The 3 most important steps in digital marketing for hoteliers

1- If only one thing to do: protect your brand!

If you’re not the one who promotes your hotel on the web, someone else will do it… and you don’t want that to happen!

The hospitality industry counts many OTAs that can promote your rooms on their platform, but with a very high-level commission for you. To maximise your revenue you must increase your direct bookings and therefore attract people to your own website: starting with your existing customers or guests who have heard about your hotel. To be sure that when someone is looking for your hotel, they arrive on your website, we recommend at a minimum buying your hotel name and creating campaigns targeting areas where you are the most searched.

To get to know these places, go on Google Trends, write your hotel name and check the “Interest by region” part. As soon as your Google Ads campaigns are created, you’re sure that people arrive on your hotel website to book a room.

Generating traffic is important but converting is essential!

Once you attract people on your website, make them convert: speed and fluidity of navigation are as important as the aesthetics of your website. So make sure that every page loads quickly, that a booking is made in less than 5 clicks and that all redirections links are secured. Most importantly ensure that you display your best available rates on your website. This is the #1 conversion rule!

2- Take advantage of Google free booking links

Google has definitely positioned itself as the key player in Digital Advertising in the hospitality industry and continues to grow its influence and innovate. Let us share with you some interesting data our Data Analysts have crunched:

+65% of hotel bookings generated by a digital media (Search, Metasearch & display) have been done via Google advertising Service. And, what’s new is that in 2022 out of those bookings, nearly 16% are due to clicks on Google free booking links i.e at no cost for the hoteliers.

Evolution of hotel bookings via digital media l 2019 VS 2022

Evolution of hotel bookings via Google Advertising l 2019 VS 2022

Google Free links are opened to all hotels having a Google Hotel Ads account. Here again, our key recipe to success is to make sure that the rates of your official website are visible in the paid links and the free links section of Google Hotel Ads. This will bring more traffic to your site and therefore more direct bookings!

3- And if you have strong objectives in regards to your direct bookings: go the full Monty!

As shown in one of the figures above, bookings may be triggered by different media: In 2022, Search Marketing amounts to 44% of the hotel bookings generated by digital advertising, Metasearch Marketing: 38% of the bookings generated by digital advertising, and Display: 18%.

Our advice to maximise your direct booking campaigns is to optimise your online presence and advertise with a multi-media strategy. And it does not mean you will spend more: just split your budget into different media. There are now tech tools, such as MediaGenius, that allows you to automatise a maximum of tasks, control your spending and make trade-offs in the blink of an eye in order to reallocate your budget to the best-performing media at any given time.

Have a look at how Kamana Lake House is now reaching 75% of direct bookings via the use of MediaGenius and D-EDGE

Advertising is a complex strategy as there are a lot of actors and media you should be seen on. You’re not an octopus, get some help! D-EDGE developed MediaGenius, a single platform to manage all your digital media campaigns.

Digital marketing can seem overwhelming and difficult to understand. Therefore, being supported by a team saves you time and energy through constant support and up-to-date advice. Want to learn more?

About D-EDGE

D-EDGE is a SaaS company offering leading-edge cloud-based e-commerce solutions to more than 17,000 hotels in over 150 countries. Combining technical excellence with digital marketing expertise, D-EDGE brings a holistic hospitality technology infrastructure under one roof. The integrated range of solutions covers all stages of hotel distribution which encompasses Central Reservation System, Guest Management, Data Intelligence, Connectivity Hub, Digital Media, and Website Creation. With a team of 500 experts located in over 25 countries, D-EDGE provides localised support, services, and tools. With its global network of 550+partners, D-EDGE’s ever-expanding ecosystem is a positive place to do business and grow. D-EDGE is a subsidiary of Accor, a world-leading hospitality group consisting of more than 5,300 properties and 10,000 food and beverage venues throughout 110 countries. For more information visit www.d-edge.com.

Isabelle Falque
Chief Marketing & Communication Officer
+33 678 680 980