digital marketing for hospitality

Today, the hospitality industry is a totally different ball game given the hyperconnected world that we live in. Modern travellers are no longer paying attention that they used to when it comes to traditional billboards and print ads. Digital marketing for hospitality is not simply an option, but it is also the foundation of success, as it is the main mode of bookings, brand loyalty and differentiating yourself in a competitive marketplace. The hoteliers that are going to do well are those who understand the role of a digital strategy and embrace the fact that guests spend most of their time online.

The Evolution of the Guest Journey: A Digital Blueprint

The guest journey now begins long before check-in and extends far beyond check-out. Every touchpoint is becoming much more digital, spanning from the initial spark of wanderlust to post-stay reviews. And as a result of this, hotels engage with prospective guests on several online channels:

• Discovery Phase: Travellers begin with research – they look up “best hotels in [destination]” on search engines, read their favourite travel blogs and scroll through social media for inspiration.

• Planning & Comparison: A thorough research is carried out once the destination is finalised following a visit  to hotel websites, online travel agencies (OTAs), meta search engines and guest reviews.

• Booking: The actual booking process, often done directly on the hotel's website or via OTAs.

• Pre-Stay Engagement: Confirmation emails, personalised offers, and helpful local tips sent digitally.

• In-Stay Experience: Digital check-ins, in-room tablets for services and the ability to share on social media while at the property.

• Post-Stay Engagement: Send out feedback requests, send loyalty programme communication and remarket their future bookings.

Good digital hotel marketing strategies should have a presence at all stages in this journey to make sure guests keep coming from interest to loyalty.

Key Pillars of Digital Marketing for Hospitality

To effectively capture and convert guests, hotels need to focus on several interconnected digital marketing avenues:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Search Engine Marketing (SEM):

• SEO for hotels is optimising your site for organic, actual search outcomes for expressions like "luxurious stay [city]" or considering “boutique hotel [area]". This process requires you to craft relevant and quality content, make your website load as fast as possible and build a solid backlink profile. Industry insight shows how vital it is for the independent hotels to meet the search engine standards of SEO and that if you do not have one, it is your chance to be remembered and not forgotten in a crowded space by being unique and unforgettable as far as the guest experience goes.

• SEM (Paid Ads): Search Engine Advertising (SEA) or running a targeted ad on search engines (including the famous Google Ads). SEO creates long-term organic visibility for your keywords, while SEM offers immediate visibility for the same keywords, which means that you get to drive qualified traffic to your website.

2. Social Media Marketing:

• Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and even YouTube are visual storytelling platforms for hotels. Super high-quality imagery and video to showcase your property’s amenity and experience or simply your property’s photoshoot.

• Engagement is vital: Reply to comments, run contests and boost the production of user-generated content. People speak their mind and find inspiration on social media. The experts point out that social media for hotels tends to focus on visual platforms with the aim of provoking customers through promoting their guest experience.

• Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with travel influencers, you can tap into a huge engaged audience while you enjoy the benefit of their trust and reach.

3. Content Marketing:

• If promoting rooms is not enough, create content that will help travellers. This could be anything like blog posts around local attractions, city guides, a seasonal events calendar or even a behind-the-scenes peek at the unique offerings of your hotel. Good content helps your hotel gain the status of a helpful source and will increase your SEO.

4. Email Marketing:

• An email list helps you get personal and direct communication with your audience. Welcome your guests, send customers special offers and personalised promotions based on previous stays and send a weekly newsletter with travel tips to tantalise your customers. One of the great advantages of email marketing is that it uses dynamic content personalisation by translating the data that you collected about website viewers into an email.

5. Online Reputation Management (ORM):

• Platforms such as TripAdvisor, Google or OTAs are incredibly powerful. And last but not least, proactively manage your online reputation by prompting customers to leave a review, responding quickly and professionally to every review (good or bad) and using what you’ve learnt from the reviews to improve the service.

6. Meta-Search Marketing & Dynamic Rate Marketing (DRM):

• Meta search sites (such as TripAdvisor, Google Hotels & Kayak) list hotel rates from many OTAs and direct hotel websites. Hotels taking part in the meta search marketing can display their direct booking rates in an attempt to move Internet data share away from OTAs and increase direct bookings. It is a must for independent hotels.

The Power of Integration and Analytics

Hospitality businesses really benefit from digital marketing when they put all these strategies together and keep analysing how things are going. Track your website visitors, website conversion, engagement on social media and performance of your ads using analytics tools. Thanks to this approach, hotels can improve their strategies and management, use funds more wisely and increase their revenue.

Elevating Your Digital Presence with CIN Universe

Handling the many complications involved in digital marketing can be very difficult for hoteliers. Knowledge and skills from experts are absolutely important. If you want to maximise your hotel’s digital marketing, choose CIN Universe.

Being a complete digital solution, CIN Universe is experienced in different areas such as GDS (Global Distribution System), management of reputation, in-room systems and meta-search marketing. They use their knowledge of hospitality to make every guest’s experience unique and use all the information in guests’ profiles to encourage them to return. Following this strategy, hotels can give personalised offers to guests, show appreciation for those who come back more than once and boost guest rebookings with rewards and benefits. With CIN Universe’s solutions that work with core hotel systems, hoteliers can create a well-known brand online, treat guests better and increase their direct reservations. Leveraging CIN Universe is your key to making your hotel successful and known in the digital world.