5 Things Your Hotel’s Digital Marketing Team Can Do To Increase Direct Bookings

When it comes to finding new ways of increasing your hotel’s direct bookings, your marketing team have much sway over the strategies and tactics deployed to help achieve this goal. Here are five activities your digital marketing team can do now to help boost your bookings:

A hotel website which isn’t user-friendly will suffer from reduced hotel guest interest, whereas a site with an attractive, mobile-responsive design, clear navigation and an emphasis on easy online bookings will reap the rewards of paying attention to end-user needs. Optimisation across different devices is essential now that mobile browsing is dominating online activity, so your digital marketing team must remember this to help convert more browsers into hotel room bookers. User friendly elements include features such as one click log ins, easy reservation forms (no superfluous form fields and no forcing the guest to register for an account before they can make a booking) and at a glance room type information. Features such as Google Maps for directions and a prominent phone number or online chat system are also worth considering.

When you experience abandoned bookings, you can always consider bringing them back to your site with a little remarketing. It’s as simple as adding some code to your website, and gives you the ability to show visitors who abandon bookings customized ads designed to draw them back in. You may also want to try these tactics for winning back abandoned reservations.

Content marketing is a cornerstone of great digital marketing practice and essential for hotel internet marketing. It’s by no means a quick fix solution, and sometimes getting a content marketing strategy right takes a bit of time and a lot of clever thought as to how to appeal to your target hotel guest, not only through the creation of compelling content, but by placing this content in places where they will find it. Strategic content marketing will help to drive new traffic direct to your website, so it’s also an essential for SEO purposes.

This will mean pushing your website and digital marketing further. When hotel guests are motivated to take advantage of deals, they are also motivated to book – and the perceived value of your hotel could increase significantly simply with the introduction of some offers; a free drink in the bar, a complimentary meal, late checkout – or alternatively by offering special packages to particular guest segments as a means to boost your direct bookings.

5. Respond to Online Comments

Whether it’s online reviews or comments on your social media channels, responding to reasonable requests for information or in response to a review (even critical reviews) has a very positive effect on the perception of your hotel, which can in turn increase the likelihood of those prospects searching for the ideal place to stay opting for your hotel.