The biggest opportunity for promoting independent properties: The Internet

In the accommodation industry, where competition is tough, independent properties represent the calmer aspect of the industry. Consisting mostly of local and small-scale businesses, these properties complain that they are overlooked no matter how dedicated they are. Generally, they cannot afford to organize large-scale promotional campaigns. Although they are well-known on traditional media, the number of their online visitors is usually not high enough.

But here is the good news: It is possible for independent properties to reverse this situation. The facilities that the Internet offers for the accommodation industry provide more benefits to small-scale independent companies than they do to large-scale companies. Today, you can access a larger target audience with a very modest budget. And what you need the most is not a budget to attract more visitors to your website, but the knowledge of using low-cost methods instead.

Here are some suggestions about what the Internet can offer for independent properties…

1- Make your website’s address visible

The first requirement for becoming a recognized brand is to market your brand properly.  If you would like to attract visitors to the website of your accommodation property, you have to first ensure that people are aware of the existence of your website. Show the address of your website anywhere possible. For instance, you can include your address in your brochures, business cards, menus and under your signatures in your e-mails. E-mails have a particularly high potential to redirect visitors to your website.

2- Receiving comments is essential

Research shows that, before they make their decision, 60 percent of those looking for hotels check out other users’ comments on the Internet about the property. As they stroll through tourism websites such as Expedia, Booking.com, TripAdvisor etc. to learn the details of the property they intend to stay at, they first look at the experiences of other customers having stayed there previously. This statistic points to how critical it is to receive comments from guests. You better create an account for your website on such sites and then encourage your guests to write comments there.

3- Make sure to have a rich content

Search engines like Google are listing websites with original and rich content in the top search results. Therefore, creating a rich content is also a way of attracting visitors to your website.

Creating a blog and redirecting your visitors to it can also work. On your blog, you can provide information for your potential customers. For instance, you can talk about your promotions or inform them about interesting activities in your region such as festivals/fairs.

It would also be a useful strategy to include a section that contains news stories related to your property or the region it is located in. You can also make generous use of visuals such as photos and videos to do this.

4- Take advantage of search advertising

Another way of making use of search engines is to place ads on them. If you would like to access a large number of visitors within a short time and have a sufficient budget to allocate for this, search engine ads might work well for you.

Making full use of what the Internet offers you as an independent accommodation property will bring you success. If you have the capability to receive bookings on your website, it means that you are one step ahead of other independent properties. You can get through this cost-effectively thanks to the well-developed infrastructure of HotelRunner. Create your account for free now to see our offers for your property.