Portfolio Category: Social Capital

What Resorts & Boutique Hotels Need to Know to Differentiate Their Properties to Guests

Following the pandemic, there’s been a huge disruption in consumer trends and behaviors. As an industry, we understand that leisure tourism will rebound much quicker than business travel will. It is important to recognize that people are traveling, whether it’s driving to regional destinations or flying to far remote ones. These guests not only desire to discover the natural beauty of the destination, but to experience the local culture and activities as well. The trend of activity-based travel has greatly increased in the past decade as families and individuals want more and more to experience local activities such as golf, scuba diving, yoga, tours, and more depending on the destination. Guests are craving for a hotel that will provide them with beautiful infrastructure, a seamless customer journey, and personalized interactions with the staff. Finding the balance between accommodating guests that want an all-inclusive experience and also to those who want to explore the local scene and culture is key to differentiating the hotel from competitors. It’s critical to present these opportunities and activities to future guests that want to see the value of the hotel. In this article, we’ll look at key components and some common criteria for differentiating your hotel and to better stand out in the hospitality industry. 

Service a Niche (scuba, eco, yoga, golf) 

A key way to differentiate the hotel or resort is to serve a specific niche. It is critical to lean in on and tailor the hotel to any local attractions and experiences that the guests might desire. This could mean yoga, scuba diving, golf, local tours, wine tastings, or even culinary classes offered at the hotel. Offering activities for specific kinds of guests and crafting the brand identity around it will earn the hotel a positive reputation and guests will become brand advocates. Doing so will draw referrals and recurring guests because of the experience you provided and the accessibility to local activities they are traveling for. The guests attracted will have common affinities and interests which will lead to more connections made on property and will garner a greater sense of community. By creating an exclusive feeling around the type of activity and experience offered, guests will seek out the hotel as they travel to the destination for that particular interest. 

Build Unique Local Partnerships (beyond alcohol, tours, bars, DMOs, etc.)

Other hotels are going to have similar opportunities to build the same sort of strategic partnerships with local distilleries, local bars, and tour operators. It’s critical to look outside of the box as much as possible to differentiate the brand in a meaningful way to customers and to add value to both the business and to the consumers. Think about what else guests might be looking for and how to further tailor and customize the hotel to the experience they are seeking. Building strategic partnerships with local real estate agencies or companies that help with planning international travel can be very beneficial in adding value to guests that need a referral. Partnerships with local culinary companies or chefs can be great for offering guests cooking classes and the chance to further immerse themselves in the destination’s culture. Not only do these partnerships differentiate the hotel but they also help in building better connections and enhancing the guest experience.

Don’t Mirror your Competition to Sell Just Amenities 

Certainly, the amenities are the comfort zone for travelers and can be a great way to showcase what the room and the hotel have to offer, but it’s important to remember that people aren’t staying at the property because of them. Although some guests may come to relax and enjoy amenities, trends show that more guests are desiring experiences beyond the gates of the hotel. Skift Research reported that activities and tours have been one of the fastest-growing categories for venture-capital investment and raised $935 million in 2018.  Duplicating what your competitors are doing and merely selling features and benefits will create a transactional experience with guests rather than showing the hotel’s personality and how it’s different in a meaningful way. Integrating the brand personality into the hotel operations will tell a story to the guests and will attract the right type of traveler. This means creating an emotional experience for guests, beyond just providing a place for them to sleep like a Motel 6 would. Showcase and bring to life the depth of the customer experience, more than just with amenities, features and benefits.

Market to your Most Profitable Guest

We see more often than not that the hotels we work with have some consistent marketing strategies that work yet they’re unaware of who their most profitable guest is and where to reach them. The most profitable guest is usually the least tailored to, though they drive the most performance to the hotel. Understanding who these people are and how to attract them will enable the hotel to stand out, boost brand equity, and will ultimately allow the hotel to charge more because of the reputation created. Because of the psychographic and demographic of these individuals, servicing this niche will cause a ripple effect of referrals and repeat visitors. Showcasing the brand personality and attracting the right type of guests will also help weed out high maintenance, less profitable guests. Taking a deeper dive into who these profitable guests are is critical to being able to market to them and similar audiences.

Personalize your Marketing to Each Customer Persona

That most profitable customer might have multiple customer personas from the individual female, to the married female, to the empty nester. We need to acknowledge that people are at different points of inspiration in their life and not all marketing needs to be one size fits all. If not, only one customer audience will be reached and others will be ostracized. Tailoring the experience for each of them enables the brand to attract and retain each guest to meet them where they’re at, and have their needs be heard. Because the hotel will be able to serve multiple needs, it’s important to emphasize what that looks like for each of these different customers and acknowledge that can happen at different inflection points through the customer journey. Creating four to seven customer personas for the most profitable guests and revisiting the customer journey micro-moments will ultimately yield a higher conversion rate as a result of understanding your audience. The second benefit of this is the ability to acknowledge that everyone has personal needs and that the brand will be able to tailor their online experience for them before they even step foot on property.  It’s essential that the same attention to detail is carried out through the entire customer journey so that everyone doesn’t receive the same generic experience. Ensure that the same intentionality and purpose is carried over offline and to the property. 

Lean into your Brand ID & Aesthetics

In order to create a cohesive aesthetic throughout the customer journey touchpoints, carry out the designs of the hotel property architecture across platforms. Consider the stylistic elements that were chosen for the hotel whether it be color, aesthetic themes, textures, boxed versus curvy lines, etc. We have found that carrying out these design elements to the online experience is one of the best ways to increase brand affiliation. We recommend potentially honing in on two or three of these stylistic elements and translating them digitally without overdoing or diluting them. Because human nature is visual, the brand, menus, and brochures are immediately associated with the hotel and everything that stands behind the brand, without needing to necessarily see a logo. By aesthetically translating these components to have consistency and congruence, customers are able to identify and continue to build that brand story with each and every one of those impressions. Carrying the hotel’s design elements into the menus, elevators, and welcome packets really helps to reinforce the brand and the customer experience for visitors.

 Support Local Efforts & Harness Cause Marketing

Guests want to feel involved and like they’re contributing to a bigger impact. Doing so by supporting local and harnessing cause marketing will create visibility and transparency. Showing that the hotel donates $5 of every booking or even every night to a local charity is a great way to show that the hotel is giving back to the community. These local charities could be agricultural efforts, sustainability programs, beach cleanups and more. Supporting the local ecosystem and culture is undoubtedly a way to pull on the heartstrings of customers and to make a larger impact beyond just the footprint of the hotel and employees itself.  You’ll find more brand equity and buy-in from the community at large by supporting these initiatives. Choosing a cause that is near and dear to the hotel will perpetuate wanting to create that impact and see the business grow to further amplify those efforts. It’ll drive the hotelier and the team to reach those goals and there will be increased motivation from staff as there’s a bigger impact to contribute to.

Leverage Video to Share Your Story

Video is a great way to effectively and simply share the brand personality values and to build transparency and trust with guests. We’re so diluted with messages that now customers are really able to intuitively decipher what is within their brand alignment and what is quite frankly not true. Because people are now saturated with spam and messages, their radar is insanely acute to what is real and genuine. Video is incredible at being able to translate that sentiment, emotion, and transparency of who the hotel is to a guest and can tell the brand’s story on its behalf 24/7. It’s important to be very clear and intentional with video because if done poorly, video can be detrimental and will negate the brand in the eyes of the guests rather than enhance it. Having a clear strategy and a desired outcome for the viewers of the video will help prevent that from happening. Having the end in sight before even the pre-production process is critical to effectively sharing the brand’s story and differentiating it from others in the landscape.

Make Social Media “Social” Again

The initial intention of social media was to be a two-way street to create a dialogue and social engagement between two parties, and to have media, photos, videos, podcasts, or otherwise be the means at which to keep in that conversation. Over time, it’s become diluted and without intention and strategy, it very easily becomes a one-way conversation where brands are speaking to customers instead of with customers. Taking the time to draw out what a social media strategy looks like that is able to engage the customer to buy in and to solicit that feedback to have them share their experience on the property with their network will increase the hotel’s exposure and is really critical to differentiating the brand. If all hotels just posted the same beautiful shots of their rooms, it wouldn’t matter where customers really went. Social media is an extension of the brand to tell its story or about the impact its making. It’s also an invitation for the guests to share and do the same on its behalf. Engagement is the most critical component for social media to further drive the brand equity and buy-in of the brand.

Build & Harness Your Employment Brand

A great way to showcase the hotel’s culture and to differentiate from competitors in the industry is by building a strong employment brand strategy. Employer branding is how a company or hotel presents itself to current and prospective employees. Creating an employer brand strategy will filter employees who resonate and align themselves with the same company values. Clearly articulating the hotel’s values, mission, and culture will help attract these like-minded employees that care about the brand and who are excited to come to work each day. This will ensure the hotel retains top talent and it will also encourage referrals from employees who love their job and are advocates for the brand. Creating a positive atmosphere and culture within the workplace will also increase staff motivation and morale. Implementing team-building activities are a great way to create a sense of community among the employees and to provide opportunities for open communication. Not only will employees be more efficient, but they will invest more of themselves into the customer experience and will be more personable with guests. An employer brand is key to differentiating the hotel within the hospitality industry to not only guests but to prospective employees as well.

Market & Service the Remote Worker

With the increased flexibility for people to work from home and away from the office, there’s an opportunity for international resorts and boutique hotels to offer an extended-stay option for guests to enjoy all the perks and benefits of a hotel’s amenities, local culture and community, all while working remotely. If done so correctly, accommodating to the remote worker will greatly differentiate the hotel from other competitors in the region. The demands for someone to successfully work remotely differ from those of short-term leisure guests and it’s critical for the hotel’s marketing strategy to reflect the needs of people interested in extended stays. In order to outfit the demands of extended stay guests, hotels will need to modify their current infrastructure. This means extending WiFi throughout the resort, offering community kitchens or kitchenettes for guests to cook, converting conference rooms into office spaces, adjusting wall insulation for privacy, and offering classes or activities for guests to connect and create a sense of community. The hotel and operations will need to modify and adapt if it wants to be relevant and meaningful to this valuable customer but you will see a ripple effect with both its reputation and profits. This trend isn’t going anywhere and it’s an excellent way to differentiate from other hotels in the industry as well as locally. 

Get Local Support from the Community

This is different from local partnerships and cause marketing. Getting local support from the community means exploring how and where the brand can really immerse and integrate itself into the fabric of the local community for that long-term sustainability. Things like farm-to-fork sustainable agriculture programs or other small businesses show community support. Through Covid, we saw this with delivery & pickup food package offers. Going forward, what are other kinds of creative ways to have events that encourage local buy-in. Consider how certain spaces could be used to host events or conferences and take advantage of any local holidays that you could position the brand around to be able to offer a local staycation for people in the region to come and connect. Offering staycations to locals will garner referrals when their friends and family come to visit. Building a positive reputation in the community is critical and when times are tough they’ll be there to support the hotel. It will create a mutually beneficial circle of reciprocity amongst the community. Because of the brand experience and support from the community, it’ll leverage a larger voice at the table and will grow the brand’s social capital.

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Customers have so many options these days that not differentiating yourself in a meaningful way only dilutes the brand and is going to deter customers elsewhere. It’s important to recognize that a little bit of planning and intention goes a long way towards building the brand. Differentiating the hotel is critical to the company’s growth and ultimately to the impact it can have on the guests, staff, and local community. We recognize that this can be a very tough exercise for brands, especially for owners and investors that can be too close to the brand experience. It’s important to look objectively, from an outside perspective to find the key differentiator. It’s almost impossible to do everything at once but SoCap uses a gradual exercise to help our companies work through this process. 

What Hotel Brands Need to Know to Boost Advertising ROI Across Various Digital Marketing Tactics

As an agency, we are often asked what the ROI (Return on Investment) or the ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) is for our digital marketing various services. As we focus on hospitality and e-commerce brands, the customer experiences are very similar in strategy but the technical approach and execution of some of these tactics can vary. The efficiency of these marketing tactics depends drastically on which strategy we use as much as the ROI fluctuates depending on the value and price points of the brands’ products or services sold. In order to bring some transparency and clarity to the equation, we have put together an outline of various strategies and approaches for business owners to have a better understanding and comprehension of how to meet their audience where they’re at and how to most effectively use their marketing dollars, time and energy. Understanding the marketing tools available and their respective ROIs will better enable business owners to get a sense of where in the business lifecycle is best for implementing and using each of these various marketing tools.

In general, the idea of marketing is to meet the customers where they’re at, to speak a language that resonates with them, adds value, differentiates the brand, and to ultimately build trust, loyalty, and advocacy through the customer journey. This customer journey may be a culmination of dozens of micro-moments where a customer first hears about the company, then visits the social media, and then leaves and gets retargeted before ever hitting the website. Each one of these micro-moments is an opportunity to build upon the experience and value the brand has in the eyes of the consumers. Just like how in sales it can take up to eight times for information to be retained by customers, in the buying process we will ultimately use that same process of garnering and building trust with a brand before buying from them. This can be built through things like reviews and testimonials, but ultimately through using multiple touchpoints to be able to reach them. This outline of tactics is segmented into active and passive marketing strategies. These two strategies are going to initiate and perpetuate the brand experience with customers. 

ACTIVE MARKETING STRATEGIES – A “Pull Strategy”

In terms of active marketing strategies, we’re talking about a customer-initiated experience, meaning that they actively sought the brand or product out. These are customers that want a product, service, or solution, and are currently in demand and eager for information. In the buying cycle, they’re currently looking for a need to be fulfilled and are seeking solutions they’ll happily pay for to solve their problem. There are short, mid and long-term approaches to this buying journey and the marketing tactics to reach them. Various ways that these customers are going to search and seek brands out are through Google, by asking Alexa or Siri about services, using the new trend of voice to text, or through online distributor outlets like Amazon, Best Buy or Walmart. 

Pay Per Click (PPC) & Ad Buys –  If we look at the time it takes to build these strategies, stand them up and start seeing results, Pay Per Click is the most time-efficient and is the easiest means to be able to get the business in front of customers. We use the analogy of a helicopter and the preparation of checking all of the control panels and flight paths because it can be a little risky. Even Google professed that a lot of ads that are placed with them are inefficient because they aren’t targeted well enough, resulting in a ton of ad waste. More often than not businesses trying to build this themselves waste ad dollars by not narrowing down the target audience enough because of fear that it limits who they’re in front of. This process is much like throwing darts – we need enough ad impressions, we need enough data to be able to understand the time of day, the user’s location, and the programmatic AI artificial intelligence to know who the right target audience is based on click-throughs and conversions. Look at the best means for optimizing the campaign to get as much return on investment as possible. The ROI is quicker on this strategy because ad spend is turned on and will immediately see impressions and click-throughs. Typically, in our hospitality marketing strategies, paid ads that are branded and tied to a brand or hotel name should see an ROI in the realm of 20x to 40x more, meanwhile general regional searches for hotels like “beachfront hotel in City” don’t yield as high of an ROI, closer to 8x to 16x ROI.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) –  Google’s becoming more complex with thousands of considerations and elements in their algorithm and other search engines are getting more sophisticated too. The fundamentals of SEO and the relevance of a term that someone is searching for a brand or product mirrors being that person in real life. How is the brand the thought leader and expert that it says it is? How much do others see that the brand is the thought leader and expert that it says it is? What’s its track record? How in compliance is the company with playing Google’s game? They want to ensure that the brand is providing the best user experience possible which means components like website design and the user experience, layout, page optimization, speed, mobile, friendly, and being responsive. The big component here is ensuring that the search engines are actually seeing and tracking the evolution of the brand’s website. One of the pitfalls that we see around SEO is that brands will do a lot of creation, social media, email campaigns, PR, marketing tactics that are intended on driving traffic and backlinks that will grow that external validation, however, the search engines never are properly seeing and indexing the brand and its evolution. And thus, these companies aren’t getting the true SEO benefits that they want. This is undoubtedly a longer-term ROI, but when done properly, the long-term ROI can be really effective because of the sustainability. With SEO, there is around-the-clock longevity and visibility to drive people to the brand’s total online presence. 

When people ask what the ROI of SEO is, one of the things we invite them to consider is the cost of their product and its relation to ROI so have them look at how this is evaluated in real estate. Not all real estate is the same footprint, value or cost. If we drive leads organically to a site that sells a million-dollar home versus a half-million-dollar home, the ROI on that is twice as large. It’s really hard to be able to understand unless there’s only one product. However, over time that builds and get leads, and depending on the scale of that, there’s less to pay for that cost per acquisition and the ROI incrementally goes up over time. 

Website Performance & Optimization – For any brand online experience, we’re looking at a practice called Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) which is how to take the user experience someone has on a website and optimize it to reduce clicks to purchase the product, or to do whatever the desired outcome is. We want to guide people intuitively through that process and limit the resistance for them to achieve that. We have to look at the brand’s website’s experience as part of this larger customer experience and marketing strategy and see where it can be enhanced. Once people actually visit the website and have the best experience possible, Google is going to reward it because it will see more people clicking through pages engaging and it will result in a lower bounce rate. It is part of our job as a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer and extension of our client’s brands to refine the customer experience across each of these marketing tools and tactics so the ROI is as optimized as possible to get them to the website. The guest experience doesn’t stop there though. In exploring the guest experience on the website we need to encourage people and guide them through the process to engage with the brand and ultimately buy. Reviewing where guests have bottlenecks in the online experience a brand presents is where we can influence the process and create less resistance through adding Call to Actions, having images or other elements click-through, and refine their experience to drive bookings and sales.

Amazon Optimization –  Amazon is another outlet where customers are going to actively come looking for a brand, product or service that they want. Amazon is a wonderful online outlet and distributor for brands to get additional exposure, convert sales, and to start building some brand awareness. However, it’s not effective at building brand advocacy and loyalty because the customer experience stops at Amazon and doesn’t extend to a brand’s website, social media or newsletters. While it is very convenient and can be a great place to push the brand, we believe it’s just one additional strategy to increase brand/product awareness but it shouldn’t be the only outlet nor the first outlet used. This is because Amazon parallels hotel experiences with Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) in that they “double-dip”. Not only can brands advertise within the category to get more exposure and visibility to people, but then there’s also a commission when they buy which eats into the profit margin more substantially than paying for Pay Per Click. Depending on the product and scale, the margin that Amazon is going to take out of both ads and commissions can be much more significant than other outlets. So, while a great initial place to get visibility and some sales and close, it shouldn’t stand alone. Simply, the ROI with Amazon is going to be less than other marketing tactics. 

PASSIVE MARKETING STRATEGIES  – A “Push Strategy” 

As it relates to passive marketing strategies, the key component to understand is that these tactics are for more broad brand awareness and this is a “push strategy” to get a company in front of those that otherwise wouldn’t see it. These passive marketing strategies involve tactics like social media, email blasts, referral and loyalty mechanisms, traditional marketing, and public relations. The ROI of these efforts is, in general, way harder to derive because they’re a lot more ambiguous and historically harder to track eyeballs and impressions value. Luckily, with some of the innovation and technology today, there are some really unique tools that we’ll be able to help track more effectively. It’s not nearly as black and white as the active marketing strategies and looking more globally at the marketing will strengthen the ROI and isolate certain strategies. 

Social Media Marketing – Social media is a critical component because companies aren’t just presenting their brand online to the globe but also are interacting with their customers, prospects, and communities in general on their behalf or through influencers. Thus, depending on who is representing the brand we have categorized these into the Brand, Customers, and Influencers efforts to help clarify and delineate the respective ROIs.

Brand: As a brand, there’s a need to push out a social media content strategy and look at ways to make social media more engaging and valuable to the customer experience. Social media helps to really show more of the brand personality, a day-to-day update of what is happening, and engagement with its community of users. Social also enables the ability to have pixels on the website to see where customers came from and track the various type of conversions they can make in the customer journey. While brands are able to track click-throughs and purchases, the ROI of these efforts are still very ambiguous because it depends on how much time or money brands spent and if they hired a marketing agency or a social media director internally and actually attributing social media as the sole cause of conversion and not the whole brand experience they had online. Knowing the customer’s interactions lets us know that they’re part of a larger customer experience.

Influencers: For brands influencers, are much easier to be able to track because of the ability to have unique affiliate or referral links. These allow us to track how effective the influencer promotion was, how many people clicked on the links, how often a code was used, and if those people converted. There are many really influential, impactful people with very small followings because they have a really high engagement and a lot of social capital with their following. Don’t discredit someone that has only 30,000 Followers because they could have a really great rapport with their audience that will engage and click through, especially for niche topics or activities.

Customers: Lastly, the brand needs to take into consideration that customers also are posting and tagging products and experiences with geolocations or hashtags, which needs to be accounted for in evaluating social media ROI. Companies may not have been the one who created the content but are benefiting from client acquisition from former patrons. This is part of the overall brand experience and online presence that needs to be considered as to how it boosts the ROI. Generally, social media over time, as a brand grows, as its adoption grows, and community and loyalty grows, the ROI will become increasingly higher. So, understand that the ROI of social in the beginning is going to be a lot different for the brand than after a couple of years. What’s being put forth towards it will grow respectively and proportionally.

Email Marketing –  Email has evolved a lot as well. Because of businesses sending emails rather than traditional mail, Outlook, Google, and other service providers have created a lot of spam filters. Despite this, email can still be very effective from a hotel or eCommerce perspective if there’s have a really great strategy that keeps customers opening them for daily products, new offers or sales, and to just keep a pulse of what’s going on. Being able to have an effective email strategy means looking at it in this larger stack of the customer. Look at what ways to disrupt and add value to the customer experience through emails, rather than just saturating them with stuff they don’t care about. When looking at it from an engagement perspective with the customer base, it’s going to get a better ROI, more clicks, and Google will reward it for the experience the company created.

Referral & Loyalty Marketing – Referral and loyalty marketing is similar to Word of Mouth and leverages brand advocates that promote the brand or product because of the experience that it created for them. While word of mouth marketing is one of the best ways to build rapport for the brand, it’s also one of the hardest to track until it start digitizing it. It’s important to look at ways to empower customers with text messages, images, promotional offers and other ways that customers can share the brand experience with friends. We can also start to look at means and mechanisms to incentivize and take care of the customers as a value exchange and without necessarily putting more money in their pocket. By adding more value to them, it’s going to expand the opportunity for them to share the company with others that might be in need of it when the time is right. Because this is a push approach it’s imperative to look at all of these holistically rather than operating in silos. Customers are going to have multiple of these customer experiences and it’s important to ensure that each minor moment is positive in order to garner that referral when the time is right. For ROI, the costs of this are minimal and might just include a design for a flyer or a text message to share, but it’s important to recognize that it is going to be more difficult to track. Although not possible to track 100%, a few modern technologies exist to help.

Traditional – In traditional marketing for things like magazine ads, newspapers, TV commercials, billboards, and bus stop ads, we are tracking impressions. This means tracking how many people drove down the road and saw the billboard, how many people watched the commercial on TV, how many magazines are left at the end of the month out of the total distribution, etc. This gives advertisers an understanding of how many eyeballs they’re getting in front of. This doesn’t necessarily convey a translation to sales but it’s critical for building brand recognition, awareness, and associating the brand with certain publications that can leverage social capital. However with QR codes, now we are able to have unique codes per outlet so we can have the same ad placed in different media and can see how many people are clicking through a certain landing page or product offer. This gives the ability to compare outlets and find the highest optimal ROI.

Public Relations – Public relations is important for associating the brand to a predominant, primary influential media outlet and getting the distribution in front of a tailored audience. This could be a regional newspaper or niche magazines. The idea is to be able to get the product in front of an audience that already has a curated interest in it. These media outlets innately have a large audience of people that are already subscribing or purchasing because of the topic of content or industry. Through online distribution, these outlets have the capability to push a lot more material than before and at a much faster frequency than print. Online distributi

on also makes it easier to track impressions, click-throughs, and how people are finding the site. Public relations within media outlets enable targeting to niche groups and earns brands clout because of the connection to an outlet that has high authority and an established reputation within a certain industry. Naturally, people are going to see the business as a thought leader because of the brand alignment with this trade outlet and the association will result in more positive impressions amongst these viewers. The more niche and granular the distribution and association is, typically the better the ROI is going to get because it’s being seen by like-minded individuals that actually care. 

While historically a lot of these strategies operated in silos, the customer experience today transcends many to build the brand to scale and to gain the reputation desired. In order to get that trust, loyalty, and advocacy, there needs to be a comprehensive understanding of each of these. The ROI of each of these strategies will vary and will increase throughout the evolution of the campaign. As all of these components build concurrently, it will be building brand equity and association which is invaluable. Ultimately it can be measured at the next business exit, looking at the EBITA multiplier, to whoever the next highest bidder is who is going to buy the business. As clarity and a strategy is found for this, the ROI is going to go up because the return on ad spend and the cost per acquisition will go down. By driving that gap of profitability, it’s going to be able to position the brand upon sale at a higher multiplier. These strategies may also be used as stepping stones as there is a right time and place to use each. These principles are important to understand so business owners can decide what tactics to explore and what conversations you should be having with your agency on how to develop a growth strategy that reflects this for the brand. 

View SoCap’s Full Capabilities Deck PDF here

The Best Ways your Boutique Hotel or Resort can Attract & Tailor your Property to Today’s Digital Nomad (with or without Extended Visa Programs)

Employers and employees worldwide have recently been forced to work out of their home offices as a result of the global COVID pandemic. On the bright side, this empowerment has reinforced that in today’s global economy many of us can work wherever we would like so long as our goals and deliverables are still achieved for our employers. As a result, today’s hoteliers are working to develop extended visa programs and tourism incentives with their respective governments to allure and attract today’s digital nomads to work remotely in their destination. However, these very attractive programs and lifestyles are not getting the adoption they are looking for. So what seems to be the bottleneck and problem here?

While the notion and concept of a remote job in a beautiful white sandy beach somewhere sounds perfect in theory, the obstacles for government agencies with these programs is to more easily facilitate and guide visitors through the process. Educating and illuminating guests by “showing, not telling” what this active digital nomad lifestyle entails just as hotels do from a consumer standpoint is key to increasing accessibility and adoption of these extended stay programs. For foreign government agencies and hotels alike, the opportunity for more reliable and sustainable income in tax revenue is extremely attractive. Additional benefits to the destinations are more visibility for more short-term tourism on one end of the equation, as well as the opportunity for new business, citizenship and long-term infrastructure development through remote workers enhancing the global connectivity and enhancements in these destinations. To achieve these outcomes, a similar consumer-first-oriented approach needs to be taken, especially given that these affluent individuals are more familiar with a concierge-style of approach than the historical digital nomad that has been more of a backpacker on a budget. The following recommendations are critical characteristics of a campaign to assist hoteliers, resorts and government agencies alike in increasing the adoption of extended-stay visa programs.

Guide them through the Process

As a result of COVID and consumers online shopping more regularly, their expectations around an online experience have been enhanced. Providing seamless experiences and a customer journey of micro-moment after micro-moment that leads them to your desired outcome, in this case applying for an extended visa program or booking a longer duration at your hotel, is essential to show the thoughtfulness and intention to their needs. Building trust, providing information and showing, not merely telling, is critical to building consumer confidence around how to adopt and live this lifestyle abroad. Having an application form or synopsis isn’t sufficient anymore, especially when tailoring to a more affluent audience. It is critical to nurture and shepherd consumers through the process. Just as if a guest were to stay at your hotel and in their research process they want to know about the area, culture, activities, food and more. Today’s eager and anxious employees are seeking to travel abroad for extended periods of time, but need this and learn guidance and information. More thorough and robust know before you go documents, checklists, cultural information and integration of resources are imperative to reinstill consumer confidence and alleviate concerns for these perspectives travelers.

Create Visibility & Transparency about the Lifestyle

While the allure of working remotely is extremely attractive for individuals quarantined and eager to gain life and cultural experiences, there is not enough information or visibility into exactly what this lifestyle looks like for them to take that leap of faith. Through videos, testimonials, resources and social media, companies and government agencies are able to show prospective travelers what this remote working lifestyle entails. Bringing to life what it takes to secure healthcare, legal counsel, local SIM cards for your cell phone, or access to local gyms and community activities alleves traveler’s concerns by showcasing many of the unknown and uncharted components to traveling for months at a time. 

Since these guests are looking to increase their quality-of-life and play proportionally more in these communities, illuminating tips and tricks for productivity and how to effectively work abroad is meaningful to these guests as well. Sharing software that increases efficiency and productivity, time management resources or means to collaborate efficiently from a mobile device with the rest of your team are great mechanisms to reinforce hell in today’s global marketplace employees true we can work from anywhere.

Set Expectations for Travelers

Extended travels for weeks or months on end is an anomaly for many travelers. Typically an extended weekend or week is the extent of mini guests travels and a whole different ball game than living abroad for many months, potentially longer. The cultural integration and adoption of this lifestyle brings some drastic changes to their quality of life. Providing resources and setting expectations for travelers about what healthcare, grocery shopping, cultural norms and manners, etc. in your country entails will prove beneficial. For many, they might not recognize accessibility to just purchase any product off Amazon that isn’t readily available in your country. They will need to take inventory of their needs and bulk up on them upon our return to the states or pay to have them be shipped and taxed upon their entry. Equally, travelers shouldn’t expect to sign a lease or move into a place month-to-month upon arrival. Staying at a coworking hotel, such as Selena Hotels, for a week or two to get a lay of the land, which part of town they really want to reside in and fits their needs is important in the first few weeks to truly get their bearings and set themselves up for an ideal experience in your country. While there are many more expectations that should be reset and brought to light for prospective visitors, the important thing is to note them and not have guests be surprised or not have resources to navigate these potential concerns.

Provide Access to Local Resources

While larger online travel agencies such as Hotels.com or TripAdvisor can be a wonderful resource for what activities and destinations to see in a region, they certainly are not the end-all. Many of the day-to-day things in our culture are so integrated with retake for advantage as we have our systems in place around them. For new visitors and guests to your country, many of these day-to-day mundane things can be a nuisance if not properly handled. It is a good idea to provide resources and checklists for your future digital nomads. Some of the common things that are important to share with a foreigner seeking to get integrated into your community or things like the adoption of local currency versus their domestic ones, healthcare plans, banking, legal and even things like daycare for families. ‘Know before you go’ documents about the weather, seasonality shifts, local aesthetics and attire, transportation by bike, taxi, bus or otherwise can be extremely beneficial in educating visitors and helping them more seamlessly navigate a positive experience. Make thorough lists around these common categories, your destinations and lifestyle components that prospective guests can use to curb their learning curve about your area and better get immersed into the culture.

Facilitate Integration into the Community

Just because someone is willing to take this leap of faith that they are an extrovert or can easily befriend locals in the community. Facilitate local mentors, chaperones or champions of the area that can be a further resource to answer questions that emerge for these digital nomads. Remote Year did a wonderful job at having these individuals with knowledge about the area at the discretion of their guests as they traveled from destinations to destinations. Similar to a concierge or front desk at a hotel, these individuals can bolster the community, integrate and provide other resources to enhance the overall guest’s experience.

Where else can people get involved in the community? Outside of accessing the local gym, yoga studio or beach workout, what can digital nomads do to get integrated into the community? How and where are their resources to get involved in local nonprofits, teaching English, sharing their trade, craft or skill with the local community at large? Remote workers are wanting the experience of all of the incredible destinations and sites you have to offer but equally powerful is providing a gateway to help bridge them with the locals and harness all of the intellectual property, knowledge and culture they are also bringing to your community.

Leverage Current Nomad’s Stories & Connection

While last in this list, it certainly does not mean it is of least importance. In actuality, harnessing other testimonials and experiences from guests is one of the most impactful ways to garner trust and instill confidence in prospective visitors. Just as at any corporate organization or hierarchy, a top-down approach at times can be appropriate and beneficial and the experience and insight from a fellow peer or colleague in other circumstances can carry the same if not more weight. Documenting and showcasing other digital nomads that have an opportunity to share their experience, nuances, tips and tricks, and hidden gems of your country can be a great way to not only increase adoption and engagement with the program but enroll them to be advocates and champions for this cause as well. Identify a handful of remote workers with different experiences, backgrounds, industries they represent and carefully crafted a subset of questions to clean their perspective and insights for other remote worker’s benefits and to leverage as an organization as well.

Whether you are an international boutique hotel, resort/destination marketing organization, tourism agency or government-affiliated entity, Social Capital Agency is developing various programs, checklists and a digital Nomad series in conjunction with Shelby Nick to help navigate this process for organizations and travelers alike. For more information on how to implement these practices and procedures into your organization, set up a discovery call with our team and we’d be happy to provide some more strategic directions deployment or have our team do some of the heavy lifting for you.

The Most Important Checklist Any Marketing Director Should be Doing to Promote the Hotel Property.

As COVID subsides, hotels worldwide are struggling to revive themselves. It’s become evident that, particularly within the travel and hospitality industry, a new standard of care is expected, and company-wide revisions must be made. While a full recovery is certainly possible, hotels must continue to be proactive in their efforts, and take the steps necessary to best position themselves for the return of travel.

With the current pause on travel and a rebound in travel demand on the horizon, there is an opportunity for hotels to take advantage of this time and use it to edit and refine their strategies, policies, and marketing tools. Best positioning your hotel for a full and efficient recovery doesn’t necessarily involve significantly dropping room rates. There are a multitude of steps you can take to best optimize this time and set your hotel up for success.

Outlined below, you’ll find our suggested steps to help you re-assess and revise your communications, marketing efforts, relationships with other local businesses, and employee experience. With efforts focused in these areas, your hotel will inevitably maximize its revenue.

Messaging & Client Communications

Refine your messaging to effectively communicate with your current clientele and network

• Update collateral and website with your sanitization practices & procedures
• In high-traffic and exposure areas post the corresponding sanitization messaging for guest safety with liquid hand sanitizer stations 

PRO TIP: These can be branded for your hotel or even an event

• Reengage your vendors, strategic partners, travel agencies, and sales teams with time-sensitive appropriate messaging to have them be aware of your opening dates, times, and procedures to relay to their clients and prospects
• Adjust messaging for Sales Department to reengage events, group bookings, and conferences
• Explore how to adjust incentives and promotions
  PRO TIP: Do NOT just lower pricing, explore other ways to add incremental value to their experience & increase the length of stay or group size 
• New Branded Assets. Aside from waters & hand sanitization stations, what is new that you can brand or enhance the guest experience with your brand association?

Digital Marketing 

Remain active and empathetic on marketing fronts and update your online presence accordingly 

• Creative should reflect the experience they are going to enjoy, not just a price and promotion
• Multiple types of creative will be needed for different mindsets as well as where they are in their research and buying journey as this is now extended before they commit
• Bring transparency to the property’s new cleaning standards via the website in a banner, pop up, badge or seal of verification, etc.
• Campaign Type
• Target Location – this may need to change, focus on more regional traffic and review previous traffic trends of high traffic geographics that converted to isolate new campaigns
• Frequency & Time of Retargeting – Consumers are going to be in the Research stage for some time, explore expanding your retargeting time, number of touchpoints, offering via different creative in the customer journey etc.
• Website Experience – reduce clicks, important traveler information, local contact or
• Explore providing a Real-time Chat feature to your website to speak with someone at your front-desk or sales team about questions they have
• Create high-touch points following the acquisition as well via email notifications for experiences to tailor their trip and collect as much customer data as possible

A Localized Rally Cry

Team up with local businesses in an effort to leverage your destination. 

• Messaging for the Region or Location that is experiential for visitors to the hotels & resorts
• Creative that highlights the area, activities, culture & food and beverage over just the properties
• Unite in pricing and promotions, discounts and services so that everyone wins
  PRO TIP: Look at how quickly airlines increased their pricing and their strategy to mirror yours around value, not discounts
• Collaborate with tours, activities, and local events (when possible) to increase engagement and duration of stay. Otherwise, how is it possible to promote adjacent towns and travelers traveling locally to multiple destinations?

Internally to Employees

Change starts within. Consider revising your employee’s experience within your company. 

• Update health care policies, internal procedures & best practices for employees in collateral, work logs, etc
• Revised PDF’s and Video Training focusing on streamlining procedures and training
• A dynamic Sales & Marketing Plan that each department has transparency into their initiatives & how to collaborate to achieve the properties goals
  PRO TIP: Work in a 90-Day Year format off Smart Goals to be able to be agile & hit KPI’s more quickly. If you need help with this contact us to update your Sales & Marketing Plan (link) to by Dynamic
• Email and Team Meeting Updates – Develop a new Win’s of the Week system to spotlight employees or major initiatives that are going well to boost morale

Contact us for more information on how to best position yourself for a full recovery from COVID. We’d love to connect with you to give you a better understanding of the steps listed above, and share the resources we’ve put together with the International Tourism Resource Network, which was launched as a result of COVID to help hotels get back on their feel through curated events and essential resources.

How to Not Solely Base Your Boutique Hotel’s Re-Engagement Strategy Off of Discounts and Promotions

The repercussions of Covid-19 on the hospitality industry have undoubtedly been devastating. In an effort to mitigate such severe loss, hoteliers are developing their contingency plans. Some of these plans might include slashed prices and massive promotions. While we understand hoteliers are navigating uncharted waters, and decisions to offer discounts are made with the best of intentions, we’re quick to advise against that strategy, as we believe hotels can better position themselves by instead leveraging their worth.

People now, more than ever, are chomping at the bit to travel again. While under the stay-at-home orders, the general public is not immune to wanderlust. And so, many are at home, researching destinations, and accommodations. We are expecting leisure markets, particularly beachside boutique hotels, to rebound first. Because of this, we advise those within that market to think twice before drastically discounting their prices. With an impending and inevitable influx of travelers with this exact market in mind, there is no reason to offer insane deals. 

Once travel becomes a viable option again, it’s imperative that luxury boutique hotels maintain their brand identity. By slashing prices and offering too-good-to-be-true discounts, these hotels start appealing to those outside of their ideal clientele. Attracting the wrong type of clientele weakens brand identity and muddies the target market. As a luxury boutique hotel, you’re likely looking to attract experienced and conscious travelers, guests that are inclined to leave positive reviews, and are considerate of staff and other guests. Additionally, doing so may lower the hotel’s perceived value and set a bad precedent. Please do not sacrifice your quality and integrity here. Know that there will be enough demand that so long as you stay competitive and on the upper tier of pricing provide value and not discount your value, you will rebound faster and stronger. Instead, consider other ways to help incentivize booking to your target market:

Reward for Booking Direct & Large Groups

When guests book directly, hotels are given the opportunity to develop a more personalized relationship with them. You’re communicating with them directly, which gives you the chance to add additional value to their experience. Consider providing gifts upon check-in to those who book directly, whether that looks like a nice bottle of wine, free breakfast, or free parking. Or, as you’re in connection with them prior to their stay, maybe you arrange free airport pick-up for them, or offer them late check-in.

We also suggest incentivizing larger-sized groups. Perhaps their freebies come in the form of a fourth night free, or free upgrades. Other local businesses might be interested in working with you to provide your large groups with discounts. We suggest connecting with local excursions or group tour companies and discussing how you might be able to work together here.

Offering Flexible Booking

Especially during times of uncertainty, offering flexible booking can be another great booking incentive. Allow guests flexibility if they should need to change their dates of arrival within a certain time frame. 

Establish Trust with Your Customers

If you haven’t already integrated drip campaigns in your marketing strategy, now is a great time to do so. These drip campaigns can allow you to maintain customer loyalty through trust points and support organic upsell opportunities. For example, should guests book early on, they might receive updates on events or experiences pertaining to their destination, allowing for higher touch point engagement. This is also a great opportunity to partner with other local companies (think: excursion companies, nightclubs, transportation services) and perhaps provide a discount on booking.

Experiential/Community Marketing

Along with travel, people will be craving connection and experiences more than ever. Consider incorporating local or cultural activities in your space. This could look like art installations or shows, or musical performances. Depending on your clientele and the personality of your hotel, you might take things in the direction of hosting intentional networking events, yoga classes, or even a pool party equipped with a DJ and maybe an extended happy hour. If you’d like to learn more about which kind of events might work for your locations, we’d love to chat with you.

Before offering significant promotions on hotel stays, know that the demand for travel is waiting for us on the other side of this, and discounts aren’t necessarily the answer to you getting there faster. Consider the information above and how you may be able to incentivize customers to stay and get back to good health without lowering your prices or value.

 Measures & Best Practices to Reassure Traveling Guests as the Crisis Subsides

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) has inflicted unprecedented challenges for the hospitality industry. The pandemic’s abrupt impact on the industry has brought with it immense uncertainty and fear among hotel operators and their staff. However, while currently facing a devastating loss, the situation will inevitably improve. What hotels can do now is to prepare for the eventual bounce-back. This is a time that calls for the industry to adapt, adjust, and evolve. Hotels should be taking the necessary steps during this time to ensure that they are in the best position to succeed in moving forward. Below you’ll find the ways in which hotels can be productive and set themselves up for full recoveries. 

Messaging & Positioning to Currently Booked Guests:

Be sure to keep in strong communication with your current and future guests. Guests with upcoming reservations should be directly communicated within a way that eases their minds and reinstills confidence in their guest experience at your hotel. They’re looking to feel assured that your team has effective protocols in place to manage the situation, and that everyone is taking necessary precautions. It is standard right now for hotels to position themselves to relieve any anxieties guests may have about staying with them. Strengthen your messaging by:

• Sending regular email updates as your hotel navigates the situation.
• Highlighting the ways in which you’re going above and beyond in ensuring guest safety.
• Offering insight into new deep cleaning protocols you’ve implemented.
• Outlining how you’re abiding by governmental guidelines to reduce risk. 
• Explaining that current circumstances may affect certain services and amenities that are normally available. 
• Promoting confidence and offering peace of mind to guests by temporarily offering flexible cancellation fees.

Use this correspondence as an opportunity to connect with your guests. Take a genuine approach here rather than having a standard canned response. Maybe it comes from your CEO, and perhaps you include photographs or videos illustrating your efforts. 

Personally Contact Larger Groups to Provide Alternative Plans & Updates:

Be proactive in checking in with your reservations, especially any larger groups. Make sure to share your plan in detail with them (if you don’t have a plan in place, we can certainly help with this). Outline the time frames in which you’ll provide a different percentage of rebates back, and allow for flexible rescheduling. Stay on top of your conversations with them, perhaps asking them when they would like to be communicated with next, and then being sure to set reminders for yourself. 

Developing Reassuring Thought Leadership Content and Improve Marketing Material:

In addition to telling guests how you are taking decisive action to protect your hotel and offer extra support to your employees and guests, go the extra mile and show them. By creating and displaying photo and video content that illustrates this action and support, guests will feel more confident in their decision to keep their reservation standing. This might look like a visual of the hospital-grade disinfectants you’re using, or perhaps a message from your housekeeping team speaking on the measures they’re taking.

Additionally, with far less traffic in your space, this may be an optimal time to strengthen your marketing content. While travel may be at a virtual standstill, it remains imperative to continue marketing your hotel. You may have to adjust your marketing strategies, but they should be active none-the-less. This time might allow for upgraded photo and video marketing material. This crisis will pass, and when it does, the competition will be fierce. Best position yourselves to come out of it strong with elevated photo and video that helps you to stand out.

Plan Ahead – Find Creative Ways to Rebound:

Despite the hardships that this time has inflicted on the hospitality industry, there is an opportunity here to be productive and plan for the future. Consider the ways in which you can take advantage of this time to elevate your business, strategies, and protocols. Consider starting any necessary renovation projects or maintenance upgrades and/or investing time into revamping your online presence. As the situation improves, there will undoubtedly be a surge in travel. What are the steps you can take now to further differentiate yourself from your competition once it is safe to travel again?

Know that we understand the severity of this time and that we are here to offer our support. It’s proving to be an especially difficult situation to navigate, but we are confident that full recoveries within the industry will be made. Should you need assistance solidifying a contingency or re-engagement plan, we’d love to chat with you. 

How to Create a First Impression that Matches the Excellent Experience You Provide

A hotel’s average daily rate (ADR) is one of the most important metrics hoteliers can use to determine the average income per paid occupied room in a given period, ultimately reflecting the hotel’s performance. Finding a hotel’s ADR is rather easy, and can be done simply by dividing room revenue by rooms sold. Increasing ADR however, requires a bit more strategy and dedication to the details of guest satisfaction and online presence. The information listed below serves as a deep dive into the action required to drive more direct bookings and increase ADR by 15%.

1. Optimize & Update Google My Business and TripAdvisor

With TripAdvisor averaging 390 million monthly users, and Google My Business listings bringing in more than 50% of organic traffic to a hotel’s website, it’s imperative your hotel’s online presence is up to date, and highlights the very best of what you offer. For best results, consider:

• • Uploading Quality Photos. Studies have shown that businesses with 30+ photos have 41% more engagement with travelers compared to those with less images. Owner capabilities allow you to upload an unlimited number of photos. Take advantage of this, and choose photos that are high quality and resolution and showcase everything from the number of rooms to the amenities, to the unique experiences and premises. Choose a primary photo that grabs travelers’ attention and accurately represents your hotel.
  • Optimize SEO & keywords. Be mindful of the words and phrases used on your profiles, as they’ll have a direct influence on your ranking. Incorporate specific, natural-sounding target phrases that will lead travelers to your page. Do some research to find the most relevant keywords for your industry. Google Ads is a great resource for this. Be sure to incorporate these keywords into places where both search engines and travelers will find them (think: page titles, headlines, meta tag descriptions).
  • Accurate info: Give potential guests all the information they could possibly need about your property to make an informed decision. Include details of your amenities, price range and property description.

• Manage your reviews. • 95% of travelers read online reviews before they book their accommodation. Knowing this, it’s crucial to acknowledge all responses – both positive and negative – in a positive and constructive manner. Responding to reviews communicates to both previous and prospective guests that you are interested in guest feedback and that you take customer service seriously. 87% of travelers agree that a thoughtful response to a bad review improved their impression of the property. Respond quickly, be courteous and professional, thank the reviewer, address the issue, and highlight the positives.

2. Professional Photos & Video

Professional photography can be the driving reason behind a hotel receiving bookings or not. Photos are front and center of a hotel’s brand and online presence, and should be something hotels are eager to invest in. Quality photography showcasing hotel’s unique selling points leads to 63% click through rate than hotels that have not invested in professional photography. 

Video content is an extremely valuable tool in driving ROI. With 66% of users preferring video content over written content, it’s so important to hone in on your brand through this medium. Video allows hotels to share a detailed look into the hotel, envision themselves there, and also creates a space to build the story of the hotel and provide customers with the feeling of what you’re all about before they commit to a stay.

3. Refresh Website & Optimized for Conversions

Your web presence isn’t a one and done type of thing. It needs to receive regular updates, grooming, and optimization. Help your site rank higher in search engines and perform better for travelers with these tips in mind:

• Analyze your CTAs. Are they easy to find and navigate? Are you using provoking language? Have you considered how your CTA is presented on mobile vs desktop? Be sure to cover all your bases with CTAs, and to tune into their click rates and adjust accordingly.
• Conduct SEO/keyword searches. Hone in on your target audience and think about the verbiage they’re using in their searches. Check out forums related to your business to see what’s being asked and answered, and get a better idea of how you can contribute to the conversation. Take note of the language your audience is using, and implement it into key places on your site (in your URL, page titles, in the alt text of your images). 
• Optimize for mobile. Use a trusted web host, visit your site on your smartphone or tablet and rate your own user experience, test your site’s mobile speed, and know that you may have to redesign some parts of your spite (think pop-ups) for mobile devices.
• Speed up your pages. Even a mere one-second delay on your site could result in 7% loss in conversions. Some of the ways in which you can be sure to increase your site’s speed are by minimizing HTTP requests, running a compression audit, and reducing image sizes.

4. Top Activities and Restaurants in the Area

Destination marketing goes hand and hand with hotel marketing. Travelers want to get a sense of what their day-to-day might look like should they choose to stay with you. Give them the opportunity to see the best activities, restaurants, and attractions listed all in one place by providing a detailed guide with relevant information. 

5. Review & Reputation Management to Create Social Proof

Encourage guests to help you manage your reputation by implementing a clear and simple review practice post-checkout. Keep in mind that the feedback you’re looking for is for your future guests, so be sure to communicate that through your CTAs. With multiple review platforms out there, travelers are more informed than ever. Here are some things to consider when encouraging feedback from guests:

• Facebook has become a leading source of hotel information for travelers, and it couldn’t be easier to retrieve reviews from customers. By simply checking in, or tagging the location on Facebook (an easy request to ask of guests that is perhaps incentivized by a complimentary cocktail or the like), Facebook will automatically send them a message asking if they’d like to review your hotel. Alternatively, consider sending an email upon checkout with a link to your hotel’s Facebook page and gently ask guests to leave a review if they’ve had a positive experience. 
• 81% of people prefer to use Google for hotel searches, making Google reviews extremely important when it comes to reigning in more bookings. While Google reviews are crucial to hotels, writing them can be a bit of a process. To make things easier on your guests, create a custom link for your guests to leave reviews on your Google My Business page, and link to it directly in emails and communications to guests post-stay.
•  Even with social media and the many travel platforms out there, TripAdvisor remains the number one travel review site. Its review express tool allows hotels to send out messages to guest’s emails requesting reviews post-checkout. Automatic reminders are sent to those who haven’t responded. 
• Go the extra mile and offer something special upon checkout like goodbye gifts and heartfelt thank you emails delivered promptly after checkout. 

Increasing your Average Daily Rate can feel daunting, but by following the steps detailed above, you’ll be well on your way to a significant increase in ADR and overall performance.

How the Hospitality Industry is (going to have to) Adjusting to Consumer Demand

It’s no secret that with more people traveling than ever, the hospitality industry is quickly evolving. To keep up with customer expectations, independent and boutique hotels are expected to go above and beyond in their interactions with guests, the quality of their spaces, and their unique offerings. Gone are the days of hotels being just a place to rest your head. Hotels are quickly evolving to feel more like a home away from home, fully equipped with personalized amenities to make guests feel like more than just their confirmation number. Outlined below are some of the approaches boutique hotels are starting to take to elevate their guest experience to the next level and keep up with the consumer’s evolving needs.

1. Experiential Marketing 

By offering experiential marketing activities, boutique and independent hotels are creating a hotel stay that doubles as a memorable experience. Today’s target clientele (hello, millennials) largely place more value on experiences rather than things. Hotels are creating an immersive experience by offering an “all in one” package that transforms the traditional hotel stay to a unique and authentic experience that guests will remember. Experiential marketing can look like anything from adventure tours and excursions, to live music, to pop up events featuring local vendors. Whatever shape or form it comes in, experiential marketing is at the forefront of today’s hospitality trends.

2. Sustainable Travel

With today’s consumers being more eco-conscious than ever, sustainable travel is rapidly developing from a trend into a global priority. The implementation of an eco-friendly approach is presenting itself in a myriad of ways. It’s becoming standard to see hotels taking a paperless approach, offering food grown onsite, eliminating single-use plastic, minimizing water usage and energy, and the integrating the “three-zero-concept”, an architectural strategy which uses local construction materials and skills, prioritizes energy management and lowers emissions.

3. Local Art 

Hotels are getting more location-specific with their properties, with each location visually and thoughtfully reflecting its place in the world. The curation of local art, whether in the form of installations, murals, or a visual narrative is undoubtedly a rising trend. Hotel spaces are serving as seamless extensions of its destination, many of them leaning into this trend completely and doubling as a museum. This seemingly subtle trend is effective as it not only enhances the ambiance feel of the space, but also helps hotels to stand out amongst competition as they lend themselves to this form of experiential marketing.

4. Micro-Moments Matter

It really is the little things, especially when it comes to boutique hospitality. Every touchpoint from the moment a guest considers booking a stay to after they check out are significant and should be handled in an effective and personalized manner. It’s all about anticipating a guests needs, and knowing what they want before they realize it. There are many ways for hotels to stand out in this department. Offering helpful information regarding check-in and hotel details days prior to a guest’s stay is important, but expected. To exceed expectations and assist guests in a more personal way, hotels might include a guide to the area with genuine recommendations, offer airport transportation and the connection to a local host. Upon check-in, guests should promptly be given the wifi password and made aware of any pertinent information regarding their stay. Onsite staff should be ready to use customer’s names when assisting them. Guests should be engaged every step of the way, and post-checkout is no exception. Engagement following their departure should be gracious and delivered promptly. More hotels are adopting a 1-tap guest survey where guests can quickly leave feedback in a single tap embedded into the body of the check-out email.

5. Health and Wellness

The wellness industry is another rapidly growing space to watch, especially as it goes hand in hand with travel and hospitality. Hotels are beginning to incorporate health-based approaches and amenities. The ways in which hotels are integrating wellness into their spaces vary from innovative technology, such as on-site gyms are being replaced with on-demand fitness, where guests can work out in the comfort of their own rooms to more traditional amenities like on-site yoga and meditation classes. Additionally, hotel menus are evolving to offer healthy whole foods and juices. Many places are starting to adopt – or upgrade their luxury amenities such as outdoor fire pits and steam rooms. 

6. Social Media

Social Media undoubtedly plays an essential role for brands these days, and the hospitality industry is no exception. With 97% of Millenials posting their travels to social media, it’s become an extremely effective marketing tool. Instagram, in particular, is at the forefront of hotel marketing with its over 1 billion monthly active users and 500 million daily active users. It allows them to create a perfectly curated portfolio of their spaces and guest moments to visually communicate the unique experience of staying there. Additionally, with Instagram stories and IGTV, hotels are able to better communicate their personality and connect with today’s modern traveler.

With social media comes influencer marketing. Luxury hotels are working with travel influencers to showcase the most attractive attributes of their properties on their blogs and user-generated content. Word of mouth marketing via influencers on social media has surpassed the traditional self-promotion approach hotels were previously taking.

7. Mobile Apps and Digital Trends

The digital revolution has, unsurprisingly, majorly impacted the hospitality world. With guests being ever-connected, hotels have the opportunity to optimize efficiency for both staff and guests. Mobile integration and hotel apps are becoming increasingly more popular, as they allow guests to easily check their details, instantly connect with hotel staff, and create a smoother reservation. The implementation of mobile apps is taken a step further by adopting push notifications with information about the guest’s stay, and real-time in-app messaging. Options like early check-in, access to special offers, room service, requests for dining or spa services, and check out all make for a streamlined experience for both parties.

Hospitality is one of today’s fastest evolving industries. The expectations of guests are constantly shifting and growing, making it imperative that hotels stay one step ahead of trends. While the implementation of the trends listed above may seem daunting, breaking them down to realize it’s all about the customer’s experience might make them simpler to integrate. Have you noticed any other rising trends within the industry? We’d love to hear about them!

What marketing in the hospitality industry can learn from six human needs.

Each and every one of us enjoys high-quality, memorable experiences, both big and small. With the rise of technology connecting us faster than ever before, we are craving connection to both each other and to the moment. 

Today’s entertainment companies know that harnessing the desire for connection and experience drives sales and engagement. Movies and music connect with consumers emotionally and encourage social connection, too. The hospitality industry can take a page from the entertainment industry playbook, designing experiences that cater to fundamental human needs. 

There are six deep human needs that may be the key to consumers hearts. Despite the rise of short-term stays like VRBO and AirBnB, hotels have an opportunity to niche down and create unforgettable experiences that provide more value.

Through our social capital approach, we look to human behavior and the underlying themes that the hospitality industry can capitalize on today. One way we do this is by designing marketing plans that cater to six human needs: certainty, variety, significance, connection, growth and contribution. There’s a competitive edge when companies provide unforgettable experiences to their guests that are created with human nature in mind.

The Emotional Recipe for Incredible Experiences

A Story or Emotional Arc (Certainty) 

Your customer’s journey is a story that requires key points of inflection to keep them engaged. Without a strong customer journey, brands are likely to lose their strategic position as a guide. Instead, customers will disengage and find their own source of entertainment. 

Like a movie or music, the collective branded touchpoints should be leading customers through an emotional arc. This draws people in and keeps them excited, anticipating what’s going to happen next. In the entertainment industry, transitions are deliberately thought through. Performances like Cirque du Soleil or the Blue Man Group hold the audience’s attention using the structure of a story: rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.

People anticipate having a luxury experience when they travel. The whole organization is responsible for creating memorable moments for their guests. An off-putting interaction with an employee, a missed traveling opportunity or a seemingly unimportant brochure that has the wrong event date leaves an impression on the customer — the experience is not valued. It breaks up the emotional arc and creates choppy transitions between experiences.

Successful brands that understand the customer journey create emotional arcs by continually providing experiences that will guide the customer seamlessly, engaging them with the brand in a more meaningful way. Each micro-moment adds up — it’s important for brands realize this. 

Hotels and their management groups should focus on making the most important parts of the journey not just memorable, but unforgettable. Customers remember the beginning and end far more than anything in the middle, so the rising action and resolution of experiences should be especially thoughtful. 

It’s imperative to be a step ahead in anticipating what customers will need online, as well as off. This could include upselling a room on your website, email sequences for events happening that weekend or even having drinks available for transportation to and from the hotel.

Hype and Anticipation (Variety) 

Think back to your favorite childhood vacation. The excitement leading up to the trip is what made the experience so exciting. You might have seen some advertisements on TV, videos online or heard your parents talking about travel plans. 

The hype we have around an event or experience comes from having a general idea about what we’re getting into, but with details left to the imagination. This uncertainty is where either anxiety or excitement stems from.

The entertainment industry has perfected the art of suspense. We see movie trailers that give us the highlights but still draw us in without closure to the story. The same concept can be leveraged by the hospitality industry to create excitement before a guest even books or sets foot on the property. 

You can guide customers’ imaginations through photography and videos of the property, amenities, services, nearby locations and other adventures. The key here is to only provide enough information through a perspective that allows the visitor to see themselves there.

As humans, we want to fantasize about what the experience will look like for ourselves. Depicting the lifestyle and a variety of different types of experiences is key here for allowing prospective visitors to understand the range of possibilities that exist, and identify which of those they resonate with.

Deep, Meaningful Engagement (Significance) 

Consumers desire meaningful connection, and technologies are providing that faster than ever. The internet has created a pathway for individuals to connect with brands on a more personal level. It’s now expected that brands respond directly to reviews, send proper email updates and support an active social media presence. However, brands can go much further through meaningful human connection that enhances the customer experience. 

When was the last time a hotel called you before your stay to confirm you had the address and could drop off your bags before your check in time? A few minutes of effort from the front desk in those transition times can create an entirely different experience for your guests and show them that you care, before they arrive at the property. How often does this happen? 

There are the same standard operating procedures to welcome a guest, but has your hotel gone above and beyond to anticipate guest needs? If not, we can help you. For example, we recognize that guests are always looking for a Wi-Fi password upon entering the room. At SoCap, we encourage our clients to use a textbase technology to send their guests the Wi-Fi password upon checking in. The same technology can be used to communicate when the guests need fresh linens, send them a feedback polls or even ask for reviews. 

We know that consumers are likely to check their phones within one minute of receiving a notification — a much quicker and more reliable way to communicate with guests. All of these little micro-moments provide value to guests and differentiate their experience from others. It’s through these moments that your perceived value and reputation is continuously developed, while building trust, loyalty and advocacy from your patrons.

It’s Remarkable and Worth Sharing (Connection)

The root of remarkable is remark, which means “mention of that which deserves attention or notice.” As business owners, we’re often very innovative and come up with a variety of solutions to a problem. Where we consistently see campaigns, initiatives, or products fall short, is in answering one question: Would I want that?

If the answer isn’t a resounding, “Hell yeah,” then we would encourage you to take a closer look at your concept. How can you provide real value and connect with customers on a deeper level?

In entertainment, connection is one of the primary considerations creators look at to ensure they are providing meaningful value to their clients. In hospitality, we often see that there is intention in experiences, but there are often missed opportunities. Brands that are truly thriving today have taken the time to dig deeper, understanding what differentiates the individual experience throughout the customer journey and executing on it.

Pause for Effect – Hold the Curtains for the Staff (Growth and Contribution)

People often yearn to travel because of the opportunity to meet new people, experience new things and ultimately grow from the journey and new perspective. These needs can be fulfilled for travelers and employees alike. Employees take opportunities in the travel industry to grow and share those common experiences, serving in a way they feel impacts their lives too.

In a theater, we invite all of the staff and crew that participated in the show to be recognized at the end of a performance. During any consumer experience, when there is human acknowledgment towards the guest or the employees that brought these experiences to life, we notice it — we applaud. But there is so much more that we can do, and it goes a long way.

Handwritten thank-you notes the day of your departure or memorable photos sent to the customer’s home can be great ways to meaningfully differentiate your company. Having bar, floor, or food and beverage managers out engaging with the public also goes a long way in creating a more personal guest experience.

Observing the recent change in consumer behavior, especially towards experiential services and products, we get excited about how brands can continuously increase the value they provide their customers. Hotels in the hospitality industry today have the chance to pivot, adapt, and get ahead of this trend, truly becoming the thought leaders in creating immersive, experiential moments, both online and off, for their guests and employees.

If you are curious about what this could look like for your hotel, we invite you to use our contact form to set up a free consultation and explore how we can partner and help you stand out amongst the crowd.

View our approach to hospitality marketing via a case study we put together for one of our previous clients, The Carmen Hotel.