Source: revinate.com
TripTease recently asked industry experts, including Revinate’s own Anisha Yadav, how hoteliers can increase direct bookings. The answers were wide-ranging and enlightening. We pulled together a few highlights:
Build an OTA Winback Campaign
“Take a look at all of the guests that have stayed at your hotel in the last 30 days who booked with an OTA alias email address such as Booking.com or Expedia. Send out a win-back campaign to them. These email addresses are only valid for 30 days after the guest’s stay, so capturing them within that window is key…and can result in those guests sharing their real information with you, so you can later market to them.”
Build on what worked last year
“Take the time to analyze last year’s most successful campaigns for the same quarter and double down on what worked well. Look at your upcoming ‘need dates’ and ‘high demand dates’, to help narrow your research and adjust your upcoming marketing accordingly.”
Create a marketing calendar for the year
Plan your email marketing strategy for the year ahead of time. In your marketing calendar, you want to include planned promotions, holidays, and upcoming citywides and convention dates. Make sure to give yourself deadlines on when to have promotions ready, you might need to have involvement from other teams so having clear follow-up dates for yourself will help the team effort. This can pay dividends throughout the year when you’re a step ahead of demand and easily able to pivot to meet any changing situations. To help hoteliers, we’ve put together an email marketing planner.
