Nicolas Audiffren

5 ways to increase hotel revenues

Posted on 15 February 202321 February 2023 by Nicolas Audiffren

Apply a revenue management strategy

What is a revenue management?

The best way to define revenue management in the hotel industry is as follows: sell the right room, to the right customer, at the right price, at the right time, through the right distribution channel and with the best quality/price ratio.

This sentence summarizes the dynamic and the different data that the Revenue manager needs to anticipate demand and other customer behaviors. This data will allow him to take decisions regarding pricing and will help maximize revenue. The concept of revenue management was originally used in the airline industry, but it is a concept that can be use in any industry, especially when there is only one product to sell, or a limited quantity of that product, at a given time or when customers are willing to not paying the same price for the same product.

Before implementing a revenue management strategy, it is important to have the capacity to anticipate demand and habits. This could be for example, historical data of the property but also external data such as the weather or an event.

Analyze your key data and understand trends

First of all, data analysis is essential in a revenue management strategy. It starts with selecting the right data to consider. To do so, a resort will certainly have to take weather data into consideration in its revenue management strategy. On the other hand, this data is not essential for a hotel that organizes conventions.

In addition, market trends are not negligible. A popular year for tourism in your area will not have the same impact on your strategy in comparison with a year where there were fewer customers.
For example, a trend related to eco-friendly tourism will have an impact on your target if your property is not prepared to implement sustainable actions in its daily operations. The target clientele of this trend should not be targeted, so you will need to obtain other data on the clientele of this trend.

A good understanding of these trends is just as important as the analysis of the data, since a misinterpretation of the data or of a trend will have a significant impact on your strategy, and more importantly on its final result.

Modify rates: test and learn (looking for the sweet spot)

The revenue management strategy inevitably involves frequent and rapid changes of your rates. Some actions will sometimes be ineffective because even if the data is compiled, the interpretation of this data can sometimes lead to different conclusions and therefore different decisions. The more you analyze data, the more you will be able to automate and reduce errors. Therefore, the amplitude of price changes should be minimal in order to reduce your risks and the more your rules work, the greater the amplitude between your prices can be.

Stimulate your demand: marketing actions

Hoteliers tend to let the customer come to them, one way or another, either via their website or via OTAs. However, it is possible to stimulate demand through marketing actions, especially to attract new customers or to retain existing ones.

To stimulate demand, several tools are available at varying costs and with varying effectiveness.

Here are some marketing actions that can be considered to stimulate demand:

Loyalty	New clients
Publications on social media Newsletters Mailings Satisfaction survey Loyalty program	Ads campaigns Social media campaigns Traditional media campaigns

Optimize your online distribution

What is an online distribution?

Online distribution consists of selling your rooms on an online reservation platform. Also called booking engine, this platform shows you in real time, the availability of your rooms and also your rates. OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) play an important role in online distribution as they will allow you to appear in the search results of a person wishing to rent an accommodation in a city or region and that person does not know you. The most popular OTAs are Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb.

Selling on these platforms is greatly simplified by the implementation of a channel manager. Its role is to update in real time your inventory and your rates on all the selected platforms.

Practice overbooking or upselling

What is overbooking or upselling

Overbooking is the practice of selling more rooms than the hotel has. This strategy also comes from the airline industry and is based on the simple observation that for a given quantity sold, there will be an average number of people who will not show up. This strategy is high risk as it can have very negative consequences on the supplier.

Upselling is the process of encouraging the consumer to add items to their initial purchase. In the hotel industry, this could mean encouraging the customer to choose a room superior to the one they have booked and for an additional amount.

Mastering the art of overbooking

Overbooking cannot be applied to all properties. You must either have different types of rooms in your property or at least an equivalent property close in order to be able to relocate a client who has made a reservation and shows up while the property is full. It is necessary to have a second plan in case of this situation and until the day is over because nothing indicates to the hotel that the overselling will be realized.

In other words, even if the hotelier has overbooked his rooms, the problem occurs when a guest wants to check in while the property is at full occupancy. His plan B will be to either offer him another room type in the same property or another room in another hotel.

Therefore, the overbooking strategy must be based on either an upsell upgrade strategy or based on actual no-show data. The hotelier needs to be able to estimate the amount of possible overbookings, the potential risk to overbook and all the options he has to be able to accommodate the customer in the event of an overbooking situation.

L’upselling

Upselling can occur throughout the customer’s journey with the hotel. For example, during booking and before confirming the type of room, the hotel can suggest a superior room for X amount of money. Some hoteliers can also suggest a few hours before arrival, a bidding system on the remaining superior rooms. The customer can bid an acceptable amount for the superior room. They can also be solicited for a multitude of items upon their arrival, during their stay and even at the end of their stay by offering an additional night for example.

Overbooking on room types

It is about selling more rooms than the number of rooms available for one type of room. The choice of the type is often made at the level of the standard room since it gives more possibilities to the hotelier to suggest an upgrade to a loyal customer or to concretize an upselling.
The main objective will be to sell more and to distribute the surplus in upselling or upgrading while having an occupancy rate and a revenue probably higher than if the hotelier had not proposed his standard room anymore.

Overbooking in your property

Overbooking in the property is more complex as it is based on the probability that someone who has booked will cancel at the last minute or not show up. This data is compiled by the PMS and needs to be analyzed to determine the right number of rooms to overbook without causing too much impact on the property’s operations and its reputation.
A customer who makes a reservation at your property does it for specific reasons, if you have to relocate him to another location, it might not suit him and will have consequences on your reputation.

Structure and improve your offers

What is an offer and a package in the hotel industry?

An offer is an advantage for the customer regarding a regular rate, under specific conditions and usually due to a lack of occupancy in the hotel.

These offers can be a discount in percentage or cash on the regular room rate, a discount on the length of stay, a discount depending on the time of payment, or even the addition of items to a reservation such as a bottle of wine or an upgrade…

On another hand, the package is a set of services in addition to the accommodation, which the property or third party can offer. These services are added under a special rate for one guest. This rate is more advantageous than if the client pays each item independently.

A clear and simple description for the client

Whether it is for offers or packages, the description of what it includes is essential for the client. Both for selling it successfully and also to avoid customer dissatisfaction.
The more restrictive your offers are, the more clearly you should describe it. An offer can be applied between 2 dates with exceptions but can also be purchased today for later. All combinations are possible but its simplicity of understanding will make it a success or not.

Ensure that the offers are in adequacy with your customers

Your clientele has specific characteristics, it can be local or international, of a particular generation, have a purchasing capacity that is not identical to your competitor’s clientele. To do so, when you suggest an offer to your clientele, several factors must be taken into consideration, such as the period. If you attract a couple without children, you can suggest offers outside of school vacations. You can also act during the booking, for example by proposing a discount for a future stay because you know that your customers are used to book their stay last minute.
You can also adjust your pricing on a frequent basis if you know that your customers are eager for discounts or even on additional services if you know that your customers are loyal to your services.

Master your KPIs

What is a KPI?

A KPI is an acronym that stands for Key Performance Indicator. It allows us to measure the efficiency of an action or an organization. It must be quantified and must be measured frequently in order to evaluate the impact of an action. The benefits are also called ROI (Return On Investment). Hotel management requires the measurement of several KPIs to estimate the actual and future revenues.

Hotel key performance indicators

The 8 key performance indicators of a hotelier are:

-The occupancy rate

– The ADR: Average Daily Rate

– The REVPAR: Revenue Per Available Room

– The REVPAC Revenue Per Available Customer

– The GOPPAR which is probably the most difficult indicator to obtain. It is your gross profit per room

– Customer acquisition cost, a metric that represents the cost invested for each “acquired” customer

– Le ROI (Return On Investment) is the analysis of the profitability of an investment. It is the percentage of income you get from your initial investment.

– The hotel retention rate is defined as the proportion of customers who remain loyal from one period to the next period.

Learn more about the occupancy rate

Although your hotel PMS is an indispensable ally for gathering information and calculating the data, it is good to know how to do it in order to link the results to possible actions and to be able to properly analyze the situation.

Your hotel’s occupancy rate is the percentage of occupied rooms compared to the total number of rooms in your property. So if your hotel has 100 rooms and 65 of them are occupied, your occupancy rate is 65%. This data is relevant because it allows you to analyze the situation of your hotel in real time and to see which elements encourage customers to book with you at each time of the year.

This concept can also be used at the organizational level. It can provide you with forecasting data for different departments. When you reach a high occupancy rate, it is important that each department responds properly to customers. The occupancy rate greatly influences your human resources needs. It is therefore important to have a yearly overview of your occupancy rate to ensure that in times of high occupancy, each department has a sufficient number of employees to provide proper service.

Knowing how to calculate your occupancy rate will give you a way to analyze your hotel’s profitability. Your occupancy rate can vary depending on certain factors such as the selling price of your rooms. For example, if your prices are low, you may have a very high occupancy rate but it may not be profitable. In other circumstances, analyzing the occupancy alone may not be relevant as a performance indicator. If you have a very high occupancy rate, you will probably have to add more employees especially for housekeeping and it will inevitably impact your profitability.

Learn more about REVPAR and REVPAC

The REVPAC (Revenue Per Available Customer) metric represents the revenue per customer staying at your hotel. REVPAC is calculated by taking the total amount of revenue generated by all your customers and dividing it by the number of customers staying with you. With this, you will get the average revenue generated by each guest staying at your property, which allows you to make forecasts based on the occupancy of your hotel and the time of year.

The REVPAC is often an element that can be improved easily since it acts on an “in house” customer. Some actions can allow you to generate additional revenue. Why not offer them a room upsell at their arrival and for a small additional fee? Offering this superior room will have positive effects on them. First, your guest will be satisfied because he will feel that he got a good deal. Secondly, the standard room will be available for a customer who wants to book at a lower price.

Improving the REVPAC is a team goal that can be taken into consideration by all departments of your hotel. As for example, the possibility of delivering a bottle of wine to the room (crossell) or the activities to enjoy experiences offered at your property. The front desk has a very important role as it will be the one to suggest your offer to the guests and certain elements such as an early check-in or a late check-out.

When you fail to improve your REVPAC, keep in mind that there are many things you can improve and sometimes it’s as simple as refreshing your employees’ memories of the many sales opportunities your hotel offers.

The REVPAR is the revenue per available room. This means that a particular room can be rented during the observed period. This metric is calculated by multiplying the ADR by the occupancy rate. It is used to determine the average price for available rooms.

As an example, you rented your rooms at an average rate of $100 during one month and your monthly occupancy rate was at 75%, then your revenue per available room is $75. With this analysis, you could adjust your prices and lower your rates to $75 in order to achieve your full occupancy. On the other hand, if you realize that you did not reach your breakeven point during the month, the solution will not necessarily be to lower your rates but rather to check which department was not profitable. If it was your housekeeping that did not reduce its expenses despite a 75% occupancy rate, your lack of profitability may be coming from there.

All about the GOPPAR

This metric shows you the performance of your hotel’s departments. It takes into account the profits of your entire hotel including food and beverage sales. This amount is then divided by the number of rooms to give you your GOPPAR. It gives you a clear picture of the average profit you make when you rent a room. So the closer your GOPPAR is to your average ADR, the less your other departments will perform.

The GOPPAR is an indicator of profits. It is based on the revenues minus the expenses that were used to achieve that revenues. However, its result does not indicate where the performances are good or bad. It is only an overall daily indicator.

Why is a PMS often underutilized?

Posted on 5 August 202212 August 2022 by Nicolas Audiffren

Here are some tips to maximize the potential of your Property Management Software.

Complete your training with your supplier

A Property Management Software is a software that includes multiple functionalities and opportunities, whether it be for day-to-day operations with check-ins and check-outs or for management purposes using forecasting reports and performance analyses.
In order to get to know your software in depth and to make the best use of it, you should contact your supplier regularly. You can perfect your knowledge via training, in order to make better use of your PMS, be more efficient and improve you hotel’s profitability.

The hotel industry has a high staff turnover, so it is important to offer your staff training for them to acquire knowledge about the Property Management Software and learn about best practices. Usually, all the information about the hotel and the Property Management Software is lost whenever the person in charge of it leaves. It is therefore important to keep your management team and the people who use the Property Management Software up to date.

Watch for performance indicators

Your Property Management Software is a key source of information that will allow you to better understand, anticipate and prepare your operations. It includes indicators which can highlight opportunities which you could have missed or shortfalls which you should investigate in order to improve your profitability.

The indicators available in your Property Management Software are plentiful and easily accessible at all times. The key indicators for a hotel are: occupancy rate, ADR, REVPAR, REVPAC, GOPPAR, customer acquisition cost, ROI and retention rate. Among these 8 key performance indicators for hotel managers, some are often under-exploited, such as ADR, REVPAR and REVPAC.

Each of these indicators can give you additional information on your hotel’s performance. The ADR, which you can compare across years, will allow you to fine-tune your pricing strategy.

The REVPAR will help you too improve the additional revenue you can generate from a room.

The REVPAC allows you to analyze the revenue generated by each customer and therefore to act on the sale of additional products on top of the room for each customer.

Use the data

The Property Management Software collects all your hotel’s and customers’ data. Customer data includes but is not limited to: type of customer, country of origin and reason for their stay. All this information is continuously collected.

Therefore, you can consult and use this data for marketing purposes. By comparing several indicators and their relevant customer data, you could for example realize that customers from a certain country generate a higher REVPAR or REVPAC. In this case, it would be relevant to adapt your offers geographically to target this clientele.

This data is important for your pricing and advertising strategies. It should influence your operations in order to adjust your offer to the demand of targeted clienteles.

Don’t let day-to-day operations take over

A Property Management Software is often underutilized because of hotel staff getting caught up in day-to-day operations and lacking the time to focus on the software’s potential. As a result, the implementation of new connectivity and time-saving modules is often delayed or overlooked. The lack of time to implement these additional tools means that the hotel is not benefitting from the software’s full potential. When the off-season comes, other tasks can overwhelm for the remaining staff and the optimization of the Property Management Software is again postponed.

The Property Management Software is a complete software that allows you to manage all of you hotel’s departments. Knowing your Property Management Software perfectly is almost impossible, but it is important to regularly updated your knowledge in order to fully exploit its potential. This will in turn help you to simplify operations and of course to improve your hotel’s profitability.

How to increase your hotel’s direct bookings

Posted on 17 June 202230 June 2022 by Nicolas Audiffren

Optimize your website

First, start by optimizing your website.

Your website being the online storefront of your hotel, it must be appealing to attract potential customers and make them want to stay with you.

By taking care of the visuals, the room descriptions and the information about your packages and promotions, you optimize your SEO and while being more likely to appear in the top results of search engines such as Google. You should also make sure that navigating your website is easy and intuitive and most importantly can be done quickly if you want to convert visitors into potential customers.

Moreover, it could be helpful to install a live or automated chatbot on your website in order for visitors with questions to be able to get immediate answers.

Choose an efficient booking engine

Integrating a booking engine on your website will allow your customers to book directly, without having to call or send an email. This is a way to shorten the booking process while giving you an additional chance to convert your visitors into customers.

Therefore, your booking engine should be secure and accessible on all mobile devices. Make sure to showcase your brand image with your logo and your colors, to choose high quality pictures and to take care of your offers’ descriptions so that they are visible, readable and easily understandable.

Invest in remarketing

Your website’s visitors often start making a reservation via your booking engine but do not validate it due to either a suboptimal navigation, incomplete/unclear information or unattractive/uncompetitive prices.

With remarketing, you can target these unconverted visitors by sending them promotional newsletters if they have registered their email address or by setting up remarketing campaigns via your social media.

Watch your online reputation

Your hotel’s online reputation is a key factor in your potential customers’ final decision. Online reviews, ratings and comments about your hotel can indeed positively or negatively influence their choice. You may want to highlight positive customer testimonials on your website and social media to let potential clients know more about your previous customers’ experience. This is turn will encourage them to book in your hotel while consolidating your online reputation.

Increasing direct bookings is paramount to ensure your hotel’s profitability. There are several ways to increase your hotel’s online bookings, including optimizing your website and choosing an efficient booking engine. Investing in remarketing actions and taking care of your online reputation will also encourage customers to stay with you.

Why customer reviews matter

Posted on 4 May 20225 May 2022 by Nicolas Audiffren

Why should you have customer reviews?

A customer review represents a positive or negative testimony. In general, a review summarizes how the customer viewed their stay, by giving their opinion on the check-in process, the services offered and their room.

Customer reviews are important as they are read by many potential guests. They allow customers to gather information, reassure them about potential questions and convince them of their hotel choice. All of this influences their final decision. In fact, 80% of travelers use the Internet to gather information on brands and hotels and 70% of them consult customer reviews to make a decision. This is therefore an excellent way to reinforce your credibility and boost your sales as potential customers will be more likely to book their stay at your hotel.

Customer reviews can also help you to better understand your clientele and their interests. You can analyse how the experience you offer is viewed by your customers, and use this analysis to improve your services, helping you build loyalty. By making sure to respond to each review and thanking your guests, you enhance your relationship with them and show them that their opinion is taken into consideration.
In addition, customer reviews increase your online visibility and your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This in turn increases your likelihood of appearing in the first pages of a search engine, giving you the opportunity to boost your online reservations.

How to collect customer reviews?

There are several ways to collect customer reviews. You can program a post-stay automatic email in your Property Management System to thank your customers for staying with you and ask them to share their experience on Google My Business or TripAdvisor. You can also send a personalized message to customers who have positively responded to your satisfaction survey, asking them to leave a review on your customer review website of choice. To thank your customer for leaving a review, you can offer them compensation such as a discount on their next stay, loyalty points or invitations to special events as ambassadors of your brand.

You can also organize a contest on social media to encourage them to write a customer review and possibly win a stay at your hotel.

How to handle negative reviews?

Negative customer reviews have always been present on various online review platforms. In fact, travellers are more likely to write reviews to complain than to share their satisfaction, so do not panic!

Dealing with negative customer reviews is not an easy task, so you should take the time to read the review and understand it. Once that is done, take a step back and think of a courteous, professional and empathetic response. You do not need to go into detail, just show that you and your team listen to your customers and that you are open to making improvements where they have to be made.

You should also do your own research on the author of a negative review. Indeed, more often than not, some malicious and ill-intentioned people will write negative reviews when they have not even stayed with you. Are they a real client? When did they stay with you? Are there any specific notes related to their reservation? Did they answer your customer satisfaction survey?

Customer reviews should not be underestimated or neglected, as they have a strong influence on your potential customers’ final decision. They can either increase or decrease the interest and trust they have for your hotel and even improve or tarnish your online reputation.Nevertheless, customer reviews allow you to get feedback on your customers’ experience and therefore to get suggestions and ideas that will help you improve your services to convince your potential customers, build customer loyalty and distinguish yourself from your competitors.

Marketing to build customer loyalty in the hotel industry

Posted on 1 March 20227 March 2022 by Nicolas Audiffren

Before the stay

Before your guest’s stay, it is important to initiate communication, especially with the help of booking confirmation emails and personalized stay reminders sent by your hotel management software. These emails will add value to your hotel due to their content and your guests will see it as an effort on your end to make their stay a success.

Regarding these emails, personalization is key if you want to attract the attention and curiosity of your customers. For example, you can promote your various offers and services, including activities, spa packages and restaurants. Increasingly, properties are communicating with their customers by text. To do so, you can take this as an opportunity to ask them if they require assistance to organize their stay while showing them that you are available if needed.

During the stay

Your customers’ arrival is a key point of contact that should not be neglected. Indeed, your customers’ first impression is crucial as it directly influences their overall satisfaction.

A kiosk becomes essential if you want to offer a modern and personalized welcome to your guests. You can speed up their check-in and avoid queues that are harmful to their satisfaction. You can also have a concierge at their disposal to give them information regarding what they can do during their stay and to better advise them. For guests who are used to staying with you, you can offer them a special welcome, such as an upgrade or personalized welcome gifts in their room, which they will greatly appreciate.

Throughout their stay, it is essential to make your customers feel special and pay attention to them. They must feel listened to, taken into consideration and made to feel at home. Do not hesitate to communicate with them by email or text to make sure they do not miss anything and that their stay goes well.

After the stay

Once your guests have left your hotel, customer loyalty can continue to be built. It is highly recommended to send them a thank you email to thank them for their trust and to learn more about their stay through a customer satisfaction survey. This is important because it will help you know if your customers are satisfied or not, what they liked and disliked and what could be improved.

Overall, this satisfaction survey will help you improve the guest experience you offer. You can also encourage your customers to leave online reviews on your social media platforms or on the most popular platforms such as Google, Booking.com, Expedia. Your goal should be to turn your guests into true ambassadors of your hotel. If they are satisfied with their experience and loyal to your hotel, they will not hesitate to refer you to their friends and family. Do not underestimate the power of word of mouth, especially digital word of mouth!

Also, email marketing is a great way to communicate if you want to stay in touch with your guests. By sending personalized and targeted newsletters, not only do you showcase your offers and services at a lower cost, but you also ensure your customers keep you in mind.

Finally, it is important to be active on social media to build your community while running campaigns to increase the visibility of your offers and services in order to increase your bookings.

Offering an outstanding experience to your guests is an essential factor to build loyalty. Indeed, it’s proven that a guest is more likely to pay more for a better experience. Marketing plays an important and useful role since it promotes customer loyalty by creating a lasting and trusting relationship with your guests. In addition to retaining your guests, you also increase your income and your notoriety in the long term.

5 sustainable practices to stand out in the hotel industry

Posted on 14 January 202217 January 2022 by Nicolas Audiffren

Eliminate the use of plastic

There are many sustainable practices to implement in a hotel, but eliminating single-use plastic remains one of the most important ones. An eco-friendly hotel should no longer offer single-use plastic bags and plastic water bottles. They can offer several alternatives to their guests such as recyclable paper bags and have water fountains at their disposal.

Minimize resource consumption

Sustainable tourism also means minimizing the consumption and the waste of food, water and energy resources.

Regarding the reduction of food waste, it is preferable to first measure the food waste of your hotel before reviewing the management of your inventory and your deliveries. If you notice stock accumulation, it is possible to recycle food, transform products and even redistribute and donate food to associations. Do you not know what to do with your food waste? Some products can be used to produce your own natural compost. Depending on the season, you can also grow fresh organic vegetables and herbs and use them to invent and/or add to your signature dishes with your own vegetable garden.

In the hotel industry, water consumption is considerable. On average, a guest consumes close to 300 liters of water a night, so you should first check that there are no water leaks in your hotel. Moreover, you should raise your guests’ awareness on conscious water usage. For example, you can leave informative posters in their rooms highlighting the amount of water needed to fill a bath versus the amount of water needed for a 10-minute shower. Moreover, you can inform them of the amount of water needed to wash linens such as sheets and towels.

Electricity consumption should also be closely monitored, and there are several alternatives available to you if you wish to reduce your electricity consumption. Using low energy light bulbs, having the lights automatically turn off when the client leaves a room or lowering the heating automatically according to the temperature of the room could be solutions to consider.

Prioritize digital over paper

Equipping yourself with an excellent PMS cloud will allow you to stop printing your reservation list or your room report. Moreover, your hotel management software automatically sends confirmation and reminder emails, so take advantage of this to encourage your customers not to print their reservation documents and to prefer online check-in or check-out at the kiosks. In addition to doing a good deed for the environment, you save time and increase your daily performance!

Promote local and ethical purchasing

Promoting local businesses and farmers in your region will allow you to distinguish yourself with your clientele who are foodies and enjoy cultural discoveries. Using and purchasing local products in an ethical manner also means preferring short-distance purchasing and seasonal products which often translates to better quality.

Equipping yourself to promote sustainable tourism

In addition to all the eco-friendly practices mentioned above, you should equip your hotel in a way to promote sustainable tourism as much as possible. Have you ever thought of installing solar panels on your hotel’s roof to use your own renewable energy? Do you use low energy and connected lights? Do you offer products such as shampoos and soaps in dispensers rather than individual single-use containers? Do you prefer the use of biodegradable and non-polluting household products? All these sustainable practices could help you stand out from the crowd.

Nowadays, travelers are increasingly more sensitive to the eco-friendly and sustainable aspect of a hotel. By definition, an eco-friendly hotel is a hotel that does everything in their power to minimize their environmental impact by transforming its services. This sustainable approach trivially begins with raising the staff and clients’ awareness.

Many hotels are undertaking sustainable practices to reduce their ecological footprint combining conviviality and new technologies. By doing so, they are also reducing their spending. Thus, in addition to being environmentally friendly, you will make a good impression on your clientele and stand out from your competitors!

Anticipating the recovery of the hospitality industry using marketing emails

Posted on 28 May 202129 August 2022 by Nicolas Audiffren

Why use newsletters as method of communication?

Emails are undoubtedly the simplest and least expensive marketing strategy and method of communication. Indeed, newsletters sent via email are an easy way to reach a large audience while having the possibility to target a specific reader profile.

If these people are on the mailing lists, it is because they have interacted with the brand. This may be either during their stay at the property or when they visited the website and signed up for the newsletter. Thus, customer lists are an effective way to distribute information, news and marketing messages to past customers who may potentially book a future stay. In most cases, the cost of distributing this newsletter is very low. Indeed, platforms usually charge by the number of people you wish to send it to or by the size of the database. Compared to any other marketing methods, a newsletter remains very affordable for any property owner, especially since the cost is related to the size of the clientele and therefore to the financial capacity of the company.

When to use newsletters?

Newsletters can be used for many different reasons: whether it’s to announce a new package, a last minute promotion or a property’s new feature. In fact, any occasion is an opportunity to communicate to the audience about the brand. The importance lies in the email marketing strategy but also in the frequency with which the audience receives information from the hotel in which they have an interest. Indeed, a punctual action will not have all the positive effects that can be obtained from prolonged campaigns. It is the rigor and the frequency of these actions that will ensure that the hotel manager benefits from their investment in this method of communication.

Who to send newsletters to?

Defining your target audience is crucial when sending newsletters. Indeed, as soon as the target audience is well defined, the marketing actions will be significantly more effective. For example, if the property owner wants to promote a family relaxation package, it is obviously not relevant to promote it to their business clientele. Guests will be more inclined to read and act on information if they feel concerned and interested by the information highlighted in the newsletter. Therefore, the frequency of sending does not matter if the message conveyed in the newsletter is of interest to the audience.

The hotel owner who has a customer list has a lot of information about his guests, such as the date of stay in addition to the season, the type of package bought, the way of booking (by phone or online), the number of nights and the type of stay (business or leisure). All of these information are essentials for efficient communication as each element will allow the hotel manager to undertake specific actions. For example, it is not relevant to put an online booking button in a newsletter intended for customers who prefer to book by phone. It would be wiser to invite them to contact the hotel by adding the front desk’s phone number.

Newsletters are an excellent way to build customer loyalty. Indeed those on the mailing list know the property that is sending them information because they have already stayed there or have voluntarily subscribed to it. Therefore, the goal is to remain active with this clientele so that they renew their experience within the property and avoid being tempted by the competitors’ offers.

The storytelling concept in the hospitality industry

Posted on 14 May 20214 August 2021 by Nicolas Audiffren

What is storytelling?

By definition, storytelling is a marketing strategy designed to engage your clients through communications based on the telling of an authentic and realistic story. Moreover, storytelling communications allows you to attract attention, seduce and convince through emotion.

Rather than solely using advertising arguments, many properties use storytelling to tell a story and even their own story. Some of them do not hesitate to tell the stories of their own customers by highlighting theirs memories of their stay at the hotel. Like many other marketing strategies, storytelling can be promoted through creating videos, using your social networks and even via the “About” page of your website.

The importance of storytelling in the hospitality industry

As a result of the growing thirst for new experiences and discoveries, travelers are more interested in the story of your hotel and the way you tell it. Therefore, using storytelling to convince your future customers using emotions can only be beneficial for your hotel since the emphasis on the human dimension allows you to create a much stronger connection between travelers and your hotel. Moreover, they will be more enthusiastic about visiting your hotel and meeting your team.

Narrative communication is also a great way to show your authenticity to your customers. Beyond the transactional relationship, this marketing technique allows you to build a long-lasting relationship with your customers and to establish loyalty.

How to use the storytelling concept to promote my property ?

First, think about the content you want to put forward, including the relevant and interesting elements of your story. It is important not to invent or make your own a story which is not yours. You want to remain as transparent as possible. In addition, there are several key elements to successful storytelling, such as incorporating emotions, being personal and engaging, and keeping the story short enough to keep your clients’ attention and interest throughout. The goal is not to tell a perfect story but a real one. While your customers will appreciate knowing more about your greatest successes, they will also be interested in your most difficult moments and how you overcame them. Also, don’t forget to pick a narrative which is adequate for your customers so that they can identify with your storytelling.

In conclusion, you can use a few tricks to perfect your storytelling, such as a timeline to facilitate reading and help your audience see the evolution of your activities. A video can also be adequate, as a picture is worth a thousand words. Moreover, you can interact with your subscribers by adding a question at the end of a storytelling publication. For example, you could ask them to talk about their experience at your hotel and then share their answers.

Don’t wait any longer to express your creativity and be a source of real, touching and inspiring stories for your community!

3 best SEO practices to increase your property’s visibility

Posted on 14 January 202129 August 2022 by Nicolas Audiffren

Moreover, keep in mind that your website’s position takes into consideration several criterias, defined by the algorithm and filters of the search engine. It also varies depending on the context and the nature of the search. For example, search engines will rate the accessibility of your site, if your website’s map is simple and clear and if the navigation is fast and logical. Furthermore, it will take into consideration the relevance of the information by measuring the user’s experience, especially if your website’s pages provide answers to searches made by Internet users. Finally, the loading speed of your website’s pages and its responsiveness are two elements to consider to improve your user experience.

Optimize your website

The first good SEO practice is to optimize your property’s website in order to make it more responsive. In other words, its design must support different mobile devices such as computers, phones and tablets, whether it’s an Apple or Android, as well as different web browsers. Being web responsive means ensuring that texts and images resize and adapt to the device used and that call to actions buttons are easily clickable. Thus, the more responsive your website is, the more it will facilitate the booking experience for travelers and will encourage them to finalize their online reservation.

Moreover, make sure your website pages load quickly to avoid Internet users leaving your website and that your bounce rate becomes too high. Bounce rate is an important marketing metric to analyze as it represents the percentage of visitors who arrive on your website and immediately leave it, without visiting another page. On average, the bounce rate is about 50%, but it depends on the analyzed sector.

We also advise you to keep URLs and HTML elements short and straight to the point to increase your website traffic. Thus, be sure to give a descriptive name to images and a description similar to the text alternative. In addition, keep in mind that updating titles, descriptions and meta descriptions of your pages, while integrating keywords, will increase the click rate of your results on Google and improve your SEO. These are elements that Googlebots read first and it helps them to better understand your website’s content.

It would be relevant to add internal links that would redirect visitors to other pages as well as external links that would take them to other websites. This will help increase your presence on search engines. Therefore, make sure not to redirect users to a 404 error page or to broken links as it could impact your user experience, cause you to lose potential bookings and affect your ranking on various search engines.

Improve your content

To improve your SEO and increase your visibility on search engines, you must offer attractive and unique content that meets Internet users’ expectations. Your content should be kept simple, clear and understandable if you want to catch the attention of visitors and keep them on your website as long as possible. For example, you can use good quality photos and videos that might answer travelers’ expectations. You can also write relevant and informative blog posts about what’s new at your hotel, current hospitality trends, travel tips and events related to your property. You can even write about your industry and your geographic area. Furthermore, it could be beneficial to optimize your content but remember that over-optimization can be penalized by Google.

Thus, it’s inevitable to focus on keywords. Try to put yourself in your potential customers’ shoes who search on Google. Target keywords or sentences associated and produce content related to those keywords. Moreover, take into account the search volume of your geographic area. This could help you know how many times a sentence is searched per month.

Using social media to share your website or blog’s content and promote your customer reviews will also be useful to improve your SEO. Google will evaluate your presence on these social platforms. Highlighting your customers’ opinions is an excellent way for you to gain Internet users’ trust, but also guarantee the quality of your services. Therefore, keep in mind that your average rating is not enough to appear at the top of organic results. You should also take into consideration several criteria such as the quantity of reviews, their publication date as well as the quality of your answers.

Use Google My Business

Having a Google My Business profile is essential if you want to increase your visibility on Google, boost your property’s SEO and work on your brand image. This is why it’s important to check the consistency of the information provided on Google My Business account. Make sure of the accuracy of your property’s name, its geographical location area, prices, contacts, the link to your website, services offered (free wifi, access for people with reduced mobility, vegetarian menu, valet service, pets friendly. ) make sure to include your property’s photos, which have to be classified by specific albums. Moreover, don’t forget to add your property’s description with the maximum number of relevant keywords in order to encourage potential customers to click on the call-to-action button “Visit the website”, “Call” or “Book now”. To increase your visibility, you can also create posts on Google My Business to inform travelers about various events, promotions, packages and activities related to your property and of course, respond to reviews left by customers whether they are positive or negative.

In conclusion, having a strong SEO or natural referencing strategy is beneficial for any property wishing to improve its visibility on search engines. Furthermore, having good SEO practices will also increase traffic to your website and will sometimes convert it into direct bookings.

Why does a housekeeping app represent an advantage for a property?

Posted on 1 December 20201 October 2021 by Nicolas Audiffren

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Improve communication between teams

Most importantly, the housekeeping application allows property’s departments to communicate with each other in a simple and efficient way, especially between the housekeeping and front desk team. By working with an application, it is possible to modify the status of the rooms, which allows the reception to see in real time which rooms are clean, dirty, being cleaned and ready for inspection.

Moreover, you will no longer need to use paper reports to assign different tasks and use walkie-talkies to communicate with your employees.

Increase housekeepers’ efficiency

Using a housekeeping app also simplifies the daily work of your housekeeping team. They will be able to see the status change of a room in real time and look at the notes mentioning guests’ special requests. Furthermore, the housekeeping manager will be able to organize and prioritize tasks more easily. Thus, your teams will be more organized and will gain considerable time.

Have an overview of tasks

Moreover, an app will help your teams visualize the rooms’ status quickly and the different tasks in progress. It will provide detailed information about each room, such as the number of occupants, the length of stay and the cleaning type required. In addition to having an overview of the tasks to accomplish, your housekeeping manager will be able to better manage rooms and distribute remaining tasks among the team.

To conclude, using a housekeeping mobile app is an undeniable advantage for your property as it will help your staff to be more efficient and productive in their daily tasks.