Managing marketing budgets effectively is crucial for any hotelier aiming to achieve sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive landscape. By carefully planning your marketing spend, you can maximise your return on investment (ROI), attract the right guests, and keep occupancy rates high throughout the year.
One of the key factors in this strategy is recognising the importance of seasonality and understanding your key markets’ booking lead times. Here’s how to manage your hotel’s marketing budget effectively with these considerations in mind.
Understanding Seasonality in the Hospitality Industry
Seasonality plays a pivotal role in the hotel industry, directly influencing demand, pricing, and overall profitability. High season and low season fluctuations can differ depending on your location and target markets, making it essential to tailor your marketing budget accordingly.
- High Season: Marketing spend during these periods should focus on maintaining visibility and maximising revenue through higher conversion rates. However, since demand is naturally high, you might allocate less budget towards aggressive promotions and more towards brand reinforcement, loyalty programmes, and upselling opportunities.
- Low Season: Conversely, low season can lead to lower occupancy and lower average daily rates (ADR). To combat this, hoteliers often shift marketing spend to target deals and discounts aimed at filling rooms. Digital marketing efforts, such as retargeting, paid search, and email marketing, should be ramped up to attract price-sensitive travellers or niche markets like business or solo travellers.
- Shoulder Seasons: Shoulder seasons are the transitional periods between high and low seasons, offering an opportunity for smart marketing. You can capture bookings from travellers looking for lower prices without the crowds of peak seasons. Your marketing budget should focus on targeted campaigns during these periods, such as remarketing to previous guests or launching targeted paid ads to specific demographics.
Adapting to Booking Lead Times in Your Key Markets
Booking lead times vary widely depending on your target market’s demographics, location, and travel behaviours. Understanding these lead times is critical for efficiently managing your marketing budget, as it allows you to optimise ad spend timing for different segments of travellers.
- Long Lead Times:
Travellers from certain markets, such as long-haul international travellers, tend to book well in advance—sometimes six months to a year. To capture this audience, you’ll want to allocate part of your budget early in the year, well before high season.
Invest in branding campaigns, social media promotions, and search engine marketing (SEM) to build awareness and establish your property as a prime choice when these travellers are ready to book.
- Short Lead Times:
Domestic travellers and last-minute bookers tend to have shorter booking windows, often making reservations within a few weeks or even days of travel.
For these markets, allocate a portion of your marketing budget to short-term, high-impact campaigns closer to the desired travel dates. Tactics like flash sales, last-minute deals, or geo-targeted ads can be particularly effective here.
- Group and Event Travellers:
These travellers often book months in advance due to event planning needs. If group bookings are a significant part of your business, adjust your budget to cater to these customers at least six months prior to their arrival dates.
Tailored content, such as event-specific offers and partnerships with event organisers, can help attract this audience.
Allocating Your Marketing Budget Across Channels
Effective budgeting requires not only timing but also allocating your budget across the right channels to maximise your ROI. Here’s how to distribute your spend to capture your target audience during their booking journey:
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM):
SEM should be a consistent part of your budget allocation across all seasons. During high season, focus on maintaining top positions for high-intent keywords, whereas in the low season, redirect spend towards branded searches and specific promotions. Adjust bids based on seasonality and lead time data to capture interest when it peaks.
- Social Media Advertising:
Social media campaigns allow for dynamic targeting and budget flexibility. During periods with longer booking lead times, allocate more budget towards branding and awareness. As you approach high season or short booking windows, pivot to conversion-focused ads, such as special offers or event promotions.
End-of-Summer Strategies: Preparing for Shoulder Season and Holiday Bookings
As the end of August approaches, hoteliers must shift their focus to preparing for the upcoming shoulder season and the lucrative Christmas period. This transitional time provides a prime opportunity to capture bookings from guests looking for more affordable travel options in the autumn and those already planning their winter holiday getaways.
Here’s how you can strategically allocate your marketing budget to maximise bookings during these periods.
Target Shoulder Season Travellers with Tailored Promotions
The shoulder season offers a sweet spot for hoteliers to attract guests who want to avoid the peak-season crowds while still enjoying favourable weather and experiences. To attract this market, allocate a portion of your budget toward targeted promotions that highlight the benefits of off-peak travel.
Start Early for Holiday Bookings
While autumn is right around the corner, now is also the time to allocate a significant portion of your marketing budget toward attracting Christmas and New Year bookings. The holiday season is highly competitive, so it’s critical to act early and strategically:
- Booking Incentives: Launch early-bird promotions offering special discounts for guests who book their holiday stays now. Consider offering flexible cancellation policies or low deposits to ease any concerns about future travel plans, especially given the ongoing uncertainty in some travel markets.
- Brand Awareness Campaigns: Since holiday travellers often plan several months in advance, now is the time to increase your budget for brand awareness campaigns. Focus on creating high-quality content across social media, paid search, and display ads that highlight your hotel’s festive offerings, such as Christmas markets, special holiday menus, or seasonal activities.
Make Every Pound Count with Strategic Ad Spending
Managing your marketing budget effectively on Google and Meta requires a nuanced approach that takes seasonality, booking lead times, and room availability into account. By adjusting your ad spend dynamically based on these factors, you can ensure that your budget is working harder to deliver maximum ROI.
If you need help optimising your ad strategy, we’re offering a free marketing audit to help you assess your current performance and identify new opportunities for growth.
Contact us today to schedule your free audit and set your hotel up for success in the coming months.