An exceptional sales strategy is crucial for hotels to drive demand, increase occupancy, and maximize revenues in an increasingly competitive market. While a stellar property and service provide the foundation, proactive sales and marketing initiatives make the difference in converting potential guests into booked stays and unwavering loyalty.
This guide outlines the most impactful hotel sales strategies for attracting bookings, elevating rates, opening new channels, and ultimately growing the bottom line.
What Are Top Hotel Sales Strategies To Up Your Business Game
Here are top hotel sales strategies to up your business game.
1. Optimize Digital Presence and eCommerce
With the majority of travel shopping occurring online, an intuitive, engaging digital presence is required to convert guests.
Website Optimization
Ensure the website showcases your unique value proposition, visualizes the guest experience, and simplifies booking. Highlight your differentiators like amenities, location, packages, and service that make guests want to book directly. Provide rich visuals bringing the experience to life.
SEO and Targeted Content
Publish locally-optimized content and blog articles focused on relevant travel topics to increase visibility and conversions. Update content focused on geographic and seasonal travel trends to drive visibility when potential guests are searching. Share local insider tips.
Online Reputation Management
Proactively generate positive reviews, quickly address feedback, and resolve issues transparently to manage sentiment. Train staff to gather guest email addresses during stays for surveying. Monitor review sites and immediately address negative feedback publicly.
Retargeting Campaigns
Remarket to past website visitors and shoppers across channels to keep your brand top of mind until they book. Craft specific retargeted promotions like returning user discounts or exclusive site-only flash sales based on their browsing behavior.
eCommerce Performance
Monitor web traffic, search rankings, online visibility, conversion rates, booking metrics, and other analytics to identify optimization opportunities. A/B test calls-to-action, offers, images, content, on-site promotions, and other elements to improve online conversions.
2. Strategically Promote on OTAs and Metasearch Sites
Although driving direct bookings has advantages, OTAs expand reach and establish rate parity.
Rate Parity
Enforce consistent rates across major OTAs as well as direct booking channels to protect brand integrity. Leverage rate shopping tools to track rates daily across OTAs and channels to maintain rate consistency. Identify violations.
Target Key Sites
Focus participation on reputable OTAs aligned to your target guest profiles like Booking.com, Expedia, etc. Analyze performance data to identify OTAs delivering the highest ROI. Redirect marketing budget toward top-converting partnerships.
Restrict Promotions
Limit discounted rates and lower-priced packages only to direct channels to avoid brand degradation on OTAs. Negotiate contracts with OTA partners to restrict promotional use to maintain rate integrity. Instead focus on value-added inclusion.
Review Commission Rates
Renegotiate OTA commission structures regularly based on volume and performance. Reduced fees improve margins. As business scales, contracts can be renegotiated to lower commission rates. Penalties and marketing support may be forfeited.
Monitor Attribution
Track revenue attributed to various channels to make informed marketing budget decisions and identify top-performing partnerships. Use tracking links, unique booking codes, landing pages, and other analytics to measure ROI across paid and organic channels.
4. Develop Partnerships and Local Ties
Strategic partnerships with local vendors, attractions, influencers cultivate new demand channels.
Local Packages
Offer discounted bundled packages with nearby attractions, restaurants, tours, transportation, and area hotels to promote experiential stays. Provide added value through exclusive discounts, perks, upgrades, and access not available to the general public booking independently.
Corporate and Group Accounts
Develop preferred relationships with local corporations, event planners, schools, tour operators, etc. to attract steady bookings. Become designated hotel for corporate travelers through negotiated group rates, personalized amenities, and executive privileges.
Promotions with Partners
Orchestrate joint campaigns with local partners to cross-promote brands and offers to each other's audience and channels. Cooperative marketing provides more budget to promote specialized packages and offers benefiting both partners and expanding reach.
Community Involvement
Support local events, charities, organizations, and causes to build community integration and organic exposure. Donate rooms, sponsor events, host fundraisers, participate in community initiatives. This fosters brand affinity and relationships.
Influencer Engagement
Host travel bloggers, creatives, and niche influencers to experience and authentically promote your property to their followers. Research bloggers and influencers with an audience aligned to your target market. Provide hosted stays in exchange for social promotion and reviews.
5. Implement Sales Trainings and Tools
Proper sales training, technology, and collateral ensure staff effectiveness in securing bookings.
CRM and Guest Data
Centralized guest profiles, histories, preferences, and insights equip sales teams to deeply understand accounts, contacts, and leads to personalize engagement. Integrated CRM systems provide holistic views of prospect or past guest engagement across channels to sales teams in real-time.
Sales Collateral
Provide presentations, brochures, videos, and other professional sales materials to influence and close business across channels. Invest in custom in-house designed collateral that properly conveys brand personality versus templated materials.
Technology Resources
Equip teams with rate shopping, lead management, marketing automation, and other tools streamlining sales execution and enhancing productivity. Consolidate essential tools into a sales stack integrating data to minimize toggling between platforms. Ensure adoption through training.
Hands-on Training
Role playing presentations, objection addressing, negotiations, relationship nurturing, and closing tactics accelerates skill development. Facilitate mock sales scenarios for practice. Have leaders provide coaching and feedback to build skills.
Peer Mentorship
Have top sales performers shadow newer team members to share successful techniques and serve as mentors. Assign new hires peer buddies whom they shadow initially to immerse them in proven sales processes and approaches.
See Also: Wellness Sales Strategy to Increase Hotel Revenue
Takeaway
Getting sales execution right comes down to strategy, technology, and people. Contact Emersion Wellness to discuss comprehensive solutions tailored to accelerating hotel revenue growth through optimized sales initiatives.
I'm Nathan Baws, a nutrition nerd, exercise and weight loss expert, and an unwavering advocate for good health. As the founder of Emersion Wellness, I'm passionate about crafting Seamless Weight Loss Programs to supercharge hotel revenue and transform lives. We've pioneered the World's First Plug & Play Weight Loss Programs for top hotels and resorts, sparking a wellness revolution. Beyond my professional journey, you'll often find me hiking, swimming, and riding the waves, embracing every moment in nature. Join me on this exhilarating journey towards diet, health and wellness.
