As a luxury hotelier, your ultimate goal is getting your target guests to book your hotel. It is possible to spend a considerable budget on ranking higher in Google results and driving traffic to your website without always achieving conversions. To help you improve direct bookings and return on investment, your special offers should be as persuasive as possible.
You need effective and well thought out propositions which are fresh and new, and personalised to your guests.
Consider combining special rates with added extras such as a pampering experience, champagne breakfast, a personal shopper or chauffeur services to deliver offers and packages with a touch of luxury.
Alternatively, compete with the OTAs and offer 'room only' and 'advanced purchase' packages. We have seen hotels' conversion increase greatly with these types of simple offers. It's a win- win!
Why should you make the effort?
- Special offers give you a chance to push specific dates with packages when you need to fill the hotel at certain times of the year such as shoulder seasons and midweek.
- It’s easy to do online using a variety of platforms. Your website with promotional panels, popups, special offers pages, special landing pages, blogs, social media and email marketing campaigns.
- Special offers can generate over 50% of your overall online revenue and can be promoted very easily from your website. For example, one five-star London hotel which wanted to be associated with London Fashion Week, created a package followed by a content specific landing page and a blog post. They cross linked these pages and shared them widely on social media. There was an increase in bookings, and organic positions improved from the 4th page to the 1st page on Google in only a few days.
How can you improve your special offers?
- Be bold and quirky. Use an eye-catching title and relevant imagery to tell your story and give your luxury guests an unbeatable package.
- If your guests are not looking for money-saving packages, you can attract their attention with value-added amenities. Embody your prestige offering with luxury goods and services.
- The effectiveness of offers is enhanced when they coincide with significant dates and holidays or with events in your location.
- Add the frills! Aim to create long-lasting memories for your guests with extraordinary experiences.
- Use enticing headlines to attract people to read more or check availability. Avoid terms like 2BB1D as people may not understand these terms.
- Use prominent call-to-action buttons. The user needs to know where to click to book the package.
- Always add price points that are accurate. Don't mislead your user.
- Your website homepage is the most valuable page of your website so always make sure you have a special offer presented above the fold on your home page, with price points and clear call-to-actions.
- Measure offer performance and present your best performing special offers first on the page
- If you have a lot of facilities in your hotel, from spa to golf to dining options, you can try presenting your offers in the form of groups. It does add an extra click to the journey, but you are targeting the consumer with their specific interests.
You have a great special offer. What do you do now?
- Target guests with seasonal and relevant offers which resonate with their profile and interests. Facebook and email marketing are great mediums for targeting very specific audiences and interests at key times of the year.
- Consider adding price points to any social media posts or email marketing campaigns that you create. Price points are eye-catching and can encourage that click through to the website, especially if it's very competitive. Promote your special offers and price points with paid advertising, specially using the site links in Google Ad words or Bing.
- Match the image on your special offer to wherever else you promote it. It will signal to the user that they have clicked through to the right page when they interact with your ad, email campaign or social media post.
- Create content specific landing pages for your offers and make sure browsers land on these pages when they click on the offer. This will improve conversions and is great for crosslinking with other content, social links and shares.
Why not try implementing a content calendar that includes seasonal special offers? Read how to create a content calendar in five steps.