This document provides 18 tips for hoteliers to boost bookings and revenue. Some key tips include developing guest personas to understand customers, creating a clear value proposition, optimizing the website for speed and simplicity, using compelling visuals and stories to engage guests, ensuring the design is mobile-friendly, analyzing data to understand customer behavior, and continually testing strategies to improve performance. The overall message is that a variety of digital marketing techniques can be leveraged to attract more customers and increase bookings if implemented effectively.

1. 18 Ways
Fill Your Hotel
to

2. "How can I boost
bookings and
get more revenue?"
This is every hotelier's question. It's a simple
one, but theanswercanbeachallenge.

3. To help answer that challenge, here's
to show you the big picture and
boost your hotel bookings.
18 Tips

4. 1. Create Your Hotel's
Guest Personas

5. Whoareyourguests?
Whyaretheystayingwithyou?
Answer these questions by developing
a few solid customer personas
with powerfuldata and your
own insider knowledge.
Here's How

6. Guest personas tell you who you're talking to
and how to focus your marketing & sales efforts.
Use your data and
knowledge to find out
your guests' goals,
needs and wants.
Find out how to talk
to them.

7. 2. Create a
Value Proposition
that Resonates with
Guests
2. Create a
Value Proposition
that Resonates with
Guests

8. Whyshouldyourguestspickyou?
Your value proposition should be on
your homepage, and it should tell guests
whyyou'reuniqueandexactlywhat
they'relookingfor.
Write Your Own

9. Why should I stay at
your hotel ?
(and not the one down
the street?)
That'sthequestion
yourvalueproposition
needstoanswer

10. Here's4tipsforwhatyourvalue
propositionshouldlooklike:
1. A GREAT HEADLINE
2. A VISUAL ELEMENT
3. A 2-4 SENTENCE PARAGRAPH
4. CONSIDER BULLET POINTS

11. 3. Speed Up
Your Hotel Website

12. Slowsitespeedscan
FRACTUREYOUR
CONVERSIONRATES.
Up to 75% of your visitors will leave for a
competitor's site to avoid delays.

13. Makesureyoursiteuses
moderncodingtechniquesand
up-to-dateplugins.
Don'tclutteryoursite
unnecessarily.
Technical Tips

14. 4. Make Your Hotel
gallery Page Sparkle

15. Gallerypagesarewhereguests
cometofindoutwhoyouare.
Gallery pages let you show off your
personality and polished rooms.

16. have warm, inviting images
use simple, clean design
load quickly
are easy to find
have a consistent color scheme
sparkle!
Make them Sparkle
Makesureyourgallerypages:

17. 5. Keep Your Site as
Simple as Possible

18. According to a Google
study, visually complex
websites are seen as
lesseffectiveand
lessaestheticallypleasing.

19. Simplifying your design and site
navigation won't only make your site
faster and more attractive...
It will let guests consume information
faster, and a simple booking process
makes them much more likely to book.
How to Simplify

20. 6. Don't Spoil Visitors
with Too Much Choice

21. Too much choice causes
friction.
Friction is "anythingfroma
slow-loadingpagetoatypo
inthecheckoutprocess."

22. Basically,it'sanything
thatgetsinthewayof
bookings.

23. Being
overwhelmed
with dozens of
packages and
navigational
options is a
serious kind of
friction.This menu is incredibly irritating to
deal with, and overwhelms the user.

24. So limit your choices to the
essentials, and visitors will
have a much smoother
booking process
(and less of a headache!)

25. 7. Tell Visual Stories
to Engage Guests

26. 67%
of consumers consider clear,
detailed images to be even
more important than product
info & customer reviews

27. Travelers are 150% more
engaged with listings that
have more than 20 photos
vs
properties with only a few
(TripAdvisor, 2013)

28. How do you use images the most
effectively?
The should be clear and attractive,
complement your brand image and create
emotions in those that view them.
Start Telling Stories

29. 8. Get Mobile Savvy

30. Over a quarter of the online travel
market's money is coming
through mobile.
Havingamobile-friendly
websiteisn'tachoiceanymore.

31. Makesureyourmobilewebsitehasa
seperateconcept:
If it's just a shrunken-down version of
your desktop site, odds are you're trying
to fit too much on a small screen

32. Help Me Choose
Once you're ready to start building,
you've got a choice:
ResponsiveorAdaptivedesign?
There's a strong case for both, and it
depends on your needs

33. 9. Use Analytics to
Peek Behind the
Digital Curtain

34. Yourbookingengine& analyticsare
FULLofusefulinformation.

35. Weknowwadingthroughallthatbig
datatofindthegoodstuffcanbea
littleintimidating.
Sowe'veputtogetherapractical
step-by-stepguidetohelpyoufind
yourbookingengine'ssecretsand
unlockacompetitiveedge.
Unlock Secrets

36. 10. Make Sure
Branding & Design are
Relevant to Guests

37. 500%
200%
In a case study by strongview.com, increasing
relevancy in their email marketing boosted
their conversion rate by
Contentverve discovered that tweaking
their Call to Action copy raised their
conversion rate by

38. The more relevant your images,
copy and overall design are to the
kind of guests you get,
the less friction potential guests
will experience.
Thisleadstomorebookingsfor
yourhotel.

39. 11. Have a
Compelling
Call to Action

40. The Call
to Action
Most marketing campaigns focus on email
marketing, ad design, copy and images.
That's great! But there's one thing a lot of them
miss....

41. More CTA Tips
Your CTA can be the tipping point
between a bounce and a booking.
If you want them to click, it should use
actionable language, align with your
message, and be
really,reallyobvious.

42. 12. Be Benefit-Driven

43. Here's how not to list your hotel's
features:
A great spa
A safe and fun play area
A spacious conference room

44. Instead, explain how these
features translate into benefits:
We have a health gym and spa, so you can let your
hair down & unwind after a busy day.
We have a kids' play area, so you can indulge in
quality time with your significant other.
Our spacious conference room lets you hold
meetings in comfort & style, and our boards and
projectors let you communicate more effectively.

45. 13. Use Color to Your
Advantage

46. Switching their links to a "more
recognizable" shade of blue
boosted Bing's revenue by a cool
$80 million.
For Dmix,switching their CTA color
from red to green grew their
conversions by 34%.

47. Color psychology, used properly, can
impact your booking rate, and it's not
about manipulating guests or pseudo-
science.
Instead,usecolortoreflectyourbrand
andresonatewithyourtarget
audience.
Show me How

48. 14. Craft Exciting Copy

49. Good copy flows smoothly
when you read it.
There are no logical jumps or
awkward phrasing. It shows
your guests how you fill their
needs & overcomes their
objections.

50. Try and write with a light, original hand - don't
use cliched phrases, and keep sentences
shortandsweet.
Think of it as blend of style, tone & information.

51. If you're looking for more in-depth
advice, here's 7 steps to improve
your copy right now from
Copyblogger:
Start Telling Stories

52. 15. Take Advantage of
Retargeting

53. Research shows that over
70%
of travel website users will
abandon their bookings.
Retargeting is a way to combat
this.

54. Retargeting happens after a guest abandons mid-booking: they
receive an email from you or see an ad with an offer from your hotel,
and remember to come back. You get a second chance to persuade.

55. Here's our best guide
on how to give
retargeting a chance -
and give yourself a
second chance:
Retargeting

56. 16. Back up Claims
with Social Proof

57. Guests are bombarded with
ads.
Reviews, testimonials, badges
and influencers are all things
that gain trust: you're not saying
your're great, someone else is!

58. 16. Have a Killer

59. Don'tneglectyour
landingpage!
Your SEO, PPC and other marketing
efforts can all come to nothing if guests
click and find a boring landing page, or
your homepage.

60. Toensureyouhaveakiller
landingpage:
Have clear copy with an emotional impact
Use a prominent CTA
Use images that reinforce your message
Write a strong headline
More Tips

61. 18.
Always be
Testing
and
Improving

62. PopQuiz!
Which of
these two
ads do you
think
performed
better?Image Source

63. The one "expertly crafted" in
MS Paint acutally got clicked on almost
3timesasmuch.
Yes, it's ugly and probably wouldn't
be your first choice- but sometimes
our first choices are wrong.
That'swhywetest.

64. When it comes to getting more
bookings, you can't affort to just "go
with your gut."
Groundyourconceptsinrealdata
andresults,bytestingand
improvingovertime.

65. To wrap this up...

66. Congratulations!
You now have 18 new tips in your
toolkit to help you on your quest to
garner bookings and boot your hotel's
bottom line.

67. Ifyouneedanyhelpimplementing
thesetechniques,don'tbeafraidto
giveusashout- we'reexperts!
Net Affinity is a technology, digital marketing and web
design company working exlusively with the hotel
industry.
We're dedicated to helping you grow your direct
bookings.
Get in Touch