Hotels were never desired as much during a holiday. That is until boutique hotels hit the scene and took the travel industry by storm. They came and made travellers want to inhabit them, make them home, and even take back some elements to their own homes. Boutique hotels are now the ultimate in lifestyle living.

Image source: TripSavvy

This boom has also seen supply catching up to demand across major destinations around the world. So, how can hotel marketers continue to grow revenue as more and more players join the fray? Driving more direct bookings are obviously the one major solution, but for that to succeed, your content marketing strategy needs to be on point.

Here’s our list of strategies that we think will help your hotel deliver on the promise of providing the best experience in 2018:

1. Video will take centre-stage
Internet users love their videos. Studies show that 61 percent of all marketers expect video to dominate their strategies. This makes it absolutely crucial that you make video marketing a central part of your 2018 marketing budget. To generate direct bookings, video marketing needs to begin at your website. Your hotel website should act as the central hub of visual content. Moreover, any video content on your social media platforms should also be available on the website. The type of video content will depend on your property’s unique selling proposition.

2. Virtual Reality will gain more ground
Luxury travel and hospitality brands are increasingly teaming up with virtual reality production agencies to help bring the luxury to life through immersive experiences.
For instance, Four Seasons is already looking at a marketing virtual reality application. Your boutique hotel will need to create unique, immersive experiences that attract customers.

Image source: AppATrip.com

Virtual reality experiences can bring your brand to life from anywhere in the world. They help transport potential guests to experience the hotel before booking it and allows them to navigate their own experiential experience. Additionally, it offers a personalized viewing experience, unique to each brand to extend their reach and boost visibility.

3. Mobile will remain top priority
According to a report by Deloitte, mobile is poised to overtake desktop as the savvy traveller’s go-to tool for research and booking. About 27 percent (and counting) of online bookings are completed via smartphone. This trend goes past the booking stage. When guests arrive at their destination, they’re turning to their mobile devices to find activities to do around town. In fact, a majority decide on activities only after they’ve arrived at their destination. By sending guests updates about what is happening around town during their stay, your hotel can provide them with an empowering experience.

4. Experiential marketing will rule the roost
As a boutique hotel, it is more important to sell an experience, rather than a product.

With the increase in the number of millennial travellers, experience is steadily taking centre-stage as travellers look for unique experiences over preplanned, packaged itineraries. That is what your hotel will need to create for your customers.Whether it is a person travelling for business, or a young couple looking for a perfect weekend getaway, the goal is to create memorable experiences. Read more about how APAC millennials are transforming global trends here.

5. Automation is going to be the next big thing
For efficient marketing, automation is the key. It is going to be vital for boutique properties to make sure their CRM is set to respond to different actions the customer may take on the website. Make the check-in and check-out process easier by building apps or sending an email that lets them do it from their phones. Another area where your property can stay ahead of the curve is by automating the internal sales process. When someone submits a contact form for enquiry, make sure it triggers an email to one of the salesperson who can deliver more context and personalization to the booking process as the guests finalize their choice of stay.

Any other trends you have in mind? Let us know.

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Hoteliers always keep exploring ways to give their business a boost and increase occupancy rates. However the industry is highly competitive and they often keep facing the heat from other segments like alternative accommodation. The challenge is even bigger for individual hotel properties which are in the same game without the kind of resources that hotel chains have. We look at how these individual hotels can leverage technology and digital to stay competitive against the chains.

1- Open up channels

Just having a phone number and email ID won’t cut it anymore. Weigh down all the options you can offer your customer to reach you and start with the best ones. Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger could be a good start point. People who are on the move might not prefer picking up the phone and making a call to place a request and will prefer chat as a medium in many cases.

2- Build a character

While it is true for almost anyone on social media platforms, it is easier for relatively smaller independent hotels to implement. They have got more freedom on how they present themselves offline as well as online as compared to the hotel chains which have to stay in sync with the brand character. Pick the key traits and start highlighting them on social media one at a time.

3- Invite reviews

Even after an excellent stay, most of the guests won’t go to review platforms like TripAdvisor to give you a positive review. Review platforms are your friends as an increased ranking there will significantly affect the number of incoming guests. You can explore different ways to remind your guests to review you on Trip Advisor. A QR Code to the listing page on the bill or a thank you text after the stay with the link could be good for start but it would pay to be more creative with how you ask for reviews.

4- Channelize the negatives

Some guests are more demanding than the others and might not be very happy with the experience. Sometimes guests are unhappy due to incorrect expectations. Whatever be the case, keep all your communication channels open for your guests and encourage them to share any problems they face immediately. This would allow you to avoid a potentially negative review and even turn it into a positive one. There are some tools that allow hotels to invite feedback through the Wi-Fi landing page however we are not certain about the effectiveness of such tools.

5- Tech up

Personalisation goes a long way in enriching the customer experience and while most good hotels ensure that for their frequent guests, IoT technologies can also aid in the process by providing more actionable data. Hotels can explore the option of keyless entry and mobile check-ins. This would not only boost the customer experience but also attract new tech savvy guests to the property. While the investment would be high, implementation would be easier and quicker than across hotel chains.

6- Make friends

Explore potential partnerships to expand the offerings beyond just accommodation. For instance, you can associate with some quality activity providers in the region and offer them as a part of stay packages at your property. You can also leverage each other’s marketing channels to reach different audience at times. This way, you will be able to reach new customers while being able to offer more than just hotel rooms to your guests.

How else do you think individual properties can compete with hotel chains? Do share with us.

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Whoever said anything about backpacking and sleeping in hostels as a dingy phenomenon was mistaken by the power of technology the millennials are equipped with these days. The days of yonder where living in hostels was an essential back breaking experience are in the past. The hostels are now called “poshtels”. The team at PoshPacker ensure that the hostel experience is posher and have a zing to it.

PoshPacker brings the style and affordability to your doorstep. Travellers can find a selection of places to stay such as tree houses, boat hotels, poshtels, cave hotels, chic bed and breakfasts, and other stylish hospitality properties in over 460 cities and 60 countries. Travellers can also filter our PoshPacker options through our “vibes” such as modern, minimal, historic, and LGBT among others.

PoshPacker was founded by Tania Cruz and Anna Kojzar as a consequence of pent up frustration while looking for budget places to stay as they were travelling. They rendezvoused over a trip in Barcelona, 2010 and took a few trips together, and when searching for places to stay they found themselves frustrated having to spend so many hours to find the best budget options online. It was always a hit or miss. They thought that with today’s technology, travellers should be able to easily find the best budget places to stay all around the world.

The project came to life in 2012 with a WordPress site prototype going live. They got their first seed funding in 2013 by an angel investor in Virginia. Booking.com partnered with them post their funding for backend reservations.They currently have over 40,000 hits and 7,000 unique visitors to our site. They have over 550 nights booked where each user spends on average $70 per night and earn on average a total of 5-8% per reservation.

Most of the users come from USA, Canada, Australia, and some from Europe and Asia aged 18-24 who have affordability on their mind and comfort in their heart. They travel mostly for pleasure or bleisure( business+ leisure). The USP of PoshPacker is that they offer affordable stays at creatively themed places. The millennials want more than a just accommodative experience. They are breaking barriers, appreciate the cool factor and uniqueness an accommodation has to offer. Even the big brands are stepping in and creating properties for this generation like Aloft by Starwood, Moxy by Marriott.

They are still coming up with a cool app to serve the customer database better throughout the entire experience. The expansion plan is ever changing and they foresee to start offering properties in Cuba soon. They are currently on a prowl for travel blogger and Instagram influencer network. To know more about them, visit their website.

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As travellers turn tech savvy and become increasingly dependent on mobile, hotels are embracing mobile and building features around it. Apart from improving the mobile booking experience, luxury hotels like Marriott allow guests to place service requests or schedule pickup using the mobile app. Starwood has introduced keyless entry using smartphones so that guests can go straight to their room and unlock using their mobile. Hilton is also working on something similar. ITC is working on a mobile app to add features like mobile check-in and mobile service request.

While the hotel industry’s giants are trying to build around the needs of a modern connected travellers, boutique hotels often find it hard to adapt to the change. Having keyless entry or a good mobile app has got heavy costs associated with it that are hard to justify against the potential ROI for such hotels. RoomKey, (not to be confused with hotel search engine by the same name) enters the picture with a tangible solution. It offers services like mobile check-in and keyless entry for partner hotels, allowing them to offer the same features as the major brands.

The RoomKey app allows users to book with their partner hotels and also use the in app chat feature to talk to a hotel representative. Guests can book on mobile, select their room, do advance check-in, bypass the front desk and head straight to the room which they can unlock using their phone. They can also check out and receive the invoice for stay on mobile. At this point the app is available for iOS only and an Android version is in the pipeline. RoomKey charges hotels $800 / month for the features with an additional cost per room if the hotel wants to install RoomKey’s Bluetooth lock hardware.

RoomKey Technologies recently announced a $1M seed round from 500 Startups and others.

Talking about this recent funding, Vikas Bhakta, Co-founder & CEO of RoomKey Technologies, Inc., said, “We are grateful to announce this funding, which will allow us to provide RoomKey to hundreds of hotels in our pipeline, starting with hotel partners in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, millennial and mobile travelers prefer hotels that offer premier digital services, including mobile apps. However, most hotels lack the resources or internal IT expertise to build their own mobile solutions. RoomKey provides hotels with a complete mobile app solution to attract tech-savvy travelers, without the burden of developing and maintaining their own individual app.”

Startups like RoomKey help the industry by catalysing the adoption of technology. A large number of hotels which might not have even considered keyless entry or mobile check-in will get the push with RoomKey. Do you think we will see these hotel technologies trickle down from luxury hotels in India anytime soon?

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