6 tips to improve hotel content online and increase sales

The importance of content: hotel content marketing

By hotel content we mean any element that describes and represents your property to online users. To understand the importance of having quality content on your site, just think that 91% of travelers interviewed in a TrustYou survey use a search engine to choose the hotel to stay, 81% of which are Google. This demonstrates how curating content on the website is not only a help in increasing sales, but a necessity.

The term content marketing in the hotel sector therefore defines the set of activities of production and sharing of materials (such as photos, videos, articles and more) to increase the visibility of the property online.

The offline effects of online content

The purpose of content marketing is not just to increase online visibility. In fact, taking care of your materials also causes very tangible effects on daily operations. By publishing quality materials you can:

• Increase room rates. By displaying a flawless and well-maintained facility, travelers will be willing to spend more than for a lower-level property.
• Improve the (offline) reputation of your hotel. A property must have excellent online reviews, but the effect will also be seen offline thanks to word of mouth and the prestige it will bring to your property.
• Promote ancillary services. If travelers see beautiful photos of the extra services offered by the property (such as spa, bar, restaurant or organized excursions) they will already be prepared to purchase them before or during their stay.

6 Tips to improve your hotel content

As described on the site of Neil Patel, one of the leading online marketing experts in the world, you can assimilate your site to a pastry shop window. Just as the most attractive and gluttonous products are displayed in the window to stimulate the visual and emotional reaction of passers-by, so the hotel website must know how to convey the experience offered during the stay.

Here are 6 helpful practices that can help you do that:

1. Publish high quality images

According to studies, 90% of the content absorbed by our brain is visual. Furthermore, our mind processes images over 60,000 times faster than analyzing a text. These data are confirmed by a trivago survey, which states that profiles with high-quality photos receive 63% more clicks than those with low-quality photos. It is therefore worth investing in a good photo shoot that best shows the rooms and the property.

2. Tell about your property with videos

If images are processed faster than text in the user’s mind, the video format is even better than images. However, keep in mind that the average viewing time of a video is only 14 seconds. It is therefore essential to upload short videos and capture the attention of users by immediately showing the message to be transmitted.

3. Leverage guest-created content (or User Generated Content)

Through social networks, travelers have become full-fledged content creators and for hoteliers it is a great advantage. With their permission, you can in fact benefit from the images and videos they post on social networks to make your storytelling more credible and add a touch of humanity. All for free.

4. Know your audience

As we explain with the example of the pastry shop, to promote an online hotel it is not enough to publish content. Above all, it is important to communicate and excite your audience. For this it is essential to know who your potential guests are. Is your facility frequented by families, young couples, people over 70, animal lovers? Where do your guests come from? Analyze the data offered by the channel manager and set up content and promotions suitable for your typical customer.

5. Create original content suitable for each platform

Just as your property is unique, your content must be too. In fact, not only does Google penalize duplicate content, but it will also be more difficult to convey the stay experience using copied materials. It is also important to remember that each social platform has its own communicative “register”. You must therefore create images, videos and texts and adapt them to TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and the other social networks you use.

6. Use reviews as a selling point

By content we do not mean only visual ones. Reviews also play an important role in communicating the image of an accommodation facility. For this reason, guests should always be asked a review and the most positive ones should be highlighted on the site.

New Property Score section of Booking.com

To help hotels improve their online content, we have published the new Property Score section of Booking.com in RoomCloud channel manager. The score assigned by the portal to the content uploaded by the hotel is shown here, along with tips for improving it. These tips are useful not only for Booking.com, but also for all other OTAs used, as well as for the website.

In addition, in the same section you can also check the Review Score, that is the average score of the reviews on Booking.com and Airbnb.