Holidays can be a busy time for a full-service hotel owner or hotel manager — kids are out of school, and families like to take advantage of the time off to travel and see new places. It’s also a great opportunity for you to capture some business that you wouldn’t normally get.
If you make a good impression on your guests, they’ll think of you again the next time they’re looking to book a stay! Here are a few things you can do to make sure that your guests head home with a positive memory of your hotel.
1. Embrace the Power of Social Media
People staying in hotels around the holidays are usually on vacation — and people on vacation love to talk about their vacations on social media. By maintaining active social media profiles, posting deals and photos, and engaging with the people who check into your hotel or tag you in photos, you can create a rapport with your guests that will encourage their friends and families to join you next time.
You can even encourage sharing with incentives. Create a Snapchat geofilter and a custom hashtag — you can even create one just for the holiday season — and offer guests a free drink at the bar if they tag you in their posts. As an added bonus, you’ll boost traffic to your hotel’s restaurant! Make sure to advertise the deal prominently in guest materials, online, and in the lobby, to encourage people to participate.
2. Make Your Hotel Photo-Worthy
Of course, nothing incentivizes people to share photos of your property like a property that they can’t resist taking pictures of. Take the time to decorate the lobby and exterior of your hotel to make sure it stands out from a typical cookie-cutter chain, and your guests will do your advertising for you.
In guests’ rooms, add just a subtle touch of holiday decoration — a sprig of holly on the door, a little snowman figurine on the desk, or a cling-film snowflake on the windows. These little touches will make your guests feel cared about and add some personal flair to their stay.
3. Offer Holiday-Specific Products
Frequent hotel travelers will tell you that hotels start to run together before long — the same TV channels, the same bed, and the same continental breakfast over and over. So how do you set yourself apart from the crowd? With a little variety!
Around the holiday season, offer special products that relate to the holiday season — a turkey dinner around Thanksgiving or eggnog cocktails around Christmas — to add a little bit of variety to your guests’ stay.
4. Partner with Local Businesses
When it comes to the holiday vacation season, your competition isn’t other hotels — it’s the urge to just stay home. Guests are going to reflect on their vacation as a whole, so it’s in your best interest to make sure that every aspect of their stay is enjoyable — even the parts that aren’t spent inside your building.
Team up with local restaurants to offer your guests a discount at their establishment, or bring in a local chef to do a tasting menu in your restaurant. Arrange for local tours to pick up at your hotel, or make suggestions about local art galleries and gift shops that your guests might like. When they think back on their trip, they’ll remember how you helped improve their stay in your city.
5. Automate What You Can
The holiday season can be a busy time, made all the more stressful by the fact that a lot of your staff are likely to be taking time off themselves. Automation can help you handle things when you’re stretched thin.
With a VoIP PBX system, you can digitize and automate a lot of the features of your hotel that would normally need to be handled by a member of the front desk staff. Room service orders, maintenance and housekeeping requests, wake-up calls, and even check-in and checkout can be handled automatically, keeping your staff free for the in-person interactions that are so important.
In the end, the most important thing you can do for your guests is to make them feel welcome, noticed, and appreciated. With these tips, you’ll be able to make your hotel stand out, while simultaneously keeping your staff efficient and allowing them to give your guests their undivided attention. Happy Holidays!
