How To Be On Your Guests’ Radar During Peak Season

Peak season is the time of year when hotels, restaurants, events, and many other businesses earn the bulk of their revenue.

Having to rely on specific times of the year to earn a significant portion of your revenue requires strategic planning. To get a steady stream of happy customers, you’ll have to stand out from the competition.

While it is essential to find ways to manage your hotel’s operation and resources sustainably, it is equally important to determine what initiatives will place your property on top of a guest’s radar!

What Are the Strategies To Stay On Top of Your Guests’ Radar This Peak Season?

If you’re not sure where to start, don’t sweat it. We got you covered! Here below, we discuss six powerful marketing strategies to be the hotel guests are searching for this peak season.

These include; optimizing your website, soliciting feedback, adopting a social media strategy, and more! Keep reading to discover how to be the buzz of the season.

1. Optimize your website

A study by Fuel & Flip suggests that approximately 87% of guests browse the hotel’s website before booking online. They seek favorable pricing and customized packages that they cannot find elsewhere, as well as further information on the property.

Optimizing your website gives you complete control over how potential clients perceive your hotel. It’s very important that potential guests are able to navigate your website easily and quickly browse through packages that you might offer.

Don’t have a website yet? Consider RoomRaccoon’s affordable website builder for a professional, functional site in minutes. An attractive website is critical for hoteliers, especially since guests expect business owners to have a website that offers a seamless user experience.

An online presence is also great for capturing guest feedback and reviews. It can cut commission costs and generate more direct bookings.

Consider posting high-resolution and aesthetically-pleasing pictures and videos of the most enticing aspects of your hotel, like the pool area, spacious rooms, and a delicious breakfast setting.

Ensure that you have an integrated user-friendly booking engine so that the availability of your rooms is always updated in real-time and that guests can book directly through your website.

2. Personalize offerings based on guest feedback

The hospitality sector is always changing. Many things essential to today’s guests weren’t even on their radar a year ago. Hoteliers now have easy access to this information due to the industry’s rapid advancement.

In our modern world, hotel reviews, guest feedback forms, and social media offer insights into what guests value most when making a hotel reservation. Taking heed of guest feedback can help you to get to know your guests better and make provisions for what they will likely be interested in in the future.

For example, if your hotel’s BBQ and campfire facilities are a big hit, you could consider making them even more entertaining. Personalized add-ons based on guest reviews will significantly enhance the overall guest experience.

Enhancing the guest experience does not necessarily mean adopting a one-size-fits-all strategy for all of your guests. Identify your target audience and categorize their interests accordingly. After all, the expectations of a businessman will differ from those of a family or large group.

The most effective way to stay at the top of all guest radars is to offer what they value, whether it’s a catered picnic, a horse ride, or even a traditional lunch in the vineyards.

3. Have A Social Media Strategy

A good social media presence helps you to continually update your upcoming events, promotions, facilities, and services to a wide spectrum of potential customers without spending a lot of time and money on advertising, and don’t forget, people are online all the time!

Stay on potential guests’ radars this season by posting compelling content on multiple social media platforms that reflect your brand identity and inspire future travelers to dream of an invigorating getaway at your property.

Go above and beyond by posting alluring, engaging content, like sharing booking tips, scenic images of the surroundings, events happening nearby, and special packages with non-sales-driven descriptions.

For example, instead of mentioning, “Book directly with us and get a 10% discount!” choose something that expresses your values, and that inspires your potential guests to book with you: “Here at (insert your hotel name), we’re preparing for the warmer days, beautiful sunsets by the pool and slow mornings at your own pace, for more updates stay tuned.”

Get more tips on posting and engaging your followers with our free Instagram guide.

4.Email Marketing

Email marketing is a quick and affordable strategy to build guest and guest loyalty and increase your hotel’s visibility. It enables you to frequently update subscribers on deals and news related to your hotel.

In email marketing, the guest journey is divided into three stages: before, during, and after their stay. You’ll discover pre-arrival emails, post-stay emails, and newsletter-style messages in these phases.

Making the first contact with your guest is essential since it establishes trust. The “confirmation email” is the first email we all expect to get when booking a reservation, and it is a great opportunity to welcome your guests.

Sending personalized emails to your guests shows that you care about their stay and that you are interested in their experience before they even arrive at your hotel.

You can also upsell and provide additional services, such as airport transfers, spa treatments, champagne bottles on arrival, local tour experiences, or even room upgrades in the pre-arrival email.

Use this email as an opportunity to find out more about the guest. Make sure you stay in touch with your actual guests and potential ones on a frequent basis, at least once a month. You can capitalize on this opportunity year-round to stay on guests’ radars.

5. Extend your visibility in different booking platforms.

Having your hotel rooms listed on several booking platforms is a great strategy to increase your business visibility and, therefore, generate more bookings.

Besides the well-known Booking.com, consider listing on other online travel agencies like Expedia.com, Tripadvisor, Airbnb, or HomeAway.

Consider using a channel manager if you’re unsure how to simultaneously manage the availability of your hotel across all of these different channels. It allows you to do a lot less work and makes it simpler to improve the occupancy rate and update your room rates across several platforms at once.

6. Build an online shop

The presence of an online e-commerce booking or shopping store on hospitality websites enables you to offer discounts and promotions more accessible and available to guests.

Gift vouchers are becoming more and more popular as small gifts for friends, family, and even coworkers. Offering your services as a gift that can be given to others is a great idea.

Whether through email marketing, online ads, or automated at-checkout. As a result, more customers are encouraged to make purchases.

If you run a country hotel or a resort that produces its own homemade cheese, wine, olive oil, jam, or other delights, it would be beneficial to showcase these products on your website.

Also, with an integrated payment system guests can purchase all their favorite products from you with just one click.

Wrapping up

A strategic marketing plan is essential to help your hotel stand out from the competition and obtain a competitive advantage over rivals.

Develop your property’s personality and brand. Given the variety of accommodations available today, why should guests choose your hotel over the brand-new, trendy hotel across the street with the hip rooftop bar?

Even if you don’t have an infinite investment budget, there are still many things you can do to attract potential travelers and entice them as mentioned earlier to stay with you the next time they are in town.

Following the recommendations provided in this blog will ensure that you significantly improve future reservations: start with a strategy, being consistent, flexible, personalizing and providing good customer service, and encouraging feedback.

To make it simple for you to test features and see for yourself how they could enhance your everyday operations, RoomRaccoon offers a 30-day free trial.