While your hotel prepares for future travel, take action to attract guests and increase hotel bookings. Now is the time to take advantage of the quieter days to work on your digital strategies and improve your processes.
Your hotel’s social media presence is more important than you may think. According to MediaPost.com, 73% of millennials check out a hotel’s social media channel before choosing to book. In addition, 33% would be put off by a hotel’s lack of social media presence.
Create a strategy for your hotel’s social media channels. Your content should include professional photography of your hotel, guests’ user-generated content, and other innovative ideas to keep your audience engaged. Ideas include giveaways, contests, a video series, or blogs with interesting tips and tricks!
Along with social media, millennials also love technology. Invest in more technology such as smart TVs, Alexas, iPads, keyless entry, the list goes on. Your hotel can stand out amongst the rest with innovative and brand new technology.
Give your guests more control over their hotel experience with exciting new technologies that will make their stay seamless and relaxing.
Also, keep in mind that customers may want to social distance when staying with you. Therefore, having this technology will help them control more of their stay by using their smartphones for checking in, checking out, entering their rooms, etc.
Last but not least, your website needs to be easily accessible. Slow websites put customers off and can lead to a higher bounce rate, meaning a higher percentage of people who visit your website will leave rather than continue to view other pages on your site. If your website’s page speed is slow, you will potentially lose customers to competitors with faster sites.
Travelers tend to search for photos before booking, so start there. The image size can significantly impact site speed, so make sure your photos are optimized without affecting the quality.
Another thing to work on during this time is your website is ADA compliant. Seventy-three million Americans have a hearing or visual impairment. Therefore, without ADA compliance, your hotel could be losing over 20% of the potential market. If you have not already done so, work on your ADA compliance to ensure a user-friendly experience.
Take this downtime to improve your processes. Stand out amongst the crowd by enhancing your social media presence, becoming tech-friendly, and having a kickass website. Try to think outside of the box for new and improved strategies to increase bookings and guest satisfaction.