7 Ways to Keep an Eye on Your Hotel Competition
Maximizing the success of your own hotel property involves knowing what your competitors are doing. Wisely monitoring your competition allows you to see what they do wrong and what they do well. All of the information you glean provides you with key information that bolsters your business strategies and marketing efforts. The following seven tips are essential steps to take in order to track your competition effectively.
Network, Network, Network
Industry mixers and social events are where people can relax and catch up with other professionals in the hotel industry, making it a great place to get the latest scoop on your hotel competitors. Not only that, you can also meet future contacts to help grow your business while you grow your industry knowledge. Just make sure to always have your ears opened, and you’ll walk away learning plenty of valuable information.
Use Rate Monitoring Solutions
For hotels, nothing is more damaging for your business than having rates that are too high. You can fix that by investing in quality rate monitoring solutions that will do the work for you. If you lack the funds to pay for a monitoring solution, you can do most of the heavy lifting manually. Either way, this will give you a good inclination of what your competitors are charging, allowing you to have more competitive rates in the process.
Subscribe to Competitor Newsletters
Adhering to the old adage of keeping your enemies closer than your friends, keep your competitors close by subscribing to their email newsletters. You will be able to see all of their specials, promotions and pertinent news. Pay close attention to their marketing strategies, calls to action and how they interact with customers.
Crack the SEO Code
Click View Page Source on your hotel competitor’s and look inside thetag to find out all of their essential SEO tendencies. Cracking their SEO code goes a long way towards improving your online marketing strategy as well.
Keep Tabs on Competitor Websites and Blogs
Know all of the latest news about your hotel competitors by checking up on their websites and blogs regularly. This knowledge lets you ascertain whether your hotel property is running properly, and it will also give you great ideas on how to stand out from your competition.
Get Social Media Savvy
Look at what your competitors post to social media. This can clue you in as to what is the best way to reach customers through popular social media outlets. Most importantly, check out the comments those posts receive, given that happy or unhappy customer responses will let you know the best social media strategies to implement.
Let Google Be Your Eyes and Ears
Finally, let Google be your eyes and ears through Google Alerts. You can set Google Alerts up in such a way that you are alerted whenever a competitor does anything newsworthy. This tool helps you discern the positive marketing strategies of competitors as well as their missteps.