New Year’s resolutions for hoteliers to keep in 2022

I’m probably not revealing a big secret by saying that most gym passes typically sell in January. And February is the month when most annual passes are redeemed 🙂

We’ve known since Bridget Jones that most New Year’s resolutions are not kept because it is hard to give up on the little joys in our lives.

And for that I’m not suggesting you now to eat healthier or exercise more next year (although none of these are a bad idea of course :)). Instead, I encourage you to keep at least one the below professional New Year’s resolutions to play your part in your hotel’s success in 2022:

1. Get ready for a “cookieless” world

Get ready for what? No, although it may sound like it, this chapter isn’t about healthy eating either 🙂  

In case you haven’t heard of it yet, the new versions of Safari and Firefox are blocking cookies used by third-party websites (3rd party cookies), and according to their latest announcement, Chrome has promised to join its competitors by 2023.

What does this mean in practice? Lets’ say someone visits your website and you have a Facebook pixel installed on the page. Until recently you could easily retarget this visitor with remarketing ads on Facebook.

But by blocking third-party cookies (just like the Facebook pixel) this option will soon be completely eliminated.

So you will need a new solution, and this is where first-party cookies come in handy, because these cookies, used by your own website will still be alive and well. 

So it will become particularly crucial for you to gather as much information and data about your website visitors as possible when they are on your page with the help of first-party cookies.

And that’s why database building and getting more subscribers will be one of the most important resolutions in 2022 to replace traditional remarketing. 

With a high quality and quantity email list you will still be able to reach your most precious audience with email marketing and on Facebook as well (customer list custom audience).

2. Always offer the best rate direct 

The pandemic did definitely take its toll on tourism, but for what it’s worse, at least it helped hotels drive more direct bookings.

In order for this positive trend to continue next year, you need to be extra careful to always offer the best price via your hotel’s own booking system!

It may sound banal, yet we’ve seen it countless times that promotions, membership discounts (e.g. Genius, Member rate) or mobile price discounts advertised on the OTA site were not available on the hotel’s own website.

In today’s world, where online price comparison is made so easy, travelers will book their stay at whoever offers it the cheapest.

 And if it is the OTA, the hotel even gets to pay the commission on top of the cheaper rate.

In order to avoid that, make sure to only offer promotions on online travel sites that your own booking engine can handle and always show the same rates and conditions as OTA’s. Or even better ones with a secret deal!

And keep in mind to double check all your promotions! If for example you set up a 20% discount for the next weekend on Booking.com, not only do it on your own website, but also check for yourself if the system is really calculating the right prices.

You can increase direct bookings by up to 10-20% simply by paying this extra attention to your direct rates.

3. Take the time for guest reviews

I guess I don’t need to emphasize how important your hotel’s “online reputation” is today. Suffice it to say that 96% of online bookers read hotel reviews before booking a room.

Yes, I know it is time consuming to answer each review one by one, but it is a must when it comes to negative comments and also recommended in case of positive ones.

Well, the good news is that you have plenty of hotel reputation management tools to choose from, which will help you manage guest feedback from various review sites in one interface.

Examples include TrustYou, Revinate Guest Feedback, or ReviewPro.

And not only take the time to respond to the reviews, but also to constantly analyze them. It will help you get a real picture of your hotel. Find out what your strengths are that you can use in your communication, but also learn about the weaknesses that need to be addressed.

You have one more important task in regards to guest reviews. They need to be prominently highlighted on your hotel website!

It doesn’t matter if you upload your most authentic reviews manually, or use one of the tools listed above to do that automatically for you. What matters is to use your previous guests’ pleasant experiences to persuade new guests to book with you.

Travelers definitely give more credit to each other’s word, than they do to yours.

4. Focus on sustainability

The focus on environmental sustainability isn’t new, but the degree to which travelers prefer eco-friendly products and services is.

The replacement of disposable plastics with eco-friendly substitutes is just the beginning. More and more hotels are switching from daily room cleaning to opt-in housekeeping.

Although in many cases this is primarily for economic reasons, it has an indirect positive effect on the hotel’s ecological footprint.

Recognizing the growing trend of travelers caring more and more about the environmental impact of their purchases, Google introduced a new feature for hotels on Google Business profile. 

This new feature allows you as a hotel to highlight your sustainability practices to environmentally-conscious travelers.

In order to do that, log in to your Google Business account and select your hotel’s sustainability practices.

You can choose from a list of options across 4 categories: Energy efficiency, Water conservation, Waste reduction and Sustainable sourcing.

You can also indicate if you’ve received any eco certifications. Attributes and certifications will appear on the hotel placesheet in the “Sustainability” section based on what you’ve reported.

5. Expand Your Knowledge 

A good hotelier is always learning. 

The pace at which the online world evolves requires hotel professionals to continually expand their knowledge and learn about new, innovative professional solutions.

Living in a golden age of online webinars and courses, this is now easier than ever. Because who wouldn’t want to learn from the comfort of their own home and at a pace they prefer.

And on top of all, sometimes even gratis.  

Just like HotelHood’s online marketing course for hotels. In case you haven’t signed up for our online marketing email course yet, you should do it because you will get a lot of useful advice on how to reduce your spendings and make your hotel marketing more effective… all for free.

Or if you have the time and are more of a book fan, then I recommend you read OTA Secrets.

I wish you a successful 2022

If you only make a single professional resolution for the new year, make sure to choose one of the above.

Of course, the more of these resolutions you keep, the more confident you can be that you will contribute to your hotel’s success in 2022.

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