What commercial strategies must hoteliers use in 2023?

Posted on 15 March 2023

Travel intent across every region is now on the rise. The coronavirus pandemic had a devastating impact on the hospitality industry as governments implemented lockdown restrictions to counter the spread of the virus.

But with infection rates declining, many places are opening up and world travel is getting back to pre-pandemic levels. As a result, hotels are readying themselves to attract more customers.

To capture demand, hotels and resorts must implement strategies to reach travelers at the right time and convince them to book a stay at their establishments.

In this article, we will discuss the best commercial strategies for hoteliers you can use to attract travelers and grow your hotel business in 2023.

1. Enhance the guest experience

One of the most effective commercial strategies for hoteliers is to provide guests with a great experience.

Happy guests are a valuable marketing tool for your hotel business. Satisfied guests will book your hotel again and recommend it to their friends and family.

That’s why it’s important to always give it your best shot when it comes to the guest experience. Below are some of the things you can do to enhance the guest experience in your hotel:

Simplify the booking process – In an industry where first impressions matter, you want to provide guests with an easy booking process. Your direct booking platform must have all the information visitors need along with high-resolution photos of your rooms and other amenities.
Ensure smooth check-ins – Tired guests don’t want to wait too long at your front desk when checking into your hotel. To make your check-in process smooth, allow your guests to perform contactless check-ins. This will ensure guests get to their rooms faster and eliminates long queues at the front desk.
Ensure your facility is clean – Cleanliness affects the guest experience at your hotel and determines if they will return or not. Since this affects your revenues, ensuring your hotel is clean and well-maintained is one of the key commercial strategies for hoteliers.

To ensure cleanliness, generate your guest list from your lead generation plaforms and ask housekeeping to clean them beforehand. Also, ensure every room has a clean set of towels and linens.

Improve the amenities in your hotel – Guests have high expectations of their hotels and would not spend another night in an establishment with poor amenities. To attract and retain guests, you need to update the amenities in your hotel.

First, ensure you have reliable internet connectivity so guests can use their phones and laptops. Also, have modern TV sets in each room so guests can catch up with the news and their favorite shows.

2. Use social media marketing

Social media marketing is one of the most effective commercial strategies for hoteliers.

Social media platforms have a wide reach and you can use them to attract more guests to your hotels.

By sharing shoppable videos on your profile where customers can ask questions and make real-time bookings, you expose your hotel business to potential customers and frequent travelers.

It creates awareness for your hotel, and when the time comes, guests will consider your hotel for their holiday business travel needs. Moreover, you can take help from social media managers to help you start with social media marketing.

There are different commercial strategies for hoteliers that you can use to grow your business on social media such as:

Paid ads – Use paid ads to target specific users on social media. Social media platforms have advanced targeting capabilities that allow you to reach users that meet certain criteria. Use insights from the analytics to improve your campaigns.
Use social media influencers – Work with an influencer marketing agency to create an influencer campaign for your hotel business. The right influencer will persuade their followers to follow your page and make a reservation with your hotel.

In the example below, the Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel in Athens partners with travel influencer Naomi Jane Adams (@naomijaneadams) to promote the hotel to travelers.

Create engaging content – When you have many followers on social media, you can reach many potential customers without paying for advertising. The best way to increase your following is to create engaging social media copy for your audience. Also, cross-promote your content on different platforms to boost engagement and increase your following.

3. Create an app

We cannot talk about commercial strategies for hoteliers without highlighting the need to create an app.

At the moment, there are about 6.6 billion smartphone users in the world and you want to make it easy for them to book a room in your hotel.

Having an app could lead to more bookings because it reduces the steps guests have to take to book a reservation.

Think about it, if visitors can only book your hotel from your website, they’d have to go through the following steps:

Search for your hotel on Google
Navigate through the search results to find your hotel website
Open your website
Navigate to the booking page

Each additional step in this process could see you lose customers. But with an app, travelers are directed to your booking page where they can easily book a reservation.

Marriot has an app guests can use to book any of their hotels. With the app, the company increases the reach and accessibility of its hotels.

4. Customer analysis

Of all the commercial strategies for hoteliers available to you, the one you should never overlook is customer analysis.

Studying customer behavior is crucial because it helps you understand what your customers want.

With this information, you can provide a tailored customer experience that will lead to guest retention, and increase loyalty, sales, and profits.

Study your small business accounting tools and CRM and to learn more about your customers. Some of the things you should pay attention to include the frequency of bookings, preferred room number, and customer spending on specific goods and services in the hotel.

5. Email marketing

Email marketing is one of the cost-effective (it’s even free with an ESP like Mailchimp) commercial strategies for hoteliers. You can use it to engage potential customers and tell them about your hotel.

It is also a great channel for connecting with repeat guests.

You can use it to get their feedback after a stay in your hotel. You can also use email marketing for hotels to tell repeat guests about your offers, especially during the holiday season, using holiday-themed emails.