Hotels in most major cities market themselves to travelers from afar. I’ve heard revenue managers speak proudly of the fact that 20% of the hotel’s visitors are from Europe and 10% are from Asia. A good RM will understand travel patterns from out of town visitors and both market and cater to these guests.
Selling to distant customers is obviously important for every property, but hotels should also actively sell to their local market. Below are some of the tools and techniques you should consider.
Locals are always around
Unlike visitors from distant lands, locals don’t have to wait for affordable airfare or a necessary business reason to visit your hotel. Locals are on the lookout for valuable offers in their town across a range of products and services. You can partner with local events and businesses to create value and gain local interest and sales. “Free parking if you Eat and Stay ” or “Free breakfast if you sleep in town after the game.” A benefit of building loyalty amongst locals is that they are always around. They can repeat stays much more frequently than out of towners who come to your city only once per year.
Create permanent special deals for locals
DisneyLand in California offers a seasons pass to local residents to visit the amusement park. Many Angelenos I know buy this pass year after year – even though they may not even visit. Why do they do it? Because it’s such a good value relative to ticket prices for out of town visitors that locals just can’t pass it up. You can do something similar by offering an ongoing discount rate or better yet a value add to local guests. “Show your in-state driver’s license and receive a free massage”.
Utilize technology that supports your local marketing efforts
Travel Tripper’s new RezTrip 2.0 booking engine enables hotels to focus offers on their web site and voice reservation channel based on the guest’s geography. Set rates and promotions that are only viewable by shoppers in a particular state, postal code, or distance from your hotel. Unleash your creativity with this unique and powerful targeting tool. Also advertise on websites such as Citysearch that cater to locals.
Participate in Community Events
Revenue Managers will often make remarks such as “my hotel is empty this time of year because no business travelers are coming” but these are usually when locals are out and about. Have a booth at a weekend art show in town. Hand out coupons at local church events. Successful restaurants and other service businesses market locally using a myriad of techniques. You should get out of the property and do them too.
Utilize social media
People are using tools such as Aroundme, Yelp, Foursquare, and Gowalla (to name a few) to select and recommend businesses. Make sure your hotel is listed on these sites and that your address, phone number, restaurant hours, and other descriptive information is absolutely correct. This is especially critical when targeting younger travelers who rely on these tools innately much more than “traditional” means of learning about your hotel. Similarly, ensure your hotel is correctly mapped on google maps, msn, and mapquest.
Traditional advertising isn’t dead
People still open coupon books they receive in the mail. For some reason they tolerate printed junk mail more than junk e-mail. Capitalize on this by including fliers for your hotel in these local mail packets. You don’t always have to discount your prices to entice locals to visit. Sometimes offering a value-add (upgraded room type for example) can produce better results. Experiment to discover what works best for your hotel.
Bottom Line – Locals are your Friends
When your hotel is full of high spending out of towners you won’t be thinking about local marketing. But if you are like almost all hotels in the world and have periods of low demand across seasons or certain days of the week, use local marketing tools and techniques to boost your RevPar.
