Hotel internet marketing – your 'guest experience'
Every hotelier is aware that in the hotel business the major success factor is its guests. The more that your guests keep coming back, the stronger your business becomes. Looking at the best hotels in the world these days, their success didn’t just happen overnight. It’s not because of their names or their popularity, but it is because of the hotel’s image, reputation and most of all, its uniqueness- something that sets it apart from its thousands of competitors.
Hotel marketing is more than the advertising that people see in glossy magazines and other forms of media. Though these commercial approaches are of great help, the real selling point of a hotel occurs at the moment a guest enters reception, that’s when the magic should start. From your hotel’s atmosphere down to the little things, such as complimentary giveaways, these elements sum up the bigger picture and that is your hotel’s total service. Once a guest knows and has experienced your hotel’s superb accommodation and service, there is a high chance that they aren’t going to bother searching for a new hotel whenever they come and visit a place again.
Some of the greatest hotel marketing experts advise that hotel marketing should just be like McDonalds. For someone who just heard of this, it may sound absurd. How can hotels be compared to fast food chains? According to the experts, there is a lot to learn from the world’s most famous fast food chain.
McDonalds has been an established household name for a long time and it is one of the most successful corporations worldwide. What makes McDonalds unique is the standard of the ‘guest experience’. Wherever, in the world, you go in to a McDonalds restaurant you know what to expect from the ambiance, to the staff uniform, to the taste of the food.
So what has this got to do with running an independent hotel, guesthouse or B&B?
When a guest has stayed at your hotel and enjoyed their stay – they have relished the experience! They loved the cute way you turned down the bed. They thought the free newspaper to wake up to was fantastic, they loved the open fire in the lounge. Your unique complimentary giveaways were amazing!
When they make a return visit they have come for exactly the same experience and will be disappointed if they don’t get it and may never return again.
How do you achieve this?
You run your hotel like a franchise – you document the way you do things / take pictures of the way you present your food / take pictures of the way you turn down your beds. Create standards that you can replicate. Train your staff to follow your standards and that way you will never disappoint your returning guests and they may be your guests forever.
