Personalised marketing for hotels: How to better engage guests and retain their loyalty

‍Personalised marketing for hotels: How to better engage guests and retain their loyalty to your brand

The best way to retain existing guests positively and attract new customers is through personalized experiences. So, could you make your advertising content more relevant and create attractive hotel offers to increase the personal relationship of your guests to your hotel and your sales? Personalised marketing is the key to success here.

‍What is personalised marketing?

As a hotelier, you're probably wondering how you can offer your guests a personalised experience - not just during their stay at the hotel but across all customer journey steps. For this you need to consider each hotel guest as an individual and develop personalised communications with tailored, relevant advertising content. With this type of advertising, you can communicate with existing and potential guests in a much more personal way than with generic content.

‍What are the benefits of personalised marketing for hotels?

Building valuable relationships with your guests and prospects with personalised marketing increases the chances that your information and hotel offers will be noticed by the groups of people for whom they are intended. Create content that:

• fits your target group (families, singles, couples, business travellers, adults only, etc.),
• serves their interests and preferences (e.g. sports, wellness, beauty, sightseeing),
• meets their expectations (discount on accommodation, airport transfer, etc.),
• is tailored to their situation (budget, last-minute bookings for last-minute travellers, etc.) and
• considers seasonal and cultural events (e.g. Valentine's Day, Christmas, summer vacations, fairs/conventions/events).

This reduces the amount of content that is irrelevant and also optimises your marketing budget. In the long term, personalised marketing helps position you as a hotel that cares about every guest, positively impacting travellers' sentiments and opinions of your hotel and brand. As a result, you can increase customer loyalty, maintain your brand image, build brand loyalty and set yourself apart from your competition, creating an essential advantage in the highly competitive hotel and tourism industry.

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Personalised messaging: How to target guests individually on social media, in search engines, metasearch and the booking process

‍Guest contact on social media

Target-group-specific hotels offer communication on a personal level, mainly working on social media. You can create closeness on social networks such as Instagram, TikTok and Facebook by addressing people directly. Additionally, on platforms of this type, you can encourage interaction: Ask questions, respond to questions and comments, address complaints, respond to feedback and guest opinions - all of these help you as a hotel show a more human side of yourself. If you also use humour and manage to make comments go viral, you've almost hit the jackpot with this positive advertising for your hotel.

Use the functions and tools of the social media platforms, for example, for:

• Targeted messages: e.g. "Sign up for our hotel newsletter now and get 10% off your next booking!"
• Invitations to events: New Year's Eve/New Year's party, Easter party, new restaurant opening, etc.
• Offers: "Stay 3 nights, pay 2", "free minibar during the entire hotel stay", "15% discount for booking up to 90 days before arrival", "free museum entrance included" or similar.

Customer retention in search engines and metasearch

In search engines and meta searches, you can place specific ads for your hotel, hotel rooms, and hotel offers. This allows you to reach an even larger group of potential guests if, for example, you place an ad for "beach vacations for families" as a hotel by the sea. But you can also pick up those search engine users who have previously interacted with your hotel or brand online. This can be a previous visit to your hotel website or a click on another hotel ad. With this technique of so-called retargeting marketing, you exploit more opportunities to motivate travellers to book a hotel room. So also pick up the users who have already shown interest in your hotel and increase the chance of generating bookings.

You can also test the effects of urgency. For example, tell them that there are only five rooms left, that an offer is almost sold out, or that a hotel offer can only be booked for a certain period. This arouses interest and can lead to more sales. Use this advertising in moderation to not hurt customers' trust if they see such a notice too often.

‍Personalisation during the booking process

Think one step further and show attractive offers or additional services in the booking process. For example, recommend booking a dinner on the day of arrival to end the first day at your hotel. This way, your guests already have the opportunity to reserve a table in your restaurant. It will save time, and travellers can arrive at your hotel completely relaxed. A bouquet in the room as a birthday surprise or a spa treatment is also a service that can be booked in advance. Make an impact on the booking by working with offers of different price categories as well. Emphasise the advantages of more expensive offers to make the purchase decision easier.

You can leverage the booking process and draw attention to other services your hotel offers at this point in the customer journey. By making appropriate product recommendations, you show your guests that you understand them and want to make their stay as pleasant as possible. For example, personalise your offers by addressing bookers by name during the booking process. Doing so reinforces the feeling among guests that they are being offered a product customised to their situation and interests. A clear plus point for your hotel!

‍Personalised marketing in the hotel industry pays off in the long term

Embrace personalised marketing and engage your target audience personally with relevant content and exciting offers to deliver a personalised experience and improve the customer experience. Your investments in personalised advertising today will pay off in the long run - in terms of more bookings, happier guests, and increased customer loyalty.

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