Recommendations and analysis updated May 12, 2020.
Recovery for Florida Hotels and Resorts
- Coronavirus changes quickly, especially in a state with both beaches and cities to draw residents and out-of-state visitors alike. Turn on Google Alerts for regional terms and stories to keep your channel strategies relevant.
- Personalize your creative and messaging to speak to the new needs guests' have thanks to coronavirus.
- Follow The New York Times to track each state's reopening status.
- Stay tuned to our Florida Trends dashboard to track COVID-19 updates.
Recovery Planning for Properties in Florida
- Don't know when you're reopening? Set your dates and start building excitement for when that day comes. Florida residents, in particular, are ready to be on the move, especially if the trip involves a beach, so make the most of this movement.
- Your other lines of business may carry the torch until you can slowly reopen your entire property. Don't overlook amenities like golf that can help you transition back into the swing of things.
- Establish cleanliness procedures now, even if you have time until reopening. Thorough cleaning considerations can boost consumer confidence as they look to plan a safe trip.
- Golf is growing in popularity, which is great news for Florida hotels and resorts with golf courses. Revenue plan with this in mind.
- Coronvirus may be back for a second wave in the fall or winter. Ensure a long-lasting recovery by making a marketing plan now.
Audience Targeting
- Travelers don't trust domestic aviation like they used to, which is why industry experts are forecasting 2020 to be the year of the road trip. Revise your audience profiles to follow suit.
- Your past guest lists are your secret weapon. Use them. Their loyalty can carry you through to recovery.
- Review your shopping windows early and often. Use this information to personalize your messaging and creative to the dates of stay your most valuable guests are shopping for.
- Utilize your demographics information to understand where your shoppers are from, and use this information to plan content creation and paid media.
Week-Over-Week Chart Depicting Which Dates of Stay People Are Shopping For
Map of the U.S. showing where prospective travelers to Florida are from. Source: Google Data Studio
Messaging
- Your messaging pillars should be personalized to the needs of your target audience. Be sure to let your audience research inform messaging development.
- Design creative and messaging surrounding the most popular dates of stay for your property. If prospective guests are searching for fall, talk about fall, and feature what your property is like in the fall.
- Analyze guest sentiment surrounding your hotel or resort by diving into guest reviews and comments on your organic posts. Use the sentiments you uncover to inform your tone. For example, if many guests talk about how laid back your property is, include this tone and verbiage in your ad copy.
- When it comes to messaging, focus more on guest needs than where dollars might come from. Speak to their needs and expectations to stay relevant.
- What keywords are people searching for when they find your property?
- What room types are people most interested in?
- What are the top pages users are already engaging with?
Paid Search Recommendations
Brand PPC
- Maintain your share of voice over increasing OTA competition.
- Adapt your strategy to the current moment so you can generate revenue while remaining safe and relevant.
- For example, work to reach individuals who are rescheduling meetings or weddings.
- Consider promoting stays in future seasons, as your booking windows may be longer than you expect.
- Adjust your restaurant keywords to capture terms people are searching now. Prospective diners are looking more for takeout or delivery options than dine-in.
- Read more paid media recommendations.
Unbrand PPC
- Monitor increases in Google Trends and OTA competition. Pay attention to the bid trends for non-brand terms relevant to your property to discern when to start bidding on these terms yourself.
- Revisit existing non-brand terms in your campaigns and refresh those that may no longer be relevant, e.g. "hotel near large event venue," "large event hotel."
- Complete additional research into area activities that will be safe in a post-COVID-19 world and add relevant terms with sufficient search volume to your campaigns.
- Broad, generic unbrand terms may have been out of reach before. But that's no longer. Bid on additional paid search real estate while you can by targeting broad terms you used to steer clear of.
Metasearch
- Only run in this channel if your property is still listed as open on its Google My Business Profile. You can't run metasearch ads if your property is listed as close via Google My Business.
- If you are open and listed as such, consider adjusting your bids based on dates of stay. For example, if you don't have available dates until 30+ days out, close the bids for the sooner dates so you don't spend money on unavailable dates.
- For our partners still bidding on metasearch, we've observed more users change the dates the auto-filled dates of stay. Adjust the bid multiplier here to reduce potentially wasted spend and speed up the process for end-users.
Social Media Recommendations
Paid
- Once you've re-evaluated your audiences, you might find that you need renewed brand awareness.
- Share wanderlust-inducing imagery and messaging, and don't press prospective travelers to make immediate bookings.
- Emphasize any flexible cancellation and update housekeeping policies to reassure travelers.
- Paid social media is also a great testing ground for other channels. A/B test multiple messaging schemes and visual identities, then apply the winning combinations to your display ads, website, PPC ad copy, and wherever else you're sharing your story.
- Don't feel like you have to start from scratch. Consider remarketing to people who have visited your website during COVID-19 and reward their interest in your property.
- You can also utilize the loyalty of your past guest lists to generate interest in your hotel or resort.
Organic
- Those who follow your organic page have chosen to receive updates from your hotel.
- Because of this, they may already be familiar with or have stayed at your hotel.
- Post images or videos of aspects of your property than can bring light to this period of time, or that may be missed in the images on your website.
- Share up-to-date information about your property's availability, as travelers will likely read your posts if they're wondering about the status of your property.
- Be sure your messaging and imagery aligns with those of your ads and your website.
- Above all else, be human.
Need recovery recommendations specific to your hotel or resort?
https://screenpilot.com/contact-us/
Did you enjoy the read?
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Recommendations and analysis updated May 12, 2020.
Recovery for Florida Hotels and Resorts
- Coronavirus changes quickly, especially in a state with both beaches and cities to draw residents and out-of-state visitors alike. Turn on Google Alerts for regional terms and stories to keep your channel strategies relevant.
- Personalize your creative and messaging to speak to the new needs guests' have thanks to coronavirus.
- Follow The New York Times to track each state's reopening status.
- Stay tuned to our Florida Trends dashboard to track COVID-19 updates.
Recovery Planning for Properties in Florida
- Don't know when you're reopening? Set your dates and start building excitement for when that day comes. Florida residents, in particular, are ready to be on the move, especially if the trip involves a beach, so make the most of this movement.
- Your other lines of business may carry the torch until you can slowly reopen your entire property. Don't overlook amenities like golf that can help you transition back into the swing of things.
- Establish cleanliness procedures now, even if you have time until reopening. Thorough cleaning considerations can boost consumer confidence as they look to plan a safe trip.
- Golf is growing in popularity, which is great news for Florida hotels and resorts with golf courses. Revenue plan with this in mind.
- Coronvirus may be back for a second wave in the fall or winter. Ensure a long-lasting recovery by making a marketing plan now.
Audience Targeting
- Travelers don't trust domestic aviation like they used to, which is why industry experts are forecasting 2020 to be the year of the road trip. Revise your audience profiles to follow suit.
- Your past guest lists are your secret weapon. Use them. Their loyalty can carry you through to recovery.
- Review your shopping windows early and often. Use this information to personalize your messaging and creative to the dates of stay your most valuable guests are shopping for.
- Utilize your demographics information to understand where your shoppers are from, and use this information to plan content creation and paid media.
Week-Over-Week Chart Depicting Which Dates of Stay People Are Shopping For
Map of the U.S. showing where prospective travelers to Florida are from. Source: Google Data Studio
Messaging
- Your messaging pillars should be personalized to the needs of your target audience. Be sure to let your audience research inform messaging development.
- Design creative and messaging surrounding the most popular dates of stay for your property. If prospective guests are searching for fall, talk about fall, and feature what your property is like in the fall.
- Analyze guest sentiment surrounding your hotel or resort by diving into guest reviews and comments on your organic posts. Use the sentiments you uncover to inform your tone. For example, if many guests talk about how laid back your property is, include this tone and verbiage in your ad copy.
- When it comes to messaging, focus more on guest needs than where dollars might come from. Speak to their needs and expectations to stay relevant.
- What keywords are people searching for when they find your property?
- What room types are people most interested in?
- What are the top pages users are already engaging with?
Paid Search Recommendations
Brand PPC
- Maintain your share of voice over increasing OTA competition.
- Adapt your strategy to the current moment so you can generate revenue while remaining safe and relevant.
- For example, work to reach individuals who are rescheduling meetings or weddings.
- Consider promoting stays in future seasons, as your booking windows may be longer than you expect.
- Adjust your restaurant keywords to capture terms people are searching now. Prospective diners are looking more for takeout or delivery options than dine-in.
- Read more paid media recommendations.
Unbrand PPC
- Monitor increases in Google Trends and OTA competition. Pay attention to the bid trends for non-brand terms relevant to your property to discern when to start bidding on these terms yourself.
- Revisit existing non-brand terms in your campaigns and refresh those that may no longer be relevant, e.g. "hotel near large event venue," "large event hotel."
- Complete additional research into area activities that will be safe in a post-COVID-19 world and add relevant terms with sufficient search volume to your campaigns.
- Broad, generic unbrand terms may have been out of reach before. But that's no longer. Bid on additional paid search real estate while you can by targeting broad terms you used to steer clear of.
Metasearch
- Only run in this channel if your property is still listed as open on its Google My Business Profile. You can't run metasearch ads if your property is listed as close via Google My Business.
- If you are open and listed as such, consider adjusting your bids based on dates of stay. For example, if you don't have available dates until 30+ days out, close the bids for the sooner dates so you don't spend money on unavailable dates.
- For our partners still bidding on metasearch, we've observed more users change the dates the auto-filled dates of stay. Adjust the bid multiplier here to reduce potentially wasted spend and speed up the process for end-users.
Social Media Recommendations
Paid
- Once you've re-evaluated your audiences, you might find that you need renewed brand awareness.
- Share wanderlust-inducing imagery and messaging, and don't press prospective travelers to make immediate bookings.
- Emphasize any flexible cancellation and update housekeeping policies to reassure travelers.
- Paid social media is also a great testing ground for other channels. A/B test multiple messaging schemes and visual identities, then apply the winning combinations to your display ads, website, PPC ad copy, and wherever else you're sharing your story.
- Don't feel like you have to start from scratch. Consider remarketing to people who have visited your website during COVID-19 and reward their interest in your property.
- You can also utilize the loyalty of your past guest lists to generate interest in your hotel or resort.
Organic
- Those who follow your organic page have chosen to receive updates from your hotel.
- Because of this, they may already be familiar with or have stayed at your hotel.
- Post images or videos of aspects of your property than can bring light to this period of time, or that may be missed in the images on your website.
- Share up-to-date information about your property's availability, as travelers will likely read your posts if they're wondering about the status of your property.
- Be sure your messaging and imagery aligns with those of your ads and your website.
- Above all else, be human.
Need recovery recommendations specific to your hotel or resort?
https://screenpilot.com/contact-us/
Did you enjoy the read?
Get original hospitality industry insights delivered to your inbox. Sign up to receive Screen Pilot’s Weekly COVID-19 Resource Center Update.
