Running a hotel or resort is not as easy as it sounds just like any other business. Maybe you have build your website and connected it to some booking engine and waiting for 100% occupancy ! and you are not getting the result that you have expected, For a hotel business to run in profit, it should have a constant customer flow & you have to do something more to do to make it possible.

With the advent of Internet, there is hardly anything that we can do, being at home, with a click of a button. Hotels and resort bookings are majorly made through online booking these days. Online Travel Agencies (OTA), take up huge commissions both from hotels and customers.

Here there are eight secrets to boost your hotels and resorts booking online or how to improve hotel business, to catch the attention of your customers directly and make them your regular customers through your service.

Do You Have a WOW Factor?

The first step is to find your ‘WOW’ factor.

What make you different from others?

What is your competitive edge that you can show your customers that you will make stand out from the existing crowd?

It could be anything from infrastructural operation of your hotel to the rates offered. We Indians love complimentary inclusions; thereby, offering attractions is a must.

For instance, the last time when my friend and me went on a vacation, we booked a resort online. What made us book that particular resort? It was an apple farm owned by the resort. A resort inside an apple farm, great, right !

Give Your Visitors Great Experience before They Arrive

Your hotel’s website is your ‘Halo Effect’. As first impression is always the best impression; give your customers the best visualization of your hotel through an attractive website.

Your website should release positive vibes and give a visual imagination of the experience that your customers are actually going to receive, if they choose to stay in your hotel or resort.
Also add good quality images and videos about your hotel.

Offer an Online 360 Degree Virtual Tour to Your Space

The latest trend to make your website attractive is to introduce a 360 degree panoramic view of your resort. Offer them functionality with options to scroll in all directions including left, right, top, bottom, zoom in and zoom out.

This new trend of a 360 degree virtual tour has brought a complete revolution in the way how we are booking hotels or resorts online on the web. No wonder, a picture is equivalent to 1000 words, a video is equivalent to a 1000 pictures, but a 360 degree virtual tour is a projection of a realistic experience, which your customer shall obtain.

This feature not only provides a complete virtual tour of your hotel and resort but also it visualizes the most important and beautiful areas of your hotel as a 360-degree virtual tour. It will definitely bring an amazing change to the perspective of your website visitors, and overall increase your online sales.

Amazing Interiors and Positive Vibe Does Matter

An attractive interior decoration will leave your customers in ‘Awe’. Decorate your hotel and rooms with beautiful paintings and decors, which will improve the overall positive vibe of your hotel.

An art has the power to change space and dimension. Incorporating art & decors will make your customers to remember you. Also, make sure that the rooms are painted in light and pleasing colors, as bright colors might irritate the eyes of some people.

Boost Your Sales through Up-Selling and Cross-Selling

Up-selling is the process of marketing a higher end product to a customer.
For instance if a customer wants a budget deluxe room, you can encourage them to take a premium room, by offering a deal that it is currently available for a lesser price, due to off season. You can explain that it would be only a nominal extra charge more than the budget deluxe room.

Also, explain this to your customer very politely, giving them a better option and not in a manner of compelling them to take the deal. This selling technique will make anyone think about it. A spark is enough to make things happen.
Cross-selling is offering additional or complementary benefits when choosing a particular package. For instance, if a honeymoon couple is visiting your hotel, you can offer them a free car transfer (pickup and drop off) service to the railway station or airport while they are checking in and out; this will make them feel privileged and compliment their decision of choosing your hotel for their holiday.

Take Advantage of Online Promotion

Search Engine Marketing and Paid Advertising will be of great assistance to promote your hotel. Today, everyone searches their need in Google, and make there decision based on the result. Bringing your resorts or hotels listing to the top of the search result will boost your hotels and resorts booking online.

There’s tremendous competition out there, which includes your direct competitor. Alike you, they are trying hard to achieve better and stable position in Google and other search engine results. Hire Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts to help you in this job. These guys use attractive attention seeking language and keywords as title tags, SEO-friendly content, On-site and off-page marketing techniques, and Meta tags to make your site appear on the first page of Google.

Paid advertisements are not just adding some text or image advertisement and shoving some money into the campaign. Over the past years, online advertisement techniques have developed into a science. You need to be an expert to master the art of Search Engine Marketing. So, it is better find an SEM expert to manage your overall online promotions to bring in more leads.

Establish a Strong Platform for Social Media Marketing

As Facebook and Twitter are rocking the world today, you cant avoid these amazing marketing tools. Link your various social media profile pages on your website. Keep yourself updated on social media networks such as Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter about your latest deals and promotional offers. There is only one secret to bring in more leads from social media; that is, be active in social media.

Encourage Content Generated by Customers – Customer Reviews

Let your customers speak for you; if you are good, they are going to say all the ‘goods’ about you. Customer reviews of your hotel play a major role in promoting them. Take feedback from them and make them appear on your website under quotes, with their photo. You can even try producing video testimonials from your customers. Show a few of them on your website and publish a few others in Youtube to get a global reach.

Above all, word of mouth technique plays a major role in your resort and hotel promotions; hence, keep up the goal of providing only quality service to customers