6 Winning Hotel Marketing Tactics for Maximizing Direct Bookings and Revenue

Hotel operators must balance promoting direct bookings through their own portals with balancing third-party websites and online travel agencies (OTAs) in the constantly evolving hospitality business. In 2023, the hotel sector is at a turning point where working with OTAs is both vital and problematic.

Because they believe they provide better pricing than a hotel's own website, consumers have made it a habit to make reservations through OTAs. Hotels pay significant commissions to third-party websites as a result, which lowers their profit margins. However, there is hope in sight as a return to direct bookings gathers steam.

Leading hotel companies like Hilton, IHG, Marriott, Starwood, Choice, and Best Western have started initiatives to regain direct customers and lessen dependency on OTAs. To entice customers to make direct bookings on their brand.com websites, they have introduced "best rate guarantee" schemes and other incentives.

As the hotel marketing landscape changes, hoteliers must adapt and put into practice successful techniques to stay ahead of the competition and increase revenue generating. The top 6 hotel marketing techniques to do this are shown below.

Hotel SEO Marketing: For better rankings, you need to have interesting content that draws readers in and retains them on your site. Due to the overwhelming number of mobile search activity, mobile SEO is crucial.

Hotel Brand Protection: To stop OTAs from competing for your brand name and stealing potential consumers, register your trademark and put brand protection procedures in place.

SEM Drives High ROI Through Brand Protection: Search engine marketing ensures a higher ROI compared to OTA commissions by allowing you to bid on your brand name.

Hotel Re-Marketing to Drive Conversion: Use targeted advertisements to reach out to potential customers who have visited your website but didn't place a reservation.

Utilize meta-search engines like TripAdvisor, Kayak, Trivago, Google Hotel Ads, and Google Hotel Ads to reach a wider audience and encourage direct reservations.

Excellent hotel website design: To increase direct bookings, a website must be both aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly, with a simple booking engine. Use SEO and keyword research to increase visibility and get new visitors to your website.

You may minimize reliance on OTAs and maximize direct bookings by adopting these efficient hotel marketing methods into your sales and marketing activities, which will eventually increase revenue and profitability for your hotel. It's time to get up and take advantage of the chance to take back control of your reservations and establish a solid customer base through direct methods.