This serves as a crucial touchpoint for potential guests, influencing their decision to book directly with you rather than through third-party booking channels. In this blog, we will explore the best practices for optimising marketing landing pages that not only attract visitors but also convert them into loyal customers.

Use high quality imagery in the correct sizes

First impressions are everything and the images on your landing page play a major role in shaping visitors’ perceptions of your property. Low-quality or poorly sized images can make your hotel look unprofessional and deter potential guests.

To create an enticing experience, always use high-resolution images that are optimised for the web. Avoid uploading images that are too small, as they may appear pixelated or blurry on larger screens. Instead, resize and compress your images to maintain both visual quality and fast loading times. A good rule of thumb is to balance high resolution with file size to ensure smooth loading on both desktop and mobile devices.

Remember, your hotel’s story is told through the visuals – show off your best features, from luxury rooms and beautiful views to on-site amenities and happy guests enjoying their stay.

Use the same images for advertising across all platforms

Your advertising campaign and landing page should be consistent. This consistency aids the user experience and the message they receive while on their booking journey. For example, if someone sees an ad that convinces them to expect a luxurious spa experience at your hotel, they expect to see a similar message and perhaps even compatible imagery once they land on the landing page.

By bringing together elements for both design and messaging, you create a trust-worthy experience that will help a user get the booking decision they need to make. Make sure the landing page reflects the promise made to the user in the advertisement, whether it is an exclusive offer, discount or special package or bundle.

Compress all images to their smallest sizes for faster load times

Web page load times can make or break a booking. Studies show that a one-second delay in page load time can result in a 7% decrease in conversions. To avoid this, it’s essential to compress images before uploading them to your Content Management System (CMS).

There are various tools available online that can help reduce image file sizes without compromising quality. By keeping image file sizes manageable, you ensure that your landing pages load quickly, improving the user experience and boosting the likelihood of securing a booking.

Maximise the use of landing page components 

Your landing page should not be a static, one-dimensional page; it should leverage all available components to engage users and drive conversions. Make use of every element on the page to showcase your hotel in the best possible light.

Call-to-action buttons (CTA): Encourage visitors to act by placing clear and direct CTA buttons. Use phrases like ‘Book Now’ or ‘Get Offer Now’, which compel users to take immediate action, instead of using “Learn More” and “Visit Site” if your focus is to sell.

Main content carousel: Use this space to highlight the key aspects of your offer, such as pricing, benefits and inclusions. Think of it as your elevator pitch – it should be eye-catching and persuasive.

Three-circle carousel: This is a great way to showcase your hotel’s unique selling points (USPs), such as its central location, award-winning amenities and family-friendly services, and select relevant USPs to align with your offer.

Testimonials: Real-life authentication is a powerful tool in order to build trust with potential guests. Showcase testimonials relevant to the offer you’re promoting – if you’re offering a family deal, then feature reviews from families.

Ensure your content is relevant and avoid repetition

When you are building a landing page, it’s important to have the information coincide with the offer. Make sure that every piece of information you have on the page seeks to fulfill your offer and add value to the offer.

Avoid repeating the same content in different sections of the page. For instance, if you’ve already mentioned the inclusion of a free breakfast in the main content carousel, there’s no need to repeat it in the 2-column carousel or the CTA. This could overwhelm the user, making it harder for them to focus on what truly matters.

Instead, focus on providing new and complementary information in each section. In the 2-column carousel, you could detail terms and conditions or highlight nearby attractions, for instance, while keeping your primary message clear and concise.

Optimise for mobile

Mobile bookings are becoming increasingly popular. The 2024 Hotel Mobile Barometer by Net Affinity has revealed that 65% of hotel bookings in the UK and Ireland are from mobile devices. This is why it is crucial to have a mobile-optimised landing page, so guests have a seamless experience making a booking on a smart phone or tablet.

Mobile optimisation isn’t just about making your page look good on a smaller screen – it’s also about functionality. Make sure CTA buttons are user-friendly and clickable, the page loads quickly, and the booking engine operates well on all mobile device platforms. The easier the booking process is for the user, the better the conversion rate.

Offer clear and transparent pricing

Pricing should never be ambiguous. If you’re offering a deal or discount, make sure the price is prominently displayed in several areas on the landing page, including on the CTA buttons and in the 2-column carousel section. Consumers appreciate transparency and clearly stating the price, along with any value-added perks which can help facilitate the decision-making process.

Leverage upsell and cross-sell options

Landing pages provide a perfect opportunity to upsell additional services, such as spa treatments, dinners or excursions. Highlight these add-ons in a way that makes them feel like a natural extension of the guest’s stay. This can be done effectively in the 3-circle carousel or within the main content area, ensuring that each upsell is relevant to the offer being promoted.

Are you ready to optimise your hotel’s landing pages and boost direct bookings?

In the competitive hospitality landscape, landing pages must be part of a marketing effort to convert prospective guests from website visitors into a direct booking. By using high-resolution photos, consistency between advertisements and landing pages, using image compression for quick-loading images and creating an excellent user experience, you’ll significantly improve chances to convert browsers to guests.

Keep in mind that your landing page is as important as a marketing tool – it’s part of the guest journey.  With good content, design and consistent strategy, you can capture enough revenue from your landing pages as a revenue source, increase direct bookings and reduce reliance on third party booking engines.

To find out how we can support your next campaign, get in touch with our expert team today.

Sharon Cowley, Sales Director at Net Affinity, and Quinten Gazendam, Director of Sales and Marketing at Smarthotel, shared their insights on how this collaboration is benefiting hoteliers and their shared vision for the future.

A partnership built on strengths

Sharon Cowley of Net Affinity reflects on the benefits of working with Smarthotel: “Our collaboration allows us to compete with other providers that offer a broader range of services. With Smarthotel’s flexible infrastructure, we can now build custom connections — particularly valuable for region-specific strategies or even GDS.”

Meanwhile, Quinten Gazendam of Smarthotel emphasised how the companies’ complementary strengths are central to the partnership: “At Smarthotel, we specialise in distribution, PMS connectivity and payments. Net Affinity brings expertise in booking engines and digital marketing. Combining our skills provides a holistic solution for hoteliers that covers both front-end bookings and back-end operations.”

Working together to maximise hotel revenue and guest satisfaction

The main takeaway from their conversation is that while Net Affinity and Smarthotel are separate entities, their collaboration brings new opportunities to streamline hotel operations and revenue management. This partnership offers a seamless integration between booking engines, digital marketing, PMS and payment solutions.

For instance, hoteliers are now benefiting from faster issue resolution. Previously, hotels had to coordinate across multiple vendors when facing rate and package mismatches between websites and OTAs. Now, with the shared support team, issues are resolved quickly, saving time and reducing complexity.

Quinten added: “Previously, dealing with niche OTA connectivity was a dead-end. Now, we can build custom connections for our clients globally. This flexibility ensures we meet the unique needs of every hotelier we work with.”

What this collaboration means for the hotels

Here are a few ways the collaboration is already delivering tangible value:

Quicker resolution times: Clients now deal with one team who understands both sides of the system – cutting delays and increasing satisfaction.

Rate and package mismatches: Resolved faster with integrated support across website and OTA channels. Now, with joined-up support, issues are resolved quickly by one support team together.

Marketing that syncs with live data: Campaigns from Net Affinity are now backed by real-time availability updates, closing the loop between demand and inventory.

Automated payments: Smart Payments suite helps hotels collect OTA payments or send paylinks for group bookings, reducing manual admin and elevating the guest journey.

How hotels are already seeing the benefits 

One standout example of this collaboration is The Hawthorn Hotel, a stunning new property opening in 2026 on Ireland’s West Coast.

From day one, The Hawthorn has partnered with Net Affinity and Smarthotel to create an effortless, guest-centric digital ecosystem — all before their first guest checks in.

The hotel’s tech stack is mobile-first and revenue-driven, combining Net Affinity’s booking engine and marketing tools with Smarthotel’s channel manager and PMS integrations. The hotel is benefiting from a fully connected journey from pre-arrival to post-stay, designed to boost conversion, reduce friction and elevate the guest experience.

Watch the full interview here:

Looking at future prospects

Sharon and Quinten are excited about what lies ahead for the collaboration. Sharon sums it up perfectly: “It’s not just about now, it’s about guaranteeing our presence in the next decade. Our clients want stability and with this partnership, we’re future proofing our services.”

Quinten adds: “We’ve found a groove with Net Affinity. The synergy between our teams is strong and that’s where the real value lies – creating a better, more integrated experience for hoteliers.”

This corporation between Net Affinity and Smarthotel will be the ultimate solution for hoteliers to drive direct bookings, depend less on OTAs and increase their revenue strategies across Europe. 

For hoteliers looking for tailored digital solutions to grow their business, this partnership offers the perfect combination of expertise, innovation and customer-first values.

For more information about the Hotel Tech Group, please visit https://www.hoteltechgroup.com/ and to learn more about Net Affinity’s partner, Smarthotel, visit https://www.smarthotel.nl/.

One standout example is The Hawthorn by Galway Bay, set to open in Spring 2026 as Ireland’s newest five-star luxury hotel. The hotel is partnering with Net Affinity to create a future-proof, guest-first digital ecosystem – ensuring every touchpoint feels effortless and personalised.

This strategy marks a shift in mindset across the sector: technology is no longer an afterthought but a foundational element of modern hotel design and operations.

“We’re not just investing in systems – we’re investing in the future guest experience,” said Aisling Kennedy, Group Marketing Manager at Connacht Hospitality Group.

A tech stack built around tomorrow’s guest

From first interaction to final check-out, The Hawthorn is using technology to anticipate guest needs and enhance both service and efficiency.

At the core is a mobile-first booking engine from Net Affinity – optimised for conversion, personalised journeys and seamless mobile payments. The wider digital ecosystem includes a fully integrated CRM and PMS to automate communications, streamline operations and support meaningful guest relationships at scale.

“Whether it’s contactless check-ins or in-room smart features, our goal is to offer experiences that are intuitive, personal and designed for the modern traveller,” Aisling added.

Seamless integration with Smarthotel for real-time revenue control

To support smarter revenue and distribution strategies, The Hawthorn has also partnered with Smarthotel, whose Channel Manager empowers hotel teams to manage rates, inventory and availability in real time – all from one central platform.

“Hotels today need fast, flexible systems,” said Quinten Gazendam, Chief Growth Officer at Smarthotel. “We’re reducing complexity while helping teams move at speed and scale.”

A model for future-ready hospitality

Commenting on the partnership, Sharon Power Cowley, Sales Director at Net Affinity, said:

“The Hawthorn’s strategy reflects what’s possible when technology is embedded from the outset. With full integration across guest touchpoints, they’re enabling smarter pricing, data-driven personalisation and more agile commercial decisions.”

With a scalable digital infrastructure and AI-ready foundations, The Hawthorn by Galway Bay is building more than a hotel – it’s crafting a guest experience designed for the future.

To learn more about The Hawthorn by Galway Bay, visit https://www.thehawthornhotel.ie/

For more on how Net Affinity supports leading hotels with future-ready tech, contact sales@netaffinity.com

Rate disparity can seriously impact your hotel’s bottom line. Hotels often find themselves with lower rates on OTAs and other third party channels than they do on their own website.

Rate parity, or disparity in the case of the hotel industry, is the difference between prices quoted on a hotel’s branded website versus the prices quoted by an online travel agent such as Booking.com.

Why is maintaining rate parity a big deal? If you leverage third-party channels to sell inventory, then rate parity matters. Online travel agencies like Booking.com ask for rate parity in their contracts. If you work with these major channels, then you’ve signed contracts that state that you will make your lowest rates available to them.

Why does rate disparity actually matter?

In 2021, OTAs accounted for 52% of the hotel online market, but the share is expected to decline to 48% in 2025.

There are two parties rate disparity matter to: you and the customer.

For customers, it can be a matter of trust. If rates on your own “Best Rate Guaranteed” site are more expensive than those on the OTA, you might lose their trust or lead them to believe that an OTA is offering ‘discounted’ prices.

For hotels, when OTAs offer a lower price than your own website, there’s no incentive to book direct – and you’re still paying those OTA commission rates.

Causes of rate disparity

If your hotel frequently experiences rate disparity issues, it’s important to know that it isn’t always deliberate. In fact, it’s probably mostly accidental.

Rate disparity is usually caused by administrative issues.

There are many channels your hotel is probably active on, and third-party channels have been known to change their prices based on factors like price and location, putting tremendous pressure on revenue managers to spend time they don’t have monitoring OTA prices in an attempt to continue matching them.

Here are 10 factors that can lead to cheaper rates on OTA websites:

1. Promotions might have been created directly with an OTA Market Manager or through an OTA extranet, meaning it isn’t available on the hotel website
2. A property has an out-of-date rate code still running on an OTA. Remember to close them!
3. The OTA has failed to change the rate they were given , for technical or other reasons – this may apply across the board or only to certain geographic markets
4. The OTA is using a different currency conversion rate than your hotel
5. The OTA has a base allocation, and you’ve sold out all other rooms of that grade and below
6. Your Channel Manager is tracking inventory from your PMS, and the CRS is suffering latency errors and showing inventory that’s no longer available
7. The revenue manager might have linked the wrong OTA rate from their CRS
8. Your CRS does not support length of stay rates, but they are used on the OTA
9. Wholesale rates have been put on sale by the OTA – they might have sold them to third party sites. Unless your hotel has specifically agreed to the rates being sold, you can insist on the rates being removed
10. The OTA is using their commission to discount the rate or is applying a lesser markup to a net rate – this might happen all the time or only certain times, and may only happen for specific markets

Human error during manual room and rate uploads to OTAs often occur, and it’s common for managers to forget to revise OTA rates during an update, or to accidentally leave old rates on certain sites. A decent channel manager can solve this.

Learn more about Net Affinity’s award-winning booking engine

How can you combat rate disparity?

If you’re advertising a “Best Rate Guarantee” or similar on your own site, which we recommend, it’s vital to follow through on that.

• Make your hotel website’s booking process as easy to complete as possible so you don’t lose anyone along the way. This is also why investing in your hotel tech stack is so important
  
• Leverage metasearch channels like Google Hotel Ads –  if your own site isn’t visible on these highly popular and frequently used platforms, then all your traffic will be given to OTAs
  
• Target all of your various audiences with the right kind of promotions that may attract them via email and/or social media
• Depending on your hotel’s room types, you could choose to sell some room types exclusively on your own website

Invest in the right technology that will monitor and update your rates if OTAs lower or raise them in certain times or locations. To comply with your contracts and avoid legal risks, it’s also important to monitor your own rates.

There are many creative ways to manage your rates, but you should always have one eye out for rate disparities. Correcting rate disparities only costs you time in the short term, and it can save you thousands in revenue.

When you overcome rate disparity issues, you encourage guests to book direct, maintain control over your property and prices, and give yourself the chance to capture more revenue.

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With the likes of Booking.com continuing to compete more aggressively with independent hotels wirth reward programs like Genius, it’s a no-brainer as an independent hotelier to consider the benefits of your own loyalty program.

According to a Deloitte Hotel Customer Loyalty survey, “to turn your customers into enthusiastic, even passionate brand devotees, you need to understand the patterns in how different travellers view and use rewards. You have to use that insight to craft a program that stands above the ordinary and the expected.”

It has been the norm for business travellers to gravitate towards hotels offering a decent loyalty program. While this is still true, Skift Research released last year showed that between 2020 and 2021, the rate of leisure travellers who were loyalty members of a hotel they stayed in during their most recent trip went from 43% to 47% (the rate of business travellers remained stable at 64%).

According to Skift, hotel loyalty program members contribute between 30% and 60% of room revenue and tend to pay higher average daily room rates (ADR) than non-members.

An Accenture study found that 29% of customers wish that the rewards on offer in loyalty programs they took part in were more interesting.

Try to approach your loyalty program with an open mind and a dash of creativity. 

To help you get started, here are a few key factors of a successful loyalty program.

Finding a successful partner to work with

A CRM provider can help you get started with a loyalty program. 

CRM software options range from large ones like Salesforce to hospitality industry-specific ones like Revinate.

Partnering with a CRM provider to create your own loyalty scheme offers the advantage of creating a unique offering. A good hotel CRM is an invaluable tool when you’re driving direct bookings as it can create a loyalty program that’s personally fine-tuned to your guests.

What your loyalty program should offer

Traditionally, points and perks are what nearly all large chains base their reward programs on. Key factors in their success include return on spend, unusual uses for hotel points, flexibility in redemption, and perks for membership.

However, immediate and uniquely valuable offerings offer a great deal more value to guests than long-term points programs – and this is especially true for independents.

Using an instant gratification loyalty model, hotels enjoy increased booking conversion of 43% on average via a low-cost channel

If guests can’t redeem points at a large number of properties across the globe, how much do they really matter?

According to a survey by Maritz Loyalty Marketing, 70% of customers abandon loyalty programs because it takes too long to gain enough points

As an independent hotel, try to focus more on developing a program with a ‘punch’ that will reel  more travellers in. If you have a strong handle on what your guests like, work that in to your rewards.

Would they like a box of truffles and a bottle of wine on arrival? Or maybe it’s simple perks like free wifi, priority check-in and complimentary room upgrades.

Use communication and value to engage guests 

Communicate clearly and frequently with your loyalty program members. Highlight exactly how your program works and what perks they are eligible to receive. Make the redemption process as easy as possible.

Communicating well and frequently will help to keep guests interested in your property, and will remind them of your unique features and why they became members. This is one area where a CRM is an extremely valuable asset.

Read our blog on how email marketing can help to increase your conversions

Your hotel needs a memorable loyalty program. Marketing it to your customers in an engaging, fun or clever way will help. 

Avoid the expected and aim for the extraordinary

One legitimate worry lurking in hoteliers mind is commoditization. It’s hard to have a unique loyalty program for your guests with a competitor set ready to mirror any successful feature.

As programs become more similar, they become less powerful.

Focus on your points of differentiation. What makes your hotel itself unique? 

Loyalty programs are a long term commitment for your hotel – if you don’t follow through, neither will your guests.

Set goals for your loyalty program

What do you hope to gain from your program? Is your program focused on customer acquisition or increasing spend among your existing guests?

To measure these, look at incremental revenue and contribution from the program pre- and post-launch. 

What if your goals are to increase repeat bookings or to encourage direct bookings to avoid paying commission fees to OTAs?

They are extremely valid reasons to create a loyalty program – often they overlap and go hand in hand.

Make sure you’re not confusing your goals. Have a neatly developed, revenue-focused strategy to measure your success.

The tiered analysis system

Cornell’s study offers a tiered approach: matching the level of evaluation to the firm’s size and available data. That means whether you have a 10 or a 500 bedroom property, you can use it. 

This is a scalable way to look at your loyalty program. Take the data in manageable chunks and figure out what meets your goals and what doesn’t.

• The simplest option for hotels to monitor their program is customer surveys. Hotels can use customer surveys to find out how their guests feel about the program. Alternatively, they may rely on social media to monitor consumers’ assessment of the program and any changes to that sentiment. This lets you understand what your guests feel the pros are, the cons, if the program is doing enough, and get ideas for improvement.
• A more sophisticated approach is to look at customer attitudes, signup rates, and look at the data in terms of enrollments, points redemption activity and revenue. Hotels can evaluate program effectiveness at every level and maintain a regularly updated management dashboard for their program.
• At the most advanced level, hotels can ‘optimize their programs based on a comprehensive set of attitudinal, behavioural, and revenue data.’

The amount of time and effort hotels put into analysing their loyalty programs depends on the resources they have to put into it. It also depends how dedicated they are to evaluating the program.

We recommend putting as much effort as possible into understanding how your loyalty program affects your revenue and your guests. Knowledge from accurate data is the only reliable way to grow profitability.

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The role of the revenue manager is approaching an inflection point. On one hand, they are asked to assume a more holistic leadership role, weighing in on total hotel revenue and ways to optimize profit. And on the other, more data, systems and channels are making basic decisions on rates and availability difficult.

As revenue manager, you have one of the most business-critical roles in your hotel.

What has changed, that you need to be aware of?

For starters, business is back to pre-covid levels – for the most part​. This is great news – however challenges include labour shortages, inflation and geopolitical concerns. With an increased workload, automation is more important than ever.

46% of consumers say that travel is more important to them now than it was pre-pandemic

This means you need to take a good long look at your systems in 2023, and ensure you have everything you need in place in order to free yourself, and other staff, up to deal with the bigger stuff. 

How can utilising automation help your hotel staff?

As well as being constantly aware of what’s going on, and having that solid grip on industry happenings, there are other things you need to have, or constantly practise, in order to be the best hotel revenue manager you can be. We’ve put together a list for you, take a look. 

Relationship management

Relationship management is a key skill for you to possess as a revenue manager. You have many internal contacts that need to be managed and maintained throughout the business. Having this crucial ability to develop relationships, and to influence, is all part of being an effective revenue manager. 

You are probably juggling numerous external stakeholders – prioritising how much time is given to each of them is key. One of the most important relationships you’ll have is with your hotel’s IT partners. It’s essential for revenue manager’s to realise the difference between their partnership with their booking engine provider, and OTAs.

Listen to their recommendations and consistently provide them with relevant information that will help to grow your hotel’s direct business. Being able to manage conflicts of interest between these various relationships is important to ensure your hotel’s book direct strategy is maintained – and grown. 

Be competitive 

Revenue managers enjoy targets – and even more so – exceeding them! You are most likely driven by achieving revenue budgets. Good revenue managers know exactly how far off target they are for the month and are always focused on how they are going to reach them.

It’s important to be mindful and always aware of your competitors. What are they doing, how are they doing, what are they getting right, what are they getting wrong? This will help invigorate, motivate and focus you and your team. 

Analytical skills

As a revenue manager you should be digesting data and reports on a daily basis. You need to be able to quickly detect trends, spot anomalies and identify opportunities.

Understanding data is one thing, but making quick and decisive action is another (adjusting pricing and availability for example) – a good revenue manager can do both. Keep in mind macroeconomic factors affecting your hotel’s revenue. Be flexible and quick to respond to these changes, which will determine your hotel’s success at achieving targets.

Understanding the cost of distribution for each market segment is important. Having this knowledge allows you to make informed decisions when it comes to distributing rooms and the price at which those rooms are distributed.

Creative thinking

Once you know what your data is telling you, you need to then decide what action to take. Have the confidence to take the road less travelled and use your skills to provide new and creative solutions. Take strategic risks and learn which ones pay off. Try and enjoy a brainstorming session now and again alongside your marketing department to come up with creative solutions for low demand periods.

Attention to detail

Be thorough and double check details. Don’t assume rate plans are loaded correctly, double check how things appear on the front end. Ask the advice and opinion of others when it comes to names and descriptions for special offers. Ensure your rates and availability are open and closed when they should be.

Leadership skills

Being armed with all the right data and a definitive strategy are the fundamentals – next, you need to lead all the relevant stakeholders towards following that strategy. Having the skills to influence a team comes from consistently presenting clearly crafted plans that engage, excite and convince people. 

Tech-savvy

When it comes to technology, which is developing so rapidly, you need to be comfortable with the systems you are using and ensure you’re getting what you need out of them. Try to keep your finger on the pulse, and be quick to adapt to new technologies. Embrace all these new opportunities. New technologies – including automation and reporting tools – should not be shied away from. They should be viewed as ways for your business to work more efficiently and successfully.

Question everything

Finally, try to keep your mind inquisitive. Don’t just look at data and accept what it says – question things! Be confident and smart. 

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Improved air access to Ireland from Great Britain, Europe and North America is apparently also helping to drive search demand for hotel bookings. So are the changing patterns related to work – remote workers are a whole new guest type. 

Given all of this context, it’s important to remember what a huge part your booking engine has to play in your hotel’s overall direct booking success – especially at a time when OTAs are competing ruthlessly for their share of bookings. Direct bookings are less expensive than other online channels.

Your booking engine has (or should have) the ability to gather tons of very interesting and useful data which can be used to improve your revenue strategy. Extracting this data and applying it to your future strategies is the smart thing to do. Your booking engine is the tool that allows your guests to search for availability and book directly via your hotel website. The more intuitive it is is, the more conversions you’ll get. 

Your booking engine works for you via:

• Direct hotel website (desktop and mobile)
• Meta search platforms 
• Social media sites that facilitate direct bookings

You should be able to gather handy guest information which you can use to connect with guests and encourage higher value, repeated conversions. Accessing information on demand patterns, lead time information, search patterns is a crucial benefit to the tool.

Learn more about Net Affinity’s booking engine

As with every element of your business, your booking engine will work the hardest for you when it is integrated with your demand forecasting and sales strategy – this way you will be able to see how it can enhance forecasting performance and conversions.

Here are six ways to boost your hotel bookings using your booking engine data

1. Know when price and value affect bookings

One of the key factors affecting how customers choose hotels is knowing their price thresholds, and also knowing what’s valuable to them.

As hoteliers, you have to know when price plays a bigger part in converting than value. In some cases, price is king, and it’s the only factor in the mix. This is often true for many budget hotels.

However, at other times, what guests perceive as the value of the offer can be more important: uniqueness can trump price. Since the pandemic, guests’ expectations have changed and often, their decision is about a lot more than price. They are looking for more of an experience, they’re looking for the little extras you can offer them. 

How do you decide exactly what your customers are interested in? What does ‘value’ mean to them?

Along with building solid customer personas, your booking engine can help. Look at which of your packages are the most popular, then look at their price points and anything additional you give within them. Find the common themes. Look at less popular options, too: are they too expensive for what they were offering for most people? Did they not offer enough for the price?

Price and value aren’t two mutually exclusive strategies—instead, combined, they will give you a more sustainable conversion strategy.

2. Look at rate plan lead times

Look beyond simple lead time conversion rates on your booking engine and dig deeper: examine the lead time of all of your rate plans.

Find out which rate plans convert the furthest in advance and what their common characteristics are. For example, have a look at which ones are:

• Multi-night offers
• Packages
• Discount stay and save rates

Knowing which types perform best will help you to convert more guests with more relevant offers.

If you discover that customers are more likely to convert based on value further in advance, work with that information instead of randomly running a sale or reducing rate.

Use your booking engine information to define the settings of your rate plans – find optimum days to set advanced purchase tariffs at, and discover whether there should be different advanced purchase for different times of the year.

3. Dig deeper and look at inventory type lead times

Review the lead time conversion rate of your various inventory types and use this information to determine distribution strategy of your most popular inventory types. This will maximise direct conversion rates.

For example, if single rooms convert highly on all your channels, consider offering more availability for them on your direct site and reducing availability on Booking.com.

Booking.com have expanded their loyalty programme

4. Geographical breakdown

Review your booking engine to give you a better understanding of the geographical characteristics of your key markets. For example, your booking engine can tell you the type of rate plans that people in different countries and regions book most often.

What do guests from different areas prefer?

You can set about targeting these potential guests with specific offers at specific times of the year. 

All of this data gives a more holistic view of geographical customer behaviour—a big-picture view based on real data. Create specific content for different visitors to your site, and show them prices in their native currency or have a currency converter on-site before booking confirmation.

5. Demand insight

You should be using one or a combination of your PMS, Channel Manager and booking engine to review overall booking patterns. These are critical.

How can utilising automation help your hotel?

One of your booking engine’s key strengths in driving conversions is accurately tracking overall search patterns for future dates. Looking at forward demand is as key to good revenue management as historical data is. Revenue management is an essential part of your hotel’s conversion rate strategy so don’t neglect it. It will allow you to see where your property bookings are strong and where searches are high/bookings are low.

The real value is all in the level of detail. Don’t simply take the data at face value – analyse:

• Searche patterns for midweek and weekends
• Booking patterns for midweek and weekends
• Conversion rates for midweek and weekends

6. No availability data

Compare future demand and booking stats along with your no availability data.

If you can, try to also review this data for each individual day of the week. It may not be the most exciting thing, but this level of data mining gives you insight into key opportunities.

Looking at your no availability data in detail, examine the dates with high levels of no availability and check the number of bookings on your own site compared to other channels. Highlight the demand and conversion rate on this date, and do the math. With a little more availability on your own site, how many more direct bookings could you potentially have converted?

Using data to build confidence

The data in your booking engine data should be used to build confidence in your property.

Although your booking engine is just one piece of the puzzle, owever, it’s a fairly chunky one. The data it provides should be a central part of your conversion strategy. It has the power to highlight guest patterns and should function as a strategic tool within your sales strategy.

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According to a recent Hilton survey of U.S. travelers*, more than three in four (76%) respondents experience negative feelings when they go too long without a holiday, with burnout (41%) and boredom (36%) being among the top emotions sited. 

They found that upcoming summer travel trends will include:

– Travel with pets

– Holistic wellness

– Workations

– Handy travel/accommodation solutions that help to take unnecessary planning off guests 

Looking creatively at each and every one of these trends on their own allows for plenty of food for thought and opportunity when it comes to how you go about selling your rooms. Depending on your guest types/target personas, it will be smart to include the likes of the above when you are plotting out website content and rateplans.

Is your hotel pet friendly? Make it clear!

Do you have an award winning relaxation spa on-site? Talk about it.

Can you hone in on features that would make a remote worker comfortable? Can you offer them a good rate for an extra night on either side of their weekend or longer summer stay?

Are you talking about everything you have available on-site or in the area so your guests feel equipped with what they need to plan a great holiday?

These are just some initial considerations to take into account in relation to the mindset many of your summer guests will be in. Here are a few more pointers when it comes to selling rooms this summer season.

Your offers

Make sure to plot out who your target personas are, and what offers/rateplans suit each of those guest types. Once you’ve nailed down who you’re targeting with your offers, you should consider pricing, especially for those times of the week when it’s harder to fill your hotel. For example, try to incentivise midweek stays when your property is most likely quieter than weekends –

‘Avoid the crowds! Visit us between Sunday & Thursday and get up to 30% off!’

You could also consider referencing something that would attract workationers or remote workers here. With record numbers of people working from home (and incredibly happy about it), it’s something that has changed the structure of life as we know it and for those who do WFH, they have flexibility that allows them to be anywhere as long as they have the ability to open their laptop and put the head down. 

Another potentially key audience for you come summer is families. With the kids off school, summer is obviously a hugely popular time for family breaks, and you will most likely get a big chunk of your revenue from this market. Remember that they are looking for a place to stay that will provide them with financial value but also every little perk counts. Consider the following:

• Adding children rates to all rooms (not just family ones)
• Offering discounts for local attractions (museums, leisure centres, restaurants)
• Including a ‘book direct and receive 10% off the hotel restaurant / bar’ offer
• Providing a welcome drink for everyone in the family upon arrival
• Offering free breakfast
• Offering for kids to stay or eat for free

Your promotions

Another engaging way to fill rooms is through promotions. As we know, mobile is a device that continues to grow at lightening speed in relation to browsing and booking. Of all the shopping channels available to customers, mobile commerce is actually taking the lead. It is predicted that some 187.5 million people will shop via their smartphone by 2024 and global consumer mobile spending is expected to reach $728 billion by 2025… so yeah, mobile is big. Not only this, but when you consider how important mobile is in our daily lives, you will remember how much time we spend on social. It’s definitely worth devising a social competition at some point to organically raise awareness of your summer offers. 

How can you drive hotel bookings via mobile?

Use your database of previous visitors to launch a ‘We miss you!’ email campaign. Let them know they deserve a holiday – don’t we all after the last couple of years! 

Remember that free add-ons like early/late check-in make such a difference. Even if they don’t end up booking, it will help make guests feel valued and they’ll consider you again down the line.

Make sure people know it’s not too late to book. This can be communicated through your phrasing: ‘Spacious family rooms still available!’

By continuing to use remarketing, you will also ensure that guests don’t forget about you the whole summer long. 

Finally, remember to be very clear on the fact that guests can book now and pay later. This is crucial in the age of OTAs and pre-Covid. 

Your channels

Your guests consume media anywhere and everywhere so a clear, consistent message across multiple platforms should be your priority. Make sure all links are directing people to the correct offer landing page. Your campaign message and imagery needs to be strong and complementary, both on and offline.

When it comes to your website, don’t just focus on your offer’s landing page – consider all other types of content you can provide. Think about information you can give on local attractions, ‘secret’ spots, the best pubs, restaurants, etc. It transforms you from just a room in a property, to a source of inspiration, a destination. To magnify all of this, use your social media channels.

The importance of crafting your brand story

Back to our earlier point on how obsessed we all are with our phones, remember that people are present on a variety of platforms and will check different mediums to get a feel for who you are. Keep a weekly focus on social and use it to magnify blog content, your USPs, and even unique facts about your property that will grab attention. Customer feedback and reviews are also crucial to continued prosperity. As humans, we have a tendency to be influenced. So never underestimate the power of a great guest review.

Listen to our podcast: prepping your website for summer

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Understanding your target market, what their needs are and how they behave (especially in this Covid-altered landscape) is the first step. Next, put time and effort into a fast, mobile-optimised and easy-to-navigate website that will help convert prospective customers by reducing friction and enhancing their experience. A beautifully designed website will also help to promote a strong identity for your brand. 

Read about how to craft your hotel’s brand story

Consistently analysing your data is another crucial step in the process of understanding your bookers – it means you’re always learning and developing your offering and strategy which will only help to improve your results.

Check out our handy infographic with 16 tips on improving your hotel bookings and increasing revenue.

Learn more about Net Affinity’s booking engine.

Your website is one of the first touchpoints for potential guests and can have a lot do with how you are perceived initially. Because of this, it’s crucial to pay attention to every element of your hotel’s website content. It can after all, have a huge impact on people’s decisions as to whether or not to book with you.

Telling a story is as important as getting all the must-have pieces of information together. Covid has taught us how important experiences are to potential guests. By selling your hotel as an experience through content, you’re much more likely to succeed in relation to engagement and conversion. With this in mind, here’s some advice on creating and marketing excellent content.

1.   (Customer) knowledge is power

Knowing who your audience are is key to the success of any online seller. When you know who your audience is, you can aptly tailor your content to suit your various guests, which will give you a much better chance of increasing conversions.

Before beginning to write or edit your website’s content, research your hotel’s guests and target the demographic or demographics who most regularly engage with your website. This will empower you with a better idea of the kind of content to focus on and develop, whether it’s for families, retirees, couples etc.

Building guest personas reflective of a more complex world

Once you have identified your key markets, you need to actively generate online content that will engage with the right people via your social channels and website with the goal of increasing conversions.

2.   Each piece of content should have a focus

When planning new (or updating existing) website content, designate one topic per page of content. This will mean your potential guests will be able to engage more easily with your website and understand the message each specific page is giving them.

When in doubt, grab a random third party and give them a few seconds to look at the page – can they easily decipher what it’s all about? If not, rework it.

By breaking out topics into main pages and subpages, your guests will be equipped to navigate your website smoothly, and in turn, they will spend more time on it. This will also boost your search ranking overall.

a. Use keywords throughout page to emphasise the main point of the pages

b. Make sure any visuals used are the right ones

c. Keep things simple

d. Be personal, level with your readers. Use words that are inclusive, such as ‘your’ and ‘our’, to engage people. These small things help to build a relationship between guests and your hotel.

How personalisation can increase your revenue

3.   Invest in video content

The importance of video content for your hotel

The power of video has only increased over the last few years. Video can help to create and tell an emotive story and give your guests a better idea of your hotel and the overall experience they could have there.

55% of all internet users watch videos daily, while 78% watch videos weekly.

Keep your video content short and sweet: you want to capture people’s attention in the first 3 seconds before they move on to the next post. As this experiment by Wishpond shows, only 25% of viewers watched the full video, and the average viewing time was just 14 seconds.

4.   Consider all the page elements you need

The layout and structure of your webpages is crucial for customer engagement. Creating paragraphs that are broken out and easy to read will result in a higher level of time spent on the pages.

Once customers are appropriately informed about your hotel, you can begin to build a relationship with them and gain their loyalty.

Include the following elements:

• Headline
• Intro
• Key points
• Action point

To start off with, identify the key goals of each of your webpages.

Decide what outcomes you would like from your pages. Key goals may include:

1. Making a booking
2. Filling in an enquiry form
3. Downloading a brochure
4. Purchasing a voucher
5. Signing up for a newsletter

Start with your most important pieces of information

Customers don’t read content – they scan through the page for the most important information. Keeping this in mind, it’s essential to place your most important information at the top of the page.

Studies show that 80% of people will read a page headline, but on average, only 20% of those people will continue to read the bulk of the content. Make sure you include an attention-grabbing headline on each page.

Watch our masterclass in content

Your content needs to be actionable

When you devise your page content, take it as an opportunity to create clear calls to action. The content should drive people towards one of the specific goals you have set for the page. For example, once you’ve explained the benefits of your stunning presidential suite, include a clear call to action to encourage people to book a stay there!

Create original content

One of the best ways to improve your site is to continue creating original content. As you know, not only will Google penalise you for duplicate content and copyright infringement, visitors will lose interest if content is just repeated across your site.

Instead, try and make your content as reflective of your hotel’s brand and personality as you can.

This is what will help to foster strong and loyal relationships between your hotel and your guests. Original content will reinforce the unique and special aspects of your hotel, and will remind guests why they would want to stay there.

5.   Utilise your unique selling points

What makes your hotel different? What can you offer that others cannot? What makes your property, grounds and facilities so attractive? As people browse the web, they’ll be looking for somewhere that grabs their attention, values safety and flexibility, and meets their specific needs in relation to what they want to experience during their stay.

Look at your hotel closely and pick out your USPs: are you near a beautiful lake? Do you have great shopping nearby? Is your restaurant’s food incredible? How’s the atmosphere- playful? Rustic? Find out what it is that sets you apart and lean into this.

Then, give your visitors a clear picture of what you can offer. This will bring them further into the sales funnel and closer to purchase.

6.   Give your rateplans the right descriptions

Keep them short and sweet.

Rate plans should show information about the offer and highlight its top features. It isn’t about selling the whole hotel—that’s what the rest of the site is for!

Here are some key formatting tips to remember when writing your rate plans:

Consistency

Choose a style and stick to it – keep the fonts and text sizes consistent throughout all of the rate plans which are available.

Tone

Keep the tone of the text the same for all descriptions of the rate plans. Whether you’re going for playful or formal, people will be distracted if you jump between tones.

Positive phrasing

Spin all your phrasing in a positive direction. For example, instead of saying ‘Advance Purchase: full credit card purchase required,’ say ‘Early Bird Discount’!

Length

Avoid long paragraphs! When we read online, our eyes skim. Instead, use bullet points to highlight key information.

Make it about the plan

Again, you’re not selling the whole hotel here. Add an introductory line for each rate plan that uses the unique selling point for that specific offer, not the hotel’s USPs.

7.   Upsell your property

Upselling gives you the perfect opportunity to create extra revenue streams for your property.

Potential upselling opportunities include:

• Inviting guests to upgrade to ‘exclusive’ or ‘luxury’ junior bedrooms or suites
• Highlighting additional features of the rooms- separate lounge & dining room, minibar, entertainment systems- television, ipod dock etc., walk-in wardrobe, signature linens or toiletries
• A room with a view – invite individuals to upgrade to a room with spectacular mountain views, panoramic lake views, or a dual aspect view

How can enhancements help to improve your average booking value?

An important aspect in upselling your room is to ensure the rates are structured so the upgrade is of reasonable value to the customer – do some testing to find out which rate structures are most profitable for your hotel.

Look at what your hotel has to offer, and see where you have potential to add additional revenue to your bookings before the guest’s arrival. These perks could include dinner, a spa treatment, a round of golf or something similar.

TOP TIP: Avoid highlighting standard features like ‘hairdryer’, ‘direct dial telephone’, and ‘towels’.

8.   Use the right imagery, and use it the right way

‘A picture’s worth a thousand words’ – and this holds particularly true for hotel websites. Creating an emotive picture of your hotel and what it can offer will immediately engage guests and create a connection between them and the property.

Hotel photography: top tips for appealing to guests

Show customers your story.

What’s at the core of your hotel? What makes it work? Is it your staff, your food, your product? If you make your own bread or your own beer, sell it with visuals. People will connect with these.

Use images to sell the experiences of your hotel. Choose each image carefully and limit the number of images to no more than 4 per page.

9.   Don’t underestimate people power

Think of your customers as your brand ambassadors. Harness the power of social proof. What they say about you will go a long way, whether it’s via social media, word of mouth or online.

40% of consumers find new brands to follow online based on recommendations from friends and family

It is important to actively encourage people to leave you comments via reviews, and for you to embrace these, whether they’re positive or negative.

91% of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase

Here are four ways to encourage feedback:

• Respond to all feedback and reviews
• Take all feedback on board, and use it to action change throughout your business
• Use customer reviews as a selling point on your website and to reassure customers about their choice of hotel.
• Use post-stay emails to prompt reviews

Email marketing tips to help increase your hotel’s direct bookings

Finally, here are a few action points for you to consider if you’d like to boost your website content:

• Review current content
• Identify room for improvement
• Use your unique selling points
• Show off your hotel’s personality
• Listen to your customers

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This blog was updated in November 2021.