Recommendations and analysis updated May 12, 2020.
Recovery in the Pacific Northwest Region
- Google Alerts are your new best friend. Set up alerts for news stories relevant to your region to ensure your channel strategies align with the current moment.
- Match your creative and messaging to both the current moment in your region as well as the region your most valuable guests live.
- Follow The New York Times to track each state's reopening status.
- Stay tuned to our Pacific Northwest Trends dashboard to track COVID-19 updates.
Recovery Planning for Pacific Northwest Properties
- Set your re-opening dates if you haven't already. Begin building buzz surrounding your re-opening dates.
- Room nights aren't your only revenue driver. Lean on other lines of business, like golf, while you work to re-open your entire property.
- Cleanliness needs to be among your top priorities. Establish and document refreshed housekeeping procedures that speak to COVID-19-related concerns, like social distancing.
- Activities like golf are on the rise. If you have a golf course, keep this in mind when revenue planning, especially as we head into the summer months.
- Get ready now should COVID-19 strike again. That's the best way to ensure your recovery lasts.
Audience Targeting
- Consumer confidence in domestic aviation has plummeted, so industry experts expect road trips to be on the rise. Take this into consideration as you develop new audience profiles.
- Make use of your past guest lists, as loyal audiences are more likely to contribute to your recovery.
- Stay on top of your region's and your property's shopping windows. Develop messaging surrounding popular dates of stay.
- Check your audience demographics to determine where your shoppers are from. This may shift with the seasons, so review this information often.
Week-Over-Week Chart Depicting Which Dates of Stay People Are Shopping For
Map of the U.S. showing where prospective travelers to the Pacific Northwest are from. Source: Google Data Studio
Messaging
- Craft your messaging pillars to speak to the data points you uncover during your audience research.
- Customize your messaging to the dates your most valuable guests are searching for.
- Dive into the sentiment surrounding your property. Read Facebook, Google, and Trip Advisor reviews as well as organic post comments to analyze how travelers view your property. Use these insights to inform your tone. For example, if many guests talk about how rustic your property is, include this tone and verbiage in your ad copy.
- Messaging is one part of your marketing operation that's not about dollars. Focus instead on speaking to your audience's needs and expectations.
- 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.
- Generate revenue for your property by adapting your strategy so your promotions remain 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.
Did you enjoy the read?
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Recommendations and analysis updated May 12, 2020.
Recovery in the Pacific Northwest Region
- Google Alerts are your new best friend. Set up alerts for news stories relevant to your region to ensure your channel strategies align with the current moment.
- Match your creative and messaging to both the current moment in your region as well as the region your most valuable guests live.
- Follow The New York Times to track each state's reopening status.
- Stay tuned to our Pacific Northwest Trends dashboard to track COVID-19 updates.
Recovery Planning for Pacific Northwest Properties
- Set your re-opening dates if you haven't already. Begin building buzz surrounding your re-opening dates.
- Room nights aren't your only revenue driver. Lean on other lines of business, like golf, while you work to re-open your entire property.
- Cleanliness needs to be among your top priorities. Establish and document refreshed housekeeping procedures that speak to COVID-19-related concerns, like social distancing.
- Activities like golf are on the rise. If you have a golf course, keep this in mind when revenue planning, especially as we head into the summer months.
- Get ready now should COVID-19 strike again. That's the best way to ensure your recovery lasts.
Audience Targeting
- Consumer confidence in domestic aviation has plummeted, so industry experts expect road trips to be on the rise. Take this into consideration as you develop new audience profiles.
- Make use of your past guest lists, as loyal audiences are more likely to contribute to your recovery.
- Stay on top of your region's and your property's shopping windows. Develop messaging surrounding popular dates of stay.
- Check your audience demographics to determine where your shoppers are from. This may shift with the seasons, so review this information often.
Week-Over-Week Chart Depicting Which Dates of Stay People Are Shopping For
Map of the U.S. showing where prospective travelers to the Pacific Northwest are from. Source: Google Data Studio
Messaging
- Craft your messaging pillars to speak to the data points you uncover during your audience research.
- Customize your messaging to the dates your most valuable guests are searching for.
- Dive into the sentiment surrounding your property. Read Facebook, Google, and Trip Advisor reviews as well as organic post comments to analyze how travelers view your property. Use these insights to inform your tone. For example, if many guests talk about how rustic your property is, include this tone and verbiage in your ad copy.
- Messaging is one part of your marketing operation that's not about dollars. Focus instead on speaking to your audience's needs and expectations.
- 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.
- Generate revenue for your property by adapting your strategy so your promotions remain 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.
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.
