Hotel Marketing Trends for 2024

From the Hotelinking marketing department, we have compiled a series of marketing trends that we believe will be relevant for the hotel sector in 2024.

It will be essential to create effective strategies and have specialised services like those offered by Hotelinking to help collect high-quality data from our guests and thus segment our future marketing campaigns as much as possible.

This compilation is based on continuous technological advancements, changes in traveller preferences, and, of course, economic factors.

Here is our list of hotel marketing trends that will be relevant in 2024:

• Personalised guest experience. We want to start with the future travellers that will visit our hotel or hotel chain. We are talking about how personalisation and segmentation will continue to be fundamental in hotel marketing.
  
  The tools that allow us to gather customer data are fundamental. And even more so with the changes that Google plans to consolidate in 2024, putting an end to third-party cookies.
  
  First-party data or data provided directly by the customer, will continue to be a valuable source of information for offering more segmented experiences, from personalised welcome messages to the automation of loyalty offers based on the repeat customer’s journey.
  
  We specialise in capturing this data through our WiFi Captive Portal.
  
  
• It will be the year of consolidation for greater automation of hotel receptions towards online Auto-check in or Pre-check in systems. This way, the receptionist can focus on better attending to the actual needs of their guests.
  
  For years now, we have been accustomed to obtaining our boarding pass with our assigned seat before arriving at the airport. Why don’t we do the same with the rooms of our hotel? It’s also a very interesting way to offer upgrades to our guests, allowing them to spend a little more to obtain an upgrade in their room or even hire additional services.
  
  
• Advancements in AI (Artificial Intelligence) will be a relevant factor and will naturally integrate into many processes of our work. We will implement systems in our day-to-day operations to better segment our marketing campaigns. We will use tools like ChatGPT to assist us in developing quality content for our hotel. Chatbots will become increasingly efficient and capable of providing better responses to users.
  
  This intelligence will also be applied to improving product development or enhancing existing ones, just as we have been doing at Hotelinking for some time.
  
  
• The improvement in the quality of WiFi and the network in general will lead us to the implementation of 5G in many aspects of our lives, providing better service to travellers.
  
  The habits of our guests have changed, and it has become increasingly important for them to get a good connection to their various electronic devices in the hotel. They perceive WiFi as a key point in the comfort of their stay and a differentiating factor when choosing their holiday destination. Hotels that are able to invest in improving their facilities to networks with greater capacity and better performance will have a competitive advantage.
  
  At Hotelinking, thanks to our qualified engineers, we are able to audit the status of the WiFi connection of any hotel, offering improvement points and even carrying out installations from scratch.
  
  
• The commitment to values such as sustainability and social responsibility; travellers are increasingly concerned about the environment. Hotels that adopt sustainable practices and support social causes will have a competitive advantage. Hotel marketing will also focus on highlighting these initiatives.
  
  
• The proper use of social media and influencer marketing should continue to be an important part of our strategies.
  
  Offering quality content to travellers before or during their stay, or collaborating with third parties capable of adding value to the hotel, are still practices well-received by users.
  
  Travellers still rely on recommendations from third parties, so strategies like giveaways or discounts that encourage your guests to share their experience on their social networks will also be useful, reminding them to tag the hotel. Sharing their content or thanking them for their review are practices we should not forget.
  
  
• Greater emphasis on safety and cleanliness; following the COVID-19 pandemic, the way people view cleanliness and safety in hotels has changed. Making our cleaning and safety protocols visible will reassure travellers.
  
  
• We haven’t forgotten about customer loyalty. Some trends should include enhanced loyalty programs offering more attractive rewards and exclusive experiences for repeat customers. The key lies in hyper-segmentation, and the more information we have about our guests, the more specific and accurate our promotions can be, leading to higher conversion rate.
  
  This means using technology for retention, utilising mobile applications and push notifications, or sending automated communications via email, to help keep customers informed about special offers, events, and improvements at the hotel.

The key to these trends lies in obtaining quality data from our guests, which we can integrate with the data we already have in our PMS.

Remember that at Hotelinking, we are experts in capturing customer databases to communicate with them directly without intermediaries.