MARKETING
year, not to mention supply chain issues and inflation. But by addressing some of the issues that have arisen over the last two years during the quieter shoulder months, we can use our shared experience to prepare for the future. SHOULDER MONTHS’ ANALYSIS Now is the time to analyse your year-onyear occupancy percentages, average room rates, length of stay, and revenue per available room to create a robust, individual growth strategy for next year.
Experience in hospitality helps boosts bookings Clare Bushby, managing director of Clockwork Marketing, believes long experience working in hospitality provides a deeper understanding of how to capture new guests. In 30 years of working in the hospitality sector, we can genuinely say the last two years have been the toughest. But like the sailing adage, “a smooth sea never made a good sailor”, experience is what counts.
It’s critical to grow your brand
TALKING TOURISM
The biggest single driver of new guests for a property is through Google, however if your website is old and slow, your content isn’t changing, or your site isn’t engaging, and the booking experience is poor, you will be losing direct bookings. HOW DOES YOUR PROPERTY COMPARE TO OTHERS? In recent years we have created a robust platform of benchmarking insights to help highlight how hospitality websites compare to others to provide insights for business owners. The data we benchmark includes: • How does the number of visitors to your website compare to similar properties? • How many of your visitors who start the booking process go on to complete it, and how does this compare to other properties and indeed other booking engines? • What is the average dwell time on your website? Is it working hard enough for you? What is the bounce rate (visitors to your site who leave straight away).
CHALLENGES AHEAD Working as a specialist hospitality marketing agency has its benefits, not only through our direct work in hospitality operations, but also as a result of working day in, day out with business owners and managers in the industry.
Understanding and then improving your website or booking conversion leads to an increase of direct bookings. Depending on the property size, the impact of this work can be £5,000 to £10,000 a month. The biggest increase we have seen was a staggering £100,000 a month.
It is this experience that enables us to talk the same language and understand the challenges faced.
IDENTIFYING VALUABLE CUSTOMERS Your customers are your greatest asset and challenge combined. How many times have you looked at your best customers and wished there were more?
The opening up of foreign travel may have a major impact on UK tourism next
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But what else? One of the biggest questions on most hospitality owners’ lips is how to increase direct bookings.
WINTER 2021/22
