As a hotel you have to decide what you are. A clean and safe place to stay over night? Of course, this is what is regarded as the core business. But this doesn’t offer that much differentiation nowadays. This is why travellers often regard hotels as commodities – they don’t care if they stay at A or B, location should be acceptable and for the rest price rules.
And the most common way to find this option is to go to an OTA (Booking, Expedia) or Metasearch site (Trivago, Kayak). There are (at least) 2 problems here: first, no differentiation means a lot of competition with price as main focus and second, lost influence on distribution means hefty commissions. Both together squeeze out a big chunk from hotels bottom line – leaving them with very little profit.
The goal has to be to get out of the commodity gap. There has to be a reason why guests want to stay with you! And one way to accomplish this is to provide way more than “clean and safe”! Think of dining experiences, wellness/fitness spa offers, events in your hotel, events in the neighbourhood, organized trips to special places, wine tastings, balloon rides, cooperations with retailers or actually any third party offering which potentially enhances the guests stay.
Travel is a whole ecosystem and the more you can pack into yours, the more you can capitalize on it and the more you will be different. And the best way to communicate all your offers? Our App.