Updated: 03/07/2020
Before COVID-19, RevPAR (Revenue per available room) had grown substantially over the past few years. Many hoteliers were seeking to drive further profitable growth by focussing on segments that would help maximise their margins.
Clearly, business travellers can provide hotels with a high potential for profit. Corporate transient and MICE travellers typically pay a higher nightly room rate and are within the higher income demographic.
But how does a hotel go after these more lucrative clients after a crisis? Have a read of these tips to find out where to start:
1. Focus on digital marketing as you restart
We don’t need to tell you that global lockdowns and shelter-in-place made winning corporate transient and MICE business impossible. For the first time in a generation, we came to a standstill. “What now?” we asked ourselves.
Well, we quickly found that digital marketing was part of the answer when it came to winning transient and MICE business in the future. Businesses everywhere ramped up their marketing programmes to keep themselves top-of-mind of their prospects and clients.
We identified 8 tips when it came to marketing during a crisis:
- Provide transparency and professionalism: Show how you’re keeping guests safe. What measures are you taking to sustain social distancing and sanitisation?
- Know your audience: Understand what event planners and corporate travel managers value most. What are their key challenges, responsibilities and priorities? How have they evolved with COVID-19?
- Pivot your hotel marketing to the new digital normal: Site visits might be a bit tricky nowadays. Allow them to visit from the comfort of their own homes with virtual tours, 3D diagramming or videos.
- Communication is key: Publish an on-site preparedness plan and a consistently updated FAQ page. It should include the contacts and resources planners need.
- Stay informed to help inform event planners and corporate travel managers: Read up on the World Health Organisation’s planning recommendations for mass gatherings and explain how your venue meets those expectations.
- Make use of CVBs and DMOs: They’re not the competition. CVBs and DMOs will help you regain business – they hand over vetted leads. Ensure you communicate with them so that they can relay relevant details to planners and corporate travel managers.
2. Make Sure Your Hotel Is Visible To Buyers
While it may seem too obvious to mention, it really is crucial — if you want to drive more transient and MICE business — for your hotel to be visible to corporate buyers.
Larger properties and chains can do this by leveraging large global sales forces and attending meetings and events industry trade shows, where they can meet corporate buyers face-to-face.
However, any hotel can increase its online presence with relatively modest investments in website content (like an active blog) and search engine optimisation (SEO).
In addition, increased investment in focussed channel placement and content can put a hotel front and centre to those planning individual business travel and corporate meetings.
After all, corporate buyers are people like you and me. And most people — when looking up nearly anything — use Google or some other search engine in the early stages of their search.
Ensuring that your hotel is listed at the top of results pages within targeted specific channels where these customers shop can significantly improve overall visibility.
3. Be Visible To Buyers — Even When They Aren’t Looking For You
Wayne Gretzky famously said, “you miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take.” In the hotel business, you could easily add, “and you lose 100 per cent of the bids you don’t make.”
Bidding on more corporate requests for MICE and transient proposals (RFPs) is a must if a hotel sales team aims at increasing its corporate business. But what do you do when you aren’t receiving RFPs to bid on?
Automated electronic RFP systems have drastically changed the way many companies source hotel rooms and meetings spaces.
Making sure your property is listed and your search placement is maximised on these systems will increase the number of quality RFPs your hotel will receive — even when buyers aren’t directly targeting you.
Additionally, some eRFP systems enable hotels to make unsolicited bids on transient RFPs — essentially letting them snatch business away from their competitors.
4. Make It Easy For Buyers To Do Business With You
Winning business isn’t always just about providing the lowest rate. Many times, buyers seek out deals with hotels that are going to make their jobs easier.
For example, an event planner will likely prefer a property that can provide both rooms and meeting space together, rather than sourcing them separately, even if doing so saves a little money.
Ensuring that all your hotel’s facilities, services and amenities are listed, searchable and up-to-date — both on your own website and in online marketplaces — will make it easier for buyers to do business with you.
Offer a guest-centred booking experience
Moreover, corporate MICE travel is trending towards a more guest-centred booking experience.
Therefore it’s advantageous for hotels to put guests in charge of booking their rooms and selecting the types of additional services, amenities and other extras they receive during their stay themselves.
Seek out a booking system that allows MICE guests to book their hotel rooms electronically, rather than through excel or on a manual basis. These systems give individuals the freedom to choose upgrades, spa packages or restaurant offers and thus help maximise profitable growth for hotels.
Not only does this provide a valuable service to event managers who are considering your hotel, but as an added bonus, the more advanced systems will sync directly with your hotel’s central reservation system — eliminating the need for manual room block lists.
5. Increase Your Revenue With “Bleisure” Travel
While the word itself certainly isn’t poetry, “bleisure” travel (combining the words “business” and “leisure”) is becoming an increasingly lucrative segment for hotels catering to corporate clients.
Business travellers are more willing than ever to consider tacking on a couple of personal days to a business trip — and are more and more taking their families along.
Incentives and specials that encourage business travellers to bring their partners or families can really pay off in added shoulder room nights and increased food and beverage sales. Not to mention spa services for one partner while the other is in meetings or at a convention.
Give them a reason to stay
Without a doubt, hotels in destinations with a lot to offer have an easier time coaxing their business travellers to take a few days to enjoy the area.
Building partnerships with local tourism boards, fine dining locations, concert venues and other attractions are a good starting point for hotels that want to promote their city as a place to spend a few days post-event.
Connecting with business travellers early — while they’re planning their trip — will give you more time to convince them to stay a little longer.
Look for a room block management system that helps you contact MICE guests directly from the moment they book their room.
Jump on that opportunity to promote your individual property, local attractions and things to do which will help increase your chance to sell them extra room nights.
There are a number of automated email and mobile messaging apps that allow you to directly offer these add-ons to your corporate guests.
The Right Tools for the Job
While winning corporate MICE and transient business after a crisis for your hotel may seem daunting, remember that there are plenty of tools out there — from Google Local Business Centre or automated email marketing tools.
They’ll ensure you are placed in the appropriate place where travellers and event managers shop — that can make your job more successful (and easier!).
All you need to do is identify which tools can help your hotel putting its best foot forward during the shopping experience. Once you do that, it’s just a matter of putting these tips to work.
For more tips on restarting your hotel or venue business in a post-pandemic world, have a read of our latest ebook: “The Hotel Manager’s Guide to Restarting MICE and Transient Business“.
