Websites are such an important hotel sales and marketing tool – especially when it comes to bringing your hotel’s unique story to life, capturing the attention of your target audience and driving bookings. Think of them as your face to the world, as often your hotel website is the first impression you make on potential guests. And, as they say, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

Hence, why you need a d*mn good hotel website!

With such helpful tools on the market and agencies that can MAke them happen, developing and running a hotel website is more accessible and cheaper than ever. In fact, through our sister agency or never, which offers affordable, inclusive and beautiful plug and play website starter kits, we can do this all for you – it’s really as simple as that!

So if you’ve been waiting for a sign to revamp your hotel website, consider it this blog post! And to guide the way, we’ve MApped out all our hotel website marketing tips to boost your bookings.

#1. Align with your hotel concept

No one likes a boring website chock full of hotel sales messages. Instead, it’s important to align with your hotel concept by communicating your unique storytelling hook and USPs. This is how you appeal to the emotions of your hotel website visitors and compel them to book with you.

#2. Make it beautiful

Your hotel’s concept should be underpinned by distinctive (and attractive!) hotel imagery and videos. For example, if your hotel concept centres on being a lifestyle hotel, your imagery and videos should be fun, dynamic and alive with people. A luxury hotel, on the other hand, should feature more refined media. Check out the work of our partner Piquant Production to see what we mean!

#3. Incorporate clear CTAs

Call-to-actions (CTAs) prompt website visitors to take a certain action, and for your hotel website the CTA should be obvious: BOOK NOW! When it comes to CTAs, follow these guidelines: tell visitors exactly what to do, start with a verb (BOOK), create a sense of urgency (NOW!), make the CTA button stand out prominently, and be consistent (one CTA throughout website).

#4. Promote direct bookings

Your hotel website is an important arm for your hotel sales, so in order to drive hotel bookings there needs to be a place to book! Your CTAs should lead directly to a website booking engine that is easy and quick to use. And don’t forget – promote the benefits of booking direct, such as cheapest guaranteed price, free breakfast, welcome package, and other freebies/perks.

#5. Highlight your hotel's Purpose

Consumers want to buy with purpose-driven brands. For that reason, it’s important to ensure that not only everything on your website furthers and supports your hotel’s Purpose, but that it is consistently communicated throughout so as to connect with those value-driven consumers.

#6. Tailor your messaging

When it comes to your hotel website’s copy, put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. To do this, you have to know them, the benefits they’re looking for and the problems they have – which only your hotel can solve. With that in mind, the messaging should be less about what YOU offer and more about what THEY experience staying at your hotel. You are selling emotions!

#7. Include hotel packages + offers

Everyone likes a good deal, so be sure to highlight your current hotel packages and offerings directly on your homepage as well as on a dedicated page. This is a critical way of boosting your hotel sales.

#8. Capture leads

They may not book with you today, but that doesn’t mean they’ll never book with you. That’s why it’s important to capture leads and nurture relationships with the goal to increase those conversions. The best way to do that is by collecting emails for your newsletter, but you could also consider creating downloadable destination guides that visitors receive in return for submitting their contact information.

#9. Spotlight sustainability

Sustainability matters – especially for hotel guests. They want to see you care about people and planet. If you have sustainable measures in place at your hotel, dedicate space to what those are, and touch on your sustainability practices wherever possible. Again, this builds emotional connection with your audience.

#10. Maintain + optimise

On a monthly basis, check your website analytics to see what is working and what is not working, and based on those insights, test and refine as necessary to improve your hotel website’s performance. And while you’re at it, switch up your photos, videos and content in order to keep it fresh and interesting. There’s nothing worse than a hotel website that is tired or stale!

If your hotel website is out-of-date or performing poorly, you are really missing out an effective hotel sales and marketing tool that drives bookings and gets you noticed. So are you ready to make a change? Then be sure to follow our hotel website marketing tips to create a well-optimised website that delivers real results.

And, if you need help creating a beautiful, standout website for your hotel, just drop us a mail.

Jiwa, a global authority on storytelling in business and marketing, is the author of eight renowned books on the subject, with “Marketing: A Love Story” her most easy-to-digest book yet. That’s because it’s a compilation of short but powerful blog posts lifted from her website, thestoryoftelling.com. Each blog post underlines a critical point: the importance of mattering to our customers. Jiwa contends that while marketing has become a necessary evil for all companies, we can look at it in other ways: marketing as solving problems, marketing as a way of seeing the world through our customers’ eyes, marketing as a means of understanding what people need and want, marketing as a way of doing better work. The bottom line: forget analytics and quick wins, seek connection before you seek results!

#1: Don’t tell customers what you do, even if you do it really well.

The biggest mistake marketers (and product developers) can make is focusing too much on the product or service they offer and not enough on the customer. This mind-set has to change. Appreciate what your customers’ wants and needs are, and do your best to present solutions. Customers are no longer interested in what you are offering them (even if it is the best); they are interested in how your product or service makes them feel. They need to know that you understand what matters most to them.

#2: And in line with that, your competitive advantage is what your customers believe – not your product/service.

Competitive advantage is an intangible thing; it’s not about the unique feature your product offers or your cheaper rates. It’s not what you tell customers. Jiwa puts it best: “Customers don’t often pay for the actual value the product delivers. If they did, $4 cups of coffee wouldn’t exist, and people wouldn’t buy Macs even though they cost more than PCs. People pay for the intangible value, for what they experience and what they care about.”

#3: Don’t confuse awareness with impact.

In a world where it’s harder to get attention, gaining mind share is a priority for every company. The misconception is that if you can get a few more people to know about your company, you’ll be set. But instead, better to approach it by thinking, why will one person care that you are there in the first place? As Jiwa states, “What’s more important than building awareness is what you plan to do with it once you’ve got it, because top of mind is not the same thing at all as close to heart.”

#4: Don’t fear the competition, be the competition.

Companies obsess too often about what the competition is doing. Instead, channel this obsession to your customers. Obsess over what your customers are doing and then determine how you could help them do it with more ease. According to Jiwa: “Becoming the competition doesn’t always mean using the same old rules to beat others at their own game. Focusing on the tiniest gap in your customers’ desires might be a better strategy.” The message: act as if you are a market of one.

#5: Sell your story.

It’s not difficult to come up with a great idea. But it is, however, difficult to articulate clearly why that great idea should matter to the right people. As a place to start, simply fill in the blanks: “We do _________ so that you can do/feel/be _________.”

Whether creating products or services, or marketing products or services, always ask yourself one critical question:

Why should your customer care about this?

You need to give people a reason to stop and listen to your song.

“What if, instead of spending all that time and money on deciding how to tell customers who we are, we spent more time and money on being who they want us to be?”

We hope “Marketing: A Love Story” gives you a new perspective on what it means to be a marketer. Share with us your favourite wisdom nuggets from the book! And, lastly, support a local bookshop by buying it here: https://bookshop.org/.

A few months ago, we came across the following quote by transformational business coach Bill Baren: “Best marketing beats best product EVERY single time!” Please, stop for a moment and savour every single word of this sentence, because grasping the full implication of this statement might have the power to change your business forever.

What do you think is the most important department of any hotel? Is it the food & beverage department, or housekeeping? Who opts for front office and guest services? And no, all departments are equally important isn't an acceptable answer ;-). We no doubt share the same view as you - that in the long run, a hotel can only be successful if every department performs at the highest standard.

That said, we believe that the most important department of a hotel right now is the marketing department. Why? Because without marketing, you have no guests. And without guests, you have no hotel. 

So, to make sure that your great hotel product attracts not just any guest but the right ones, here are our five hotel MArketing MAdvices to increase the performance and success of your marketing approach.

1 – Have a clear concept

“First the concept, then the rest.”
MA people ;-)

A clearly-defined hotel concept, and derived from it, an equally-clear positioning are the basis for everything – the hotel product development, optimisation and innovation; the menu in your restaurant; the amenities you use in your guest rooms; … AND of course, the marketing strategy you follow.

If you and your marketing team are not 100% clear as to what your hotel and hospitality business stands for – how can you decide where to invest your marketing budget? In our opinion, marketing without a clear concept and message is like driving with your eyes closed!

2 – Know your guests

“When the customer comes first, the customer will last.”
Robert Half

At MAp, we always focus on what drives and generates sales and profits – the people (every … single … time). That’s why we place huMAns at the very heart of everything we do. 

If you are in Munich and have set the objective to reach Zurich the same day by car– would you take the highway to Vienna? Pretty obvious answer, we know. However, have you ever noticed how many hotels say they want to reach affluent guests, but then they buy adverts in magazines read by budget travellers? Or what about the family hotel that invites fashion influencers to stay in their hotel and blog about the spa area?

Hotels have the right to invest their budget how, when and where they want. But by being uncompromising in regards to buyer personas, hotels can influence guest satisfaction and profits. We urge you to take the time to define or redefine your buyer personas in detail. You need to know them by heart, where they live, what newspapers and online forums they read, what is important to them, and what social media channels they are using, etc. Also meticulously research what their problem is = the problem that your hotel solves for them. The answer to this last question will be your main marketing and communication message. 

3 – Define a budget

“You cannot be everything to everyone.
If you decide to go north, you cannot go south at the same time.”
Jeroen De Flander

Once you know your basics, it's important to define your budget. How much are you going to spend on marketing activities in the next year? What is the return that you expect? Always remember, setting aside enough budget for your marketing is important: no marketing = no guests, no guests = no business.

Calculate your budget, divide it into different segments (e.g., how much you plan to spend on online marketing activities, print, social media) and act accordingly.

Once you know your budget, it will be easy to set priorities and to say no to random marketing activities that pop up in your email inbox.

4 – Have a strategy

“Hope is not a strategy.”
Vince Lombardi

A strategy is defined as your plan of action to achieve your goals. This implies that before you define your hotel marketing strategy, you have to define your goals. If you are working with a marketing team, include everyone in this process because it is important that everyone involved buys into your goals and works towards them.

Once defined, create your plan accordingly. Is your main priority to fill rooms during low season or to create attractive premium packages for high season to extend the average length of stay? Is the goal to push direct bookings or to strengthen the sales via external partners? As always, the strategy depends on your concept and the defined buyer personas.

5 – Measure, measure, measure!

“If you can't measure it, you can't improve it.”
Peter Drucker

We want to say right here, right now that one of the biggest lies we hear way too often is that you can’t measure marketing. This simply is not true! But many believe this to be the case. You can already gain a competitive advantage by ignoring this, measuring your impact and learning from the results. It helps you to optimise and to pivot; and in the long run, to budget every year more efficiently, generating more returns. 

Measure every single marketing activity that you do: Did we generate more clicks on our website? How many people followed us on Facebook by running the campaign? How many bookings have been made through the advertised special offer booking code?

So what does great marketing look like? Well, here are two examples of recent hospitality marketing campaigns and initiatives that caught our eye. Have you seen any others? 

Know your guests - niche content by SBE & Morgan’s Originals
Morgan’s Originals hotels are specifically targeted to creatives, as it is a "family" of individual hotels that create a surreal fantasy where anything is possible. Originals bring vision and style together with a spirit filled with magic and illusion. Morgan’s Originals use their online blog "Back of House" to build brand authority and awareness with highly-niche content that is specifically targeted to creatives. It’s more a general lifestyle publication than a brand blog, amongst which you’ll find interviews with people in the art, fashion or music industry. 

Measure, measure, measure! - Marriott’s Moxy tent at Coachella
For the opening of Moxy Times Square, Marriott transformed eight safari tents into hotel rooms during Coachella 2017. Influencers such as Amy Pham and Marriott Rewards members were invited to experience the Moxy tents, which also were a preview of the NYC Times Square property rooms. The campaign proved a huge hit, earning over one billion media impressions, exposure on major media outlets, and a 63% week-on-week boost in Instagram reach.

As always we hope that this blog post is of great help to you. Please feel free to do some marketing for it and share it with your friends - and let us know your opinion in the comments section below!