Embarking on a Travelzoo campaign can be extremely stressful for independent hotels. Unlike chains and brands that have hotels spread out nationally and internationally with up to hundreds of properties to recoup the high cost that a single campaign costs, independents have a single property in a single market with a limited number of rooms to make this campaign profitable. That being said, there are a number of things you can do to make your ad more effective than others to help drive reservations AND brand awareness, a huge benefit of running a Travelzoo campaign often overlooked in this ultra-direct online marketing age.

 

Offer a Great Hook and a Better Rate
Rate driven offers like “$100 off” or “50% off”are the type of deals that Travelzoo’s audience is expecting to see so make sure your offer matches that. At the same time, it can’t be an offer that just brings your rack rate down to a rate another hotel in your compset is already offering on their website. Think of working with Travelzoo like working with an OTA: Lots of bookings but at a rock bottom rate designed to fill rooms at all costs.

 

Keep Restrictions to a Minimum; Better Yet, Delete Them Completely
Nothing will frustrate a Travelzoo user more than seeing a fantastic rate for a hotel in a city they are planning to visit and finding out that the rate is only good for one out of the three nights they are staying. Remember, your goal with running this campaign is to sell rooms, LOTS AND LOTS of rooms. Unless your offer’s time period includes a holiday or a day that you are already at capacity, don’t exclude any days from your offer. Yes, you will take an ADR hit on some days, but this should be offset by your ultimate goal: to sell rooms during a period that traditionally has a lot of open inventory. In addition, as all ads have a “Restrictions Apply” section attached, you can always pull inventory on specific dates if you need to after the promotion begins.

 

Keep the Booking Window Small
Add urgency to your offer by making the “Book By” date no more than 14 days after the launch of the campaign. This will help with the “I’ll get to it later” syndrome that many online offers suffer from and, at the same time, allow you to extend the offer if it turns out to be extremely successful.

 

Sell the Destination, Not Just Your Property
A line or two about the destination your property is located in and an offer related to it can often turn potential visitors into bookings. For instance, if you are located near Amusement Park USA remind people that not only do you provide a free shuttle to and from the Amusement Park USA, you also will include a voucher that is good for 20% off all tickets for people who book this offer.

 

Think Globally
Besides the USA version, Travelzoo also sends has weekly newsletters in Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom with new markets launching on a regular basis. Besides being able to target to an entirely new set of customers, the cost to be included in these newsletters is a fraction of what it costs to be included in the USA version of it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Email . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.