Are you searching for winning strategies to bring in new guests and increase bookings at your hotel? There’s no better way to do this than to offer an outstanding food menu selection and amenities, improved room bookings, competitive prices, and discount offers. But that’s not all.
A challenge common to hotels seeking to attract new guests to their hotel is the challenge of an overcrowded and competitive marketplace.
While other hoteliers offer their services, online travel agencies showcase cheap rates, and competitors likeAirbnboffer outstanding accommodations.
Getting your property to attract the eyes of prospective customers can be challenging.
Why Do Hotels Need More Customers
Whether you believe it or not, customers are the lifeblood of every hotel business. Customers make up a more significant percentage of a hotel’s revenue generation.
The goal of every hotel owner is to attract customers (both new and old) to their property because it increases the occupancy rate and the hotel’s revenue.
Now that the need to attract new guests is established, it’s time to answer how to start attracting them to your hotel. Does your hotel have what it takes to attract new customers or to bring back old guests?
Best Ideas for Attracting Customers To Your Hotel
Impress Visitors before their arrival
A customer has booked a stay in your hotel. Now it’s your opportunity to make a fantastic first impression by showing exceptional customer service.
- Know your guests. Why are they visiting? Is it a leisure visit or for businesspurposes? Show them that you genuinely care about them.
- Offer them free Vouchers. Once you know the purpose of their visit, you can offer themfree vouchers to visit the cinema, museum, and other exciting places.
- Give them a welcome they’ll Not Forget In a Hurry.
This is not a popular suggestion, but trust me, it works. Impressing your visitors on arrival puts them in a great mood and prevents them from wishing they had visited elsewhere. You have to ease them of the stress of travelling.
Here are some exciting ways to give your guests a memorable welcome:
- Give them Free upgrades: Everyone loves freebies. If you have spare roomsabove their budget, you can offer them free. This can go a long way to bolster the experience of your guests.
- Accept early check-in: If a customer informs you that they will arrive a bit earlierdue to one reason or the other, do not try to be too formal. Ensure early check-in is available to avoid them waiting around or in your lobby.
- Offer them pickup and shuttle: Apart from picking up guests from the airport or thetrain station, you can also offer to drive them around town and take them to places they want to see. All these will contribute to improving their overall customer experience.
- Embrace special events: During festive periods and special events, peoplefrom all over the world usually travel to celebrate with friends and family. Your guests will be happy to arrive at a warm, festive, and memorable welcome. For example, you can offer free Christmas gifts, mulled wine, and the rest.
- Help with kids and physically challenged people: Client satisfaction is yourtopmost priority. Guests will be super ex when you show them kind gestures like this.
Train your staff to deliver world-class service
The demeanour of your staff contributes to the overall experience of your hotel customers. And some, for guests, it doesn’t take much to make or mar an experience.
If you have ever been to a hotel or restaurant where a staff member was rude, grumpy, or downright unhelpful, I guess you wouldn’t want to return to such a place.
One way to attract more customers to your hotel business is to ensure that every member of your staff provides guests with an unbeatable and unforgettable experience. Here’s how to do it:
- Encourage staff to do a little extra: Showing visitors that you genuinely care about them is crucial for a memorable experience and to bring them back to your facility.
- Organize regular workshops or training sessions on customer care:
Customers are humans too, and their needs change also. Regular training will ensure that your employees are up-to-date with the latest trends in the industry.
- Set up an award to reward outstanding performances:
One way to motivate staff to deliver the best customer care is by rewarding them for maintaining professionalism. Reward your employees for being at their best.
Maintain Excellent Room Services
This is one crucial strategy that you cannot undermine. Chances are that your hotel visitors will spend 80% of their time in their hotel rooms.
Ensure that your hotel rooms are equipped with gadgets for maximum productivity. Most guests expect more than just the regular cable TV and in-room movies. Give them options to stream their favourite shows and preferred content via modern in-room solutions.
If your guest prefers to order food from outside, make it easy by supplying local delivery options.
Additionally, if there is no gym in your facility, you can make available in-room fitness videos and workout equipment.
Offer better rates with recreational facilities
People travel around the world for various reasons. They want to experience the best treatment while at your hotel.
Most times, business people extend their stay because of a few impromptu meetings, upcoming events, or some personal reasons.
Amidst their tight schedule, the pressure of work, and jet lags, spending long hours on the road build-up stress in the body, thereby leading to fatigue.
For this reason, travellers always look for corporate rates with standard facilities like a de-stress package. These packages will help turn their packages into stress-free ones.
Establish an online presence
The internet is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to reach new customers daily. It is also the first place your potential guest visits before even making their way to your hotel. This is why you need an active social media presence.
One reason you need an effective online presence is that your hotel visitors always use social media for different purposes. You can leverage social media in the following ways:
- Increase online reviews: Whether it’s Instagram, Google, Facebook, orTripAdvisor, take time to respond to reviews and feedback.
- Have an active social media presence: If your hotel has what it takes to attract customers – show it! Don’t Hide it. Your guests want to know what makes your hotel different, and your social media is the best place to take them around.
- Optimize your website and social media: Attraction and visibility workin hand. Some customers’ journey begins with a search online to find a place to stay. So stay ahead of your competitors with SEO.
Use popular keywords on your social channels, and ensure that your website does not load slowly. This can help your hotel business appear in relevant search queries.
Take advantage of peak booking seasons
Peak booking seasons differ according to hotels. As a hotel owner, you or your marketing team should know when your bookings will peak. It is ideal to allocate more marketing budget to your busiest seasons.
A careful study of hotel bookings will show you when it is frequent or slow. Use this insight to adjust your budget according to suit each season. You wouldn’t want to spend heavily on marketing campaigns in seasons when bookings are slow.
Ensure You are Targeting the right Audience
What type of hotel business do you run, and who are your potential guests?
The audience for a hotel located beside a sandy beach will differ from the audience of a hotel situated on the outskirts of the town. These people book differently, and they also have different allocations and anticipations.
You may want to consider segmenting or breaking down your audience to make it easier. Split your audience into separate campaigns to ensure you’re not spending all your time trying to sell to the wrong audience.
Spend time defining your audience, so you create a perfect and compelling message for the right person and at the right time.
Email marketing and Post-Stay communication
Staying in contact with your hotel visitors after they leave effectively brings customers to a facility. It shows them you care about the experience they got from patronizing your hotel.
Post-stay communication increases the chances of a repeat booking. To maintain communication after they’ve left, you can do the following:
- Be in contact with them quickly: It is ideal to be in contact within two to three days of the guest’s departure. Not just for upselling, but to let them know that you sincerely care about them.
- Offer something: It could be a discount for future visits, a promotion, or something else, to keep your hotel in the back of their mind.
- Address complaints quickly: Do all within your capacity to address whatever complaints your guest might have from using your service. Work towards achieving a positive outcome.
Market your hotel and the location
Chances are that many of your potential guests are not still unsure whether the city or town where your property is situated is the ideal place where they want to spend their time. This is why you shouldn’t focus your marketing energy on amenities in your hotel.
Although it is an excellent idea to advertise your neat swimming pool, top-rated rooms, etc., it is also profitable to promote the environment. Tell them what makes that city a desirable place, the unique features of the environment such as security, natural views or side traction, and serenity.
This strategy can help you attract specific customers with an eye for those features.
What else is important?
Build a relationship with local businesses
If I’m not mistaken, your hotel is not located in a forest. More likely, you’re surrounded by other local businesses and franchises.
Whether they are a small-scale business, or a well-known shop or restaurant, it is essential to know your business neighbours. Building relationships with local business owners is a superb strategy for promoting each other’s businesses.
For instance, you could partner with a boutique and run a simple contest where the winner gets a free package from the boutique and a discounted stay at your hotel. Trust me; this is one effective strategy that will attract more business customers.
Build Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are one strategy that can help ensure your customers revisit your property. These programs aim to deliver significant discounts and unique bonuses to returning customers. It allows guests to reach a certain level or point per year for visiting your hotel.
Bottom Line
When guests are treated exceptionally, they will be enthusiastic about returning to your hotel. They will also be eager to share their experiences with others, automatically attracting more hotel visitors.
All the strategies mentioned in this resource are super effective. However, you can not implement it all simultaneously. The best thing to do is to figure out where your hotel is missing, then select a strategy to overturn the challenge.
