Did you know that earthquake-prone buildings are designed to move during earthquakes? The foundation is solid, but the structure has enough flexibility to allow earthquake waves to pass through it.
Is your hotel in need of seismic upgrades, literally speaking? The right foundation will give you the ability to grow your business and have enough flexibility to adapt to changes such as a pandemic.
A strong, agile hotel will thrive in any storm if built on solid data, customer service, modern technology, and digital marketing.
Data
Data is one of the most important building blocks to long-term success in your hotel. Data is often overlooked by smaller hotels, as it’s not something that requires immediate attention.
You can use your guest, reservation, and performance data to predict trends, find the “sweet spot”, determine marketing opportunities, create customer segments, and personalize service.
Google Analytics is a tool that allows you to discover the paths your guests use to reach your website. It also lets you leverage the power and data integrations of your property management system (PMS) to gain more information about the performance of your property and your guests.
WebRezPro, for example, automatically collects and syncs real-time data to streamline operations and generate actionable insights. You can use year-over-year performance reports to help plan pricing and marketing campaigns and predict the future. Sales reports can help you determine which products or services to offer and the most profitable activities and other ancillary revenue, rather than making gut decisions.
Personalized Customer Service
The hospitality industry has been built on the foundation of customer service. Your online customer service is just as important as face-to-face communication.
You can nurture guest relationships through personalized guest messaging throughout the guest journey. Booking confirmation, pre-arrival check-in, and after-stay email or SMS messages. The expectation of guests is for timely and relevant communication regarding their stay. Automated Emails or SMS are the best way to fulfill their expectations. This streamlines the process and ensures that no opportunity is missed.
Keep in mind that guest messaging is part of customer service. Emails should be concise, relevant, helpful, and brand. How can this email make their stay more enjoyable and easier? As long as the messages meet the same criteria, marketing messages are acceptable. If relevant to your guests, offering upsells such as vacation packages or meal deals is acceptable. These guest communication rules and guidelines can help you stay on track.
The guest’s stay doesn’t end after the guest checks out. Follow-up emails are a great way to keep the relationship alive and encourage repeat bookings.
Digital Marketing Strategy
To create a digital marketing strategy that works, combine customer service and customer data. This essential building block is vital to the success of your hotel. Although your digital marketing strategy may have many moving parts, these are the essential components that you should never forget.
Guest Segmentation Use the data you have about your guests to create guest segments based on their reasons for traveling, purchasing habits, and other factors. You’ll be able offers more relevant and personalized offers such as romance packages for couples or stay-and-play packages for adventurers. You can also improve your customer service by offering surprise and delight programs based on reservations data. You could offer a surprise discount on a couples massage to a couple traveling for a romantic weekend or upsell a package of kids activities to visiting families.
Website – Maintain your website’s current design, functionality, and SEO. It is important to have your website redesigned every two years. Also, it is important to consult a designer to make sure your site runs smoothly (think site speed) following SEO best practices. Mobile optimization, easy online booking, page loads that are quick and consistent, and all other elements of your website impact the user experience.