Building A Strong Online Presence
A strong online presence can help you go a long way with online hotel bookings. Building an online presence may not be as difficult as you think.
We have mentioned all the necessary details from website design to building a brand, that will help you a lot for building a strong online presence. All this information is laid out in easy step-by-step instructions that you can follow along.
Develop A User-Friendly Website
Let’s be honest, most of the people trying to book a hotel online, will be using their smartphones for the process. So it is important to keep in mind that the website you create looks good and appealing, not only on a desktop but it should appeal more to the smartphone users.
Booking engines are another great way to increase the traffic on your website and hence increase the bookings.
With the implementation of booking engines guests can directly book a room in your hotel, and won’t need to go to a third party website for making reservations, hence creating a trust in your hotel.
No one would use a website that is difficult to use or is slow. So building a website that is fast as well as easy to use, will surely increase the online bookings of rooms in your hotel.
It is very important to interact with people through your website and implement useful CTAs. If you ask them to subscribe to your newsletters for limited-time offers or book a room with a great view, they are more likely to make the bookings. So it is important to engage the customers with some form of interaction.
If you do not know where to start building such a great website, we at Mind Web Solutions can help you do the same.
We will help you in creating a website that is user-friendly and is sure to create a spike in the number of online room bookings for your hotel.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
No matter how good of a website you develop if it doesn’t show up in the google search there is no point in it. So it is important to optimize your website to increase the traffic in your website, which will in turn help in increasing the number of online hotel bookings.
People from your nearby locations may search for a place to stay more often, so it is important to leverage your local SEO.
This will help you appear in your local searches more often, hence increasing the traffic on the website.
Analytics tools can be important to find out your frequent users, hence increasing your focus in attracting them, which will lead to more hotel bookings on your website.
Create A Compelling Online Identity
Create a value proposition stating the benefits of staying at your hotel over others. A value proposition that is clear and precise can also help in attracting customers. So it is important to design a value proposition that tells customers why your hotel is better than the rest of your competitors.
Well-clicked, visually appealing photos of your hotel will compel the people to book a room. The photo gallery should be such that no one that sees it, should be able to leave the website without thinking of booking a room.
Reviews and stories of the customers that have stayed at your hotel can help create an appeal to other people. People are more likely to book a room in your hotel, if all the customer reviews on your website are positive and promote your services.
How To Increase Direct Hotel Bookings
Direct hotel bookings can help in attracting more customers, as it creates a sense of trust between the hotel and the customer as there is no third party involved. So customers book the rooms without hesitation.
Some important points to remember to increase direct hotel bookings are listed here.
Offer rate comparisons on your website
One way of increasing direct bookings is by offering rate comparisons with various hotels on your website. If you have rate comparisons listed on your website customers won’t have to visit other websites, hence making it convenient for them to do direct hotel bookings.
Implement live chatbots for instant inquiries
People may have various questions while visiting your website for hotel booking. So it is important to add a chatbot that will help in clearing their doubts and making it convenient for them to book rooms in your hotel.
Provide mobile phone reservation options
Mobile phone reservations and 24*7 assistance for the customers will increase the number of hotel bookings. Providing customer service through the phone that works throughout the day will increase the convenience of booking rooms in your hotel, hence increasing the number of hotel bookings.
Create urgency and exclusive offers
Limited time offers and services have proved to be a great way to attract customers. So it is important to have regular offers and limited time deals on your website. This will attract more customers and increase the hotel bookings.
Leveraging Digital Marketing Services For Your Hotel
Marketing to a specified audience that are more likely to book hotel rooms is an important factor in determining the traffic on your website. Metasearch engines can help you to reach out to the audience that are more likely to book a room in your hotel.
Retargeting the customers that have already booked a room in your hotel before, through emails or newsletters is also effective marketing. This helps in keeping the customers engaged with you and keeping them updated with new offers and deals.
Using social media for advertisement purposes can help reach the right audience. As social media ads are personalized for everyone, it can help in reaching the audience that wants to book a hotel to stay in.
Social Media is one of the best ways to market your products and services nowadays, it can help you to reach the required audience that you want to target.
Diversifying Booking Platforms
Using different platforms for hotel booking can make it convenient for the people to book the hotel. So it is important to diversify the booking platforms.
Meta Search Engines can help in reaching the desired audience that will be more interested in buying our services. However it may be expensive to allow booking of rooms from a third party website, so it is important to implement direct booking through your own website.
If you want help in creating a user-friendly, search optimized website that will spike your hotel bookings. We at Mind Web Solutions can help you with the same.
Promoting your hotel through social media and adding some kind of CTA will increase the number of hotel bookings. You can provide direct links to your website in social media for hotel bookings or provide an option for booking hotel rooms directly by social media chats.
This will increase the response of the audience and help in increasing bookings.
Make connections with the local businesses in your area like restaurants etc. This will help in marketing of your hotel as well as promotion of offers and limited time deals.
Promotion through local businesses can help you in reaching out to the tourists and the people that may need a place to stay at.
Rate And Offer Management
Attract the customers with limited time offers or packages that you think will work, these can include packages that are seasonal or limited to some holidays. Trying out different packages and seeing what attracts the most customers can be crucial in increasing the hotel bookings.
Do Not limit the rates of your hotel rooms to a similar range. The prices of various rooms should vary so that the customers can choose the option that is best suited for them.
Upselling And Add-Ons Your Other services Along With The Room
Upselling can help you get greater revenues. Room upgrades, food and beverages etc may be some effective strategies for upselling. Look for the things that can make the stay of the customers more convenient and try to upsell.
Have special add-on offers with room booking, like charge some extra amount and provide special offers along with the room if the customer chooses the add-on. Like providing a breakfast meal with an add-on.
Make the add-ons attractive and appealing, so that the customers will be tempted to choose them.
Build Guest Loyalty Programs To Encourage Repeated Bookings
Regular customers play a huge role in increasing the profit of any hotel. So it is important to keep the customers hooked by offering them various services.
Add-ons and room upgrades can be provided to regular customers for a lower charge than others. This will create a sense of trust between the hotel and the regular customers and make them visit frequently.
Maximize Guest Engagement And Feedback
Reviews play a huge role in attracting new customers. Everyone checks the reviews before buying a new product or service. So you should always check and respond to the reviews that people leave online on your website.
Reading and responding to customer reviews gives them a sense of acknowledgement and importance. Also improving your hotel accordingly will greatly improve the feedback by the customers.
Providing mobile services, chat services or any form of 24*7 communication helps the guests have a wonderful experience and share their feedback, increasing the number of regular customers and attracting new ones.
Acquiring the emails and social media of guests can help in promotion as well as marketing of the hotel. All this information about the guests can be used to send them personalized packages and services that they are likely to buy. As well as social media can help in advertising limited time offers and deals to the customers.
Create A Unique Brand Experience
It is important to provide customers with the best social, economic and emotional experience in your hotel. This will help in creating a trust with the customer that will lead to the promotion of your hotel as well as acquisition of regular customers.
Adding stories and sharing experiences of various clients who have stayed at your hotel can be a great marketing strategy to attract customers. As they would want to have the same experience.
To stand out among the various hotels that are providing the same services, you have to create a reputation and provide services that have their own unique value.
From creating a proper attractive website for your hotel to providing once in a lifetime experience to your customers, all this eventually will lead to your standing out in the market. And increasing the online hotel booking, hence generating the revenue that you are looking for.
Frequently Asked Questions About How To Increase Online Hotel Booking
Hotels can increase their online bookings by-
- Building an appealing website
- Search Engine Optimization
- Effective Marketing through social media and advertisement
- Working on customer reviews and feedbacks
- Offering great deals and services
- Increasing direct bookings
- Creating a unique brand experience
Strategies to increase direct bookings for hotels-
- Offer rate comparisons on your website
- Implement live chatbots for instant enquiries
- Check urgency and exclusive offers
- Leveraging Digital Marketing platform for your hotel
Hotel Websites can be made more attractive by making it fast and responsive, providing direct booking options using a booking engine, making it mobile friendly, as well as effective use of CTAs and SEOs.
Hotels can attract more guests through their website by providing limited time deals and special offers, building a unique brand experience, maximizing involvement as well as managing feedback and reviews of guests and managing rates and offers.
Hotels can use social media for promotion and advertisement, to make contact with guests as well as sharing unique experiences of guests which will lead to increased bookings.
Yes, special offers and loyalty programs can significantly boost hotel bookings.
It is very important for a hotel to manage online reviews as the new customers judge the services of the hotel by the reviews that they find on the internet.
