Time-Saving Tools: Must-Have Technologies To Improve Your Hotel Marketing Game

The hospitality industry is constantly changing, and hotel marketers need to stay on top of the latest trends not only to stay competitive but to make efficient use of their time.

According to the 2022 Hotel Technology Survey by Hotel Operations and Benchmark Research Partners, 80% of hoteliers said technology is helping them reach their professional goals. These numbers show how technology is a key aspect of every department in a hotel and this includes marketing.

Technology in hospitality is constantly changing and it can help streamline processes and free up time that would otherwise be spent on tedious tasks. This is key, especially for marketers, that usually have to juggle many things at the same time, leading not only to frustration but to burnout.

With the right technology in place, hotel marketers can take their marketing efforts to the next level. Here, automation and personalisation are just one part of the game, but there are many other things you can add to your hotel marketing strategy to save time, increase engagement levels and grow customer satisfaction.

If you integrate some of the game-changing hotel technologies, you will be able to create seamless workflows for you and your team, making work life easier.

Essential Technologies for Hotel Marketers

A Hotel CRM That Leverages Automation

The first time-saving technology that every hotel must have is the hospitality customer relationship management (CRM) system. This system allows you to manage and track customer data in one place, simplifying processes like personalising campaigns or creating targeted campaigns for specific customers.

However, the best part about having a hospitality CRM is that you can leverage its automation capabilities to save time in your daily tasks. If you are in charge of guest communication, you are familiar with campaigns for booking confirmation, upselling, online check-in, and more.

Having to send these campaigns manually or constantly reviewing them for modifications can be one of the most time-consuming tasks. And here is where a CRM makes your life as a hotel marketer easier. A powerful CRM should offer you the option of setting automation triggers that will schedule and send the messages at the right time and across channels (if your CRM is Multi-Channel).

Can you imagine how much time you are saving just by not having to schedule each campaign manually?

Finally, most CRMs also offer you the possibility to design your own campaigns and templates and later use them across different properties. This means the same platform will help you create campaigns for the entire hotel group if you work in a multi-property hotel.

Read this article to learn about what kind of triggers you can create with CRM to automate marketing communication.

A Unified Inbox for your communication channels

A unified inbox offers a comprehensive solution to streamline operations and optimise time management while enhancing personalisation in guest communications. By bundling all your inbound communications from various apps into one platform, hoteliers can save time and gain better control over their communications.

The platform provides a general overview of all guest communications, allowing hoteliers to keep track, manage, and respond promptly to guest inquiries from a single interface. This streamlined approach not only saves time but also leads to a better guest experience. By responding quickly to guest messages, hoteliers can meet guests' expectations for immediate communication, creating a positive impression right from the start of their interaction with the hospitality brand.

A unified inbox uses AI technology, repetitive guest inquiries can be automated, making frequently asked questions easily accessible. By reducing the time spent on general inquiries, hotel staff can focus on delivering personalised and attentive service, enhancing the overall guest experience.

Hospitality CMS

Content management systems (CMS) for hotels are also a great investment for hotel marketers, as they provide a central hub to manage all content related to your website. This will be key in order to make your own channels your best-performing ones and increase your direct bookings.

With a CMS, You can create promotional materials with ease and share them quickly across multiple channels and platforms, saving time in the process. In addition, you can easily measure the performance of campaigns with built-in analytics tools.

CMS is also essential for hotel marketing, it provides a tool that makes it easier to update websites quickly with new content which helps keep guests engaged and informed about promotions or upcoming events at the hotel. Using a CMS, you can easily create, manage, and stay organised while making sure that the correct content reaches the right people at the right time.

Review manager tool

As a hotel marketer you probably know that reviews play a key role in your marketing strategy; however, answering each and one of them can also be something very tiring and time-consuming. However, now you can find several apps and systems that use artificial intelligence to write answers to your reviews based on previous examples or parameters you can set.

With this, your team will be able to answer a great amount of reviews in a short period of time. Ideally, you can use this tool to answer the good reviews and choose to reply to the bad reviews in a personal way. In any way, you will save time and be able to focus on creating a comprehensive response to those guests whose needs weren’t fulfilled during their stay.

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Best practices for implementing new hotel marketing technologies and tools into your hotel marketing strategy:

1. Identify Your Needs & Goals:

Before investing in any technology, take a step back and think about what is happening in your hotel and want to achieve with these new technologies.

For example, is sending guest communication campaigns taking a lot of your time? Are guests complaining because they don’t receive information at the right time? You don’t have any tools to connect with your guests before and after their stay? The answers to these questions might show you that you need a hotel CRM.

On the other hand, thinking about your goals for that technology will help guide your decisions. For example, if you want to connect with your guests through WhatsApp instead of email only, you need a CRM that offers multi-channel communication.

2. Research Solutions:

Once you know which type of technology is best suited for achieving your goals, start researching different solutions on the market that offer those features. Read reviews and success stories from other hotels and make sure that the platform offers all the functionality needed to meet your objectives before making any commitments.

When selecting a technology solution, make sure it meets your needs and objectives while also considering factors such as pricing structure, ease of use, integration capabilities & data analytics capabilities.

3. Start Small & Test Out Different Strategies:

‍Start small and have a plan of implementation that will get you from small changes to big ones.

In many cases, vendors will set KPIs with you so you are able to track the progress and measure performance after implementation.

Nowadays, most solutions come equipped with reporting features that provide insights into metrics like click-through rates and lead conversions on emails sent out by the platform. With this data in hand, you will have an idea of what strategies work best for your brand so you can adjust accordingly for future campaigns and optimise for boosting ROI.

In a summary

According to Hotel Technology News, 78% of hoteliers will increase their investment in hotel technology in the next three years, which shows how technology is playing a key role in all areas of a hotel, including marketing, and why you shouldn’t miss out on investing in tools that will help you get better results.

Overall, technology can be a valuable tool for hotel marketers who are looking to save time and improve efficiency. By investing in the right technologies, you can free up time to focus on the things that matter most, such as providing excellent customer service and creating memorable guest experiences.

You can start by reading up on our customer stories to learn how implementing Bookboost’s products transformed our customers’ marketing departments.

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