Maximize Your Hotel Distribution System
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Hotel jobs can be hard to come by in this economy, but if you maximize your hotel distribution system, you can both make things more profitable for you, and provide jobs for those who need them, too. Here are some ways to maximize your hotel destination system, so that you increase your profits and “get the word out” that rooms are available.
• Design a website that’s going to pop
Today, you don’t have to know a lot of code or be a website master in order to be a webmaster. As long as you know some marketing basics and can incorporate them into one of the easy to use website template packages on the market, you can have an online presence that’s going to really sell rooms for you.
When you build your website, make sure that you research how search engines work and then optimize your website for them. Make sure you use textual content to your benefit. And by the way, stay away from flashy content or lots of gizmos. These generally don’t work well for hotel sites.
A good idea if you have a website that needs constant updating may be to hire someone full-time to manage your website; this is among the hotel jobs that may not be talked about a lot, but they’re still important.
• Advertise online
Keep the Internet in mind when you do your advertising, since this is going to be a major way people find you. To make sure people find you and book rooms at your hotel(s), make sure your website functions well and can be found on the Internet. You may want to invest in a program like Google AdWords or something similar using your hotel name, relevant keywords like “hotel reservations,” and your location.
• Use an online booking engine
An online booking engine is an easy tool to put on your website, and it makes the reservation process seamless for both you and your clients. If you want to do it the old-fashioned way by requiring your visitors to phone or e-mail reservation requests, you’re going to lose customers. You can of course include this option for people who want a personal touch, but you should always give customers the ability to make their own reservations automatically. For that, use an online booking engine so that visitors have the ability to make their own reservations, real-time, with confirmation that the transaction was successful.
• Make sure you take advantage of social media
Social media is a great way to “advertise” your business with almost astonishing results. It’s free to use, and it’s fun and easy to work with. Drive your business — and make yourself more visible and therefore get more customers — by creating a social media blog that advertises special deals you have going on, rooms available, etc., and then keep it updated.
• Electronic marketing
If you’re a franchise, you already know what this is, but if you’re not, electronic marketing takes global distribution to a whole new level. This is one great way to make sure you continue to have hotel jobs to offer, in addition to keeping your own hotel job as owner. If you use GDS, you’ll automatically be listed with third-party hotel aficionados like Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia; all of these services can get you much more exposure, and you can unload empty rooms at discounted prices; that in turn will help you maintain a profit, instead of having to lose money on rooms that sit empty.
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