In a competitive market, your hotel may need to offer a little something extra to stand out from the crowd. While some travelers are loyal to certain hotels, many are open to changing brands if there are a few extra perks offered to sweeten the deal.
Offering special discounts or value added services is the easiest and quickest way to draw travelers’ attention to your hotel. Giving your potential guests an option to save money on a service or offering them discounted stays can often turn them in your hotel’s favour. The perks can help you attract new guests and retain existing ones, increase sales, enhance your reputation and drive more traffic to your owned channels like your website and social media pages.
A Google study says that 52% of travelers will visit your hotel’s website after seeing you on an OTA. Your hotel can tap into this trend by displaying attractive offers and packages only on your website, thus driving more direct bookings.
From my interaction with hoteliers and travelers, I have jotted down a few ideas that are considered effective and highly preferred. Your hotel might want to give these eight offer ideas a try:
1. Discounted tickets to nearby attractions
Guests staying at your property to explore the city will enjoy having the opportunity to save a few bucks off local attractions; they may have been planning to visit them anyway. Whether you have a special museum or amusement park that makes your city great, team up with those locations to offer a special rate.
2. A shuttle service to nearby events
If there are major events or conferences happening in the area, offer a free shuttle service to the location. This will draw attendees to your property because they know they will be able to get to and from their destination without any hassle.
3. Spa services
To promote spa services at your property, you can offer something small like a chair massage with the purchase of a manicure or a special package for a spa day.
4. A free night
After purchasing a certain number of nights, many hotels offer guests one free night. This encourages guests to take extended stays.
5. Free breakfast
While more and more hotels are offering free breakfasts, this is a huge perk to guests. Those who are constantly on the go will enjoy having a relaxing breakfast at the hotel before they start their day.
6. Reward points
Loyalty programs are a great way to get guests to return to your hotel stay after stay. As they gain points, they will increase their buying power with your brand and you will get repeat guests.
7. Special rates on rental cars
If you have guests coming from out of town, especially those with small children, they will may feel more comfortable with a rental car. They will be able to get around on their own time and will not have to wait for taxis or shuttles.
8. Special packages
Whether you are near a golf course, a casino or a water park, there are plenty of package options you can create to bundle experiences for guests. Get creative!
Sales promotions are a vital part of the hotel’s marketing and they can be offered in times of seasonal dips, decreased sales, launches, festivities and more.
How to make them work?
Business intelligence – this process is nothing but data collected on the basis of your guests’ behaviour like travel preferences, package preferences and other preferences like geography, markets and more. The data collected via business intelligence will help hoteliers understand the behaviour of their guests like their food preferences, their amenities of choice, their frequency and purpose of travel. Once you have studied the kind of audience you receive, it will be easy for you to come out with ideas for packages and offers. These data-driven promotion ideas have the potential to drive in guests.
Sales promotions help hoteliers offer value to their guests, up sell the hotel services, increase revenues and create word-of-mouth marketing opportunities. Every hotel knows the kind of audience they attract and according to their services and amenities, they can make unique and special offers to their guests. A successful promotion will help your hotel stand out while nurturing long term relationships through retention and engagement.
About the author
Manisha Pathak is a content writer at Hotelogix. Hotelogix can help hotels automate their businesses through its cloud based property management system. It can help generate revenues, increase occupancy, manage room inventories, handle reservations and improve brand visibility. Its cloud PMS can be readily accessed from anywhere, even from phones and tablets. Cloud based hotel management software can play a crucial role in a small hotelier’s success.
Hotelogix recently released an e-book ‘Simple Ways to Enhance Guest Experience’ that offers actionable tips for independent hoteliers to provide superior experience at every stage of the guest lifecycle to achieve higher returns.
