5 steps to market your hotel
To stand out in the crowded hotel industry and improve your chances of revenue, you need to plan now to market your hotel.
While marketing has always been important, this year it can take on the role of improving your profit.
Marketing is an activity, and process for creating and communicating the value of your product to your customers and other stake holders
With that definition in mind, it is our task to identify and tell a great story about our hotel.
In this article, we will explore the 5 steps to market your hotel and tell a better story.
Understand your brand and customer
No two hotel brands are alike and the cater to different customer needs and aspirations. Even with more that 30+ brands, all Marriott brands cater to distinct customers.
While looking at creating a new marketing plan, you now have the opportunity to decide and define who your target customer will be.
Your brand positioning should align itself with the hotel facility and the experience you seek to deliver.
If you have a brand position, now is the time to decide it it is still relevant for the long term.
Define your target customer
No 2 guest are alike. Families require a different approach from handling business travelers. If you have identified with the target customers for your hotel, you can build the service delivery from there.
It may be very tempting to take every business opportunity that comes along, and I am not asking you to refuse business.
The idea behind targeting is that we are able to define the statement
People like us choose hotels like this.
Does your hotel primarily cater to business travelers. The CEO and upper management or the road warriors.
The more you define your unique target customers and niche down, the better it will be to tell the story.
Understand what makes you different
What are the unique difference that help you to stand out? A few examples are listed below.
- An oasis of calm in downtown business district
- Eco friendly and sustainable
- One of a kind boutique hotel
- Largest pillarless ballroom
A point of difference can be something that cannot be copied easily by your competitors.
Service excellence built by dedicated training of team members can also be a point of difference. Legendary institutions are known for their quality service and guest choose to go visit a hotel for the service.
If you are opening a hotel, this is a perfect time to decide on what you will offer that is unique to your hotel and make it distinct.
Make a small positioning statement
After having identified with the target customer and understood your unique target audience, make a positioning statement.
A position statement will help you to create consistency in your message. As you market your hotel, you can keep coming back to this statement to tell relevant stories.
“Warm service in the heart of downtown business district.”
“A beach side getaway to escape and reconnect”
The 2 statements above are examples of what those positioning statements can be.
If you must, make a collage of images of your hotel to give you a visual representation of your hotel positioning
Write 3 short compelling story
With the positioning statement ready, write 3 stories to bring out the unique selling points of your hotel. The stories must reflect your hotel positioning and capture the essence and differences that your hotel provides.
In case of the beach resort these stories can be :
- The largest wave pool to spend some time with your family
- Family resort with outstanding service to help your unwind
- Our chefs make the best local seafood caught that day
While making these statement, understand if it fits your vision of the brand.
Can a competitor claim it. The local seafood statement is something that every beach resort can claim, so it probably is not a good statement. I will need to come up with a better story.
The last question to ask is that is it share worthy. If you create a story around this, can the idea spread on social media. Will your target guest understand the message
Can the hotel execute it? If you do not have a large wave pool, making a statement will not help your hotel. It will be a mismatch when the guest come and you cannot offer a service.
In Conclusion
As you begin to market the story, now is a good time to revisit your plan and positioning statement. Use the 5 steps to market your hotel and make it successful.