How can you help travelers find your hotel online without losing significant profit to OTA fees? Learn how to improve your property’s digital presence to increase your revenue with smart hotel marketing strategies and effective online advertising. Marketing your hotel follows three stages: reaching travelers, turning travelers into guests, and connecting with guests during and after their stay.

In this post, we’ll share the top hotel marketing strategies to stand out from your competition. You will learn how and why you need to improve mobile visibility, update online listings, invest in commission-free advertising, manage online reviews, connect with guests on social media, and more.

Be Found: Reach travelers all over the web.

Today’s travelers are finding hotels differently than they ever have before. Over 80% of people have researched destinations on mobile devices, and seeing a friend like a Facebook page is more likely to inspire someone to book a trip than if they had seen traditional advertising.

Improve Mobile Visibility

Online search and mobile aren’t just for planning anymore. Almost half of U.S. travelers have booked a hotel on a mobile device, and 35% of call-in bookings are generated by mobile devices. To reach travelers, you need to be visible online and optimized for mobile devices. A vanity website outside of the brand.com page is vital to not only provide the information that searchers want but also to help people not get distracted by competitors within your brand’s search results.

Update Online Listings

Next, you want to ensure that those mobile calls and website visits from people ready to book reach you. Instead of calling to ask for your address and directions, travelers today are going to search in their GPS or navigation app to find you. A listing management service maintains accurate contact information on search results, on social media, within GPS devices, and on hundreds of portals. Whether someone Googles “hotels near me” or is using their GPS on the road, you’ll be able to be found by travelers.

Invest in Commission-Free Hotel Advertising

Any marketing pro will tell you the importance of diversifying your hotel advertising strategy to reach the most people. Investing in commission-free advertising allows you easily calculate the ROI of your ad money. Plus, the hotel advertisement pays for itself, and then any other revenue it brings in is through commission-free walk-ins and direct bookings. More travelers book their hotel on the night that they will be staying than at any other time. Learn about how HotelCoupons.com reaches last-minute travelers through print guides, online listings, and on the mobile app.

Get Chosen: Turn travelers into guests.

Getting a traveler’s attention is only half the battle. Three-quarters of U.S. travelers say that understanding all options is an important factor in booking their trip. Before making a final decision, travelers want to see hotel photos and read guest reviews. Hotel photos set the expectations for your travelers. High-quality photos will help them to book, and providing the experience they expect from your photos will result in positive reviews after their stay.

Update Your Hotel Photos

When it comes to hotel photos,åÊit is most important to show an accurate portrayal of your hotel. If you’re meeting or exceeding expectations, you’ll have happy guests. If you let down your guests by using overly retouched or outdated photos, your guests will be disappointed and are more likely to leave negative reviews online.

You might wonder if that really matters. After all, the nice photos got the room booked for the night. Many studies have found that when comparing hotels side-by-side, travelers will choose the hotel with a higher review score. In addition, hotels with higher review scores can actually charge more per night.

Manage Online Reviews

How much do reviews really affect future travelers? You might not think of online reviews as a hotel marketing idea, but it can really impact your occupancy. While researching where to stay, nearly half of the online resources that travelers consult are review websites and apps. Almost all travelers (roughly 9 out of 10) say that reviews influence their booking decision. The bottom line: reviews matter. You need to be asking guests to leave you reviews online while mitigating the damage done by negative reviews. Use a platform to track reviews as they come in and be sure to respond to every review‰ – good or bad.

Stay Connected: Help guests influence future travelers.

Some hoteliers don’t realize that they can actively affect their online reputation. You aren’t simply at the mercy of who does or doesn’t review their hotel stay. There are a few ways you can ask your guests to connect with you online in order to help influence your online reputation and help guide future travelers to choose your hotel. One of the biggest factors in determining your ranking on review websites is the quantity and recency of reviews, so it is important to encourage your guests to leave reviews.

Collect Guest Email Addresses

Make it a goal to collect email addresses of guests to connect later. Emails are a way to reach out and ask happy guests to leave feedback about your property on online review sites. The easiest way to do this is to ask for email addresses as a part of the check-in process, just like you would ask for the best phone number to reach the guest at. You can then have your night auditor export all email addresses collected and bulk upload them to an email service.

Respond to Online Reviews

One of the newest hotel marketing trends has to do with management responses to online reviews. Travelers perceive that hotel managers who respond to online reviews care more about their guests. An impressive 65% of guests say that they would be more likely to stay at a hotel that responds to online reviews. Review responses provide a sense of transparency and give an opportunity for you to graciously accept praise and proactively solve any problems. In writing review responses, you get a chance to show future guests that you care about your customers and will work to provide the best stay possible for them.

Connect with Guests on Social Media

People are increasingly influenced by their social media networks, and travel is no exception. From travel inspiration to finalizing plans, Facebook users consult their friends and families every step of the way. One of the most impactful hotel marketing ideas is to take control of your social media accounts. As we mentioned, simply getting a past guest to like your Facebook page canåÊencourage one of their friends to book with you. Facebook allows users to review businesses, share company pages as recommendations, and check-in to businesses, which their family and friends will see. It’s important to engage with this content as it is posted about you.

Get Started Today

You can add these things to your to-do list, or you can partner with us to ensure you make a big impact online as soon as possible. Travel Media Group has helped hoteliers increase occupancy for over 33 years, and we’re experts on making your hotel shine online. Our goal is to help you increase revenue by improving your online presence.

Ready to find out more about the hotel marketing solutions that hotels trust? Visit our Services page to find out about our multi-channel approach to online marketing that helps drive revenue for our hotel partners.