Allelon hospitality is an owner and management company of two boutique hotels, and soon to be three, in the capital city; Valletta.  The company uses several online travel agents as well as its own website for distribution of its rooms.  Although there is a heavy reliance on online presence, the company lacks an integrated digital marketing plan.

The current online presence includes:

·       A parent brand site and individual sites for each hotel

·       Facebook pages for the parent brand, and each hotel as well as the restaurants

·       Instagram pages for the parent brand, and each hotel as well as the restaurants

·       Google my business listings

·       Tripadvisor listings

The aim for the company’s digital presence should be boost direct business via its own channels.  The following are tools or strategies which would benefit the company:

 

Websites

The websites are in need of an audit and a revamp.  Issues of note include:

·       Two call-to-action buttons on the landing page which create confusion.

·       Googlemaps API is not configured properly

·       Layout design issues

·       Outdated content

·       Deadlinks

·       Lack of SEO

Since the company does not have an in house marketing team due to its small size, it is recommended that third parties are solicited to take care of the website and SEO.

 

 

 

Social media

Facebook & Instagram

The facebook and Instagram pages are managed by one of the managing directors.  Content is created in-house and with the aid of the occasional blogger/influencer.  Social media has become more important in recent days as the company is relying more on the local market with 95% of its Facebook audience being Maltese.  Although the company is quite happy with the performance of boosted posts and the insights available on Facebook, the company might wish to consider opting for a social media management platform where all channels can be monitored from one place.

 

Retargeting tools

According to research from SalesCycle 81% of travel shoppers abandon their shopping carts online. (CHARLTON, 2019)  Remarketing campaigns can help the hotels’ websites with conversions.  Retargeting should form part of a more holistic digital strategy following an attempt to boost traffic to the hotels’ own websites.

 

PPC campaign

The hotels would benefit from embarking on pay per click campaigns in certain key areas or for particular keywords.  Online travel agents such as booking.com bid fiercely on the hotels name.  It would therefore be prudent for the hotel to look into protecting its brand equity.

Email Marketing

The hotels have a large database of email addresses from past guests.  This data is currently unutilized.  It can be used to generate repeat business via email marketing campaigns.  The popular mailchimp solution could be a good option for a first try at email marketing.

 

 

Reputation Management

The hotels have an excellent online reputation.  Despite this, it is important to ensure that even positive reviews are acknowledged and responded to.  Due to the many online travel agent and review sites, it would be advisable to opt for a solution where all reviews could me managed from one site.  ReviewPro is a popular solution for monitoring online reputation.

 

Customer service

The hotels still rely heavily on phone calls and emails for communicating with potential guests.  In today’s world, prospective clients often expect an instant response from businesses.  Since the hotels have a 24 hour receptionist presence, they could benefit from opting for a customer service soliton such as Zen Desk.  This would ensure that queries are responded to in real time.  A priority however would be maintaining the right tone in responses, and ensuring personal communication over canned responses.

 

There are clearly a number of areas in which the company can improve its digital marketing efforts.  Since the management team is small, it is recommended that they focus on their core competencies and that marketing tasks are outsourced.

 

References

CHARLTON, G., 2019. 10 Fascinating Stats on Cart Abandonment: 2019 Edition. [Online]
Available at: https://www.salecycle.com/blog/featured/10-fascinating-stats-cart-abandonment/
[Accessed 15 November 2020].