Take your marketing to a new level!  

It’s easy to get caught up on focusing your efforts into making your hotel unique and offering something different to entice guests and increase booking numbers.  

Obviously, those efforts are important, however the greatest influence on booking numbers is due to location – thus, destination promotion is key!  

The goal is to promote your location as superior to alternatives in the area, highlighting why it may be more desirable and defining the unique selling points, emphasizing that your hotel is the gateway to an amazing destination.  

By implementing some effort into destination marketing, you can help your hotel in a big way. Guests will be more inclined to flock to your hotel if you’ve made the effort to help them maximize their trip.  

Once you’ve made this effort, and if guests enjoy your suggestions, there is a great chance that they will return.  

Follow along for ideas on how to help promote your independent hotel based on the incredible attractions in the surrounding area.   

Use social media to your advantage!  

While hiring a mainstream influencer to promote your hotel via social media may not always be practical, social media is a natural marketing and branding tool, and is invaluable for promotion.  

Getting your guests involved to enhance your traction online is a great idea and is actually quite simple.  

Be strategic with popular hashtags and encourage customers to share their snaps and videos during their stay.  

You also want to optimize your Instagram content for the Explore page by using strong, stand out images of the area with a clear visual aesthetic.  

Another option could also be to incentivize mentions of your hotel’s social media accounts by offering discounts for guests who may use Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to post pictures of local landmarks in which you’re tagged.  

Local partnerships are key

When joining forces with other businesses in the area, you are securing a partnership that will be mutually beneficial in more ways than one. 

Cross-promotional deals are great for all parties involved, so approach potential partners and suggest joining forces, (providing they’re not potential rivals, of course!).  

This can be as easy as providing discounted access to a nearby tourist hotspot for people who book a room at your hotel, increasing occupancy rates for you, while sending more visitors the way of the attraction itself. A win–win for both!  

Ordinary just won’t do; it’s time to invest in unique content

Independent hotels around the world have already begun amplifying their online marketing and increasing their influence by producing bespoke content.  

Whether it be in blogs, podcasts or videos – on-site facilities must be highlighted and presented to the people, this includes drawing attention to the wonders of the region in which your hotel sits.  

A virtual walking tour or drone footage of the surrounding area of your hotel are both great ways for customers to immerse themselves in the destination and experience the gorgeous views first-hand.  

Now, if you happen to be located within an urban sprawl, writing on the entertainment, leisure and dining options available nearby are all great ideas to highlight the amazing experiences they offer – so long as you link it back to why your hotel is the best option for visitors to use as a base for the night!  

Keep up with the events!

Promoting events and activities near your hotel are definitely worthwhile.  

With any event, large or small, comes some form of online buzz that you can use to your advantage.  

Any event taking place near your hotel will create a certain traction that you can ultimately latch on to in order to generate more traffic for your website.  

This could be as simple as getting in touch with the organizers of the event and asking for a press release which you can then publish on your hotel’s website.  

It could mean going one step further and writing a uniquely worded summary so you can latch onto some of the search traffic for the event.  

Both great ways of generating traffic for your hotel.  

Wrapping up

It’s important to remember that although other marketing efforts are effective, promoting your hotel as a gateway to an amazing destination is an incredibly effective tactic, yet many hotels overlook.  

Destination marketing could easily be the most important marketing decision you make.  

There are countless ways for guests to compare and contrast different hotels in a specific area based on location and room price, but destination marketing is absolutely key to pique your guests’ interests and allow them to see that there is far more to a stay than the actual property itself.  

If you are successful at proving this, then guests will be more likely to return. 

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InnQuest Software is a leading technology provider for the hospitality industry. For over 25 years, innQuest has combined hotelier experience with innovative technology to deliver an all-in-one solution that empowers hotels to attract guests, drive customer loyalty, and increase profits. Our flagship hotel management software, roomMaster, helps manage over 5,500 properties across 100 countries. InnQuest develops scalable solutions ranging from a Hotel PMS, Cloud PMS, Channel Manager, Hotel CRM and helps properties enable guests to Book Direct. We believe that everyone deserves a great guest experience, whether they’re staying at a small B&B, a thousand-room resort, or anywhere in between.

Call us today at 1.813.288.4900, or email us at sales@innquest.com. We will be happy to walk you through innQuest’s solutions.