people. It starts the moment a guest visits your hotel’s website to make a reservation and continues with the valet and bellhop the moment they arrive at the hotel. Then, the front desk takes it from there, and housekeeping finishes the job.

Of course, during their stay, they may also interact with food and drink staff, exercise instructors, and other hotel employees.

Your success as a hotel manager will largely depend on your ability to bring your entire staff together as one unit — a true team. And that team has one goal in mind: providing excellent service to your guests while increasing bottom-line revenue.

You can’t be over every team member’s shoulder throughout the day, but you can instil important values in your hotel that promote a thriving team including:

• Polite Conflict Resolution
• Clear Communication
• Adherence to Policies
• Helping Fellow Employees
• Going Above and Beyond for Guests

When hotel staff work together, it’s much easier to solve urgent problems. And it makes your work as a manager that much easier.

2. Follow Up With Event Leads

This is one of the most essential hotel management tips that you need to keep in mind.

Every hotel guest should be treated with equal amounts of respect and gratitude for patronizing your business. However, if there is one customer segment hotel managers should focus more time and effort on, it’s event leads.

Today’s hotel revenue depends even more on converting leads into paying guests. This is especially true with declining business due to the covid pandemic. Encouraging event organizers to gather in your hotel represents an excellent opportunity for revenue growth.

One guest at $150 per night is perfectly fine. But someone creating a conference or other event could bring 50, 100 or even 1,000 additional guests to your hotel. And there’s a big difference between $150 and $150,000 for your bottom line.

To follow up with event leads, you can use a range of methods such as:

• SMS Campaigns
• Personal Phone Calls
• Remarketing Ads

Regardless of the approach you take, make sure to follow up within less than a week of the lead first contacting you. That way, you have a much better chance at earning their business before another hotel does.

3. Leverage Social Media

We live in the age of social media. Traditional advertising — billboards, physical mail, radio, television, and telemarketing — still have its place. But nothing provides the ability to reach your market at scale as effectively and affordably as social media.

One excellent way to leverage social media is to repost photos that guests post while staying at your hotel. Encourage guests to take these photos by providing a catchy hashtag or geofilter for them to use.

You might even consider running a sweepstake with giveaways such as free stays in the future for anyone who participates in photo opportunities. Just be sure to ask permission before reposting any guest-generated content first.

4. Communicate

Communication is crucial for effective hotel management. A lack of communication leads to mistakes, which lead to crises. Mastering the art of communication will keep your team on the same page — ensuring important elements of the guest experience don’t slip through the cracks.

As the person in charge of hospitality, lead by example. Communicate early and often to address potential issues and maintain team alertness. Take responsibility for clearing explaining hotel procedures and communication protocols.

5. Stay On Top of Trends

Hotel trends are constantly changing — it’s par for the course in the hospitality world. What was sophisticated or trendy yesterday may be considered cliche or tacky in a few years time.

Hotel managers should bring in interior designers every few years to update the look and feel of the hotel based on data-driven guest preferences. And your hotel should reflect the current state of your market.

For instance, providing QR codes, extra cleaning, and social distancing protocols will demonstrate that you take guest safety seriously in a post-pandemic landscape. 

Simply put, have a COVID-19 survival kit in place to better serve your guests and ensure they are safe at your property.

6. Hire Smart

It goes without saying that the staff you bring on board will largely determine the success of your hotel. The best location, architecture, and food won’t mean much if your staff is rude, inexperienced, or unfit for the job.

When hiring, aim to select candidates with the right attitude first. Almost everything else can be taught with time. Once you have the right staff, you have a decisive edge over other competing hotels.

7. Optimize Employee Scheduling

Employee scheduling for hotels can quickly become overwhelming from a management perspective. As we just mentioned, there are various employees and departments in a hotel at any given time.

These employees often have varying schedules — full time, part-time, night shift, day shift, and more. Keeping track of this is nearly impossible to do manually.

That’s why using hotel and hospitality scheduling software like ZoomShift is paramount. With ZoomShift, you can enjoy a single HQ for all employee scheduling needs such as:

• Clock In and Clock Out
• Schedule Changes
• Team Schedule Sharing
• Break Logging

And much more. With a full schedule of your own on your hands, managers can’t afford to waste hours every week on menial tasks.

8. Follow a Standard Operating Procedure

Next up, is one of the top-rated hotel management tips. Many hotels don’t weigh much on this aspect. However, that shouldn’t be the case. 

Every hotel should have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). This is a list of rules and guidelines about how to perform each role in the company. 

The SOP should be easily shared, such as a downloadable PDF or Google Doc. When an employee has a question, they can quickly turn to the SOP document to learn how to perform a task, or what the protocol is for a given situation — saving hours of time.

9. Incorporate Feedback

Nothing is more important to a hotel manager than feedback. It makes the difference between guessing on your next move or having objective data.

Firstly, there is feedback from employees. You can conduct employee feedback sessions during monthly or quarterly meetings. Make sure to provide your team with the feeling that they will not be punished for speaking their true feelings on matters. That way, you can gain key insights into areas of improvement for your hotel.

Secondly, aim to get feedback from every guest possible. You can leave feedback cards in your hotel, or follow up with an email survey. While someone might not feel comfortable voicing their concerns in person, a degree of privacy will help you discover what customers truly love or don’t love about your hotel experience.

The post 9 Hotel Management Tips That Will Make You a Better Hotelier appeared first on eZee Absolute.

As a matter of fact, there are various benefits of hotel affiliate marketing and it’s time that hotels make the most out of it.

Therefore, in this article, I will discuss how hotels can leverage affiliate marketing programs.

Let’s begin by understanding how hotel affiliate marketing programs work.

How Do Affiliate Marketing Programs Work?

Affiliate marketing isn’t any rocket since. When you offer an affiliate marketing program for a hotel, you will find several bloggers and travel writers sign up as members. You’ve to provide them with an online dashboard where they can create affiliate marketing links.

Bloggers, travel writers, and other website owners will post these affiliate marketing links on their blogs and websites. Whenever anyone clicks on these links to make a hotel reservation, the property owner pays the successful affiliate marketer some commissions.

Usually, the amount of money you’ll pay as a commission to an affiliate marketer varies between two percent and 18 percent, minus taxes and other charges. This commission is decided on basis of the basic price.

The advantages of affiliate marketing for hotels are immense and it is opening several marketing channels at the same time. And they don’t cost anything to the hotel. You’ll pay only when there’s a confirmed reservation and get the money for the stay.

Proper Goals for Hotel Affiliate Marketing Programs

As we can see, the workings of hotel affiliate programs are rather simple. However, to make it successful, you need to set proper hotel affiliate marketing strategies and goals. Meaning, having a target that you can achieve for room occupancies at any time of the year for the hotel, through affiliate marketing.

The other goal is choosing the right kind of platform.

Generally, travel writers and bloggers are the best for promoting a hotel. Therefore, customizing an affiliate marketing program that allows such website owners to blend in affiliate links with their reviews or travelogues works well.

And thirdly, demographics. A hotel owner has to ensure that bloggers and travel writers that sign-up as affiliate marketers are reaching the right audience that would translate as guests for your property. This would depend on which segment your hotel falls into such as boutique hotel, resort or budget hotel.

Therefore, choosing the right affiliate marketers is also very important.

Proper Rates for Affiliate Marketers

Setting proper commission rates for affiliate marketers is imperative. That’s because hotels have to strike a fine balance between the actual cost of the room, taxes, and other service charges and their profits. Usually, affiliate commissions are paid from the profits.

At the same time, you also need to consider whether the same room is available cheaper elsewhere. 

For example, a lot of properties offer cheaper rates on OTAs such as Bookings.com, Hotels.com, Agoda.com and others. Therefore, these rates shouldn’t be lower than what your affiliate marketer is offering. You can maintain them at par with those rates on hotel aggregation websites but ensure that commissions are attractive enough to get several affiliate marketers to sign up for your affiliates program.

Competitor Analysis

One important factor to bear in mind is that affiliate marketers can promote any number of hotels through their websites and blogs. Meaning, they could also join an affiliate program offered by your direct competitors. Therefore, you’ve to do some competitor analysis.

Find out facts and figures about your competitor’s affiliate program, if they offer one. And the cheaper rates they could be offering on hotel booking websites. It’s important to strike a proper balance between their rates and yours because undercutting prices leads to unhealthy competition and a drop in profits.

Using Influencers for Affiliate Marketing

One of the best ways to avoid undercutting and loss of profits is by enlisting the services of influencers and micro-influencers for your hotel affiliate marketing programs. These influencers work through various social media platforms such as Instagram. And they have hundreds or even thousands of followers.

Generally, all influencers and micro-influencers earn money by leveraging affiliate marketing to their followers. They promote a specific brand or service. And you can use these influencers to promote your hotel business and bag more guests. You may have to host an influencer at the property for a day or two, for them to take videos and pictures to use with their social media posts.

Facts & Figures of Affiliate Marketing

Here’re some facts and figures about affiliate marketing that should encourage any property owner to leverage affiliate marketing for their hotel. 

• According to the European statistics portal, Statista, affiliate marketing in America itself is expected to cross the $8.2 billion figure by the end of 2022. That’s quite a large number.
• A Forrester report which was commissioned by Japanese online retailer, Rakuten, found some startling facts about affiliate marketing. 
• About 81 percent of advertisers and 84 percent of publishers use affiliate marketing to promote their products and services. Some 50 percent of all the companies included in the survey indicated that affiliate marketing accounted for over 20 percent of the annual revenues of these companies.
• Over 80 percent of these organizations allot over 10 percent of their marketing budgets to their affiliate marketing programs. 
• Between 78 percent and 92 percent of all consumers read blogs and reviews during the initial phase of buying something. And they base their final decision to place an order or buy something such as a hotel reservation, based on blogposts and favourable reviews. 

That’s also the reason affiliate marketing makes sense for property owners. They can bag this segment of consumers that read blogs and reviews. If you provide an affiliate marketing program, a blogger or website owner can include the link on their blogs and reviews. This leads a consumer to take instant decisions and proceed with the purchase.

Spreading to Foreign Markets

An affiliate program can also help hotels reach foreign markets rapidly. That’s because bloggers and content marketers in those countries would generally be providing content in the native language, along with affiliate links. This helps a property to attract more foreign visitors.

In fact, a lot of large retail companies and marketing firms have managed to spread their services and products to foreign countries through affiliate marketing. Amazon is one such example. Airbnb is another. Hotels can draw from the example of Airbnb’s affiliate program and its success to create and offer their own.

You can also offer special discounts in select areas or countries through an affiliate program to attract more guests. This is a wonderful marketing tweak that works well with affiliate programs, through bloggers and content marketers.

Custom Make Your Affiliate Program

One of the ways that hotels can make the most of an affiliate program is to tie it up with other travel essentials.

For example, you can provide a package that includes free airport transfers through an affiliate program. Though this might entail some expense, you can price the package accordingly.

And always create a program that’s friendly enough for travel bloggers and travel writers and reviewers to join and use. If you see the most successful affiliate programs, there’s something in common that would strike you. All of them are simple and have no complex needs or requirements from their associates.

Aim at Brand Awareness

For smaller hoteliers and property owners, creating a brand is very important to survive in a market that is largely dominated by large hotel and resort chains. Affiliate marketing helps you create brand awareness.

When scores of affiliate marketers- especially bloggers, travel writers and reviewers- write about your property, they’re directly contributing to your brand-building efforts.

The same holds true when you promote your affiliate program through influencers and micro-influencers: you’re building a superb brand image. And for every hotel, branding is an integral part of marketing. People are more attracted to hotels that have a brand rather than obscure or unknown ones.

The post How Can Hotels Make the Most Out of Affiliate Marketing? appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Basically, it was way more complicated to reach guests.

Fast forward to today, guests can browse between hundreds of websites and travel agencies that feature property details and hotel availability. Despite the internet making hoteliers’ lives easier – it’s easy to get lost as hotel distribution strategy grows more complex. 

What’s the best way to decide which channel to use? Should your hotel work with all of them, or is one enough? 

This article will help you find answers to these questions as we cover the essential elements that go into building a profitable hotel distribution strategy.

What is a Hotel Distribution Strategy?

Hotel distribution strategy refers to the mix of channels through which you sell hotel rooms. Often, this strategy will be based on the acquisition cost per customer of the various channels through which you can reach your guests.

These channels include:

• Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), like Booking, Expedia, or Agoda;
• Hotel direct channels: website, phone, emails, social media;
• GDS – Global Distribution Systems;
• Wholesalers;
• Metasearch engines like Google, Tripadvisor or Trivago;
• Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO);
• Offline bookings, like walk-ins.

Ultimately, an effective distribution strategy should aim to increase hotel visibility and target the right customer segments for your property. 

Why is building a distribution strategy for hotels is essential?

Simply put, more visibility, more bookings, and better reviews mean more chances for success. 

Creating the right strategy is vital to:

• Increase revenues
• Attract the right customers
• Improve reviews

What are the Types of Hotel Distribution Channels?

The distribution landscape consists of both online and offline channels. Below we’ve described some of the most popular distribution channels in the hotel industry.

Online travel agencies

OTA’s are websites where potential guests can search for accommodations, check prices, and book rooms. There are hundreds of OTAs, from the major ones like Booking.com or Expedia to the niche websites like BringFido (designed for guests seeking pet-friendly accommodations).

To list on OTA’s, hotels pay commissions ranging between 15%-25%, from each booking. The bright side of selling on OTA is the ability to enter markets that would otherwise be harder to reach. 

For example, hoteliers can attract travellers from South America via Despegar or South Korea on Ctrip. 

Despite their reach and convenience, there’s a love and hate relationship between OTA and hotels. This is mainly due to the fact that OTA’s take high commissions for listing and selling hotel inventory. On the other hand, OTA’s give properties more exposure and make them easier to find. 

Plus, have you heard about the billboard effect?

Must Read: Who’s Really Winning The Battle Between OTA and Direct Booking?

The billboard effect

Did you know that up to 35% of direct hotel bookings result from travellers finding the property on a third-party website? 

A significant number of customers will first find a hotel on a website like Expedia and then book directly through the hotel website. That’s the billboard effect – without which you would potentially need to spend more money on advertising and search engine optimization tactics to improve your page ranking on Google.

Direct channel

Direct channels include hotel websites, social media, emails, walk-ins, and phone bookings. You don’t need to pay any commission for direct bookings, but you do need to add the costs of maintaining a website and booking engine.

GDS

A Global Distribution System is a network used by travel agencies for researching and booking flights, hotels, and cars for clients. Examples of GDS’s are Amadeus or Sabre. Any hotel using a GDS will be connected to multiple travel agencies which will then refer guests.

Wholesalers

A wholesaler is essentially a middleman between a hotel and an OTA or travel agency. They purchase rooms for specific dates in bulk at discounted rates, wrap them in a package, and sell them to the OTAs, travel agents, or tour operators.

Metasearch engines

In recent years metasearch engines like Google have become more critical to the hotel distribution landscape. A metasearch scans through OTAs and hotel websites and shows travellers hotel rates on different channels for their chosen dates.

As Google is one of the first places where travellers will hit the search button, it’s no wonder that the search giant now plays a key role in hotel bookings. What’s more, with the ability to list hotel booking links on Google for free, hotels can be more competitive versus OTAs and can increase their direct bookings.

Embracing this growing metasearch trend could play a key role in your property’s distribution strategy. 

DMOs

Destination Marketing Organizations are the organizations in charge of promoting a given city or country. Partnering with them usually includes the ability to feature hotel info on their website and social media as a preferred accommodation partner. 

How to Build a Profitable Hotel Distribution Strategy?

A successful strategy will include a mix of channels. To choose the proper channels for selling  your inventory, you’ll need to take these next points into consideration:

1. Get to know your best guests

When we talk about choosing the right distribution channel in the hotel industry, we mean choosing the one through which your target guests are looking to book. 

But to make sure you get those bookings, you need to know who your guests are first. 

To do that, you can use your Property Management System (PMS), channel manager, and booking engine data. 

For example, if your guests are budget travellers you can include OTAs like Hostelworld in your strategy. But if a large number of your guests are from South Korea, then their most popular channels are Agoda, Ctrip, or Booking.

If you have different types of guests, you can create a range of different value propositions. A family with kids won’t look for the same features in your hotel as a business traveller. Knowing that you need to choose the channels where those different guest types book and offer them what they are looking for.

2. Set business objectives

It’s always a good practice to set clear business goals in order to identify your most profitable channels and include them in the distribution mix. So, what are your objectives?

Is it to fill in the rooms during the low season? To reach more international markets? To diversify your distribution and stop relying on one channel? Or,  do you want to be able to fill last-minute vacancies quickly?

Your property may want to create a specific atmosphere, and not all channels might bring the type of client you want.

Setting clear business goals can be a great help in deciding which channels to include in your strategy.

3. Track customer acquisition costs 

What’s the point of selling rooms on a specific channel if the costs are higher than the profit it brings? 

Sometimes the price for hotels to acquire a guest is more than double the room rate. It’s important to quickly identify and eliminate ineffective channels from your distribution strategy. 

So can you know which are effective and which are not? 

To evaluate channel effectiveness, you will need to understand the costs of guest acquisition. The hotel industry uses the NetRevPAR metric to monitor it. 

If you’re scratching your head right now and wondering what that is, here’s a quick explanation:

NetRevPAR is the revenue per available room after deducting the costs incurred to acquire a guest.

Calculating this metric will tell you how much net revenue you’re receiving from each booking.

The formula for it is as follows:

NetRevPAR= room revenue – distribution costs (e.g.,cost-per-click + marketing + third-party commissions) / available rooms

4. Invest in a direct channel

There’s no doubt that the direct hotel channel should be a priority in any hotel’s online distribution strategy. Neglecting it will undoubtedly result in lost (commission-free) revenue opportunities. Direct channels include hotel websites, booking engines, and social media strategies.

You need an easy-to-navigate and attractive website 

Your website will be a guest’s first contact with your hotel, so make sure it’s aligned with your brand and objectives. 

Importantly, around 70% of travellers did travel research on mobiles. 

Conclusion? Make sure to optimize your website for mobile phones.

Google research has also shown that over 25% of consumers across a  range of markets and industries mention pain points like availability, payment issues, and customer support when they shop online. It’s good to keep this information in mind and facilitate the booking process on your website in order to make it as simple as possible for guests to book a room.

In addition to a great website, you’ll also need a good booking engine, which allows guests to check availability and make reservations with instant confirmation. Want another good idea? Adding a chat function to your website can help potential guests quickly resolve any doubts or questions that arise on their booking journey. 

Don’t forget about socials

Investing in direct channels includes an aligned social media strategy. In fact, digital content inspires 65% of next-gen (millennials and gen Z) travellers to plan a trip. So many travellers these days reference Instagram or Facebook to check out a hotel and decide if it’s the right choice. Don’t neglect social media as you risk losing potential guests who rely on it to inform their decision-making.

5. Review strategy

Once you increase online visibility, reviews are inevitable – and can be extremely valuable. The review strategy you put in place should go hand-in-hand with your hotel’s online distribution strategy and revenue strategy. 

Online reviews can help increase your rankings and popularity and will influence the value of your offer in the eyes of potential customers. Of course, it would be a dream to always receive positive feedback, but you understand the reality as a hotelier. 

There will be some negative reviews, and so you should be prepared for them. Respond to and address every negative opinion, as these can hurt your hotel’s reputation. 

6. Use dynamic rates across all channels

Implementing dynamic pricing across all your channels will significantly increase your competitiveness. 

Dynamic pricing means adapting prices on each booking channel based on availability and demand. When demand and occupancy are high, instead of closing availability on a specific channel out of fear of overbooking, increase your prices. In times of low, reduce your rates to drive more bookings.

7. Maintaining price integrity

When using dynamic pricing in your hotel’s online distribution strategy, remember to maintain price integrity. Avoid colossal price drops to fill your empty rooms. Some customers can see be put off by seeing rock-bottom prices: it makes them wonder if it’s too good to be true. 

What’s more, keeping the price integrity can help you in protecting the customer base. Avoiding unwanted types of guests results in a better hotel atmosphere and happier clients.

Additionally, when you drastically lower rates, you may not turn a profit despite filling your rooms. The cost of attracting a guest and maintaining the room may end up being higher than what the guest actually paid. For that reason, make sure you factor in those other costs to determine if the decision will be profitable or not. 

Hotel Distribution Strategy and Technology

To implement an effective hotel distribution strategy need the right set of tools. These tools can include a channel manager, booking engine, PMS, revenue management system, rate shoppers, and a reputation manager. Of course, it’s not obligatory to have all the tools for hotel distribution management. You might consider starting with the first three mentioned and adding the rest along the way.

Channel manager

A channel manager connects your property to all your chosen distribution channels. It will help you effectively manage your inventory and avoid overbookings. You can adjust room prices from the channel manager, set stay restrictions, and build pricing strategies.

Booking engine

A booking engine connects to your website and channel manager. It allows website visitors to check room availability and make reservations directly with you. What’s more, when the booking engine connects to payment getaways, customers can be charged immediately upon making a reservation.

Property management system (PMS)

A PMS is a system used to manage your property as a whole. You can say it’s like the heart of a hotel– it includes a listing of all rooms and reservations, guest details, as well as housekeeping schedules and property details. It gives hotel managers valuable insights in the form of a range of reports: bookings, occupancy rate, revenues, and availability. Nowadays, most PMS’s are cloud-based, meaning there’s no need to install any system directly on your computers. 

When combined, a PMS, channel manager, and booking engine can greatly improve hotel operations as they work together. 

Revenue management system (RMS)

Hotel distribution strategy should also align with revenue management strategy. In the current competitive environment, it’s essential to use real-time market data to inform your prices across all selling channels. 

Setting your prices manually takes valuable time and can be extremely frustrating. In an environment where demand changes so quickly, you need to react just as fast in order to capture the maximum amount of revenue. Fortunately, technology can be a great help here as well: RMS’s like Pricepoint connect to your channel manager, scan hotel and market data 24/7, and automatically send optimized prices to all your channels in real-time. 

There’s no question that using an RMS can give you and your property a competitive edge. It is without a doubt a must-have hotel distribution management tool. 

An RMS reacts instantly to changes in demand and pushes optimized prices to your OTA’s. Meanwhile, competitors setting prices manually will be left behind – and they’ll leave potential extra revenue behind as well.

Reputation management systems

Reputation management systems help you create an overview of your online reviews across all booking channels. It generates a summary of your overall reputation and enables you to easily identify areas where there is room for improvement.

The post How to Build a Profitable Hotel Distribution Strategy? appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Of course, in today’s day and age, none of this is possible without tools to create and curate a digital experience for guests. Hotel businesses need marketing automation now more than ever, as it is a great way to cut back on costs.

Hotel marketing automation is the use of tools that automate various tasks, allowing teams to focus on more important things by saving time and resources. Any business can benefit from that use, and hotels are no exception:

Marketing automation allows hotel marketers to create targeted and tailor-made campaigns, automate the booking process utilizing all available channels, and streamline processes that will increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).

But what type of marketing automation is best for your hotel? What are the tools you can implement? In the end, how are you going to get the ROI of the graph above? 

Well, let’s find out.

How Can Marketing Automation Help a Hotel’s Conversion?

The saying “Time is money” isn’t something that’s randomly quoted from time to time, especially when we’re talking about a niche as fast-paced and profitable as tourism.

Using automation tools can benefit both the marketing automation beginner and the expert in the hotel industry. Especially, since these tools allow laser-focused prioritization of actions while simultaneously minimizing the human factor and the room for errors.

The time saved by the tools can always be invested in tackling more important problems that call for human intervention, allowing the employees to work smarter, not harder, and generate more conversions in the same timeframe.

But what are the marketing automation solutions for hotels through which you will generate more leads, aim for better conversion, and, in the end, manage to maximize your income?

1. Through email marketing

There are several marketing automation opportunities for hotels and email marketing is one of the most fruitful and beneficial ones. With an ROI of $54 for every $1 spent, email marketing can prove to be beneficial for a hotel’s earnings. 

Here’s why:

As you can see, it was the third most common direct booking channel of 2020 in Europe. This is only logical, considering an email is something personal, like a friend knocking on your door: You’re going to answer it and start a dialogue if you’re interested.

But since an email is not your website, and people can’t exactly opt out without unsubscribing, how are you going to make sure you’re not the one people are trying to avoid because they’ve got nothing to say? This should be easy: You need to invest in an email marketing and automation platform that can help you do things the way Hyatt did:

Weather conditions are essential when one’s on vacation. This is why Hyatt sent an email with its offers for Hawaii, which includes the weather forecast right at the top left-hand side.

Now, Hawaii seems oddly specific, right? How can Hyatt – or anyone, for that matter, know the destinations and offers that interest each of the prospects? 

This is where hyper-segmentation and email autoresponder tools come into play. Hyper-segmentation tools allow marketers to create tiny segments that will correspond with each prospect almost on a one-on-one basis. On the other hand, autoresponder tools will help marketers create an automated email campaign for prospects to receive after a specific action triggers it.

An automated email marketing campaign will keep the name of your hotel at the forefront of a new lead’s mind, especially if they receive an email that utilizes the information they were interested in just a minute ago. Potential guests will be amazed, and repeaters will be encouraged to re-visit your resort and, perhaps, leave a good review. 

Let’s assume that a prospect is checking out your spa’s services. You can use this as a trigger and send them an email with all of the spa offers available. This will be enticing enough and relevant to the information they seemed most interested in, giving you a better chance at a booking and, in the end, better ROI and conversion rate.

Of course, none of the above is possible if you’ve got a non-pruned email list to begin with.

Your email list should contain people that are interested in your industry and what you have to offer. Throwaway email addresses, “dead” or unresponsive addresses, unsubscribers, and people who mark your marketing messages as spam can harm your deliverability rates. 

Make sure to regularly clean and prune your list before investing in any segmentation, personalization, and automation tools for email marketing.

Your marketing message may be perfect and incredibly informative; you might be able to create an email that will supercharge your customer experience metrics by allowing the prospect to book directly through your email without ever leaving their inbox. But if your potential guests not interested, they won’t interact with it. This is why a well-curated email list is essential.

2. Through an automated booking process

Phone bookings are very close to becoming obsolete, especially when platforms like Booking.com have led hotels to create booking platforms for themselves that provide online payment options and offers.

Marketing automation allows potential and future guests to take initiative. Imagine seeing a post on social media and clicking on it. You may go straight to a well-curated landing page that will showcase all of the information you need to go ahead and purchase your next trip. This landing page might as well have an AI-powered chatbot. Like Booking.com did.

The leading platform created virtual assistants that helped users through every step of the way by gathering data and creating what they called a “Cyborg Assistant” that could do the following:

The customers could chat with the customer service team when the booking assistant had no answer to the user’s query, allowing the customer service team to deal with the real issues instead of wasting time.

This is one of the advantages of marketing automation in hotels. Because of the extra interaction and engagement, it encourages your users to visit your website, social media pages, blog posts etc. all of these will be boosted.

Furthermore, using marketing automation to sort out your bookings will also help you cut back on the extra cost of being featured on a platform that can – and will – ask for commission on bookings. Not to mention, how marketing automation will help you form and automate a booking procedure that will allow your booking and customer support teams to intervene through phone calls, or even a live chat option, strictly when they need to.

This procedure will, eventually, minimize friction. Potential guests will be able to just hold their card in their hand and pick and choose their ideal destination at their leisure – and speed up the process – one confirmation email later, your potential guests are fully booked and ready.

3. The Difference Through Data

Hotel marketing automation can make all the difference by gathering data and “training” the hotel’s systems to operate using them. Which is why investing in AI and machine learning is always a good idea.

As the example with Booking.com above shows, hotel guests need to save time as much as the hotels themselves do. So, they’re looking for bite-sized, on-the-spot available information that will push them further down the funnel.

Knowing what bits and pieces will help your case and boost your conversion comes from data. Provided you use automation tools in a manner that will make sense and allow you to create meaningful campaigns to promote your services.

For example, a well-curated landing page that will feature everything a prospect wants to see, in terms of copy, content, visuals and information, will allow for better lead generation and more bookings.

Here’s an example:

This landing page features just what a prospect needs: Information on the various amenities and activities and a way for the potential guests to book their ideal dates – nothing more, nothing less.

By using data to create the perfect marketing message, you’ll manage to ace hotel marketing personalization. Further, you’ll be able to cover all potential requirements and laser-target your marketing actions.

After all, more data means more segments; more segments mean specific marketing messages, and specific marketing messages lead to hyper-personalization. This works beautifully, as families with children need different amenities from those who travel solo.

Not to mention how appreciated personalized marketing messages really are:

Your data will also benefit your performance by allowing your resort to adopt a customer-first approach. And that applies to the customer’s journey, all the while enabling you to understand your pain points and improve them.

4. Helps You Save Time

Personalization is fantastic and all, and laser-targeted marketing messages can really save the day by generating more bookings; however, if you need a reason to use marketing automation, you should keep that one: It helps you save time.

Through the use of hotel marketing automation, your hotel’s teams will avoid all of the mundane tasks. They’ll also be able to focus on optimizing your conversion rate by resolving serious issues and providing the perfect vacation experience.

Imagine having enough time to look at your next guest’s data and prepare a nice surprise for them, instead of looking if their confirmation letter has been sent or not. Which one of the two actions will earn your hotel a five-star review?

Hotel marketing automation can help you increase your guests’ LTV by optimizing their experiences and building rapport with them. By sending optimized, tailor-made emails, promoting just the services they need, and having your support team at the ready, customers will feel valued.

So much so that they will promote your resort to their circle, allowing you to create a referral circle, and, by extension, your first affiliate marketing program. That way, you can tap into affiliate marketing by giving incentives for any referral. This will automatically turn your loyal guests into brand ambassadors, and you will find yourself with leads that will be interested without you even trying.

Again, your data will show you the right way to create your strategy and your loyalty program.

And lastly, I will repeat the most important thing about data and automation: 

Using your data and marketing automation tools to generate your reports will help you identify the points of friction in your strategies and better your sales cycle.

The post 4 Ways Hotel Marketing Automation Can Drive More Conversions appeared first on eZee Absolute.

This is because the hospitality industry is data-rich. And the key to maintaining a competitive advantage has come down to ‘how hotels manage and analyze this data’. 

With the changes taking place in the hospitality industry, data analysis can help you gain meaningful insights that can redefine the way hotels conduct business. 

Below are some of the ways through which data analytics in the hospitality industry can help hotels with business strategies.

Ways Data Analytics Can Help the Hotel Industry

The importance of data analytics in the hotel industry is necessary, since it serves millions of guests every day. Each of them has their own set of preferences, expectations, and needs for the journey.

But, how does it impact your hotel’s business? Let take a deeper dig at the use of data analytics in the hospitality industry.

1. Can assist in improving revenue management

Data analytics in the hospitality industry can help hoteliers to develop a strategy for managing revenue by using the data gathered from various sources like the information found on the internet. 

Through analysis of these data, they can make predictions that will help owners with forecasting. They would learn about: 

• Expectation in terms of demand for accommodation in the hotels
• The best price-value ratio for their guests 

Revenue management professionals are in search of opportunities for marketing services to the right buyer through an appropriate marketing channel at a fair price. 

Various measurements are monitored by experts for determining how competitive a property is, in comparison to its compset. 

Different kinds of data can be beneficial in improving revenue management, such as current bookings, past occupancy levels, and other key performance statistics.

2. Helps in improvisation of services and guest experience

By using hotel data analytics, you can get information like customers’ feedback about their services and experience at the hotel.

This information is readily available on platforms like social media, reviews made on magazines and hotel websites, or even notes left for the hotel. 

However, for reviews, you can also use a traditional survey method which is more detailed, and provides insight into factors that influence guests’ booking decisions. 

With this information, hotel owners and managers can know about their property’s strengths and weaknesses. Hoteliers can also improve their services and provide guests better experiences. 

By using data analytics for hotels, new perspectives can be generated in the hospitality industry. Hoteliers can discover new and better ways to leverage big data for attracting customers and increasing sales. 

3. Data analytics can improve the effectiveness of your marketing

With proper data analysis, the hotel industry can improvise and make its marketing more effective, by knowing exactly what to market to potential customers. 

This enables advertisers to build more unique segments that may assist in identifying key consumer groups who frequently visit hotels or other relevant locations. 

If a guest books the property for the whole family, then with the help of data analytics, one can market the family activities available in the hotel. 

If one usually comes for business, they will showcase activities related to business, which will effectively influence them to come to the hotel. Also, you can market to a specific demographic to beat your competition through target marketing.

4. Helps to scout the business environment and competition

To stay ahead in the industry, hotels must keep an eye out for the competition, and there is no better way of doing so than with the use of data analytics. 

Competitor rates can be determined using real-time data analytics that compares your hotel’s current pricing strategy to your compset. 

This assists in determining the right price for each room using competitive pricing that operates 24/7, resulting in increased hotel bookings. 

The data collected can help you figure out what others in the hotel industry are doing, and how to become better than them in terms of services and experience.

5. Aids in providing additional services 

Hotels communicate with existing and potential guests in a number of ways, allowing them to collect large amounts of data. When data is properly gathered and analyzed, it will show a great deal about not just the programs that guests use, but also the services that they avail. 

In addition to this, hotel owners are able to decide on new products and services to introduce. If guests often request gym equipment that the hotel is lacking, this can assist them to refurbish their gym. 

Data analytics can also help in making decisions about forming partnerships with other companies, such as taxi companies, pubs, restaurants, and travel agencies. 

The use of data analytics in the hotel industry is essential for increasing productivity, efficiency, and profitability. The outcomes of data analysis informs a business where they can optimize, whether operations need improvement, which activities can gain higher efficiency, and more. 

6. Can help in using social media platforms to your advantage

Social media platforms are the most powerful tools for engaging and connecting with the audience from all over the world. 

These media tools are important, especially if you want to have better communication with your guests and remain ahead of the competition. 

It’s feasible for guests to interact with the hotel in new ways because of social media. Nowadays, they are using it for requests, needs, opinions, or concerns. Whereas, hoteliers may use these platforms to offer useful information to their guests about their services. 

On the other hand, being active on social media also means that customers may use it to express their dissatisfaction over the services they received.

Types of data analysis reports your hotel needs

Effective analytics can aid in the development of intelligent marketing and logistics strategies, as well as the identification of target audience. This approach has shown to be quite significant in the hotel business. 

Guests’ sentiments  must be carefully monitored by hospitality services at all times. Here are some of the most important hotel reports to keep an eye on.

1. Identification of guests

For better and more successful service delivery and promotion, the hotel business must first identify and understand its guests. They are more likely to share a positive feedback for a hotel that tends to their needs and preferences. 

This technique of identifying target audience considers certain criteria, such as age, family background, income, hobbies, and previous purchases. 

The hotel industry can use this technology to serve current guests by personalizing services to their specific requirements, as well as target new customers.

2. Report on transactions

By analyzing your daily transactions, you could learn more about what works best for your hotel. You could observe a pattern and figure out which days are more productive and which are not.

You can include payment methods that are more preferred for your hotel. Here are some factors to be considered while creating the transaction report:

• The total number of check-ins
• The total number of check-outs
• The number of unpaid check-outs
• Occupied and unoccupied rooms on average
• Method of payment 

3. Forecasting

Every corporation develops a sales forecast for strategic planning, by using customer data, and conducting regular reporting. Such predictive analytics have proven to be useful tools in the data arsenal. 

Forecasting is used to estimate future demand for products and services, and further sales. It also assists businesses in operating more efficiently by managing money. 

The use of analytics to forecast consumer behavior, improve inventory, and product availability is known as revenue management. The objective is to provide good products to the consumers at the right time.

4. Report on statistics 

Small hotel businesses must be able to measure specific indicators that provide them with an insight into how well the business is performing. 

Here are the important factors that you need to consider for analysis:

• The total number of nights spent (Closed, occupied, and vacant rooms)
• Canceled reservations
• The average occupancy
• Length of stay
• Lead time
• Revenue per booking
• Daily pricing

The post How Data Analytics in The Hospitality Industry Can be Helpful? (6 Tips Inside) appeared first on eZee Absolute.

“This Valentine’s Day, spend 2D 1N at a hilltop. Use ‘code’ to get a 30% off”

“A romantic valentine dinner under the stars”

“Dinner & stay. Valentine’s day at a concept restaurant in Wood Hotels”

Well, it’s that time of the year again! And more of these ads are on the way.

Personally, I am not a fan of such advertisements. However, this doesn’t mean that these sort of promotions are a ‘No! No!’.  

Many hotels spend a significant amount of money on such observances and they do reap the benefits of it.

BUT…there’s always a ‘but’.

“Can every hotel grab such opportunities?” Or, let me put it this way, “SHOULD every hotel grab such opportunities?”

In this blog, we are going to unveil just that. We are going to try to understand whether betting on observances of every kind is important. And if you should do it.

Valentine’s Day is Here!! What’s in it for Hotels?

Before I jump right into the topic and talk about my take, let’s look at Valentine’s day scenario and understand what it presents to the hoteliers.

The year 2020 was terrible, people were locked inside their houses and were frustrated. This year, as the COVID-19 vaccine is out, people want to travel and spend some quality time with their loved ones.

And valentine’s day, an occasion of love, passion, and togetherness, is a great opportunity for people to globe-trot. Over and above, it is falling on a Sunday this year and I am sure, people want to ditch the traditional roses, chocolates, and the hustle of finding a spot for personal space.

Rather, they would want to step out, visit places, and explore.

Meaning, hotels that are more inclined toward offering intriguing experiences to couples are more likely to hit the jackpot.  

Therefore, this is an opportunity for hotels to land some extra cash into their business. They can not only sell rooms but also customized packages (which are priced according to the occasion) to improve their bottom line.

Should Hotels Move Heaven and Earth for Such Occasions?

Occasions like Valentine’s day do present hotels with opportunities but is it necessary for hotels to invest extensive time, resources and efforts on these?

I don’t think I have a solid answer to this question. And even if I give one, it might not be accurate as it varies from hotel to hotel.

So, rather than me saying what is wrong and what is right, let us see what are the benefits and detriments of investing in festivals/occasions/events.

Benefits

People are always excited and have certain desires for festivals. And hotels have an uncanny ability to identify those desire. So, they become innovative in their offerings and make the most out of it.

Here are some of the benefits for hotels:

• People look for themed properties to celebrate certain festivals and occasions. And if your hotel is one of them then it is going to drive more bookings.
• Many come to hotels for activities and dine-in on these occasions. So, it is not just the rooms that are getting sold, but your in-house restaurant and other point-of-sale outlets also benefit from it.
• When guests are there at your property to celebrate certain occasions, they seek maximum value. And this is a great opportunity for hotels to upsell and cross-sell. You can sell offerings that complement their purchases.
• Millennials and Gen Zs are one of the most active ones to step out of their homes during festivities. And when hotels offer customized experiences to them, their brand voice aligns accordingly to the current generation.
• Investing in festival promotion help your hotel build strong relationships with communities. They feel the hotel understands their emotions towards such occasions. And it ultimately helps in guest retention.

Risks

While the benefits are alluring, there are also risks involved.

Imagine, how many festivals and special occasions are there in one year.

Do you really want to work on each one of them? Don’t you think, this might brush aside many opportunities that your hotel’s core business presents?

To help you understand better, here are some of the risks:

• A hotel is anyway a “much to be done” business and with additional activities, you may end up overwhelming yourself.
• There are always significant investments involved when hosting events and tweaking a restaurant’s concept. However, there’s no certainty that the hotel would make enough money. So, there’s always a high risk of loss.
• There are times when hotels overdo things with observance days which ultimately takes a toll on their normal room sales. And I am sure, this is not a good practice.
• Managing manpower for events is another hurdle for hotels. Onboarding more staff requires more investment — not just in terms of wages but also in terms of time as they need training.
• Branding is a very sensitive aspect. One wrong move and things may go haywire. On the brighter side, you may connect well with the current generation. But on the contrary, there are chances of losing your former guests. So, this is a great risk when indulging in a lot of events. 
• While focusing on festival promotion, many hotels forget that their core principles aren’t aligned with their new business model. And in turn, has a severe impact on hotels’ bottom line.

You should get a clear idea about the entire scenario by comparing the benefits and the risk. 

So now, it’s your job to decide whether you would want to invest your time and resources in hosting and celebrating every occasion. Or do you want to take a strategic approach (read the next point)?

Then What Should You Do?

If you ask my opinion, then I would say that it’s not important to follow the bandwagon of celebrating every festivity and offering deals.

Even though there are a lot of benefits, one cannot overlook the detriments of festival promotion. A chunk of hotels around the world are making profits by merely following the traditional hospitality principles.

Again, I am not criticizing any hotel here. Even I belong to the millennial group and I understand how important it is for hotels to stay abreast with the current needs and wants of people. 

So, without being biased, I want to help hotels in making the best decision. And if you chose a strategic approach (in the previous point), here’s what you can do:

• List out all the festivities and events
• Filter all the festivities you think that are significant
• Perform market analysis to see what are the events people are inclined towards
• Do not consider your entire property to host observances and events
• Keep rooms for your regular sales too
• Divide your staff for better management
• Invest in a system that can help you manage both of your strategies without any discrepancy

Simply put, the idea here is to invest only on certain occasions and make sure it goes hand in hand with your core hoteliering.

The better you manage your hotel, the more chances you have of improving your bottom line as well as brand image.

Are These Observance Marketing Activities Feasible for Every Hotel?

Now that you have an understanding of these promotions, I would like to address this burning question as well.

Every hotel has its own concept that aligns with their core demographic. But when they are tweaked to deliver different experiences for festivals and events, things might take a different turn.

For example: A business hotel offering packages for Valentine’s day doesn’t sound right. This affects their branding and eventually takes a toll on their business of serving corporates or executives. On the other hand, a boutique hotel can always create deals and packages for such occasions and make the most out of it.

The bottom line here is that every hotel must know its core guest types and operate accordingly. Tapping into different demographics may lead to adverse implications.

The post Do Hotels Need to Move Mountains for Festival Promotions? appeared first on eZee Absolute.

It’s true, isn’t it? We search everything on Google. Be it a grocery store in the nearby vicinity or a hotel located miles away, Google provides you with accurate search results. 

‘Google My Business‘ for hotels has helped many hoteliers in establishing their presence online. (I’m sure your property must be listed on it too.)

However, just listing won’t do good, so let me guide you on what it is and ways to optimise your hotel’s Google my business listing.

What is Google My Business?

GMB is a platform designed by Google for business owners. It helps them to create a business listing and connect with customers in a hassle-free way.

The primary focus of ‘Google My Business (GMB)’ is – ‘To bring every business online.’

With various Google my business features such as customisable themes, metasearch, hotel attributes and so on, it became a boon for the hospitality industry.

Using GMB many local accommodation providers became a part of the online booking business.

It assisted them with inquiries and increased visibility on Google. Since GMB was free to use, hoteliers didn’t hesitate to invest in it.

Why is Google My Business important for hotels?

GMB listing received great popularity as it helped businesses to create their unique identity online. 

Google being the epitome of information, with a single click it allows you to search around nooks and corners of the world. For travellers, it is the easiest way to find an ideal hotel to stay.

Guests now have multiple options to choose from based on the property ranking. It depends on several factors, such as the – 

• Interaction level of your listing
• User-generated content (Reviews and pictures by guests)
• SEO optimization 
• Regular update on profile, and so on. 

Ignoring any of these factors can result in a drop in your rank on Google.

With Google metasearch, every hotel has the chance to display rates from all the OTAs. This in turn helps guests to choose the one with the lowest prices. 

To ensure direct bookings you can run certain discounts on your website. Moreover, GMB creates a free website for your hotel during the registration process. So if your hotel doesn’t have one Google is there to help you.

Google my business has the option of purchasing a domain name at a competitive price. You can use it to create your official email addresses. 

There is another feature which is exclusively for hotels – ‘Hotel attributes’

It allows you to list down your amenities in a detailed manner.  All you need to do is update the category of the attribute you want to add

Let’s say you need to add points in the ‘Food and drinks’ attribute. So, just go into that particular attribute and choose all the relevant points such as restaurant, bar, buffet service and so on.

It would save your time in writing separate content for it. This also helps you to avoid missing out on any facility.

How can you add a hotel on Google My Business?

Listing a hotel on GMB is easier than baking a cake. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can register your hotel on Google.

• Step 1 – Search for ‘Google My Business’ on Google.

• Step 2 – Enter the name of your business. You may find your listing already. If yes, simply claim it; if no, here’s how you can get listed.

• Step 3 – Select a business type. Enter your complete address and accurately pin the marker to your property’s location.

• Step 4 – If you are having a restaurant, then you can select “Yes”. Or else, click on “No” and move ahead.

• Step 5- Give a contact number that is 24*7 available and update your website details. If you don’t have a website, GMB creates one for you. 

• Step 6 – Select appropriate working hours.

• Step 7 – Enable the “Accept Messages” feature. This is a new add on in the GMB listing that allows your guests to connect over text directly.

• Step 8 – I’ll say this again – “Use high-quality photographs only.” You can upload a maximum of 12 pictures in Google my business for hotels.

• Step 9 – Once you submit details, your business is listed and you would be redirected to Google my business dashboard.

It is recommended to download the ‘GMB App’, to easily manage your listing. Try to explore Google my business features for hotels such as operating hours, Google 360 degree virtual tours, hotel attributes and others.

Further, you will be receiving a postcard from Google, at your hotel’s address. It would contain a six digit numerical code. Enter that code in the link you have received in an email, for verification of your listing.

How to optimise your hotel’s Google My Business listing?

Listing your hotel on Google is one thing and maintaining it is another. Here are 7 easy ways to help you optimise your Google My Business listing for better results and ranking.

1. Provide accurate information

Check for the accuracy of each detail you have mentioned. Focus on the amenities and facilities. Any incorrect information on your GMB listing will prove fatal for your hotel. 

A room booked on basis of incorrect information will leave you with three things: 

• Negative feedback
• Loss of booking
• Disappointed guest

So, if you don’t want to face such a loss, provide accurate details.

2. Check for location accuracy

Geo-tagging is an important task. If your guests can’t find your property at the location you provided, they’ll be annoyed. Why? 

• Because a lot of time was wasted in asking directions.
• And all this chaos ruined their entire trip. 

Don’t miss the address part. Be it a street name or lane number, ensure that you have updated even the finest details. For the landmark, give a famous one. Don’t put cliched places such as round the corner, near the hoarding, beside the pink house and so on. 

Give some solid ones such as, near (name) school, in front of the post office, opposite to the graveyard (Ha Ha! Just kidding). But what I meant was, use a known location to pinpoint your hotel.

3. Integrate your website

If you have a website, use it during the registration process.

GMB creates a ‘(hotel name).business.site’ for you by default. It is a basic and customisable website. You can even integrate a booking engine into it. 

But, it is recommended to go with a brand website. It’ll help you in establishing your unique identity among your guests. Here are some of the well-known website builders: eZee Panorama, WordPress and Wix.

#ProTip: When you opt for a booking engine, make sure the provider is an authorized partner for Google’s Free Hotel Booking Links. It will not only help you position at the top of Google meta search listing but also drive more direct bookings.

4. Don’t Ignore the Q & A section

Usually, hotels don’t focus on the Q & A section. This is where they lose a couple of guests. There are some facilities that seem minor in nature, but they do impact your booking ratio. 

For example, there is a guest searching for a hotel with an accessible room (Disabled-friendly Room). He/she finds your property suitable to book but has certain queries regarding the room facilities. 

He/she would be posting a query in the Q & A section of some hotels including yours. Suppose, you ignored this section and someone else addresses the query. The guest finds the answer satisfying, he books that property. So now, who is at loss?

OF COURSE, YOU! 

You have lost two sources of bookings:

• The guest who enquired about the room.
• Potential guests who saw the query unaddressed. 

So don’t ignore the Q & A section. You can also share the FAQ page of your hotel’s website with guests.

5. Focus on reviews

‘Collect more reviews’ – That’s the only advice I give to every hotel. With Google metasearch, guests can easily look at your reviews and tariffs across all the OTAs. 

It’s easy, bad reviews and low ranking will result in loss of bookings. While positive reviews and high ratings will improve it.

Don’t let any reviews go unanswered. Learn from the negative feedback and focus on improving the guest experience.

6. Use analysis for improvement

GMB provides you with analytics of your weekly, monthly and annual performance. The analytics consists of data such as visitor count, conversion ratio and so on.

By using these analytics you can start improving your hotel’s GMB listing to make it impactful.

7. Post regular updates

You need to post regular updates of your hotel. It is as easy as posting one on any social media. This feature comes as a replacement to Google Plus.

Write content about an event happening at your hotel or maybe any specific promotion you want to highlight. Ensure it’s upto 1500 words only. 

Once you have written the content, attach some relevant pictures and share it on your Google my business listing. This would help you promote your hotel and increase your guest engagement level. 

Conclusion

Google has made the world a smaller place. With just a couple of clicks, you can learn anything, plan a journey far away, book a hotel across the oceans and whatnot. 

From being a search engine to the most powerful tool on the internet, Google has impacted billions of people. The launch of Google My Business for hotels brought a revolution in the hospitality industry

It is mandatory for you to optimise Google my business listing. If you aren’t registered on Google yet, do it right now.

And then you can say to your guests – “ Just search for our hotel on Google.”

The post 7 Strategies to Optimise Google My Business for Hotels appeared first on eZee Absolute.

A hotel welcome letter is the first impression you create for your guests. It is a simple way to provide them a warm welcome and share details of your property.

If you are not a professional writer, it might be challenging for you to craft the perfect welcome letter for your guests. Luckily, we’ve got your back. Keep reading for the best tips on writing a great hotel guest welcome letter. 

Before we start talking about the writing principles, let’s discuss the importance of sending a welcome letter to hotel guests.

The importance of guest welcome letter

Why should you invest your time and efforts into crafting such letters? Here are a few compelling reasons to do it:

• Make a good first impression on your guests 
• Provide them important information to make their stay more smooth and enjoyable
• Show appreciation to your guests to gain their loyalty 
• Get a chance to get genuine feedback
• Upsell your services

Let’s face it. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the hotel industry hard. Hilton alone reported a net loss of $430 million. The global hospitality industry’s losses are massive. Naturally, the competition between small hotels and large hotel chains has gotten fierce. 

If you want to keep your business afloat in 2021, you should use every opportunity to promote your brand and increase customer loyalty. Writing a guest welcome letter is a simple yet effective way to build a strong relationship with guests and ensure the long-term success of your hospitality business. 

Take a look below at some of the,

Basic principles of writing a hotel welcome letter

There is no such thing as an ideal hotel welcome letter template. Every hotel and every guest is unique. So if you want to boost your marketing efforts, you should write your letter from scratch. Here are a few basic rules you should follow.

1. Be polite and welcoming

Whether you communicate with your guests via email or in person, you should be polite and welcoming. Showing respect and being pleasant is the key to success in the hospitality business.

Staying kind will make your guests feel at home. Here are examples of the words and phrases you can include in your letter to sound polite, professional, and helpful:

• Thank you for choosing our hotel
• We’re glad you’ve made it all the way to X destination.
• Enjoy your stay
• Happy to help
• We apologize for any inconvenience caused by COVID-19 preventive measures.

2. Personalize your message

As we have already mentioned, your hotel guests want to feel valued and special. And you need to personalize every letter to fulfill this want.

You can do it by simply using your guest’s name in the subject line of your email or in the greeting. It will not cost you a thing but will make a big difference to your customers. A personalized greeting will make your guests believe that you truly appreciate their loyalty.

3. Maintain a friendly tone

Treat your guests as your dearest friends, and you will easily build a trustful relationship. Show your customers that you are happy to host them and assure them that their loyalty means the world to your hospitality business.

Even if you operate in the luxury price segment, don’t make your welcome letter sound too formal and impersonal. Use a friendly tone to win your customers over.

4. Ask for feedback and a review

Do you want to be one step ahead of the competition? Strive for excellence in everything you do. Ask your guests for feedback, analyze their reviews, and define the areas that need some improvement.

You can use your welcome letter as a tool for encouraging more guest reviews. Ask your customers to leave a review on hotel booking sites such as Booking.com, Kayak, Priceline, or any other site. Ask them to tag your hotel on Instagram, or provide feedback via Twitter. It’s a great opportunity to show your customers that you truly value their opinion and take their suggestions seriously.  

So, your hotel guest welcome letter should be inviting and encouraging. Here are a few examples of what you can write:

• “If you get something to say about your stay with us, leave us a review. We highly value your opinion.” 
• “We hope you will enjoy your stay. You are more than welcome to provide feedback and any suggestions on how we can make your stay with us as comfortable as possible.”

5. Proofread and edit your letters

As the saying goes, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” If you make a typo or grammar mistake in your welcome letter, you will make a bad impression on your guest. Your poorly-written letter will do more harm than good.

To prevent that, you should proofread your letter meticulously. Check the spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and vocabulary. 

The good news is that there are many proofreading tools out there that can ease your work. You can use editing services like TrustMyPaper and online grammar checkers like Grammarly. Thanks to advanced technologies, you can improve the quality of your welcome letter for guests in a matter of a click.

6. Use the right expressions

Keep your writing simple, to make the letter easy to understand. Don’t use local slang and professional jargon – that will make your welcome letter hard to read.

If more than half of your customers come from overseas, write your letter in plain English. It will help you ensure that the message of your letter will be interpreted the right way by non-English native speakers.

7. Put your ideas to the test

Do you want to get the most out of the welcome letter for hotel guests? You could test your writing ideas. Create a few different versions of your letter, send them to 20 or 100 guests, and see which version appeals to your target audience the most. 

There is no limit to perfection. Even if you are satisfied with the current results of using your hotel welcome letter, you can find a new way to incorporate some improvements from time to time.

What to include in a hotel welcome letters for guests?

Let’s talk about what information you should include. Here is a basic structure you should follow:

• Start with greeting – “Hello, Mr. X”
• Add a welcome note for guests – “We would like to welcome you to our property.”
• List on-site amenities that your hotel offers – “We invite you to work out in our gym and try a relaxing massage in our salon.”
• Provide information about facilities, shops, and restaurants located close to your hotel – “Our hotel is five minutes’ walk from Michelin star restaurant XYZ and ten minutes’ walk from the beach.” 
• Talk about COVID-19 preventing measures taken – “As it has always been, the safety and security of our guests and associates remain our highest priority. On a daily basis, we are working to ensure that it meets the latest guidance on hygiene and cleaning.”
• Mention room details –“Your room has Wi-Fi, air conditioning, a minibar, and a sea-facing balcony.”
• Define the meal plan – “Breakfast is served from 6:30 am to 9:30 am.”
• Mention hotel events – “There’s a samba dance party at the hotel terrace every Friday, starting at 8 pm.”
• Mention the room preferences they’ve requested – “The room is equipped with an air purifier.”
• Provide contact details – “If there is anything you still need, our contact details are listed above.”
• Write a brief thank-you note – “We want to thank you for choosing the Z Hotel.”
• Use your name while closing – “Warmly, Caroline Smith, General Manager at Z hotel.”

Try to keep your hotel welcome letter brief and to the point. Don’t overload it with too many details. 

If you need to provide your guests with some specific information, consider adding a relevant QR code to your letter. For instance, it can be a QR code with a link to your website, a downloadable local map, or your hotel’s restaurant menu.

When is it the right time to send a welcome letter to guests?

You can send your hotel’s welcome letter right before or after checking-in. It depends on what specific information you want to deliver to your customers.

For instance, if you want to inform your guests about some specific check-in requirements, you should send your letter in advance. It will help you ensure that your guest will not face any difficulties during check-in and stay.

If the main purpose of sending a welcome letter is upselling your services, like SPA procedures and local tours, you should send your letter after checking in. The moment customers arrive at your hotel is the best time to present your offerings.

Wrapping it up

All of these tips will help any business write a lovely welcome letter to hotel guests, so they will have a memorable experience and will want to visit again. 

Here are the key takeaways. Be friendly and polite, keep your writing simple, and try to find the right words to make your guests feel valued and important. If you do it right, you will be able to upsell your services, improve customer satisfaction, collect valuable feedback, and gain customer loyalty.

The post Hotel Welcome Letter: How to Curate The Perfect One? appeared first on eZee Absolute.