Hotel Branding Trends

Creating Solid Hotel Branding

As a hotel owner or operator, you understand the importance of distinguishing your business from the competition.

Today, more than ever, it’s imperative for you to devote attention to building your brand. Guests have more choices than ever, and branding is the practice making your property stand out, creating loyalty, and increasing sales by way of recognition and credibility.

Branding Defined

What do we mean by branding? Formally speaking, it’s a combination of attributes used to describe a product or service.

In the case of a hotel, it includes the property’s name, its history and reputation, presentation, and price: all wrapped up in a logo, color palette, font, and voice.

The way it is advertised, however, is marketing. Remember this: Create a strong brand, and you can market it to the world.

Your brand encompasses your property’s features and the way you decide to express them to current and potential guests. The effect your efforts have on guests will also define your brand.

Your Hotel and Its Values

Modern consumers are tuned in to wanting to know about the brands they are buying from like never before. They are interested in dealing with companies that are transparent in their dealings.

Your brand needs to reflect your company values. They should be simple and easy to understand.

If you visited an “About Us” page where the company states its purpose and values – and didn’t understand what you just read, you are familiar with an example of what “not” to do.

Choose values that your hotel can stand behind and that are clear to your everyone who reads them. Your list should be kept simple, with three or four keywords or points that you want to focus on. They will help to develop the “personality” for your brand.

Who Are Your Guests?

Before you can develop an effective hotel brand, you will need to determine who your ideal customers are. Once you have a clear picture of which part of the market you are trying to appeal to, it will make this process easier. The type of branding you will decide to do will be different, depending on whether you are trying to attract:

Business travelers
Vacation Travelers
Couples without children
Couples with children
Travelers Looking for Luxury Accommodation
Travelers on a Budget
Seasonal Travelers

When you are creating your brand, every element of your plan, from the colors for the logo you select, to your print and packaging materials, needs to reflect your hotel’s personality.

You aren’t just providing your guests with a bed for the night; instead, you are giving them an experience where their comfort is a priority. You must ensure that their time spent with you aligns with the details that got them to book with you. This consistency is what strong branding is made of.

What do your Guests Need?

In order to make your hotel stand out from the competition, you’ll need to consider the market you would like to attract and look at specific problems they need to solve.

You could arrange to offer a discount coupon to travelers who book a ride to the airport with a particular car service.
Set up a tuck shop with prepackaged food, toiletries, books and other small items for sale on a 24-hour basis.
Provide brochures to points of interest nearby, and include discounts not available to the general public.
Offer babysitting to parents who would like to have dinner without their children during their stay.

These types of amenities make your hotel different from your competition. They are also the details that make a guest’s stay memorable, and one that someone is likely to share with others.

Operational details as the ones listed above give your brand a personality and your customers an expectation of quality and service. Be sure that your efforts align with the intent of your brand – it’s all connected.

Employees are the Face of your Brand

Keep in mind that the people that you are hiring, as well as your existing team of workers, are the face of your hotel’s brand.

Whether they are interacting with guests directly or working behind the scenes, their efforts reflect directly on whether your guests will have an enjoyable stay.

Take the time to recruit people who will be a good fit for the values you have chosen for your company. Know that they will be the interaction portion of your brand, so they need to be as carefully chosen as your logo and signature colors.

You’ll want people on your team who feel good about coming to work. Find ways to make your employees feel appreciated for the work that they do.

Your employees will be happier and that job satisfaction will show when they are interacting with guests and each other. Creating an atmosphere that is consistently calm and pleasant is an excellent strategy that will help to increase bookings.

Use Consistency in Design

Perhaps the most important facet of branding is to always be consistent in design.

Once you have selected colors and text for your logo, you should use it in all marketing materials.

Your website, brochures, and newsletter should use the same tones and style. When someone sees this type of material, they should immediately be able to recognize your hotel by the colors and/or the logo.

The design should also be used for items you give to your guests. Items such as stationery, pens, pencils, envelopes, shampoo and lotion bottles and laundry bags should be in your selected colors and carry your logo.

These elements are are marketing agencies’ specialty. Hiring branding professionals means that you will have defined brand guidelines that will be carried out through each element of your hotel’s design and collateral.

To support your brand guidelines on the ground level, you can also offer promotional items, such as a special “house” drink from the bar with a glass that the guest can take home. The glass could have your hotel’s name and location embossed on it. When guests return home, they will be reminded of your hotel and are more likely to mention it to others.

Word of Mouth Still a Powerful Tool in Building a Brand

If your brand has a positive impact with your guests, they are very likely to share this information with others. This type of word of mouth is a very powerful tool in building your brand.

The flip side to that is true; guests who are not happy with a brand are likely to tell others about it. In fact, they are even more likely to be vocal about brands they are not happy with than customers who were pleased with their overall experience.

Listeners who hear that they shouldn’t consider staying at a particular hotel may not be likely to ask questions about why a particular property isn’t a good choice, either face to face or online.

It’s important for your employees to understand that guests are interacting with your hotel’s brand from the moment they first make contact, whether they are calling to make a reservation or they step through the door. Every interaction they have with an employee, even if it seems minor, leaves an impression of the hotel’s brand.

A guest will remember the impression that the employees made during their stay. They will also recall whether any questions or concerns were dealt with politely, professionally and discretely, as required. These will be the types of things that guests will be talking about after they return home from a stay at your hotel.

Your brand is defined by the experience that a guest has, so if by chance they experienced something negative, allow your brand’s voice to respond to any negativity as quickly and smoothly as possible. This way, your brand becomes reputable as a responsive entity.

Use a Blog to Create Interest in your Hotel Property

Your brand’s voice is as important as its logo, so you should give it a stage. Creating a blog is a great way to keep in touch with previous and potential guests and draw interest to your property. Creating a blog gives you a platform to express your business consistently and concisely.

Often, a business chooses for the tone to be conversational, as if you were in the same room with someone you were trying to share information with.

The number of topics you can include in your blog varies widely. You can include:

Local history items that would be interesting to guests
Trivia and “did-you-knows” about your city
Local events and festivals
Attractions within driving distance

You can also post items that will appeal to your ideal guests. If your hotel caters to the business traveller, populate it with items that will appeal to executives and business owners. You can use news stories from various industries and link them to your city or post about software or devices that will make working from the road easier for business travelers.

If your market is made up of luxury travelers, your blog should feature items that will be of interest to them. Tell readers about where they can find the best places to eat, shop, dance and see live entertainment in your city. Tell them about where the most expensive place to find a banana split or a martini in the world is located, and what makes them stand out.

Take the opportunity to talk-up your property’s features and describe its amenities, including any specialities of your restaurant and bar.

Your blog can include posts about saving money for travelers who are interested in keeping costs down.

Post about when to book air travel to get the best prices on tickets and gas-saving tips for summer driving. Share information about discounts your hotel offers to professional organizations, veterans, seniors, etc.

Your blog is a place where your guests can ask questions, which can be used as the base for future posts. You can also answer the questions and hold discussions in the comments section of your blog. This will give you a chance to get to know your guests. More importantly in this case, your guests will get to know your brand.

Above All, Consider Hiring an Agency

You are an expert in running the day-to-day operations of your hotel.

When you are looking to build your brand, it makes sense to work with an agency who can provide expertise in areas such as developing a colorful logo, signage, print material and packaging.

You will get professional expertise and a streamlined look throughout all your material that your customers will be able to relate to your brand.

Use Multiple Methods to Build your Brand

By using the methods above in tandem, you can draw in first-time guests who may not be familiar with your brand (yet) and are taking steps to build brand loyalty with existing customers.

You must use continuous effort if you are going to create solid hotel branding for your property. With consistent effort on the part of your staff and a branding strategy that incorporates all your printed materials, as well as social media voice, you will be successful at reaching this goal.