Hotel Marketing

Promoting your hotel, guesthouse or bed and breakfast is one of many tasks you have to do each day. But because you are so busy, hotel marketing is the most likely job to be 'put off' until later. Which as we know, means that it never gets done.

So what can the hard pressed hotelier do to get more paying guests into their establishment?

The vast majority of hotels already have a website of some description, ranging from full ecommerce enabled, database driven megasites that let their visitors reserve rooms instantly online...to the hastily thrown-together 'webpages' produced using Microsoft Word.

It's important to remember that your website is quite often your customers first contact with you. So if your website stinks, what does that tell your visitors about you?

But what if your budget doesn't stretch to a custom designed site?

I recommend that you grab yourself a template that suits your hotels style and simply fill in the blanks. There are countless free templates available online, so grab one and start editing!

You created a website to promote your hotel. And now I'm telling you that you have to promote the website? Sounds like a lot of work, right?

Well, it can be. But as most hoteliers simply don't bother, any effort that you put in can be hugely rewarding...such as my quick Postcard Marketing tip! (1.84mb zip file).

Here's a few ways that you can promote your hotel website...

Writing articles and submitting them to the article sites such as EzineArticles or GoArticles can give your website an immediate flow of visitors as well as a higher rank in the Search Engines.

Creating a video that shows your viewer the best reasons to visit your area is an excellent way to boost your hotels credibility as you are then seen as the experts.

Video marketing doesn't have to be 'Broadcast quality' but it does have to be interesting. A popular style is to show local attractions or places of interest. However, you will need permission if you wish to record people or on someone elses property.

Once you have created your movie masterpiece, upload it to Youtube for free where it could be seen by a potential audience of millions.

I use video extensively in my Referral Marketing business.

For a quick demo of what can be done for almost zero cost is my 30 second clip of Manchester Chinatown.

Hub pages are an excellent way to combine all your local knowledge in one place, with a number of tools at your disposal.

It's free to register and you could have your own hubpages promoting your hotel and the surrounding area in just minutes from now. Sign up at http://hubpages.com

Squidoo is another web 2.0 site aimed at providing information in tightly focused niche topics, just like Hubpages. It is also free to register and you can sign up at the Squidoo Signup Page.

Combine the power of online hotel marketing with the traditional offline favorites such as leaflets and flyers, business cards or even free givaways such as pens or mugs.