All hotels have the generic romance package and Stay For Breakfast special, but are your hotel's specials and offers elevating your property and setting yourself apart from the rest? Not only can hoteliers use specials and packages to capture the local flavor and personality of the market, but they can also use offers to target the hotel’s specific goals, strengths, weaknesses and needs.

Know Your Traveler

Does your hotel naturally attract business travelers, leisure travelers, or a pretty even balance of both? Do you tend to have families or more couples looking to get away? Knowing your traveler profile will help define weak spots, allowing you to better craft your offers.

What does your traveler want?

If your top feeder markets are all within driving distance, there is a good chance your visitors would be interested and thankful for complimentary parking. Trying to obtain more business visitors? Make sure that your Business Package, complete with complimentary wireless internet and shuttle service, is easily visible on your site.

For leisure travelers, dig a bit deeper. Are your leisure travelers families or couples? Couples may be intrigued by happy hour vouchers at the bar, while families are more interested in a Kids Eat Free promotion or something to do around the city, like museum tickets for four. However, think honestly about what your travelers want; a package thrown together without much thought will look out of place and won’t sell successfully anyway. Look at your onsite amenities, local opportunities, and business partnerships to create packages that will actually sell and not just take up space on your Specials and Offers page.

Building relationships with travelers

If you are determining what your travelers truly want, it sounds like you are trying to build relationships with your travelers that will translate online and off! Certain specials should be designed to foster relationships with long-term stays and recurring travelers. If you are an airport hotel, or located near the airport, take advantage of the recurring business of airline personnel stays. Is your hotel all-suite with full-size kitchens? Be sure to target extended stay visitors and people in the process of relocation with extended stay specials. With a longer length of stay, your hotel not only has the opportunity to generate some good revenue, but your staff also has the chance to wow your guest repeatedly during his or her stay. These two examples are situations where value-add packages aren’t necessary, but having the special rate available opens up a great opportunity for building relationships for repeat and long-term customers.

Know Your Goals

While it is important to have specials beyond the generic romance package, adding specials just to have them on your site won’t do much for your hotel. What are your actual needs, and what goals do you hope to meet?

Occupancy issues

If you need to fill rooms but cannot discount BAR, you can still fashion a package that promotes the savings that your visitors will receive. Try a Free of Fees package. Valet parking and wireless internet can cost upwards of $50 these days, so offer a package to save your guests from all those fees that can really add up. A hotel credit can work the same way. Book one night and receive a $25 credit to be used at the hotel spa, restaurant, or bar? This not only generates more revenue within different departments of your property, but it also translates to guests as free credit that will help contribute to their vacation.

The Sunday struggle

Sundays can be slow at hotels, but that doesn’t mean that your property has to stay dead at the end of the weekend. Encourage guests to stay until Sunday with length-of-stay specials. For example, if guests stay Friday and Saturday, perhaps they receive Sunday’s stay at a nicely discounted rate. You can even tie in something seasonal or local. This year is Comic-Con’s 43rd annual convention in San Diego. If your San Diego property is trying to build longer lengths of stay, you could build a special that was “Book Friday and Saturday, Stay Sunday for $43 To Honor the 43rd Annual Comic-Con.” This can easily translate to all days of the week if you are trying to improve your length of stay in general as well.

To target Sundays, hotels can also try Sunday Staycations. Sunday may be empty at your hotel as visitors drive and fly back home, but why not attract the people who are already in your city. Staycations are growing in popularity since traveling can be expensive, and what is better than escaping from the normal Sunday routine of getting ready for the new week? Extend the weekend for locals with an ultimate Sunday Staycation, complete with dinner, spa credit, and anything else that would scream “escape” before the case-of-the-Mondays hits.

Inventory push

Does your Presidential Suite never sell? Create a package that is specific to your actual inventory weakness. By creating a focused package you can shape a special to sell the inventory that you truly need to sell. Tiered specials can work effectively in this instance as well. For example, create specific booking windows for your new Presidential Suite Special with particular discounts for each window. If a visitor books six weeks in advance, the discount is 30% off; one month prior gets a 20% discount; and lastly, two weeks prior only receives a 10% discount.

Selling Your Specials

Now that you have your offers all packaged up for success, now you need to actually sell them! While you can definitely market your specials and offline with on-property flyers, QR codes, and attractive hotel collateral, having a strong online presence with high visibility to your specials page is key.

Brand website, of course!

You do not want to take the time to create awesome packages and not upload them to the brand site and invalidate the Best Rate Guarantee. Make sure that your specials are easily visible on your official Brand website, both on your Specials page and in the Reservation system. If your brand site allows you to add banner ads, use some visually-captivating and relevant photography to create an ad to promote a specific offer.

OTAs, third parties and other relevant sites

Having listings on OTAs and other third party websites is crucial for having a strong online presence, so making your specials and offers present and visible on these channels is very important. Work with your hotel's online marketing managers to highlight your seasonal or local packages, and showcase your business-driven specials on business travel-targeted sites like CVENT and HotelPlanner.

With a TripAdvisor Business Listing, you can not only highlight a specific special, but also have a link to your brand site Specials and Offers page. In addition, it is important to utilize relevant sites and blogs that will find your specials interesting and beneficial to their visitors and readership. These sites and blogs will bring you quality visitors to your booking channel, so market towards your specific demographic or profile for which your specials are targeted.

Reach out to the local CVB site to see if they have extra exposure opportunities, and build relationships for niche partnerships. If you are building your pet-friendly special, search for pet-friendly travel sites that would be interested in linking back to you. Not only will it give you the extra exposure, but it will also provide some link building opportunities. Plus, you can always use your social media channels to promote your new and exciting packages.

Making Your Specials Special

By addressing your hotel needs and goals, shaping offers around them, and marketing them effectively across your online channels, you can get your visitors intrigued by the interesting things you're doing on property. Use these guidelines to help your hotel build successful promotions, thereby increasing exposure for your hotel and ultimately its occupancy and revenue!

Following Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest is the third most popular social network, but have you been giving Pinterest the attention it deserves? As pin-tastic Abby Heft outlined in her post about how Pinterest works, Pinterest is a great way to present your property in a very visually captivating way, share travel and industry knowledge, and engage with your online community. Just as it applies to all other social networks, it's not enough to simply set up an account and then sit back and relax. You also have to ensure that the right audience discovers your account and that you regularly interact with that community. To get started, you're going to need to optimize your Pinterest account!

What’s In A Name?

Everything! Make sure to include crucial keywords in your Pinterest name, even if they aren’t in your official property name. For instance, DoubleTree by Hilton Seattle Airport’s Pinterest account looks great at first glance, but their name is missing one important word! If I were to search “Seattle hotel” to check out different properties on Pinterest, this hotel would not populate in its search results.

A main point in online strategies is to be easily found and highly visible; whether your goal is for search engines or TripAdvisor; the same should apply here. By including these small but crucial keywords into your account name, your Pinterest will be that much more visible and therefore effective. In addition, make sure to add your location (which can be found and updated when you select "Edit Profile"). Pinterest currently does not have a specific format for inputting your location, so you can also include indicator keywords such as Downtown Seattle, Washington versus Seattle, Washington or Seattle, WA.

Add Links

Links on Pinterest are now nofollow, which means that the search engine power behind Pinterest links isn't passed back to your site.  But just because you don’t get the link juice doesn’t mean you should disregard your backlinks. Make sure that your links are pointing to the correct pages so Pinterest users can easily find what they are looking for, make bookings, or pin other images onto their own boards from your site. In addition, be sure to add links to your Facebook and Twitter accounts from your Pinterest page so users can easily follow and connect with your other social media channels.

Beautify Your Boards

Just as having a visually captivating Facebook Timeline Cover Photo impacts users coming to your Facebook page, the same goes for Pinterest users coming to your page. Make sure that your page’s main image grabs users’ attention, and update your board covers to show off your best pinned images right from the get-go. Pinterest now allows you to choose and position your board covers so your page can have its best face forward.

Know Your Pinners

To keep up with the attention span of a pinner, you will need to update frequently to stay top of mind. Having your beautiful, visually appealing photos cycling through on your followers’ “Pinners You Follow” feeds is crucial for having your pinners visit your actual page, and for getting comments and repins. Additionally, keep in mind the pinner community and what pinners are generally interested in.

According to an RJ Metrics study, the top categories on Pinterest are Home, Arts and Crafts, Style and Fashion, and Food. Just because travel is on the lower end of the pinning spectrum, you can still use this channel to show off your hotel’s hip style, catering creations, and fashion-related images for the stylish jetsetter. Use these categories, create keyword strategies to target those pinners, and add targeted keyword hashtags into your pin descriptions for added exposure.

Pin For Engagement, Not Self Promotion

Of course you should pin your own photos that link users back to your website, but Pinterest users can easily become disinterested in your page and pins if they are always self-promoting. Include a board for area attractions, travel tips, and wedding inspirations to ensure that you are providing your Pinterest followers with useful, relevant, interesting content.

There's no denying the buzz around Pinterest and how it can work for your business, but because pinning can be so fun, it is easy to forget about optimization. Make sure to use our easy-to-follow steps to ensure that you are effectively reaching those millions of Pinterest users and engaging with them!

You read the informative post by the lovely Miss Mann about why your hotel needs a Google+ page. You jumped on the Google+ train and created a Google+ page for your business, but now what do you do? As you know from managing your other social media accounts, maintaining lively and active pages with fresh and exciting content is key to successful social media strategies. In addition, it is also imperative to optimize these social channels! It is Google we’re talking about, after all. Because Google’s natural search algorithm now incorporates social behaviors and factors from Google+, it is crucial to effectively optimize your Google+ page.

Before we get started, make sure to change your profile into a Local Google+ page. By doing so, you will be able to select a local category, which will also add to your optimization. Much like the categories for Google Places business listings, this category selection will help users find your page easily, give visitors a better understanding of your business, and add your relevancy to nearby attractions and local hot spots.

Google+ Business Page Optimization: Let's Get Started!

• Consistent Name, Address, Phone & URL - Much like your Google Places listing, ensure that your Google+ page name, address, phone number, and URL mirror that which is on your brand.com. Ensuring that these four factors all match up with your Google Places listing will not only impact your ranking in local search, but will also add to your on-page optimization of your Google+ page.
• Describe Your Business - The About section is the space for you to tell users about how lovely and accommodating your hotel is, but make sure to optimize this section to tell Google of your relevancy to your targeted keywords. Determine what search terms you want to pursue and naturally incorporate those keywords into your content. For example, if you are ranking on the first page for local, organic and paid search for “hotels near Navy Pier,” effectively targeting that same search term in your About content will only help to add to your SERP real estate, further increasing your visibility and relevancy. As for Bragging Rights, use this section to flaunt your hotel’s greatest attribute while targeting a keyword at the same time. Is your complimentary airport shuttle always prompt, ensuring that every guest makes it to his or her flight on time? Let your users, and Google know about this valuable information.
• Make it Visual.  Upload some photos - Showcasing appealing photos of your property is a no-brainer when it comes to portraying your hotel anywhere online! Virtually transport your users, and help them envision themselves relaxing in your hotel spa, sipping a refreshing drink with a cocktail umbrella poolside, or drifting off to sleep in your serene suite featuring fluffy, luxurious bedding. Your Google+ page can feature five main photos. Choose five visually-captivating images that will pull users in and show off your hotel’s best features. In addition, optimize your Google+ images by including photo captions that contain your keywords. This will also increase your visibility in the Google Image SERPs.
• Add relevant people and places to your circles of trust - In my fellow BMI-er’s post about why hotels need Google+, Andrea outlines the different types of circles that would be beneficial for hotels to create. She suggested creating circles such as one for your brand, local sports teams, groups and organizations, city attractions, niche markets, and travel publications. Of course, you want to have fans adding your page to their own circles, but it is important to have other people, businesses, and organizations in your circles, especially if they are relevant to your hotel and your business in general. When a user clicks “View All” to see those in the hotel’s circles, users can view by name or by relevancy. You can arbitrarily add pages of interest to your circles, but by adding relevant people and businesses, Google will sort them and show off your relevancy to these area attractions, sports teams, and other big businesses and people in your area.
  
  
  
  
• Interlink with your other social accounts - The last tip is to remember your links! Google+ gives you the ability to link out from your page to other social media channels and sites. In the Other Profiles section, link out to channels such as your Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Pinterest or YouTube accounts. Does your hotel have a blog? Link out to this in the Contributor section. For Recommended Links, utilize this space to link out to relevant sites that will continue to provide useful information to your users. Is your TripAdvisor listing overflowing with glowing reviews? Do you love your eBrochure, filled with gorgeous 360 degree tours and elegant wedding menus? Recommend links to information that your users will find interesting, engaging, and relevant. As for off-page optimization, link back to your Google+ Page! Does your email signature have links to your other social media profiles? Add a link that directs people to your Google+ Page, and include targeted anchor text to achieve some Google+ link building.

Reactions to Google+ have been all across the board, but whether you are a skeptic or +1 enthusiast, Google+ will continue to be integrated into natural search results, and proper optimization is the key to having a successful Google+ page.

By now you probably understand the importance of social media for your hotel: your Facebook page looks great, you are tweeting and posting regularly throughout the day, and you have a strong number of fans and followers. Way to take the initiative and take advantage of your social media channels! But ask yourself this: While utilizing social media is an opportunity not to be missed, are you using your opportunities to effectively benefit you? After all, you can post all day to your social media fans and followers, but are you truly engaging them and calling them to action?

Ask Yourself These Questions

• Are my fans engaged?
• Am I gaining fans and followers?
• If the answers to these questions are no, then what can I be doing to improve?

Because social behaviors on various networks effect search results, we know all too well how important social media is to the travel industry. While you may be off to a good start, it is crucial to address these questions to maximize how effective your social media campaigns can really be for your hotel. We are constantly consuming content online. From websites and blogs to podcasts and videos, there is perpetual exposure to content, so capitalize on that.

What Constitutes Captivating Content?

First, evaluate what types of content you already use to market your hotel. Maybe your Facebook photos visually captivating, but what about textual content? Is your content cliche? Have your visitors heard it before? Is your content too "salesy"? What about video content? Textual, image, and video content all have different appeal and can effectively market your hotel in different and interesting ways, but the key factor here is finding what makes these mediums captivating to your audience and visitors. Get inside the mind of your customer and find out what content he or she wants to consume, and how.

It's All In The Reviews!

Browsing through your TripAdvisor and OTA site reviews is helpful to see what your travelers and visitors are looking for, but you can also use networks and forums such as LinkedIn Answers, Yahoo Answers, reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg to find out what people in the area and potential customers care about, and what questions they are asking. While negative reviews give us insight into where we need to fill in the gaps, positive reviews can provide an abundance of ideas for captivating content:

"The room was great, the pool/spa was great, and the location was ideal. However, best of all, was the service. I spoke to the concierge on the phone a couple weeks before our trip and asked about restaurants in the area. I said it was our anniversary the next week, and there was a bottle of champagne in our room along with chocolate-dipped strawberries and a note from the manager thanking us for spending our anniversary with them. All that from a simple off handed comment made a couple of weeks before we got there!"

Just from this one review, you can harvest a few possible post topics. Boast about your amazing pool and on-site amenities, your insightful local area knowledge, and your dedicated service that goes above and beyond for all of your visitors. Are these reoccurring themes or subjects in your visitors' reviews? Click on the different categorizations to see what other travelers are saying, and have said, about your hotel to help shape your posts.

Also remember to think about how travelers absorb information. If your guests are enthralled with your dazzling pool, pair your post with a high quality image. Online users like to see what they will encounter on property, so use these opportunities in social media to draw in fans and followers, and help them picture themselves at your hotel.

By formulating answers to your visitors' questions and addressing their concerns and praises, your content will be fresh, relevant, engaging, and useful to them. Furthermore, when you are the one to address their questions or concerns, you become the local digital concierge, creating a trust with your fans and followers. B&Bs and smaller boutique hotels often have great success with social media because their size makes it easy to connect with their customers in-house. On the other hand, online networks allow larger hotels to easily create a more personalized voice behind their corporate brands. Regardless of whether you are an independent B&B or part of a larger hotel chain, make sure that your voice is connecting with fans and followers and is providing customers with the information that they actually care about.

What's Happening At The Hotel?

A great way to engage current guests, and catch the interest of future guests, is by posting guest photos (with permission!), comment card responses, and events that are happening at the hotel. Are you a pet friendly hotel who just saw a dog wearing a cowboy hat walk into the lobby? Get a picture and feature the 4-legged guest on your social media! Did a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary at your hotel just tell you the story of how they met? Tell your Facebook fans! Is there a birthday party happening in your lounge? Wish them the happiest birthday through Twitter. When you ask your guests about posting their story or photo on social media, you are sure to gain a follower, and your current social media followers just might start to plan their next celebration with your hotel in mind.

What About Discounts?

If information that fans and followers care about often translates into them wanting special discounts and promotional values, then present your content in an intriguing way that allows you to give a little and get a lot. A recent Constant Contact/CMB study shows that approximately 48% of brand followers will follow you on Twitter in hopes to receive deals and discounts. Share an exclusive social media promotion that can't be found anywhere else and make it intriguing. Not only does this have the potential to capture a person's attention, but it will also make him or her feel privileged to be getting the scoop first. Try a tweet like, "Psst! Have Valentine's Day Plans? Ditch the card aisle and be the first to book our exclusive Valentine's Day special. Stay with us for a celebration that you will not forget!" Hook your fans, reel them in, and get them excited to ensure that your promotions, as well as your entire social media presence are strong and beneficial to your hotel.  Just be wary about fostering a community of nothing but deal seekers.  Use discounts sparingly.

And don't forget to keep in mind that the success of your social media campaign should not necessarily be measured by your ROI, but rather how you are engaging with your fans and inspiring your customers, current and potential, to do something. Sometimes visitors aren't ready to book, but having engaging content that inspires your followers to comment, retweet, share, link out, review, or tag you in will not only help your SEO, but it will also keep your hotel top of mind, or inspire someone else to book!  Social media is word of mouth marketing at its best!