How to promote a hotel on the Internet is certainly a question that concerns any representative of the hospitality industry. Now everyone understands that with the help of the Internet it is possible to organize an influx of customers and communicate with them.
First of all, we can note the great convenience and accessibility of the online environment for every person. If, for example, we take the case when a person wants to book a hotel room, select all the appropriate conditions, look at photos and additional services, then he will definitely look for information on the Internet.
It is worth noting that today the Internet makes it possible to find all the necessary and interesting information in the required form.
What can you get from the hotel website?
- Detailed information about all services;
- See photos from which you can determine the furnishings of the rooms;
- Determine how convenient the hotel is located for you;
- Choose a room that suits the price;
- Place an order and reserve a hotel room.
In general, we can say that a full-fledged website allows the hotel to serve customers at a distance.
Hotel website promotion
Naturally, in order for as many people as possible to find the site, it needs to be promoted online. The following popular methods are often used for this:
- Promotion through articles – about cities and countries;
- Contextual advertising for the most “fat” queries;
- Promotion by purchasing links
- Internal optimization of meta tags on the site;
- Registration of the hotel on travel portals and catalogues;
- Banner advertising in online magazines and travel blogs.
The hotel business is extremely oversaturated with offers of hotels of various stripes and categories. In such a market, the most successful strategy will be to highlight narrow niche products, for example: inexpensive hostels for young people, quiet cozy boarding houses for the elderly, luxury hotels with a high level of service, hotel clubs, etc.
And pay attention - the most key places for bold queries are occupied by large information projects, which will be very, very difficult to overtake. Therefore, it makes sense for a hotel to be listed in catalogs of similar web resources.
You can also highlight specific ways to promote a hotel website:
- Hidden advertising on forums
- Mandatory – reviews and increasing hotel ratings on special portals
- SMM – promotion of a group on a social network. This is a very promising direction for hospitality! Groups about beautiful places, travel, delicious food can quickly gain popularity
- Image articles in online magazines that your target audience reads
- Promotion of video clips with reviews of hotel rooms, attractions or events in the city
- It is important to place the hotel on Google and Yandex maps
The issue of advertising a hostel must be resolved at the stage of opening a business. Outdated methods of promotion, such as leaflets and advertisements, have long lost their relevance. In the article we will analyze how to properly promote a hostel and what advertising tools really work.
Hostel promotion: website promotion and optimization
Making a name for yourself and standing out from your competitors in Moscow is not easy. Promoting a hostel on the Internet is an effective and quick way to attract guests.
Customers search for hostels through search engines and apps. Usually the first few positions in the search results are viewed. To be in the top, the hostel website needs promotion. To please the user, the site must meet a number of requirements.
How to attract people to a hostel through a website
A clear interface and simple menu navigation are signs of a well-made website. Don't waste money on page design; it will pay off if you do it right. Add high-quality photographs, detailed descriptions, and price list. Create a review section.
It is best to provide the ability to book rooms directly on the website. This way you won't lose customers.
Online advertising: SEO promotion of the hostel website
- The first thing to do is to collect suitable search queries, focusing on the features of the hostel and its location.
- Secondly, it is necessary to optimize the site for these requests.
- Third, fill the pages with high-quality and unique content.
Pay special attention relevance of posted texts to queries. Don't try to weave in key phrases artificially. If the content does not match what the user is looking for, the site will quickly fall out of the top.
It is best to delegate these functions to an online agency. Specialists can upgrade an existing website or create it from scratch. Don't skimp on your web resource! The Internet is the main source of attracting guests to the hostel.
Hostel promotion using contextual advertising
Contextual advertising of a hostel in Yandex and Google is another effective way of promotion. Plus contextual advertising - your ads will be visible only to those users who are looking for the necessary information. You yourself determine the pool of requests, the desired region, and the time when it is best to turn on ads. With proper setup, contextual advertising will regularly provide the hostel with new guests.
How to promote a hostel on social networks: nuances
Social networks are a good option for additional advertising of the hostel. The main thing is to advertise not the site itself, but special offers: discounts for early bookings, new promotions and other relevant information. Create a group and regularly post information about great room rates, share useful links, and conduct surveys.
How to advertise a hostel: booking sites
Placement on time-tested sites such as Booking.com or Ostrovok.ru, positively affects your reputation. These projects are trusted by millions of tourists. You can add information about a hostel on such sites for free, since the portals are interested in expanding the base of hostels and hotels. You will only need to pay a commission fee for bookings made.
Buying a hostel with customized advertising: what are the advantages?
A ready-made business solves the problem of promoting a hostel. The object has been operating on the market for a certain period, a customer base has been formed and advertising has been set up. Buying a hostel will save time and money.
- Confluence-WIKI
- Drupal
- Skype
- Google Docs
A small hotel on a business trip or on vacation is chosen not only based on location or based on economic considerations; Often guests are attracted by privacy, “homely” comfort, and an individual approach to the guest, which, as is commonly believed, are characteristic of mini-hotels. These strengths can form the basis of promotion and increase sales. How to use them? A few recommendations from Sergei Skorbenko, director of the DigitalWill agency, specializing in hotel internet marketing.
Sergey Skorbenko, CEO of the company DigitalWill, one of the leading Russian experts in the hotel business. The agency specializes in promoting hotels on the Internet and e-commerce for the hospitality industry. The company was founded in 2008, the number of clients at the moment is 104.
Make your website easier and more convenient
Acquaintance of a new client with a hotel usually begins with the website. It is important that a potential guest can quickly and easily find all important information. Make his task easier - simplify the main page, remove unnecessary internal pages, make contact information as visible as possible. On the main page we also leave current special offers, services, and rooms.
The block layout of information is still considered the easiest, clearest and most convenient. It will also give the site mobility and dynamics: at any time you add or remove data, change images, bring the most relevant and “tasty” to the fore.
When structuring information, follow the trend principle - fewer words, more pictures. And for filming it’s worth hiring a professional photographer: visualization is not the best way to save money.
Expand the opportunity to contact you quickly and “live” - as practice shows, the Russian client still prefers personal communication with a manager to all modern booking methods. Therefore, make contact information cross-cutting for all pages, placing them, for example, in the header. And if you haven’t yet connected online chat and a quick booking form, I highly recommend it: it’s inexpensive, but it leads to real sales and really works.
Develop and update the site
The key mistake that we constantly encounter: Russian hoteliers do not consider it necessary to work on a hotel website or do it irregularly and reluctantly. As a result, the image of a hotel online may differ sharply from its image in real life, and this is absolutely wrong. They must match. The site should be treated as an effective sales channel, so it should not be “abandoned.” Update information, highlight interesting promotions, refresh the main page, optimize it for better indexing by search engines.
A good website is informative not only for visitors. If you regularly and competently record and analyze counter indicators, you can better understand the behavior and motivation of the audience on the site. What information interested the client, how long did he spend on the promotion page, how quickly did he move to the booking form or contact page... Let the clients themselves tell you what information they can refuse and what needs to be adjusted. Competent analytics will also allow you to set up an advertising campaign taking into account time, location and other fundamental indicators and save your budget.
Build loyalty
The turnover of small hotels does not allow them to invest their advertising budget in full SEO traffic. In this case, such a capital-intensive topic as classic SEO promotion can be abandoned. However, in the context of improving the site’s position in search engine results, SEO should not be deleted.
To attract a new audience, I recommend regularly conducting a well-thought-out contextual campaign, bringing potential clients to the hotel website, where you must try to retain them by all available means. By the way, retention is important not only on the website - for a mini-hotel, repeat sales are of key importance. Therefore, we build our work on loyalty: we carefully maintain our customer base; tactfully, but persistently and regularly remind us of ourselves through mailings and congratulations; Based on the client’s interests, we create unique special offers and talk about it.
Develop a smart context
The main tool that will work effectively to attract customers is context, and it must first be set up. In order to be noticed among competitors, the hotel must have a truly attractive offer for popular requests.
When building a campaign, work with geo-targeting and the most targeted requests from a narrow segment of the audience. For example, if the mini-hotel is located near a popular attraction (museum, theater, etc.), you can offer special conditions for those who intend to attend a certain cultural event. Another example: you can set selective targeting for newlyweds, which will be most effective in conjunction with special offers for lovers or for a honeymoon. In other words, you need to know your audience. Then there will be no problems with ideas for original and truly attractive proposals.
Create special offers
Presence on recommendation and mapping services is a must for a mini-hotel. Yes, these medals are worth fighting for, and yes, it is necessary to be present on all major ranking portals. This way, the hotel not only comes to the attention of new customers - it increases the interest of those who are already one step away from making a reservation. In practice, of the total number of people interested in your hotel on booking.com, eighty percent will go to the hotel website. This is excellent traffic, which can account for up to 90% of the total flow of site visitors. Next, you are faced with the task of retaining a potential client. One tool that works very well in this case is a special offer for guests from booking.com.
It is necessary for a small hotel to develop pages on social networks, but one can hardly expect excellent results in this direction. Social networks are not always about sales, but they are always about reputation. Indeed, in Russian practice, cases about successful sales through social accounts are still rare (but are already appearing). But there are many thousands of examples when active users of social networks shared their negative and positive reviews about the hotel.
Create a page for your hotel so that clients, if they wish, can find this platform where they can not only get information, but also speak out. Tell us on the page about everything that happens at the hotel - show your openness, modernity and readiness for personal dialogue with everyone. The main thing is to maintain the page regularly, as lively as possible, and not to forget about the principle “inform, but do not advertise.”
Showcase yourself on Instagram
The hotel’s mission on social networks is to show its boundless friendliness. Instagram is simply perfect for this. Each hotel has something to demonstrate and captivate. Dishes from the chef, original interiors, friendly staff, etc. Only your unique and attractive details and little things can be in focus. Promoting a mini-hotel in this chain will not require huge labor costs and budgets - in most cases, the owner or manager will cope with this task perfectly.
Adapt your website for tablets and smartphones
Try to think about the convenience of your customers. Recent statistics have shown that the traffic that goes to hotel websites from smartphones has hardly grown in 2015. While traffic from tablets increased by 30%. Tablets are gradually replacing laptops and desktop computers: many people outside the office prefer to view pictures and choose hotels from a tablet. Is your website adapted for tablet screens?
Find your "trick"
And tell us about it! Not being like everyone else means being interesting to many. You can build communication, including an advertising campaign, around little things, details, “tricks”. This could be an interesting location, a nearby landmark, a street name, or some historical significance. This could be your unique idea embodied in the interior. So, in one hotel in St. Petersburg I noticed silent floors made of cork - an excellent solution! And in the rooms there were books from Russian classics - another non-standard move. It's interesting, it's memorable.
Experiment
Don't be afraid to try! Use new products that hi-tech constantly throws up. At one time, panoramic photo tours of hotels and rooms looked original. Today there is a new opportunity: 360-degree video, which allows the viewer to choose the shooting angle to imagine everything even better. Try new products among the first to show your willingness to be useful and interesting to the client.
Advice from an Expert - Business Consultant
Photos on the topic
The development of domestic tourism and business connections invariably increases the number of trips. Finding a decent hotel in an unfamiliar city is not an easy task. To promote your own hotel and receive a stable income, you should use an integrated approach.
Just follow these simple step-by-step tips and you'll be on the right track.
Quick step by step guide
So, let's get down to action, focusing on the result. Step - 1
Make sure that your hotel is advertised in all city directories, electronic maps, and yellow pages. Always try to make your hotel name stand out from the general list by using a banner, a different font or additional advertising lines. Having done this, move on to the next steps.
Step - 2
Create a high-quality website for your hotel. Today, more and more people, when traveling, prefer to find and book hotels on the Internet. Place the maximum amount of information on the page, high-quality photographs, develop a booking function and several types of payment. Engage in SEO optimization of the site: when user queries regarding your city, the name of the hotel should appear at the top of the list of results. Having done this, move on to the next steps.
Step - 3
Be thoughtful when choosing channels for distributing advertising about your hotel. Think outside the box. Partner with travel companies that organize tours and trips to your city. For a certain percentage, they will book your hotel for their guests. Inform the Chamber of Commerce and Industry about your work, since large business events on a regional scale always have a flow of visitors. Having done this, move on to the next steps.
Step - 4
Focus on customer retention and satisfaction. Many city guests prefer to stay at the same hotel. Moreover, a satisfied client will always recommend your hotel to their relatives and colleagues. Therefore, achieve impeccable service, create a cozy and friendly atmosphere in the hotel, and constantly analyze the opinions and requests of guests.
We recommend paying attention to the following tips:
Do not make gross mistakes in hotel service, which can give it a bad reputation. Theft, lack of security, poor quality food - all this can ruin all your efforts to promote the hotel.
Additional information and useful expert advice:
Order hotel-branded souvenirs that guests can take with them. Pens, calendars, sets of paper, magnets: little things like this that have your name and contact information on them will constantly remind you of your hotel.
We hope the answer to the question contains information useful to you. Good luck! To find the answer to your question, use the form -
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