18 Ways

Fill Your Hotelto

"How can I boostbookings and

get more revenue?"

This is every hotelier's question. It's a simpleone, but the answer can be a challenge.

To help answer that challenge, here's

to show you the big picture and

boost your hotel bookings.

18 Tips

1. Create Your Hotel'sGuest Personas

Who are your guests?Why are they staying with you?

Answer these questions by developinga few solid customer personaswith powerful data and your own insider knowledge.

Here's How

Guest personas tell you who you're talking to

and how to focus your marketing & sales efforts.

Use your data and

knowledge to find out

your guests' goals,

needs and wants.

Find out how to talk

to them.

2. Create aValue Proposition

that Resonates withGuests

2. Create aValue Proposition

that Resonates withGuests

Why should your guests pick you?

Your value proposition should be onyour homepage, and it should tell guests why you're unique and exactly what

they're looking for.

Write Your Own

Why should I stay atyour hotel ?

(and not the one downthe street?)

That's the questionyour value propositionneeds to answer

Here's 4 tips for what your valueproposition should look like:

1. A GREAT HEADLINE

2. A VISUAL ELEMENT

3. A 2-4 SENTENCE PARAGRAPH

4. CONSIDER BULLET POINTS

3. Speed UpYour Hotel Website

Slow site speeds can

FRACTURE YOURCONVERSION RATES.

Up to 75% of your visitors will leave for acompetitor's site to avoid delays.

Make sure your site usesmodern coding techniques and

up-to-date plugins.

Don't clutter your siteunnecessarily.

Technical Tips

4. Make Your Hotelgallery Page Sparkle

Gallery pages are where guestscome to find out who you are.

Gallery pages let you show off yourpersonality and polished rooms.

have warm, inviting imagesuse simple, clean designload quicklyare easy to findhave a consistent color schemesparkle!

Make them Sparkle

Make sure your gallery pages:

5. Keep Your Site asSimple as Possible

According to a Googlestudy, visually complexwebsites are seen as

less effective andless aesthetically pleasing.

Simplifying your design and sitenavigation won't only make your site

faster and more attractive...

It will let guests consume informationfaster, and a simple booking processmakes them much more likely to book.

How to Simplify

6. Don't Spoil Visitorswith Too Much Choice

Too much choice causesfriction.

Friction is "anything from aslow-loading page to a typoin the checkout process."

Basically, it's anythingthat gets in the way of

bookings.

Beingoverwhelmedwith dozens ofpackages andnavigationaloptions is a

serious kind offriction.This menu is incredibly irritating to

deal with, and overwhelms the user.

So limit your choices to theessentials, and visitors willhave a much smootherbooking process

(and less of a headache!)

7. Tell Visual Storiesto Engage Guests

67%of consumers consider clear,detailed images to be evenmore important than productinfo & customer reviews

Travelers are 150% moreengaged with listings thathave more than 20 photos

vsproperties with only a few

(TripAdvisor, 2013)

How do you use images the mosteffectively?

The should be clear and attractive,complement your brand image and create

emotions in those that view them.

Start Telling Stories

8. Get Mobile Savvy

Over a quarter of the online travelmarket's money is coming

through mobile.

Having a mobile-friendlywebsite isn't a choice anymore.

Make sure your mobile website has a

seperate concept:

If it's just a shrunken-down version of

your desktop site, odds are you're trying

to fit too much on a small screen

Help Me Choose

Once you're ready to start building,you've got a choice:

Responsive or Adaptive design?

There's a strong case for both, and itdepends on your needs

9. Use Analytics toPeek Behind theDigital Curtain

Your booking engine & analytics areFULL of useful information.

We know wading through all that bigdata to find the good stuff can be a

little intimidating.

So we've put together a practicalstep-by-step guide to help you findyour booking engine's secrets and

unlock a competitive edge.

Unlock Secrets

10. Make SureBranding & Design are

Relevant to Guests

500%

200%

In a case study by strongview.com, increasingrelevancy in their email marketing boosted

their conversion rate by

Contentverve discovered that tweakingtheir Call to Action copy raised their

conversion rate by

The more relevant your images,copy and overall design are to the

kind of guests you get,the less friction potential guests

will experience.

This leads to more bookings foryour hotel.

11. Have aCompelling

Call to Action

The Callto Action

Most marketing campaigns focus on emailmarketing, ad design, copy and images.

That's great! But there's one thing a lot of themmiss....

More CTA Tips

Your CTA can be the tipping pointbetween a bounce and a booking.

If you want them to click, it should useactionable language, align with your

message, and bereally, really obvious.

12. Be Benefit-Driven

Here's how not to list your hotel'sfeatures:

A great spaA safe and fun play areaA spacious conference room

Instead, explain how thesefeatures translate into benefits:

We have a health gym and spa, so you can let yourhair down & unwind after a busy day.We have a kids' play area, so you can indulge inquality time with your significant other.Our spacious conference room lets you holdmeetings in comfort & style, and our boards andprojectors let you communicate more effectively.

13. Use Color to YourAdvantage

Switching their links to a "morerecognizable" shade of blue

boosted Bing's revenue by a cool$80 million.

For Dmix,switching their CTA colorfrom red to green grew their

conversions by 34%.

Color psychology, used properly, canimpact your booking rate, and it's notabout manipulating guests or pseudo-

science.

Instead, use color to reflect your brandand resonate with your target

audience.

Show me How

14. Craft Exciting Copy

Good copy flows smoothlywhen you read it.

There are no logical jumps orawkward phrasing. It showsyour guests how you fill theirneeds & overcomes their

objections.

Try and write with a light, original hand - don'tuse cliched phrases, and keep sentences

short and sweet.

Think of it as blend of style, tone & information.

If you're looking for more in-depthadvice, here's 7 steps to improve

your copy right now fromCopyblogger:

Start Telling Stories

15. Take Advantage ofRetargeting

Research shows that over70%

of travel website users willabandon their bookings.

Retargeting is a way to combatthis.

Retargeting happens after a guest abandons mid-booking: theyreceive an email from you or see an ad with an offer from your hotel,and remember to come back. You get a second chance to persuade.

Here's our best guideon how to give

retargeting a chance -and give yourself asecond chance:

Retargeting

16. Back up Claimswith Social Proof

Guests are bombarded withads.

Reviews, testimonials, badgesand influencers are all thingsthat gain trust: you're not sayingyour're great, someone else is!

16. Have a Killer

Don't neglect yourlanding page!

Your SEO, PPC and other marketingefforts can all come to nothing if guestsclick and find a boring landing page, or

your homepage.

To ensure you have a killerlanding page:

Have clear copy with an emotional impactUse a prominent CTAUse images that reinforce your messageWrite a strong headline

More Tips

18. Always be

Testingand

Improving

Pop Quiz!

Which ofthese twoads do youthink

performedbetter?Image Source

The one "expertly crafted" inMS Paint acutally got clicked on almost

3 times as much.

Yes, it's ugly and probably wouldn'tbe your first choice- but sometimes

our first choices are wrong.

That's why we test.

When it comes to getting morebookings, you can't affort to just "go

with your gut."

Ground your concepts in real dataand results, by testing andimproving over time.

To wrap this up...

Congratulations!

You now have 18 new tips in yourtoolkit to help you on your quest to

garner bookings and boot your hotel'sbottom line.

If you need any help implementingthese techniques, don't be afraid togive us a shout - we're experts!

Net Affinity is a technology, digital marketing and webdesign company working exlusively with the hotel

industry.

We're dedicated to helping you grow your directbookings.

Get in Touch