Hotel Marketing Strategies and the Role of Scent Marketing in Customer Loyalty

Given that the hotel industry has recently suffered a significant blow, attracting customers has become one of the most important aspects of the business. However, for tourists, it won’t be enough to just offer good prices or so-called unforgettable experiences; you also need to build the brand’s reputation.

Of course, there are several ways to do this, in the form of various hotel marketing strategies. Discover what these are and how they intersect with scent marketing in Romania and abroad.

What are the foundations of hotel marketing strategies?

As with any marketing strategy, it is recommended that the first step be identifying the target customers and business objectives. Additionally, depending on the type of hotel, it is preferable to have a different message for local and international tourists. Also, don’t forget the adaptability factor: the market is constantly changing, so strategies must evolve at the same pace.

The best hotel marketing strategies

Here are the best strategies for attracting customers:

Invest in an online presence

Marketing has long moved online, and so should your business. Maybe the hotel is wonderful and offers unique experiences, but how will people find out about it? To establish a strong online presence, you will need to:

• Invest in SEO. An up-to-date and optimized website will attract many more visitors who can easily turn into physical guests at the hotel. Most people looking to travel will search for a hotel using a search engine, and the top results are the most accessed. So, choose to work with agencies that can optimize your site both in terms of keywords and valuable content.
• Invest in a quality website that tells a beautiful story while also functioning smoothly and being optimized for mobile devices.
• In addition to maintaining a strong presence and activity on your site, invest in a powerful social media presence. With platforms like Facebook and Instagram, customers can promote your hotel for you—if they had a pleasant experience. Post all discounts, special promotions, and benefits offered through partnerships with travel agencies, loyalty cards, and more. For extra promotion, collaborations with influencers could also help.

Focus on (preferably unique) experiences

As mentioned earlier, trends evolve, and so should your business. In a world where anyone can access any service with just a few clicks, the experience offered by a hotel can make the difference and grab customers’ attention.

Current generations not only appreciate meaningful experiences, but they are also willing to spend considerable amounts if the hotel can offer unique activities or other benefits. In other words, the hotel needs a niche, a personal branding, and a clear identifier. As for the experience, our advice is to focus on stimulating the senses.

Senses create emotions, which in turn create a good or bad mood, but most importantly, they generate memories. If you can make a tourist feel something special, they will associate that sensation, preferably positive, with a memory/a moment when they felt good, and they will want to return. Most likely, they will recommend the hotel to their acquaintances.

To stimulate sight, you could focus on a unique room design and impeccable TV displays, preferably with access to streaming platforms, so guests can watch their favorite forms of entertainment. You can also provide useful information on the TVs, such as videos about local attractions/hotel activities/information about services, and so on.

For sound, choose relaxing music in common areas, which can contribute to creating a specific atmosphere.

As scent marketing has proven time and time again, smell also plays a particularly important role. It can even become the hotel’s signature if well-chosen, helping guests enjoy a particular experience more (a relaxing evening in the hotel bar or during a workshop) or simply encouraging them to spend more time in certain areas of interest. You can even include special diffusers, like those from Market Aroma Home, in the rooms.

Using scents, you could even encourage guests to try various new experiences they will surely remember: a pleasant smell in the hotel’s restaurant will likely make them return. Learn more about scent marketing in hotels, and you’ll discover other ways to use it to your business’s advantage.

Lately, more and more clients in the hotel industry have been turning to scent marketing services and building their entire promotional strategy around this service.

Stand out

There are several ways a hotel can stand out. Here are a few of them:

• Maintain continuous communication with customers, before, during, and after their stay, and use any issues they raise to improve services.
• Offer various loyalty programs and vouchers for referrals.
• Emphasize the unique character of the hotel in all communications and highlight its strengths.
• Provide personalized experiences and recommendations for activities and sights to visit based on the customer profile. Upsell options can also be included here.

Apply all these strategies, and the bookings will start to roll in. All you need to do is ensure the experience is a memorable one..