Marketing for your hotel should not be an afterthought. Nor is it something one can leave to the end. First impressions matter, and while every hotel hopes that word-of-mouth will help them get business, for a new hotel, it is essential to make an effort to attract guests before it opens its doors.
Working alongside a professional hotel marketing agency is best to promote your hotel before it opens. They can assist in developing a step-by-step plan that ensures prospective customers are aware of your hotel and brand, leading to success from day one.
Requirements before starting hotel promotions
For a hotel marketing agency to work its magic, you should have some brand basics already in place.
- Hotel name
- Hotel / Brand logo
- Location
- Concept
- Unique features
These fundamental aspects are integral to all initial and future marketing strategies.
Additionally, if you can also narrow down your audience from the start, there’s nothing like it.
However, it is not necessary, and sometimes you need to be operational before realizing which type of traveler finds the hotel most appealing.
How to promote your hotel before it opens
Irrespective of whether your hotel is small, family-run, or part of a large chain, here are some suggestions on how to promote your hotel before it opens.
Create a website
It’s common knowledge that most people book their travels online. Thus, you must have a website to help promote your hotel before it opens.
A website will further help you in the following ways:
- Showcase your property
- Allow direct reservations through an integrated booking platform
- Highlight the USP of the hotel through professional photos and videos
- Create a connection with visitors through the history and design of the place
- Share features and services of the hotel
- Collect Big Data that can help with retargeting and email marketing
- Assist with SEO to rank higher on SERPs.
- Provide customer support
- Present one place where a customer can find all the information about the hotel, such as location, address, phone number, directions, etc.
In our opinion, it’s never too early to start creating your hotel website. Having it running up to even a year in advance can give you an edge, allowing steady growth of your online brand presence by the time the property is ready to welcome guests.
Be social media savvy
To capture the attention of the new-age traveler, one needs to be active on social media. More and more people use platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to research their travel plans, including finding hotels that suit their needs.
With several social platforms in play, each requiring something different, it is advisable to designate this work to a professional hotel marketing agency.
However, to promote your hotel before it opens through social media, here is what you need to do:
- Create handles on every social media platform possible – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, X (formally Twitter), Threads, and more. Make sure the handles reflect your hotel or brand name.
- Ensure you always keep your profils updated with contact information and a link to your website.
- Start posting. Success on social media directly relates to consistency. At the same time, try to be as professional as possible with your posts, but don’t shy away from sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the business.
- Facebook and Instagram have excellent advertisement networks that allow you to target audiences based on age and demographics. Use these ads to create a buzz through special promotions and early discounts.
- Take part in social media trends to increase your hotel’s reach. Even if it doesn’t lead to bookings, it will help boost your followership.
- Generate specific hashtags unique to your hotel to stand out and make it easy for customers to find you later.
- Interact with the audience, be it through comments or queries you receive via direct messages.
Make the most of local listings and metasearch
When setting up a business, one of the first things to do is to claim your local listings on services such as Google Local Business Page.
Why, you wonder?
Firstly, it helps authenticate your hotel business. Furthermore, it leads to your hotel showing up on local searches.
Similarly, make sure you list yourself on metasearch platforms such as Google Hotels, TripAdvisor, Kayak, and Trivago.
Listings on comparison sites place your hotel in front of thousands of travelers and showcase your property’s uniqueness alongside competitors.
However, to be most effective in capturing customer attention, one must always have up-to-date information, from address and phone to room rates, on all these listings.
While a quick and cost-effective task, many small hotels miss out on metasearch due to a lack of knowledge. Hiring an experienced hotel marketing agency like Adigital ensures you do not miss out on these opportunities.
Collaborate with local businesses
Collaborations are the heart of any successful business. The same holds true when it comes to promotions for your hotel. You need them all, from choosing the best hotel marketing agency to working with local businesses.
Remember, neighborhood businesses already have customers, many of whom are the same you want as guests at your hotel. Thus, forming a relationship with local companies, where you promote them, and they promote you, benefits everyone.
Here are some local businesses worth looking into when planning on collaborations:
- Clubs – Travelers to the area might be using local golf clubs, gyms, and swimming pools, and having to advertise through them means you reach your target audience directly.
- Coffee shops/Restaurants – Visiting tourists typically dine at local eateries, and having a local cafe promote your property expands your reach to prospective guests.
- Travel agents – Local travel agents usually cater to inbound tourists. Collaboration with them is highly lucrative and almost a necessity.
Additionally, make yourself known to the local council so they can include your property when promoting the region.
Indulge in a little paid advertising
The long-term goal for your hotel marketing should be organic traffic and direct bookings through your website.
However, that takes time.
So, in order to promote your hotel before it opens, it is, in fact, recommended that you opt for paid advertising.
There are different ways to go about this, with each helping you reach your target audience, increase website visits, and aid with direct bookings.
- Google Ads
- Pay-Per-Click adverts
- Social Media advertisements on Facebook and Instagram
When planning your paid advertising, remember to focus on the audience and play around with different possible outcomes, such as:
- Adverts promoting deals
- Ads for direct bookings
- Ads to increase social media followers
List yourself on OTAs
As a professional hotel marketing agency, we aim to create a campaign that leads to more direct bookings and organic traffic. Unfortunately, it takes time for any hotel to stand on its feet, especially if they are first-timers, small, or have a limited budget.
Thus, when wondering how to promote your hotel before it opens, using the help of Online Travel Agencies is acceptable.
These listings come with high commission rates. Still, they make it easy for smaller hotels to manage initial bookings and get the word out.
As with any other listing, for OTAs to best help promote your hotel before it opens, use professional photos, provide the latest info, keep rates competitive, and respond quickly to any queries.
Open up your space
An excellent way to promote your hotel before it officially welcomes its first guest is to open its doors to everyone.
You can do so by hosting get-together events for the neighboring community or offering your common space on rent for events and parties.
As more people will actually visit your property, they will be able to speak about it with others. Moreover, you can start accumulating feedback on your service instantly.
Invest in public relations
In the end, it doesn’t hurt to enlist the help of a PR agency, different from a hotel marketing agency, to get the word out.
A hotel public relations firm typically has contacts in magazines, newspapers, other print media, companies that use your services, and within the hospitality industry, where they can talk about your hotel.
Through events, listings in media publications, and articles in travel magazines, you can get a much-desired boost during the early days, helping word-of-mouth promotions and expanding reach among your audience.
