Running a successful business takes a lot of hard work, especially if your company is competing against major corporations that have the brand and budget to be successful.
Smaller boutique hotels for example have to work even harder to compete with the larger name-brand hotels in their area. But when done right, this extra effort will pay off. If you want to play with the big dogs, the following tips will help your boutique hotel compete in today’s tough economy.
Strengthen your Search Engine Optimization
Today’s travelers are turning to the Internet to create their vacation packages, so it’s very important that you create an online presence and strengthen your search engine optimization. Have a functional website that is user friendly and ensure that you have keywords on every web page of your site. Be sure to add general hotel and travel keywords as well as local keywords. This way, when travelers are searching for hotels in your area, your website will appear in the search engine results page.
Partner with Travel Companies
If you want to be successful, you need to go where the travelers are. Make sure that you build relationships and partnerships with other travel-related companies. For example, build relationships with travel agents so that they can push their clients to visit your hotel. Build partnerships with online travel sites so that they also promote your company to individuals looking to travel to your destination. The more you can put your hotel in front of individuals looking to travel to your area, the more likely you’ll be to gain some new guests.
Offer Incentives for Referrals
Let word of mouth marketing work for you. Offer your guests some type of incentive for referring other guests to your hotel, such as a percentage off their next stay. Guests love getting deals, so if telling a few friends to stay at your hotel will make their next vacation cheaper, you can rest assured they will tell everyone they know.
Pay Attention to your Online Brand
Because boutique hotels are not as popular as larger hotels, they rely heavily on the recommendations from others. However, if your hotel has a bad online reputation, it can completely damage your brand. This is why it’s extremely important that you pay attention to your online brand.
First, make sure to claim your business page on popular review sites, such as Trip Advisor. This way, you can ensure the information about your business being shared on these pages is correct.
You should also use a review tracker for hotels to alert you every time a new review or mention of your hotel has been posted online. This way, if the review is negative, you can take the correct steps to rectify the situation and keep the negative review from completely damaging your brand.
You also want to make sure you’re monitoring any social media accounts your company has. This way, if your customers have questions or if you have a negative comment on your social network, you can address the situation quickly.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
Guest Author: Lizzie Lau is a freelance writer and online marketing consultant with SEOMap.com. Lizzie combines personal opinions and research to create appealing and informative articles on various topics.