Advertising tools for Hotels

Advertising has gone a long way of converging business processes and management styles to attract a multitude of customers and create a link of patronizing clients. As for end users, quality comes first on-hand and how it will compensate in spending their hard-earned money. To recompense that, hoteliers, restaurant owners and other hospitality inclined business institutions create a multitude amount of advertisement in a form of huge billboards, catchy banners and posters or even resort in using well-known personalities to endorse their products and services. Foremost, the idea of maintaining an excellent customer service to new guests as well as to its regular customers or clients of a particular restaurant or hotel has been given a big importance.

With the hospitality industry growing and hotels competing with each other, more and more hotels look for ways and means to market their hotel in the best way possible to attract guests.

Marketing of hotels has to be innovative and the methods used should be less complicating and easily accessible.

Websites

Internet is the most economical value packed, marketing tool, and the most effective tool ever devised. The internet has been able to market hotels that are relatively new to the global market. A web-site that is designed or created for the hotel, allows the customer or the client to read and view all information needed about the hotel. By providing a range of home-pages, the customer could be directed to different aspects of the hotel, such as rates and current promotions, sales packages and on-line booking facilities. The information on the web-site should be clear, and accurate, so that the prospective client will not be misled. With this virtual marketing tool, sales could be closed effectively and efficiently, thus saving the company thousands of dollars each month.

Customized packages, paying attention to the needs and wants of the customer, thus making the customer satisfied is another way to market your hotel. The personal attention given makes the customer feel important. It will not take much time to attend to such matters, but the result will be rewarding.

Guidance and expertise should be sought from expert and veteran hoteliers, as their input and knowledge regarding the industry is immeasurable, and this could be put to good use.

Print media

Brochures and travel magazines and papers are a sure way to market your hotel. As potential customers browse these magazines and papers on a daily and weekly basis, advertising your hotel with a package that is affordable will attract the attention of the customer.

Other tools

Inviting tour operators to stay in the hotel as guests is another idea that should be thought of. With the tour operators being solely in charge of groups that visit, the money spent in showing them what the hotel has to offer pays its dividends. Unless they experience what the hotel could offer the guest, they will not be able to promote such hotel to their guests.

As we use technology to attract business, we should not forget the fact that hospitality is a relationship business. Studies have shown that the old school method of providing personal attention to the client face to face, responding to their queries and providing adequate information, pays off better.

Once you have found the message to be conveyed, it is important to choose which medium is going to give you the most for your money. The following are the major media, with some more expensive than others. The one that's right for you depends entirely on your business.

• Outdoor advertising/billboards: These reach more people for a dollar than any other media, but are limited to a picture and no more than eight words.
• Radio: Reaches the second most people for a dollar, but cannot be targeted geographically and can only be loosely demographically targeted. But if people will drive significant distances to buy your product, or if you're selling a "we come to you" service, this is likely your best bet.
• Cable television: Offers the impact of moving images as well as spoken words. Can easily be geographically targeted. But your ad will likely look homemade.
• Broadcast television: Big prestige. Big bucks. But able to target psychographic profiles. Buy specific shows; never buy a rotator.
• Newspapers: Reach customers who are in the market to buy today. Unfortunately, people not currently in the market for your product or service are less likely to notice your ad than if it had appeared in another media.
• Magazines: Expensive, but high-impact with tight targeting. Little waste. Weakness is infrequency of repetition.
• Direct mail: Highly targeted, all the way down to the level of the individual. But shockingly expensive to do right.
• Yellow Pages: Essentially a service directory for the customer who has not yet made up his or her mind. Very foolish for retail businesses.

Through our questionnaires we found out that most of the executives believe that the company website is by far the most beneficial advertising tool. They justified their choice by saying that the company has reached a level at which there is no need to market the basic products such as rooms using any other advertising tool than the company website which provides the potential viewer all the required information at a click of a button.