Posts Tagged ‘increasing hotel sales’

« Older Entries

What’s so different about your hotel, then?

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Unless you have a USP or some point of differentiation, what will make your hotel stand out above all the rest in your area, or competing for the same market?

Some can rely on their location, or the building, or history. But what if your hotel has none of that?

 

One way of capturing the interests of your guest or prospects is to imagine your perfect guest sharing some of the same passions, values or interests as you. It’s a lot easier to sell something you have an interest in, you are passionate about or that’s important to you.  If you don’t love what you do, or feel it’s important, it will show. It will be very hard for you to deliver a good service if you are dealing with people with whom you share no values, interests or enthusiasm.

Anyone who knows me will know that I love my garden, and love visiting other gardens. So if it was my hotel an obvious target market would be other garden lovers. This would not only allow me to attract guests who share my interest and passions, it provides a theme, which can be built on. Such as – sharing knowledge of local historical or famous gardens, forming joint ventures with a local plant nursery, garden designer, gardening author, manufacturer of garden products, or market gardener (or all of these); designing menus planned around locally grown produce.

I could tie in with any specific gardening events happening locally, such as RHS flower shows, Gardeners’ Question Time, etc. Or host my own Gardeners’ Question Time calling upon local gardening celebrities. I might include talks from experts, transport and free entry to a number of local gardens of interest (maybe as exclusive guests of the owner). You get the idea……

 

To take another example, Hotel TerraVina in the New Forest, where Nina and Gérard Bassett used Gérard’s knowledge and passion for wine – Gérard is the only person in the world to hold the combined titles of Master of Wine, Master Sommelier, Wine MBA and, as of April 2010, World’s Best Sommelier. (And I was pleased to have the opportunity to interview Nina and Gérard as part of my interview series  – How to Give Your Hotel a Competitive Edge.) As a result Hotel TerraVina attracts both hotel guests and restaurant diners who have an interest in wine, and Gérard is happy as he has an opportunity to cater for people who are interested in what he’s offering. By employing others who share this interest and knowledge Nina and Gérard are able to be consistent. And all this provides them with great PR opportunities.

But what if your theme is not so obvious?

Start by listing what you enjoy, what you are passionate about, and what’s important to you. Can these be incorporated into your business? Then consider your interests. What are the hobbies or pastimes you enjoy (or used to before you ran a hotel and had more free time!) What particular knowledge or expertise do you have? This could be nothing to do with the hotel industry, it might just be an interest or from a former career.

  • So it could be something you love: be that golf, shopping, dogs, cars, cooking – you’ll then know the types of things others enjoy who share  your love, so cater for these interest.
  • Something you value: such as supporting your local community, being in the countryside, or energy conservation, so give examples of the steps you’ve taken to contribute to these.
  •  Or it might be a particular hobby or expertise you can share with your guests: your knowledge of Italian cuisine and offering cookery lessons, your interest in classic cars, and attracting like minded enthusiasts and promoting classic car events in the area, or you might have a specific skill or talent to pass on to others.

Very few of us could honestly say there is nothing we can get excited or enthusiastic about, but I’d certainly recommend checking there is enough of a market there of others who share our passion before modelling our whole business around it!  Then we’ll want aim to recruit people who at least have a remote interest.

And once you have identified what it is that you have that others don’t, make sure you share this at every opportunity.

If your business reflects your interests, value or expertise the likelihood is you’ll attract other people who share them. Having a specific interest or expertise also makes it easier for you to find a forum or networking group where you can get your name known, as well as finding potential opportunities and prospective joint ventures.

Then tell and show your guests how you incorporate these into your business. Show your guests in as much detail as possible what you do that is different, so they can see all this before they choose you. It could be why they choose you.

It’s very easy to be enthusiastic and passionate about something that interests you, and this enthusiasm will translate into bookings if managed smartly. It means you are more likely to attract the type of guests with whom you can build up a good rapport and a better prospect of repeat business.

If your passion appeals to your perfect guests, it will make your job of marketing your hotel and making it unique so much easier.

Nina and Gérard Bassett were just two of my 10 guests on the interview series How to Give Your Hotel a Competitive Edge.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Business management, Grow your Business, Marketing | No Comments »

Facebook – Fad, fan or fear

Friday, September 9th, 2011

To what extent have you embraced social media to help market your hotel or restaurant? Are you already a fan of Facebook or do you still think it’s just as fad, or do you fear it.

I have to confess that I’ve been in the last category; I’m fine with LinkedIn and Twitter but up till now just couldn’t get my head round Facebook. Maybe I was a bit sceptical about the value of Facebook as a way to market a hotel or hospitality business.

After attending a webinar earlier this week with Barry Chandler, The Bar Blogger, looking at Facebook specifically for hospitality businesses I’ve been convinced!

Here are just 10 of the tips I picked up on how to use Facebook to help market your hotel or restaurant

  1. You need a Facebook page (opposed to a profile or group) as you can:
    - Ask people to like your page
    - Customise your page
    - Add contact forms
    - Not be limited to the number of fans (with a Facebook profile your limit is 5000)
  2. Choose your name carefully once set up you can’t ever rename your page
  3. Customise your URL to match your business name to make it easier for people to find you
  4. On the welcome tab encourage people to click your like button by giving them some incentive in the same way you would be getting people to sign up for your newsletter
  5. Use the page to capture contact details
  6. Add menu tabs to give more details on specific themes of interest such as your menu
  7. Offer exclusive deals or behind-the-scenes content for your Facebook fans to encourage them to interact
  8. Encourage people to take pictures and add your tag, so all their friends find their way back to your Facebook page
  9. Interact with your fans to get feedback and build the relationship e.g. asking them to vote their preferences
  10. Remember to track how people find you so you know whether or not your Facebook (or any other marketing) activity is working for you

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

How to Reward Referrals

Monday, September 5th, 2011

As an absolute minimum, ensure that you thank anyone who makes referrals to encourage them to continue to do so in future. Don’t wait to see if this actually leads to business, as what you are looking to reward is the referral process. The more referrals you have the greater the likelihood of gaining new guests.

Consider what other tangible incentives you might give that are of high value to the person making the referral, but don’t cost you the earth. Naturally you’ll want to ensure that the cost of the incentive does not outweigh the life time value of the referral.  But bear in mind what you give as a thank you may also be a way of adding to the life time value of the person making the referral too.

The nature of this incentive will obviously depend on where the referral came from.

For guests they might include such things as a gift, discount off their next meal, a room upgrade, an invitation to an exclusive event. Perhaps team up with one of your joint venture partners; this could be services or maybe branded products. A win–win–win for you, your joint venture partner and the customer.

For corporate users make the incentive something your guest can benefit from personally. It’s little incentive for them if it is something they’d normally put though business expenses. So can you offer something as a thank you which will encourage them to come back on a personal visit and maybe bring their family and friends too?

For suppliers, joint venture partners or other local businesses you may want to look at alternate ways to say thank you. This might be an opportunity to get in front of some of your other customers or guests through promotional activities or hosting joint special events. Talk to them directly to see how you can return the favour. Just by asking the question will in itself show you appreciate the referral.

Encourage your staff too to make referrals. Let them show they are proud of where they work. The reward obviously needs to reflect the value of the business; recommending your restaurant to a friend doesn’t warrant the same level of recognition as inviting a friend or relative for a wedding show round and subsequent wedding booking.

What might appeal to them may be dependent on the profile of your team. A cash bonus might work for some, but is soon forgotten whereas a couple of tickets for a show or concert, or a night in a sister hotel or meal with a JV partner will be far more memorable – and visible to other team members too to encourage the same from them.

Once you have a referral system in place, keep track of where and how you’re getting successful referrals. This will enable you to find out what works and what doesn’t, so you can continue to refine the process.

For more articles and resources http://www.zealcoaching.com/products-resources/

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Business management, Customer service, Grow your Business, Marketing | No Comments »

Make the referral process easy

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

For guests the sooner you ask for referrals after they have stayed or visited, the better. This is the time they are likely to be most positive about what you delivered.

The way you ask for referrals is key. If you ask: “Do you know anyone who might be interested in receiving details of our promotions?” you are likely to get  “No” or at best “I’ll think about it.”

But if you ask a specific question, for example:

“Who else do you know who is celebrating [their birthday, wedding anniversary, retirement …] in the next few months and may be interested in our [all-inclusive weekend breaks, wine promotion…]?

Creating a simple referral form that you include with the bill can encourage existing guests to make referrals. Make this prominent, and offer incentives for them to give you names.

Maintain relationships with your guests, even if the likelihood of more business with them is limited. They are more likely to refer you to friends, colleagues or others if they have had recent communication from you. Even if a guest only stays with you once they have a network of friends and colleagues who may also be your ideal guests. The lifetime value of one guest can be their connections to other guests, too.

On Monday we’ll go on to look at what you can do the reward those who give you referrals to encourage them to do it again, and again.

For more articles and resources http://www.zealcoaching.com/products-resources/

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Business management, Grow your Business, Marketing | No Comments »

How to encourage referrals

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

Yesterday I was asked what type of incentives hotels can provide for loyal customers to encourage them to become ambassadors and drum up business for you. But before we cover that, let’s consider why and how you’d encourage this type of loyalty.

We all know of the importance of online reviews, but I’m not talking here about general comments open to anyone. And offering any incentive for positive reviews will soon get you into hot water with most of the online review sites.

I’m referring here to your regulars, those who are already loyal to you, and if given a little encouragement are happy to refer you to friends, family and colleagues.

Referrals are a great way to build your customer base – if a person comes to you as a result of a referral, you don’t need to go out and find them. This is a much easier way to market a hotel! The person who made the referral has already experienced what you offer and will do the selling for you.

Referrals build loyalty with the people who recommend you – they will want to be seen to stand by their referral by continuing to come to you themselves.

Give people a reason to talk about you

So how do you get people talking about you, and how do you get referrals? As I’ve stated before, they won’t say good things about you unless you meet and exceed their expectations. So first, do something exceptional.  Identify things that are of high value to your guests but low cost to you so you can give added value. Give people that reason to talk about you.

If you don’t ask you don’t get

But referrals won’t always happen unless you ask for them.

If you don’t ask you often don’t get. So don’t be afraid to ask people directly who else they know who may be interested in specific packages or services you offer.

The obvious people to ask for referrals are your existing guests. Focus on those guests or customers who are your ‘perfect guests’ as the people they refer will be a better match to your preferred type of guest.

Think about other people who know you well enough to recommend you. This might include colleagues, suppliers, local businesses, joint venture partners, your own team and others in your network.

This will be easier the better they know you and when they fully understand the extent of everything you offer. So let them experience this first hand. A prime example is your local tourist office – they won’t want to recommend you unless they’ve experience your hospitality first hand. The same goes for local businesses of joint venture partners, who may have customers needing a place to say. So invite them to a showcase event or to a more personalised invitation for dinner, overnight or event.

The same goes for your staff too, they need to experience what your guest experiences. When was the last time any of your team ate in your restaurant, slept in one of your beds, or was pampered in your spa?

Tomorrow we’ll look at how to make the referral process easy.

For more articles and resources http://www.zealcoaching.com/products-resources/

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Business management, Grow your Business, Marketing | No Comments »

How to market a hotel through partnerships and joint ventures

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Do you know other businesses who already work with your ideal guests? If so, why not set up a joint venture to help market your hotel? A joint venture is when you team up or collaborate with another business or an individual to either share resources or help each other out with a promotion or service you can’t offer yourself. Joint ventures provide an ideal opportunity for some low-cost marketing.

To identify prospective joint ventures, think about other businesses that will have lists of people you would like to attract as guests. These don’t have to be competitors (although many businesses do form joint ventures with their competitors quite successfully). They might be suppliers, clubs or organisations who deal with your ideal guests or customers; other businesses who sell complementary services such as local entertainment or attractions; or just fit the profile of your guests by age or location.

Joint ventures may take on many forms. The easiest joint venture is sharing your respective customer and prospect lists. You write to your entire list promoting the joint venture business, and they do the same to their list promoting you.

BUT don’t just give your list to your joint venture partner. There are two reasons for this. You must be the one writing to your list, to respect the privacy of those on it. And your prospects and guests’ trust is in you, not your partner, so when they see something coming from you the message has more credibility and impact. And vice versa for your partner’s list. So for both privacy and effectiveness, only ever write to your own list.

Joint ventures might also be a partnership in a project. A popular option might be hosting a particular event jointly with one of your suppliers, e.g. a wine lovers’ dinner, where your wine supplier provides promotional material and maybe even some of the wine in return for a speaking spot on the night. A win–win all round.

Other joint ventures may be more long-term. For example, if you are close to a particular attraction, you may be able to advertise in their promotional material and on their website (and vice versa) and for each of you to offer or give away vouchers for a discount on entry to the venue, while they give out promotional offers for your hotel. This is a way of third-party endorsement and your joint venture partner will feel a lot happier about doing this if they have had first-hand experience of what you offer, so don’t be afraid to give them a taster.

Don’t limit yourself to entertainment or leisure businesses, though. Think about what businesses you trade with. What businesses do your guests or prospects use? (either locally, in person or virtually, online.)

This type of arrangement may even have further spin-offs, such as you providing catering, accommodation or support for big events. For example, your local tennis club runs a national tournament and recommends your hotel for accommodation (at a preferential rate), and holds its prize giving dinner at the hotel. On the other hand, if the attraction in question is something to be sought after, this may be a good selling feature for your hotel or restaurant if you’re in a position to secure (maybe VIP) entry or tickets in advance.

Becoming an ‘expert’ opens up other opportunities for joint ventures – where do other people interested in your subject go? Think about the golf club, hobby magazine subscribers, spa product suppliers, and so on.

If you missed last week’s tele seminar on  The 7 fatal mistakes hoteliers make in getting more business you can still download the recording here

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Business management, Grow your Business, Marketing | No Comments »

Are you letting new hotel business opportunities slip through your fingers?

Saturday, August 20th, 2011

Learn the 7 fatal mistakes hoteliers make in getting new business

  • Do you struggle to get new business?
  • Are you unsure what marketing you should be doing and want to know how to make your marketing budget go further?
  • Do your guests seem to have a good time, but you still don’t get much repeat business?
  • Are you forever chasing your tail and never have time to devote to growing the business?
  • Are you fed up with other hotels under cutting you and forcing you to reduce your rates?

If you have answered yes to any of these questions there’s still time ot join me on my complimentary call on Tuesday 23rd August.

On this free call you’ll discover:

  • The 4 most common mistakes hoteliers make when trying to gain new business
  • The 3 ways hoteliers let repeat business slip through their fingers
  • How to spot if you are making these mistakes and what to do to rectify them.
  • Plus I’ll be revealing my BRAND NEW programme created specifically for owners and managers of small independent hotels who want to give their hotel a competitive edge

To learn more and to register click here

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Business management, Marketing | No Comments »

How to waste your hotel marketing budget

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Is your hotel making any of these mistakes…..?

Last week my husband and I read a full page colour advert in one of the colour supplements for a holiday we’d been thinking about for a while. This was the Saturday paper and at lunchtime on Saturday I went to their website to find more details. So far so good, the advert had grabbed our attention and had a very clear call to action.

But the website didn’t match the advert. The specific holiday advertised was difficult to find and when I did find it the prices quoted in the advert didn’t seem to be available. So I’m already starting to lose faith in the company.

Undeterred I picked up the phone to ask for more details. Bearing in mind this was the day the advert came out I was rather surprised that the number they gave went directly to a voicemail saying there was no one available to take our call. I was given a selection of options, one of which included requesting a brochure. Fine, all I needed at this point was a brochure, so I selected this option.

Even this bit they couldn’t get right, as I was immediately put on hold!

Quite frankly I have better things to do with my Saturdays and realise there are plenty more companies offering similar holidays. As my first impression was so poor, needless to say this company will not be getting my business. I wonder just how much potential business they lost on that day, and what damage this did to their credibility.

When your hotel does any marketing or promotional activity how prepared are you, your team and your systems for the response you get? Or are you just turning people away and wasting your hotel marketing budget?

For more articles and resources http://www.zealcoaching.com/products-resources/

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Customer service, Grow your Business | No Comments »

Help guests find your hotel

Friday, July 1st, 2011

Where is your hotel?

Last week I wrote about Google places, but it seems some restaurants or hotels haven’t yet mastered the concept of including a postcode or zip code.

Today I went to look up the location of the hotel where I had thought about staying to see how long it would take me to get there from home and how far it was from the venue I was going to visit. It seemed to list everything but the postcode, even down to having the grid reference coordinates for helicopters!

I looked on the homepage, under location, contact details, directions.

Everything but the postcode.

One simple little detail that could make all the difference between someone saying “yes this hotel is ideally situated” or left wondering whether your location is right for them and clicking away from your site to find somewhere else.

Knowing where you are has to be a fundamental part of the decision-making process to book or not to book, and therefore a part of your restaurant or hotel marketing message. If you want to increase your chances of getting more restaurant or hotel bookings make this information as easy as possible for your prospective customers and include on your restaurant or hotel website’s homepage.

Added to this, even if your customers know roughly where you are there’s a good chance they’re going to use their Sat Nav to find you, so make life easy. Better still put the postcode or Sat Nav coordinates and directions in your confirmation e-mail. But please check the Sat Nav coordinates are correct and don’t take your guests up the wrong road! If you know there can be some confusion pre warn guests and give them the coordinates for a key landmark where they need to make a turn and give directions form that point onwards.

It all adds up to a part of great customer service and contributes to the all-important first impression.

 

For more articles and resources http://www.zealcoaching.com/products-resources/

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Customer service, Grow your Business, Marketing | No Comments »

Are you on Google Places?

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Are you on the map yet?

Have you entered your hotel or restaurant onto Google places?

Increase your visibility by adding your details including a brief description of what you offer, a link to your website, photos and even videos. You can update it as often as you like. You can even adjust your location on the map if necessary, making it nice and easy for people to find you, and creating a great first impression.

It’s really easy to do; all you need is a Google account, and then set up your details and claim your spot! So when someone Googles hotels in X restaurants in Y you’re not only come up as a text listening, you will also be plotted on the map.

 

For more articles and resources http://www.zealcoaching.com/products-resources/

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Customer service, Marketing | No Comments »

« Older Entries