With occupancy rates in the U.S. falling below 50% and ADR declining by 30% in recent weeks, hotels in today’s climate should be looking for any advantages to attract new guests. While hotels are facing unprecedented challenges, there are strategies and solutions that can be implemented to help boost occupancy, while maximizing revenue per guest. In this article, we’ll take a look at some tips that can help hotels bring in more business.
Implement contactless solutions.
According to Google Trends, guests searching for hotels with contactless solutions reached its highest popularity in the month of October. While some might see this as a fad, the consensus amongst the hospitality industry is that these features are here to stay, even after the pandemic is behind us. As technology was already trending towards features such as mobile check-in and check-out, digital room keys, and the ability to text message with hotel staff becoming the norm, recent events have sped up this process. In the past, these contactless solutions were seen as a nice to have.
Nowadays, travelers are quickly ruling out hotels that don’t offer either some, or all of these capabilities. With Chorum Guest Mobile, hotels can seamlessly implement these contactless solutions at their property, which is directly integrated with Chorum PMS. By simply reducing physical touchpoints, guests are more likely to choose staying at your hotel versus a competitor. With occupancy rates and ADR still well below the norm, this technology could really make a difference for hotels looking to get through these challenging times.
Enhance your hotel’s website.
While the reality is that many hotels won’t have the necessary funds to undertake a complete website redesign, there are more affordable options to develop a new templated website that is designed to convert. With Chorum Website Builder for example, hotels can have a new website created for them, which leverages a content management system that is both easy to use and update. With most statistics stating you have less than 15 seconds to capture someone’s attention on your website, it is important to create a visually appealing, yet fully optimized website that is made to increase bookings directly from your website.
With decreased occupancy rates and less travelers in the market, increasing direct bookings can help decrease cost per acquisition, which adds more profit to your hotel’s bottom line. This can be achieved by enhancing your website and incorporating eye-catching, simple to use call-to-action buttons. In addition, modernizing your website to incorporate health and safety notices, as well as specific visiting guidelines will help demonstrate to guests that your property is taking all of the necessary precautions to keep them safe. Hotels can also highlight additional features more easily, such as mobile check-in or guest text messaging, to further drive home the benefits of staying at your hotel instead of the competition.
Increase cleanliness standards and promote social distancing.
While the other two tips above can be very helpful to attracting guests in these difficult times, if a hotel is not making every effort to increase cleanliness standards and reduce physical touchpoints throughout the property, they are likely to struggle with earning new business. While there are additional costs associated with this that cannot be avoided, there are ways to supplement these costs. For example, with a mobile-capable property management software such as Chorum PMS, staff can interact with one another via a mobile app on their device of choosing. This greatly reduces physical contact between staff, and allows them to perform their jobs while increasing their safety as well.
Instituting protective measures such as having staff wear personal protective equipment, combined with a more modern, mobile-based software will truly help provide guests with peace of mind. Once these are in place, promoting this on your website or via email to your contact database will make potential guests aware of the lengths being taken to ensure their safety. By taking these measures seriously and demonstrating to guests that you are providing them with a safe space, you can earn guests trust in the short-term, but also into the future once this is all behind us.
Considering implementing a more modern, cloud-based property management software with features such as contactless solutions and guest text messaging capabilities? Be sure to request a demo today and let our team show you how our software can help drive more business and maximize revenue at your property.
