,

4 Effective Strategies for Promoting Staycations

promoting staycations

 

As travel slowly starts to pick back up across the United States, one trend has emerged loud and clear: staycations. With COVID-19 leaving many still uneasy about traveling, families and couples are opting for the less-risky, yet still fun, mini vacation in their home state or city. What’s this mean for hotels? Your main source of revenue over the next couple of months (maybe even a year) may very well be coming from locals and nearby roadtrippers.

Audit Your Local SEO Performance

When done right, search engine optimization (SEO) can be one of the most useful tools for driving local traffic to your hotel. Take a quick audit of your existing SEO by looking at these four things:

  • Google My Business: make sure your listing is up-to-date and accurate; if you don’t have a listing, we can help
  • Name, Address, Phone Number: check that your NAP is consistent anywhere it’s mentioned – your website social media, etc.
  • Structured Citations: make sure your property has a listing on reference sites like Yelp
  • Reviews: encourage guests, in-person and online, to leave reviews after their stay; more reviews means more recognition

Want us to audit your SEO health for you? Contact our Director of Business Development, Jake, for a quote.

Take Advantage of Social Media

Social media marketing is a relatively inexpensive promotional outlet – perfect for properties working with slashed budgets. Reach staycation-ers in the area by running strategic ads targeted to those living within a specific radius of your hotel. Boost your timeline posts to specially curated local audiences. Push special discount codes (skip further down for staycation packages) through social or even promote daily restaurant deals. With social media, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to see a decent return.

Promote Meeting Space as a WFH Alternative

Over the last few months, millions of Americans have been uprooted from their traditional offices and likely re-planted at their dining room tables. Capture the attention of locals still working from home by offering a quiet, productive alternative workspace – your hotel. Emphasize amenities like in-room desks, fast Wi-Fi and ample conference space to seal the deal. Your rooms and meeting space could also be the perfect place to host home-schooling a few days a week.

Design Special Staycation Packages

Many hotels, maybe even your property, are turning towards custom staycation packages and special discounts to locals. At Inn at East Beach, you’ll see the California Resident Offer front and center on the Offers page of their site, a room rate discount, free parking and WiFi. Other brands like Mandarin Oriental have totally folded staycation packages into their re-opening strategies. Once you’ve curated the perfect staycation package, reach out and we’ll help you promote it. Think: digital advertising, strategic social media posts and even the tried-and-true direct mail campaign. Whatever your budget allows, we’ll work with you to get the most out of your staycation strategy.

These are just a few ways to target staycation-ers this year. Ready to start planning your marketing strategy? Give us a call or shoot us an email to set up a *virtual* coffee date with our Director of Business Development, Jake VanDerkar.