Your hotel’s brand goes beyond the name and logo. It’s essentially the hotel’s identity, which includes everything that you want your potential guests to know about your brand. With a strong brand, you can build trust, create a lasting and pleasing impression on your guests, and encourage a loyal following that will enable you to grow your business and increase your revenue in the long term.
Building an effective hotel brand is not something you can do overnight. It requires careful planning, strategizing, and attention to detail—not to mention a lot of effort. After all, it’s one thing to be able to run day-to-day operations, but it’s a completely different story when it comes to communicating with your audience and letting them know all about what your hotel has to offer.
Perhaps you’re searching for ways to boost your branding and make it more relevant and impactful. If so, read on. From finding your unique story to ensuring quality engagement with clients, below are some practical tips you may want to consider to improve your hotel’s branding.
Define Your Brand Philosophy
When working on your branding, it’s necessary to define your hotel’s brand philosophy first since it will serve as the backbone of your branding strategy. Your philosophy is essentially your niche, your hotel’s unique offering to your target audience, that makes you stand out from the competition.
For instance, because many Pasay hotels are near domestic and international airports, some of them focus on catering to the needs of ordinary local travelers. Instead of highlighting a luxurious stay, they offer practicality—comfortable rooms and a relaxing environment at budget-friendly rates. So, what is your hotel about? What is the one thing that you want guests to remember about your hotel the most? You may want to ask yourself such questions to develop a philosophy that embodies your vision, goals, and values.
Tell Your Brand Story
Once you have identified your philosophy, you should use it to reach your audience. However, rather than merely enumerating your services, like room types and amenities, share your story. Make your message relatable and engaging to connect with your audience and create a more lasting impression.
Let’s say your hotel has a fascinating or one-of-a-kind history. You may want to include it in your marketing campaign. You can also share your clients’ stories and unique experiences at your hotel to concretize your brand philosophy. Ultimately, you want to establish an emotional connection with your market, so they’ll be motivated to pay attention to your business and support it wholeheartedly.
Align Your Visual Identity with Your Brand Philosophy
Your brand’s visual identity are features that help customers recognize and set your brand apart from others. This includes your hotel’s name, logo, website, font, and colors, among other things. To create a strong and recognizable hotel brand, make sure that all these elements are aligned with your philosophy and that they all send a consistent message.
For instance, if you’ve decided that you want your hotel to be known as sustainable and environment-friendly, you may want to use warm and earthy color tones on your website and choose a leaf, a tree, or similar images as part of your logo. Opt for fonts that reflect this kind of messaging as well. Ultimately, you want people to readily associate your logo, symbols, and colors with your hotel and what you stand for.
Be Trustworthy and Consistent
Trust is essential to the success of a business, especially if you’re in the hospitality industry. If you want to build a strong and positive brand, it’s not enough to send the right message and make heartwarming promises—you should be able to honor and deliver them as well. All your efforts may be for naught unless you provide a guest experience that’s consistent with what you promised. How can you build a positive reputation and a loyal following if you don’t honor your word?
If you market your hotel as a relaxing and budget-friendly option for families, make sure to offer spacious rooms and amenities at significantly affordable rates where families can enjoy a pleasant stay. Otherwise, your guests will probably leave dissatisfied and never come back. They may even rant about their experience on social media or tell their family and friends, which can hurt your brand reputation.
Observe Other Players in the Industry
Developing your hotel’s brand can’t be done in isolation. You have to go beyond the walls of your building to know what other hotels are doing, particularly those that provide similar services and target the same market. Look for best practices and see how you can modify them to suit your brand. Better yet, find ways to make them better. Try using the latest tools and technology, offer one-of-a-kind packages, and go the extra mile to provide an exceptional and satisfying customer experience.
Strong branding is one of the most crucial elements of a successful hotel business. It’ll set you apart from the competition and help you attract more clients, build a loyal following, and boost revenue. That’s why you should take your time developing the right brand strategy. Think long and hard about what kind of hotel you want to be known for and exert considerable effort to ensure that everything—from messaging and advertising to facilities and quality of service—is aligned with your brand philosophy. Doing so will allow you to build trust and an excellent reputation at the same time.
