The hotel industry is constantly evolving, especially during the current crisis. We’ve now passed the first phase of the pandemic in most of the regions of the world. Still, it’s a period of low travel confidence that has given rise to new travel trends and behaviors.

In our previous post, we talked about emerging post-crisis travel trends and behaviors. However, understanding new travel trends isn’t enough. Hotels need to up their game right now by adapting to travelers’ changing behaviors and priorities. In this article, we share strategies for hotels to adjust their online marketing and distributing strategy to attract guests, as well as create relevant onsite guest experiences to delight them during the post-crisis period:

Be where your customers are

Dragon Trail Research surveyed a group of Chinese travelers in early March and found out that “travelers born in the 1990s are likely to travel sooner than older respondents. They are also the most likely age group to have increased travel budgets after the crisis. This will be an important target audience for travel marketers once recovery begins.” Thus, your target groups right now are young and middle-aged adults.

To attract this section of travelers, you need to understand their search and booking behaviors. We know that this tech-savvy target group is most likely to plan and book their travel online, more so during the current time of social distancing. These travelers are searching and booking on an ever-expanding mix of direct and indirect channels, including metasearch engines, brand.com websites, and Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). Make sure that you have a noticeable presence on these channels.

We also know that travelers nowadays are looking for local travel options. Pick channels and platforms that would help you entice local travelers to book with you. You can also run paid campaigns to target specific age groups and locales and advertise specific deals.