Jeffrey V. Fallis 
As the summer season kicks off, all signs point to a common trend: travel is back. With pent-up demand at an all-time high, vacationers are excitedly planning and booking that special trip. And as a hotelier, this represents a golden opportunity.
It may have been a while since your hotel website generated this level of activity, so it’s vital that you take all the right steps to capitalize on this resurgence. In our latest guidewe’ll share examples of some of our hotel clients’ most exciting summer campaigns to inspire you on how you can effectively communicate for the season on your hotel website to drive engagement and more direct bookings.
Short on time ? Today we bring you some quick win tactics that will help you improve your direct channel performance so you can enjoy welcoming more summer travelers to your property.
First, make visitors feel welcome!
Providing a personalized welcome is a great way to start. With endless accommodation options for guests to choose from, making sure your hotel stands out from the crowd is essential. Making a difference can be as simple as offering a warm, personalized welcome on your hotel website. Combined with clear communication around your summer promotions, you can be sure that website visitors will know that your property is the right fit for their summer trip.
By displaying the message as Layer and by including enticing summer images, you can transport guests to their dream vacation and inspire them to complete their reservation.
Take advantage of key dates in the summer calendar
Each market has its own local festivities and holidays, and these key dates represent a golden opportunity to boost your live bookings.
Having a clear understanding of where your visitors are browsing from and upcoming vacations, and carefully curating special offers around these is a powerful strategy for encouraging more summer bookings. For example, if you get a high volume of US visitors, you can create an offer around the 4th of July.
Make sure visitors know you’re offering the best available rate
Website visitors will often leave your website to compare prices on OTAs and other sites because everyone wants to find the best summer deal and that’s understandable. With Price comparison, you can reassure visitors that you are offering the best rate available. Additionally, communicating your direct booking benefits in the tool provides further proof of why direct booking is still the best option at your property.
Highlight your unique experiences
Taking advantage of your hotel’s unique features and incorporating them into your offers is a great way to drive direct bookings.
Warmer days and rooftop bars – what more could you ask for this summer? A classic summer pastime, the rooftop experience almost sells itself, so if you’re one of the lucky hoteliers with a 360° view terrace, be sure to let everyone know. visitors to your website. The captivating post below is the perfect example of how you can take advantage of your hotel’s unique amenities during the summer time.
Encourage upselling to increase spend
Promoting higher room categories is a simple yet effective way to increase revenue this summer. Be sure to take advantage of this technique to improve your game and generate more revenue for each guest. By using smart messaging, you can draw attention to your best rooms during the booking process. Additionally, to ensure that you only show your upsell campaigns to relevant customers, target the message exclusively to visitors who are looking for specific dates or for a specific length of stay. Remember that personalized messages that resonate with customers are much more effective in nudging them to a direct booking!
Don’t forget the phone!
More and more visitors will be searching for a hotel this summer on their mobile device, so it’s essential for hoteliers to provide a seamless mobile experience and offers specifically targeted to this audience. Data shows that you only have seven seconds to capture your mobile users’ attention, so remember to keep messages short and sweet. Adapt the design so that everything fits easily on a mobile screen, there is no need to overload the choice.
Last month we hosted a webinar with NetAffinity on how to scale up your mobile strategy to drive more direct bookings. Read expert reviews here.
So! These are just a few of the great examples you can find in our guide that will help you make the most of what will soon be the busiest season ever. And remember, small changes to your direct channel strategy can have a huge impact on your performance, so be sure to start addressing them today to see an increase in your Summer 2022 bookings.
Click here to download our summer guide.
About the hotel network
Working with over 14,000 hotels worldwide, The Hotels Network offers its customers a comprehensive growth platform to power their direct channel. By leveraging a suite of built-in tools and analytics, hospitality brands can attract, engage and convert guests throughout the user journey.
In addition to price comparison, review summary and a full suite of personalization options, THN’s Oraculo product leverages machine learning techniques to predict user behavior and then automatically personalizes the message and content. offer for each user. The company’s latest innovation, BenchDirect, is the first benchmarking product for the direct channel, providing hotels with unprecedented competitive data that is a complete game-changer.
THN’s mission is to improve the online booking experience, increase direct bookings and strengthen the relationship between hotel brands and their customers.
For more information on hotel rates, visit: https://hotelier-rates.thehotelsnetwork.com or contact [email protected]. For more information about The Hotels Network, visit https://thehotelsnetwork.com/en or contact [email protected].
