It should come as no surprise that 88% of U.S. adults prefer booking hotels online. It’s a digital world; we’re just living in it.
Customized mobile additions and improvements are popping up all over the hospitality industry from booking to in-room services to the post-experience. Mobile communication has become the norm. Anyone who isn’t following suit to what is now nearly required of hotels helps narrow down the choices for every potential guest.
When it comes to booking travel, accommodations, in particular, there is a myriad of choices and considerations. These include cost, amenities, location, value, experience, and the list goes on and on. In some cases, this information is spread across multiple web pages, hard to find, and makes the user want to scroll to the next possible solution.
Simply having an online presence is no longer enough. To excel, you have to stand out when it comes to hospitality digital marketing. For starters, you can create a guidebook for your guests highlighting your best of the best without omitting crucial information.
Digital hotel guidebooks can answer commonly asked questions by people booking travel and accommodations. Customize your hotel marketing guidebook to highlight the best of your amenities. Then, add a personal touch to show guests you not only care about their stay but their overall experience, which helps you stand apart from competitors, including OTAs.
What to Include in Your Online Hotel Guidebook
The length of a digital guidebook matters less than the relevancy of its content. Unsure of where to begin? Here’s a simple outline to follow and customize for your audience.
Page 1: Basics
Start with the basics of your offerings, such as room size, cost, proximity near the city center, and other major attractions. What is most important to your guests? Review guest feedback as a team, track your website analytics, and see what pages are visited most frequently or what content creates the most engagement. This will begin to give you insights on how to shape your message for your hotel guidebook.
Page 2: Benefits
Next, jump right into your property’s benefits. For example, if your hotel is known for hosting mainly business travelers, dedicate a page to business amenities (WiFi speed, conference rooms, spacious guest rooms, airport shuttles, etc.) that will help make their experience more convenient.
Alternatively, if your hotel is geared toward families, include amenities that may appeal most to them like a swimming pool, concierge services to schedule transportation to theme parks, buffet breakfasts, and more.
Complement the information with beautiful visuals of your property, amenities, and city. Let your potential guest feel what it would be like to stay at your hotel.
Page 3: The Experience
Include a section that highlights events in your area or city. People gather travel information from various sources; wouldn’t it be nice if they could get a snapshot of a possible itinerary, courtesy of your hotel? Showcase the big events happening in your city, but also the local flavors they might not immediately find in their online research.
Create different versions of your online, hotel guidebook for your various audiences. If you plan to use this guidebook as part of your hospitality digital marketing efforts, such as an email campaign, slightly alter the message to accommodate different needs. Also, think about updating your guidebook on a seasonal basis so that it’s always relevant to the reader.
Page 4: The Feeling
When people go on vacation, they want to feel something. Usually, it’s relaxed, but it can go even further than that. The feeling might be celebratory, relief, joy – what you offer should evoke feeling from your guests. That’s what makes people want to return to your location again and again.
Will your guidebook make them even more excited to plan their trip? Will it provide value as they create itineraries? Hotel guidebooks don’t have to be lengthy. Make them informative, engaging, and use them as a chance to show your property in the best possible light.
