March 14, 2023
In today’s digital landscape, a successful hotel revenue strategy is more than filling rooms. Instead, it reaches your ideal traveler, is flexible, and lets you take advantage of current industry trends with our data insights.
If your strategies to increase hotel revenue don’t account for supply and demand, you could pay for ads when you don’t need them or miss advertising opportunities completely. When demand is high, you might price room rates too low if you’re not tracking what travelers are willing to pay. These are a few reasons why it’s cost-effective to have a hotel advertising strategy that flexes based on supply and demand.
Why you need a revenue strategy
Utilizing the right resources to make informed decisions gives your business an edge. Plus, having an effective revenue strategy can:
- Protect your business during slow seasons and changes in the market.
- Get your property in front of the right traveler at the right time and on the right channels.
- Boost your room revenue.
Ways to increase hotel revenue with TravelAds Sponsored Listings
Savvy revenue managers will use the tools at their disposal to their fullest potential. Expedia Group’s proven, pay-per-click ads are a powerful way to put your revenue strategy to work for you. With TravelAds, you can:
- Tap into traveler insights to reach your target audience.
A successful strategy puts your hotel in front of the right traveler, at the right time, and on the right platform. It isn’t a guessing game.
Targeting is one of the best strategies to increase hotel revenue because it connects you with millions of travelers across our portfolio of 200+ travel brands. Deep audience targeting with TravelAds using bid enhancers lets you connect with your ideal audience. You can filter by travelers’ behavior, interests, travel intent, and more. You can also fill high need dates by targeting travelers based on length of stay, which helps you put heads in beds.
A success story: Sonder, an innovative hospitality company, used TravelAds to increase brand visibility and bookings. The company saw a return on ad spend (ROAS) of nearly 16:1, and with bid enhancements, Sonder’s bookings outperformed their campaign expectations. “TravelAds makes every dollar work harder,” Patrick Mitchell, VP, brand and ecommerce at Sonder said.
2. Scale your ads up — or down — based on supply and demand.
Picture this: Your hotel has a lot of rooms available during a specific time. You spend time and money advertising until those dates fill up. Once the rooms are booked, you’ll want to spend less on advertising. Changing your daily ad spend to suit your current needs is easy with TravelAds, and you can ramp back up when needed. Because of this flexibility, you’ll find advertising options that work with a variety of budgets.
Another way to manage your spend is with our automated billing options like Post Bill. As a revenue manager, with Post Bill you can set a predetermined line of credit against what hotels can spend on advertising. This allows those hotels to maintain consistent visibility without having to fund their efforts upfront.
3. Monitor your campaign in real time.
Rather than having to wait to see if your advertising campaign succeeded, you can measure its performance with the TravelAds reporting dashboard. You’ll see your current ad performance, travel windows, room nights booked, and other key metrics. Having this data lets you tailor your advertising strategy to maximize your revenue.
4. Understand your total room revenue.
When you’re analyzing your hotel’s performance, it’s tempting to rely on the revenue per available room (RevPAR) to see how well you’re filling rooms at an average rate. Your RevPAR is a popular formula for monitoring hotel success by taking the total room revenue and dividing it by the number of rooms available.
Being aware of how supply and demand can improve your RevPAR, and monitoring additional TravelAds room metrics can take it to the next level. You can also see how travelers interact with your sponsored listings. Your report can tell you about:
- Bid strength
Knowing the strength of your bid relative to your competitors lets you see if you’re a market participant, contender or leader. This provides a realistic picture of where you stand in the bidding marketplace. You’ll see if one or multiple aspects of your strategy should change.
- Room nights clicked
Demonstrate a clear return on investment by knowing how many room nights have been booked because a traveler clicked on your sponsored listing.
- Room nights exposed
Understand the impact of your sponsored listings by knowing how many room nights have been booked because travelers saw your sponsored listing.
Having these metrics in combination with your RevPAR can help you track how your hotel’s revenues change over time.
5. Stand out by customizing your listings.
One of the most powerful strategies to increase hotel revenue is to highlight your unique offerings, which is why we empower you to customize your ads.
Based on data from thousands of campaigns, we’ve found that top performing TravelAds have:
- High-quality photos
This is your chance to grab travelers’ attention. Think about your target audience and how you can reach them with the right images. Targeting families? Trying using photos that highlight family-friendly amenities. The adage that a picture tells a thousand words holds true here, and the right photos can help you connect with your target audience. - Engaging copy
With the right words, travel shoppers can imagine themselves in your hotel. Focus on what makes staying at your hotel special and appeal to their interests. For example, Blinkup manages campaigns for a group of hotels in Italy called Place of Charme. Blinkup used custom ad copy to highlight each hotel’s unique offerings in the countryside or city. To reach more travelers, they also incorporated a mix of location and device bid enhancers. As a result, Place of Charme saw a year-over-year increase in room night bookings of nearly 600%. - Information about extra amenities
Let travelers know about your unique amenities like spas or golf courses to increase their interest in having a great experience at your hotel.
- An offer or promotion
Highlight cost savings or special events in your ads to help shift room browsers to room bookers.
In a fast-paced world, it can feel complicated to ensure your ideal traveler can find and book with your hotel. A smart hotel revenue management strategy can help you reach your goals and give you the tools you need to increase your hotel revenue.
Contact us to learn how your hotel can get the most out of TravelAds Sponsored Listings.
