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If you've recently booked a vacation, you might understand the frustration that can come with choosing a hotel. You're about to spend thousands of dollars and naturally, you expect a great experience. A recent study published by GuestRadar indicates that your potential guests share these same sentiments.
As a hotel marketing professional and consultant for nearly a decade, I noticed that management teams of independent hotels are hesitant about investing in digital marketing.
When I started my hotel digital marketing career in 2009, we were doing things differently. The industry lacked tools, knowledge, and marketers were relying on basic metrics to prepare for digital marketing decisions. By the mid-2010s, most hotels had digital marketing strategies that included OTA optimization, some paid ads, optimizing their website, and being active on social media. Everything was done manually. That's what I call the digital marketing stone age.
The week before we published the results of a market research, examining booking preferences and decision-making factors of travelers. The over 2,000-response survey revealed interesting insights about what factors make people stop scrolling OTAs and start liking particular hotels.
Most hotel marketers will agree that in today's fast-paced and attention-deficit online environment, we have less than a few seconds to make a memorable first impression. And even if we win someone's attention, it is easy to lose a customer by not living up to the initial expectations.