Accommodation Digital Marketing Strategies – Part 1
Accommodation Digital Marketing Strategies You Should Invest In 2022
We wish to present to you seven ways digital accommodation marketing will help you get more business in the post-COPID-19 era. As this breakdown is quite extensive, we decided to break it fon into a few parts. So let’s see in more detail which are the accommodation digital marketing strategies,- Part 1, you should invest in 2022.
Today, private accommodation or hotel digital marketing is an essential part of every company’s overall strategy to make as many bookings as possible.
Developing a successful digital marketing strategy requires a more systematic and comprehensive approach in today’s fast-paced information age. The same applies to villas, apartments, B&B and hotels.
Unfortunately, the pandemic in the last two years proves that bookings have bottomed out without a substantial online presence for some businesses that were reliant on online travel agencies.
An intelligent online distribution strategy for your hotel rooms, especially if it comes directly from your website and not from a third party, would bring the majority of bookings anyway. Still, you might not be able to do without one.
Below are the main marketing plans and ideas for the most effective online promotion of your accommodation business to get more bookings at lower commissions.
What is Accommodation Digital Marketing?
Creating and, more importantly, maintaining an online accommodation presence is also called digital hospitality marketing. Accommodation Digital Marketing Strategies – Part 1
The most commonly used methods are:
OTAs (online travel agencies) presentation
The placement of ads on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
Google Ads
Metasearch engines like TripAdvisor and Trivago
SEO on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines
Content Marketing
It may be that you already use some or all of the above. Still, behind every successful hotel website is a successful digital marketing strategy, which combines well-placed investments that will bring profits.
Accommodation Digital Marketing: 7 Ways to Get More Business without Commissions.
While we do not have anything against online travel agencies, a study from 2019 has revealed that 23% of travellers had problems booking a room through a third party before the pandemic. Before you turn to them, you can do so many other important things for your hospitality business without wasting money on commissions and endangering your reputation.
All it takes is a flawless website backed by a booking engine that contains everything the visitor needs and automates all the procedures.
Hotel SEO is the most effective tool to boost profits. A good job will reduce reliance on OTAs and advertising costs.
Online advertising cannot be entirely neglected, but it can be done efficiently and inexpensively at the right time.
So let’s start from the beginning.
Hotel Website Design
For better or worse, many travellers use OTA’s to find the best value deals. However, your hotel website shouldn’t be anything less than perfect.
Putting aside the money you lose, an offer on these OTA’s is not enough. So instead, most people will search and visit the hotel website for more information.
If the person is on a leisure or business trip, they want to know everything about your property and the location. So, what are you waiting?
Let the customer know who you are, what you can offer him, and why he should choose you for his accommodation. Offer special packages or a better price if he books directly with you. A well-designed hotel website gives you unlimited possibilities. A logo, a few photos, and a button is not enough.
A hotel’s website must be unique, welcoming and functional, just like the property itself.
If you are searching for ideas and realization for your new website, we will help you. Just contact us.
Website SEO
Previously, you were discovered through an OTA, but what if a customer found you online while searching for accommodation in your area? Are you among the top two listings on Google?
In a sense, your website is your brand identity, a virtual taste of the experience that awaits the customer. So even if the customer doesn’t know the name of your hotel, he should be able to locate it.
Underestimating the importance of hotel SEO is one of the biggest mistakes. The most important thing to invest in is consistent traffic since that will drastically reduce the amount of money needed to advertise for more bookings.
Many people confuse SEO with Google Ads and think it’s all about keywords. But, in addition to keywords, there are hundreds of reasons why Google, Yahoo, Bing, and every other search engine will promote you to the first page and not your competitors. Accommodation Digital Marketing Strategies – Part 1
On-site SEO
The right keywords only make a difference if they are used correctly on each page, photo, and description, but how they are combined has specific techniques to gain search engine value.
Off-site SEO
When you see references to your hotel on other pages (not just ads), that’s extremely important to Google. Most people don’t realize that external backlinks from unreliable or irrelevant sites can damage your rankings.
Technical SEO
The server, the web builder, used to design the website, the page’s structure, the plugins, the loading time, mobile-friendliness, everything must comply with these strict Google requirements. Even if one of them doesn’t meet their standards, it will significantly damage your organic traffic.
Local SEO
Hotels welcome guests from all over the country and the world by default. “Normal” SEO increases the chances of a customer finding you online, regardless of where they are. For example, when someone plans a vacation. Local SEO is a more sophisticated method for increasing your online presence when customers are already in your area and looking for accommodations.
If you don’t hire the right professionals for your page’s SEO, you’ll always have to pay for Internet advertising because otherwise, you will not be found in search engines. We do not offer this service. But we can give a recommendation for professionals who could make your website visible and available worldwide.
In our next part of the research, we will cover Content Marketing through Accommodation Blogging, Google Ads for the Hospitality industry, Social Media Marketing, Metasearch Engines, and Website Online Booking Engines.
For advice, and a free 30-minute consulting session please contact us.
You can find more information and Media coverage.
Photo by Melanie Deziel on Unsplash