How to Generate Hotel Bookings with Longer Stays

If you’re a hotelier looking to increase revenue, you may be looking for ways to generate hotel bookings with longer stays. In this blog, we share our top marketing tips and strategies that hotels can use to generate more revenue from their bookings.

1. Analyze Your Past Guest Data

Before creating any kind of marketing strategy, you’ll need to analyze your past guest data to identify trends and patterns. This will inform your marketing strategies and help you tailor your incentives and promotions. Some trends we recommend looking at include: 

• Types of guests who tend to book longer stays (ex. are they from out of town? Are they typically repeat guests? Are they families, couples, business travellers, etc.?) 
• The times of year that guests tend to book their longer stays 
• Types of rooms that are most popular amongst guests who book longer stays 
• Most popular days and times guests tend to book a stay with your hotel online 

2. Offer Incentives for Extending Stays

Based on your analysis of past guest data, create incentives that you think would motivate your target audience to book longer stays. For example, consider offering discounts for longer stays, such as a 10% discount for a stay of 5 nights or more during the booking process. You can also offer packages that include complimentary breakfast or free access to hotel amenities such as the gym, spa, or pool when guests book longer stays. 

3. Create an Email Marketing Campaign to Promote Long Stays

After you’ve created long-stay incentives or packages, make use of your past guest data (which hopefully includes guest emails) to create an email marketing campaign that promotes those incentives.

To create a successful email campaign, ensure that you are segmenting your email list into different groups based on factors such as history, demographics, and interests. This will enable you to create targeted messaging that is tailored to each group and will increase the likelihood that they will engage with your campaign. 

4. Run a Paid Social or Google Ads Display Remarketing Campaign

Remarketing campaigns are an effective way home in on audiences that already know your brand and have shown interest in the past. If you are looking to promote extended stay incentives, we recommend running remarketing campaigns on paid social (such as Facebook and Instagram) and Google Ads by uploading your guest email lists. When creating the ads for these campaigns, ensure that you are utilizing eye-catching visuals and compelling copy. 

5. Implement an “Always On” Digital Advertising Strategy

Along with implementing long-term specific marketing campaigns, we also recommend implementing an “always on” digital advertising strategy to get potential guests thinking about your hotel earlier and at each stage of the customer journey. Also referred to as “continuous marketing activities,” this kind of strategy involves creating a continuous and ongoing presence in front of potential guests, ensuring that your hotel stays top-of-mind when they are looking to book their next stay.

This strategy can be implemented across multiple digital advertising channels such as paid social (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.), Google Ads, or Microsoft Ads. In these ads you will want to ensure you are highlighting your hotel’s strengths such as your amenities, rooms, location, etc.  

It’s important to note that always on advertising is not a “set and forget” type of campaign. It requires continuous testing, improvement, and optimization to increase effectiveness and generate more bookings. 

Hire a Digital Marketing Agency

If you lack the resources or expertise to develop and execute a digital marketing strategy that generates longer stays, it might be time to consider hiring a digital marketing agency. At Foundery, we have a wealth of experience in building customized digital strategies for hotels that drives results and helps you achieve your business goals.