Not all customers are created equal. To drive growth, brands must attract and retain high-value customers.
If Hotels want to understand real-time performance they need to adjust strategies for the micro-moment that will enforce maximum impact.
Hotels must shift their focus from an individual channel per click or per acquisition metrics to overall business Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Identify new Key Performance Indicators
Social Media and New Media is fundamentally changing the way we view and interact with data. It’s had an enormous impact on how we:
- Identify new customers by using data to reach prospects in strategic, scaled ways.
- Approach customers by highlighting products that solve specific customer pain points.
- Grow customers by helping them to take full advantage of products that enable their success.
- Optimize spend by investing efficiently and tracking intelligently.
Change your Hospitality Mind Set
Capturing and embrace content and data in a consistent matter is among one of the top challenges for Hotels today.
Hotel needs to focus on data integrity, and start collects, manage, and store information. Often, we see Hotels that focus on traditional Hotel Marketing, and they have no real strategy to integrate this with Social Media.
This will make it very difficult to analyze both sets of data in a consistent matter. And it will end out in the data working against each other.
Innovate around the Guest Experience
Social Media is not about reinventing the wheel for Hotels. It about redefining the wheel. Just look at Airbnb. Airbnb did not reinvent the wheel, all they did was just redefine an existing market.
Hotels must learn new ways to optimize and provide alternative guest experiences. By the way, it is ok to steal some of Airbnb practices.
The customer service aspect is evolving and changing in real-time, and consumers expect immediate access to a representative for your Hotel via a mobile.
Here are a few ideas to start catering to a new audience.
- Engage your customers. Hotel needs to understand what their customers want and integrate that into their strategic planning and company culture. This requires that utilities effectively understand their customers as well as effectively leverage their employees to provide the experience that drives customer permissions.
- Boost innovation capability and integrate it into your strategic planning. Hotels, like any industry facing disruption, need to identify the trends that will drive the biggest disruption in their market, define the tipping points, and monitor those trends. Of course, monitoring isn’t enough, and Hotels will need to incorporate the impacts of those trends into an innovation process to define when, where, and how they place their bets.
- Experiment and pilot, but rapidly. The emerging competitors are much faster at getting to market, so Hotels need to be able to quickly make the right bets and bring them to market. The ability to test those bets in the market and assess their viability is going to be critical for utilities to be able to compete going forward.>
Act NOW!
As Hoteliers, there is no reason to wait or ask for permission today. Airbnb is most definitely not sitting on the sideline and waiting to see what’s happening next.
Airbnb Lux and Select are two new additions they plan to add to their growing platform. Lux is planned to be dedicated to the rich and famous, while Select aims to attract higher-paying travelers that seek amenities offered by fancy Hotels.
Many of the consumers within these hyper-targeted communities often have a large following on Social Media.
Hotels must understand the impact influencers, advocates, fans and dedicated communities have on consumers today.
Remove the Frictions at the Travel Moments
Innovation and creativity happen when Hotels utilize new technology in collaboration with their Team and Community.
We see Hotels that provide applications where the customer can take innovative actions to add new values to the guest experience.
The customer can use Hotel apps to:
-
- Pick a room from a Hotel room map
- Check-in before arrival
- Use a Smart device to unlock the room
- Order room service
- Learn about the local area
- Receive bill
These are just a few of the available options. The opportunities are limitless. Take time to ask your guests about how you can improve their guest experience.
Promote the experience
See Airbnb focus on promoting the experience. Describe your unique experience and the location will find you! It is their diverse global community that makes every unique experience possible.
“At the heart of our mission is the idea that people are fundamentally good and every community is a place where you can belong. I sincerely believe that discrimination is the greatest challenge we face as a company. It cuts to the core of who we are and the values that we stand for. – Brian Chesky CEO, Co-Founder Airbnb”
In the first quarter of 2017, Airbnb drove more traffic than any Hotel brand and metasearch engines like Booking.com and Hotels.com.
Research and data that Airbnb has a strong user base among millennials. And millennials appear more willing to roll the dice on the sort of personalized travel experience the home-sharing service offers. Millennials consider Hotels as predictable service providers.
Exceed Expectations
For Hotels, there are several options available today to exceed guest expectations. By the way “Business as Usual’ is not one of them.
There are three options Hotels need to consider:
- Optimize what you have
- Provide a new alternative
- Change what you have
The last option will have the highest price point. For some Hotels, this can require rebuild, renovation, new ownership, or close the Hotel.
Most of the time we deal with the two first options. And these two options fit into similar funnels.
1. Know your guest
Monitoring your Hotel’s reputation and Social Media mention is a very effective way to learn more about your guests, their interest, and what they like about your Hotel.
2. Personalize their experience
Airbnb, do it, so why not your Hotel also? Research has shown that 60 percent of travelers are more satisfied when they feel that their Hotel experience is personalized.
3. Drive Direct Bookings
To reach new and renewing customers today collaborate with your Community in new unique ways to learn more about new demands and needs.
Why your Hotel needs a Community
An audience is a group of people who read your content and buy from you but don’t interact with your hotel directly.
A community is a group of people that not only read your content and buy your products and services but also interact with your Hotel on social media, talk with you over the phone, ask you questions over email and in webinars, and much more.
Start answering this simple question – “Why would consumers form a community around our brand?”.
Brands like Airbnb have long known that the secret to their success lays in their community.
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT AND FACEBOOK ADVERTISING FOR HOTELS
Facebook Native Advertising will help Hotels redefine the customer experience. Take advantage of new innovative strategies that will improve your Hotels ROI.
FREE access to our Hotel Social Media Community – Get more insights and training about Facebook Native Ads for Hotels!
Our Social Media Management team has refined these processes to help Hotels. Contact us today to learn more.
Join our Free Hotel Social Media Community on Facebook for more in-depth insight.
Try something new it will magnetize your Hotel!
Be flexible and identify new ways to make guests happy.
As guest behavior and pattern continues to evolve, expectations will continue to rise. Navigating these changes can be challenging. Learn more about how we can help your Hotel.
About the author
Are Morch is the founder and owner of Are Morch – Hotel Marketing Coach. Get more from Are on Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Pinterest | Instagram| Podcast
