COVID-19 has affected countless industries around the world. The travel industry and hotels, in particular, have been hit a serious blow these last few months. However, places are starting to reopen and people have started to travel as well. And it is time that hotels make things work strategically, because, considering the dangers of the pandemic, people want to be as safe as possible.
Therefore, if hotels want to weather the storm and continue to bring in guests at this time, they need to ensure they are catering to the safety of their guests and staff. They also need to find ways that they can increase the occupancy of their hotels during this time. While not as many people are traveling and staying in hotels, some techniques can be used to help entice people to stay with you.
Below, we will be looking at these techniques, along with how choosing the right property management system can help.
Tips To Get More People To Stay At Your Hotel
If you want to get more people to stay at your hotel, you need to market properly, and you need to provide customers with a reason to stay with you. Proper marketing is more important than ever before. Here are some of the best ways to help increase occupancy in your hotels during this time.
· Create and Promote Special Packages
One of the best ways to get more people to stay at your hotel now is by providing special packages that they can enjoy while there. Even though you might not be operating all of the facilities at your hotel, such as a spa or a gym, there are other packages that you can offer. For example, if you have a kitchen at your hotel, you can offer a package that includes breakfast or that includes all of the meals. People will often be willing to pay more for this type of package. Take some time to think about the types of packages you could offer.
· Discounts, Loyalty Programs, and Other Perks
Another way to help get people to stay at your hotel is by offering discounts. People love to save money, especially now. By offering extra nights at a discounted rate, or a discounted room upgrade, people will see that they are getting a deal. You can also create loyalty programs and provide other perks. For example, as part of a loyalty program, you might want to provide the guest with a free night after they have stayed for five nights or ten nights. It will entice them to travel more often and to stay at your hotel.
· Target Local Travelers
Many people want to get out of their house, but they fear traveling too far. By targeting your market at these people, you can get more local travelers to stay at your hotel. This gives them a chance to get out of their house for a few days, so they do not feel so cooped up. Providing a nice hotel room for them, along with any other perks you can offer is a good way to get these local travelers to stay with you.
· Promote the Hotel’s Safety Measures
Today, safety is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Therefore, you need to be very clear about the types of safety measures that you have in place. You can talk on your site about your social distancing and cleaning strategies. Let people know what you are doing to keep them safe. You can also offer contactless check-in and check-out, as discussed below.
· Promote to Corporate Travelers
While some people who would normally be traveling for pleasure are now staying at home, the same is not true of business travelers. While some business travel has slowed, there is still the need for corporate travel. Some might be traveling to work in a new location, while others might need to have a face to face meeting or provide an inspection of a facility. They need places to stay, and you can market directly to this group.
How Can Hotelogix Make Things Easier for Hotels?
As mentioned, having a property management system can make a big difference in how you are running your hotel. This was true before the pandemic, and it is even truer now. Let’s look at a few of the major benefits of using Hotelogix, so you can see how it can benefit your hotel during this time.
OTAs
One of the first benefits is the ability to connect with many of the biggest and best online travel agent sites in the world. These OTAs have become an important part of the hotel business over the last decade or so. These sites compile information from a wide range of hotels across the world and put the information and the ability to book on an easy-to-use website.
Many people today are using these types of sites when they are booking travel. Being a part of these channels provides another way for people to discover your hotel. Hotelogix has a channel manager, so you can see how well each of those sites is doing for you, and so you can control how you are participating with those sites.
Web Booking on Your Site
As helpful as those OTAs might be, they are taking a portion of your profits when you work with them. While you do not want to get rid of those channels, you do want to make it possible to let customers book right through your website. Hotelogix has a web booking engine that will integrate with your website to increase the number of direct hotel bookings you are getting. This means that you will be making the full profit.
Web Booking Engine 2.0 helps to improve the booking process for the hotel and for visitors. Some of the top features of the new engine include:
· Improve direct booking ability
· Ability to offer discounts, promo codes, deals, and other add-on services
· Multi-currency support
· Multi-language support
· Visual calendar to check the hotel’s availability
· Multi-room bookings
· Best available rate recommendations
· You can personalize booking consoles for guests, corporate entities, and travel agents to easily manage their accounts
· Better options for upselling and extra services
· Customize reservation and confirmation emails
· Make the booking and cancellation policies clear
· The single-screen platform is responsive and can be integrated easily into the hotel’s website
Online Reputation
Your online reputation is always important and now is no different. You want to ensure that you aren’t getting false reviews about your hotel’s issues with the cleanliness of social distancing. Hotelogix ensures that you have the capability to track, monitor, and stay on top of your online reputation.
You can increase your reviews on online platforms, which will help with your online reputation. The system will also allow you to analyze your online review data, department performance, and trends through a range of reports. This information helps you find and fix any problems or weak areas of the hotel. You can read and reply to what your guests are saying regarding your hotel on social media and review sites, as well as through OTAs. This allows you to know where you stand and get ahead of the curve if there are problem. Best of all, with Hotelogix and Repup, it all happens seamlessly from a single dashboard.
Revenue Management
Hotelogix also has an array of revenue management tools. This helps to ensure your hotel can bring in the revenue you need and deserve. Again, this is important regardless of COVID-19, but when every dollar truly counts, as it does right now, having proper tools is essential.
Contactless Technology
Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of Hotelogix in today’s world is providing safety for your guests. Many travelers are looking for contactless check-in and check-out services. Hotelogix makes it possible for your guests to bypass the front desk. They can check-in remotely and head right to their rooms. They can choose their room, access the room, and check-out while having minimal contact with other people. This is a massive advantage, and you can be sure it is something that customers will search for when booking a hotel.
The staff can be trained and certified with ACE for the use of contactless tech in the hotel. The optical character recognition scanner will help when guests are checking into the hotel. The scanner can autofill the needed information that it scans and put it onto the documentation. An ID never needs to change hands. The tool is accurate and can scan IDs from more than 80 different countries.
With Hotelogix, it is possible to provide contactless sales, automate invoicing, process payments in real-time, and process refunds. All without the need to be in close contact with the guests and without them needing to stand in a line.
The Industry Will Survive
Although this year might seem bleak for many hotel operators, it is not the end of the hotel industry. People still have a need to travel now, and they will travel in larger numbers in the future. Right now, it’s about getting through a tough time. With the tips above, it will be easier to get through and make it in a post COVID world.
Take the time to examine Hotelogix and start implementing the strategies mentioned above. They can help hotels of all sizes. It is time that you started to take better control of your hotel, so you cannot just survive, but so you can thrive.
