Spring is here, which means it’s time for travelers to start planning their vacations. But if you’re a hotel owner or manager, how do you make sure your booking rates are high enough to make the season profitable?
Whether you’re an owner or manager of a hotel, you know how important it is to keep your rooms filled. If your hotel isn’t full, that means it’s costing you money—and if you want to be successful in the business, that can’t happen. You need to find ways to fill those empty rooms!
With the new season comes new opportunities to book your guests into your hotel. You want to make sure that you’re ready for spring with a well-planned marketing plan and a good online presence. Here are some of our favorite tips:
1. Be available online
If your website isn’t easy to use or doesn’t have all of the information that potential customers need, they won’t book with you. Make sure your site is optimized for mobile devices and has all of the features needed by today’s travelers (including social media links).
If you can get more people to visit your website, they’re more likely to book with you. Utilizing a channel manager with 100’s of connections allows for more travelers to find your hotel easily! This will increase traffic and allow you to capture leads as they browse around the internet.
Keep track of what people are saying about you online—and respond if necessary! If there are any negative comments out there (or even if there aren’t), make sure that someone is listening and responding accordingly when necessary.
2. Promote your special spring offers
Spring is all about renewal—and your marketing efforts should be too! Take a look at what’s been working for you in the past, and make sure that everything is up to date and current. You might want to tweak or update your social media presence, or maybe even try something new out on Facebook or Instagram. Add some spring pictures to your accounts and show off any new additions!
People love getting discounts—especially when they’re planning last-minute trips or spur-of-the-moment getaways—so offering deals through Groupon and on your website can be a great way to boost sales without having any upfront costs. It’s no secret: people love deals! Use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter to share special offers with potential customers who might be looking at booking a room with your hotel.
You could also try posting flyers around town or offering discounts through local businesses such as restaurants or coffee shops where people might see them while out shopping or dining out. You never know who might walk in off the street once they hear about this great deal.
3. Utilize a booking engine
A high-converting booking engine allows guests to book with ease, while simplifying the booking process for your team. Plus, having this system in place can increase direct bookings. A few benefits of using a high converting booking engine include:
More control over the online guest experience
Direct booking allows hoteliers to better control the online booking experience for their guests. With booking engine technology integrated into their website, hotel operators can customize the content, including descriptions and images, to ensure their property is well positioned online. As a result, hotels can have greater influence on travelers’ booking processes. If hotels can help travelers feel more confident in how they’re booking online and who they’re booking with, they’ll be able to move from research to reservation much faster.
Improves your competitive positioning
The value of direct booking also extends to competitive positioning against other lodging properties. Hotels that offer multiple digital booking channels create additional opportunities for travelers to discover their property, book room nights, and capture valuable revenue. Additionally, hotels that expand their direct booking offering to mobile devices stand to benefit even greater as mobile bookings have grown into the top source of reservations for lodging properties. In short, the more opportunities hotels provide travelers to find their property and book rooms, the greater the advantage they have in the marketplace.
Checking Out
When utilizing these 3 ways to boost your bookings, you’ll be on your way to a completely booked hotel! Being available online will show you’re active in the community and care about guests, sharing your promotions online is a great way to reach a wider audience and get guests in the door, and using a booking engine provides a top-tier booking experience for your guests.
At innRoad, our customers benefit from a high converting booking engine, channel manager with 100s of OTA connections, easy to use tape-chart for reservations, and dozens of reporting features to stay on top of their goals. Plus, we offer 24/7 live customer support and unlimited training for your staff. Ready to have a booked hotel? Speak with a property advisor today!
