Hoteliers now have two avenues for selling accommodations and generating revenue — direct channels and online travel agencies, wholesalers, and third-party websites. But, of course, the best way to make sure that a hotel’s revenue squarely falls in its management’s lap is by keeping the sales and marketing processes vertical with no intermediaries involved. 

They say, “If you want a thing done well, do it yourself,” and this applies to hotels when they want to position themselves as the prime place for tourists to stay. So now, the question is, “can independent resorts and hotels rely on their marketing and revenue management strategy to be the number one choice or not?”

On the other side of the argument, we have to consider that using OTAs such as Expedia or Bookings.com can be a great idea to garner the attention of a broad audience. These websites have a wide reach as online travel platforms, and they have a long list of clientele that hotels can only hope to attract through their marketing efforts. 

So, it seems fair enough to take advantage of their services. However, if you look at the bigger picture, your hotel business might be losing a lot. 

Why You Need to Rethink About OTAs in Your Marketing Chain

We understand that booking rooms through OTAs have become quite popular. Sadly, due to OTAs’ popularity, people nowadays don’t even consider visiting a hotel’s website. They have become so loyal to OTAs that they rely on them to get better rates than the hotel itself, offering better value packages. 

So, of course, hotels have to cooperate with OTAs, or they might find themselves at the bottom of the list. To answer the above question ― Yes! Hotels can rely on their marketing strategies if they use SEO. Now, the second question you need to ask yourself is, “Do you want OTAs’ help?”

Our opinion on this matter is “No, you don’t.” You don’t have to consider eliminating OTAs from your marketing list; however, you need to work on your promotional efforts that make approaching the hotel directly seem more attractive.

It’s just that why pay OTA commissions when you can use the same money to hire a professional marketing agency to help you bring your hotel to the top? A few tips off the top of our head are reducing your price and offering unique packages to loyal customers, seasonal pricing, and personalized advertising. 

We suggest you keep OTAs in your back pocket because they substantially reduce your profit margins. Plus, hotels have to sign an agreement with OTAs that they won’t list lower prices on their website. As an independent hotel, you might not have the budget to create a marketing campaign, which is why working with an OTA might make more sense. However, the commission will probably eat into your profit margins, no matter how small. 

Now that you know what to do, let’s look at what a marketing strategy with SEO for hotel bookings looks like:

Why Choose SEO to Market Your Hotel

According to a survey by the Traveler’s Road to Decision, 96% of travelers start their search for leisure traveling online. For them, the name that comes at the top in search results is the one that holds the most value. 

For hoteliers, using digital marketing to boost bookings is novel territory. However, the majority is more concerned with running their day-to-day operations. If you are one of them, you need to pay close attention to how your hotel is fairing online. In addition, if you plan to expand your business, the first thing you need to do is figure out how to reduce OTA’s involvement.

“Then, how will I get bookings?”

Through good SEO of your hotel’s website! 

Digital marketing of hotels encompasses promotional activities on different mediums and platforms that increase a hotel’s online presence and direct sales. These include optimizing the hotel’s website, writing quality content, and promoting the property on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. 

You can rank your websites at the top in Google, Bing, and Yahoo result pages through SEO. As a result, you will drive more traffic to your website, which will increase your hotel’s bookings. 

Having success with SEO is dependent on three things that are as follows:

1. Your website’s structure

2. Your website’s content

3. Backlinks and who is mentioning you

According to a survey by Backlinko, the first result on the Google search engine gets 31.7% of all clicks. The websites below rarely get a second click. If your website is at the end of the results, your chances of getting website visitors reduce by 2.2%. Lastly, your website might not get discovered by online audiences if your website does not come on the first page. You lose direct bookings this way.

Using SEO to Rank Your Website at the Top

Narrow Down Your Target Audience

Let’s start from step zero, defining your target audience. Start with who they are, their booking patterns, and what they like.

Here’s an example to help you understand this:

Type of Accommodation 

Target Audience

A hotel with adventurous activities

Leisure travelers, millennials (Families and groups)

Resort

Leisure travelers 

Hostel

Solo travelers, backpackers, budgeters

Serviced apartment

Business or corporate travelers 

*This division of target audience according to accommodation is based on current booking trends. 

Let’s assume that you are running a hotel. In this case, your ideal audience will use the following terms during an online search:

• Hotel in “city”

• Top hotels in “city”

These terms are called keywords, and they are crucial to your website’s search engine optimization. This brings us to our second point:

Keyword Search

Keyword search is a crucial part of SEO. These small phrases have the power to make or break your business. First, come up with all the possible search words you can think of. For example, if your hotel is located in New York, the keywords given below can be ideal for it:

• Hotels in Brooklyn, New York

• Hotels in NYC

• Best hotels in New York

• Cheap hotels in NYC

• Hotels near Brooklyn

• Hotels near NYC airport

Since competition is too high right now, you will need better keywords, which you can get through Google Keyword Planner Tool or Ubersuggest.

Simply type your keyword in the search bar, and you will get a list of targeted keywords ranked by search popularity.

Work on the Meta Details

Make your meta titles (page title), URLs, and meta descriptions SEO-friendly. These are the three elements displayed in a search engine’s results against a user’s search query. The meta titles clearly state what your website is about, the meta description gives a little detail about it, and the URL tells the browser which page they will land on.

You are probably wondering how a URL can be SEO-friendly. Well, it’s pretty simple. Here’s an example to help you understand this:

• Your Hotel’s URL: https://yourhotelname.com/brooklyn-suite

• Confusing URL: https://yourhotelname.com/ suite /US/p=6750/pageid=9

It’s important to add a part of the keyword to your URL. Do not overstuff it, and make sure to separate the phrase with hyphens. 

Optimize Your Website

We all know that content is KING. So, why haven’t you invested in a good content writer to do quality work for you? You now have your keyword, and it’s time to start using it… though not everywhere. The three most important places where keywords must be added are the H1 tag, H2 tag, and within the first 100 words of the content. If you are writing 500 words on the homepage, the keywords should be used at least five times in an organic way. 

Next up is switching content styles, such as posting blogs, articles, infographics, graphs, etc. on your website and offering a subscription to free eBooks, such as “Top Tourist Places to Visit in New York.”

Optimize Your Images

Visuals help people decide whether they should book a room or not. The more pictures on your website, the longer people will stay on it. As to why you should include text with images is that search engines don’t comprehend pictures. The text allows the search engine to index it accordingly. Plus, you also need to rank high in the image search engine. To do that, you need to add keywords in the tags. 

Lastly, a brief description of the image will help visually impaired readers understand the image through screen-reading tools.

Make the Website Mobile-Friendly

Is your website mobile-friendly? According to research, 60% of searches on Google are made via mobiles. So, let us ask you once again ― can people open your website on their laptop and mobile?

If you don’t know, there’s an easy way to find out. Mobile-Friendly Test is a website that allows you to paste your URL and see if it’s mobile-optimized or not. If it’s not, the website will display the issues, allowing you to work on them with the help of a website designer.

Structure Your Content

This might be a little hard to understand, but the only reason we are mentioning it is so that you can understand what your website needs. A website designer will know about this and make sure that the content on your website is structured according to what your hotel offers.

This step is essential for hotels as it will help them provide people with more relevant information. 

Also known as schema, here’s what you can add to it:

• Phone number

• Street address

• Star rating

• Description

• Typical room rates

• Surrounding temperature 

• Frequently-asked questions 

• The hotel’s photo 

• Check-in hours/Reception opening hours

• Features and services, like a gym, business center, or pool

• Map URL

• The name of the parent company, if it’s a chain of hotels

• Multilingual staff

Invest in Voice Search

In an era where people use Google, Cortana, Alexa, and Siri for searches, you need to use modern technology to increase your presence. According to a report by Google, 20% of mobile queries are activated through voice. Here’s what you need to do to make your voice search SEO-friendly: 

• Use casual speech rather than technical words

• Always make your search a question because that’s how people always ask their digital assistant

• Use long-tail keywords

• Make the answer beautiful because Siri will speak out loud 

• Instead of going deep with your content, expand it. For example, include tourist sites near to your hotel in the voice search and FAQs

Remarket

The abandonment rate of hotel bookings is relatively high. That’s because different distractions sidetrack them. Office work, children, errands — there’s always something that comes up and keeps people busy and distracted. Remarketing comes in as a solution to combat this distraction and retain their attention. You already have got your visitors’ information through cookies. Now, your marketing messages can reach them on various platforms repeatedly.  

With remarketing, you will be able to close more bookings. Ads in your remarketing campaign will work as reminders about their booking being only halfway made. Then, you can lure them back with a deal that comes with an incentive. Use Google Ads and social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to remarket.

Build Links

Hyperlinking is the best way for hotels to drive more traffic to their website. You can use both internal and external links for various purposes. 

Internal links take a visitor from one webpage to another on a website. As for external links, these are the real deal. For other websites to link your website’s URL on their webpage, you need to make offline and online connections. These connections include tourist attraction guides and event organizers. Authenticity is the key here, so keep in mind to pick reputable websites that people go to search for something specific regarding hotel bookings and the attractions located in the city.

Final Thoughts

So, what do you think? Are you ready to take your hotel’s name to the top? With time and effort, those OTAs won’t seem as attractive as they once did. Once you start getting direct bookings, you won’t have to rely much on OTAs, and their fee will be reduced automatically. With the help of quality content and keywords, you will surely build a name sooner rather than later.

That’s the beauty of SEO! Independent hotels have the power to increase their presence online and build their following by simply marketing using SEO-friendly tips and tricks. So take advantage of the advice given in this post and hire a professional marketer to help you with the process. 

Motion VOIP offers you these services and much more. They have an expert staff that specializes in marketing hotels and resorts online. With the help of technology and current marketing trend, they will make sure that your hotel is at the top in search results and a force to be reckoned with.