Luxury Hotel Advertising | 14 Best Resort Marketing Strategies

An effective luxury hotel advertising strategy is essential to remain competitive in the high-end hospitality industry. For your hotel business to stand out from the rest, you’ll need to promote your opulent offerings in innovative ways.

Well-executed advertising tactics will help you establish a strong position in the market, enhance your brand image, and boost your customer base. Additionally, it’s important to spend your marketing budget on efforts that promise the best returns.

So, what are the best hotel digital marketing methods that will improve your brand equity? In this guide, we’ve highlighted the top advertising strategies that will help you to differentiate your luxury hotel from the rest and get more direct bookings.

14 Must-Know Luxury Resort Advertising Strategies

There are several ways to create the best hotel advertising strategy. Here are 14 must-know methods to influence the customer journey and get ahead of your competitors.

Differentiate Yourself From Competing Luxury Hotels

As a luxury hotel or resort, you’ll have to market your business in a way that emphasises your sophisticated brand image and superior service. It’s important that both your offerings and marketing techniques are unique in order to attract potential guests.

A great way to gain a competitive advantage is by delivering exceptional customer service. Going the extra mile for your potential and existing guests can inspire customer loyalty.

Additionally, it’s essential to advertise with international competition in mind. Generally, individuals looking for opulent accommodation could afford to travel anywhere. As such, it’s best to create enticing hotel ads that will influence them to choose your establishment.

Be Innovative & Add Value

One of the most important aspects of advertising is originality. Having dull or gimmick hotel ads is not beneficial in gaining a competitive advantage. You’ll need fresh ideas and a well-executed content marketing strategy to motivate website visitors to click on your call to action.

When advertising to luxury travellers, you should focus on adding extra value rather than cutting prices. Although marketing based on lowest prices may seem like an effective advertising tactic, this is not always the case.

If you’re offering regular discounts, it increases the risk of degrading perceptions towards your luxury hotel branding. Alternatively, you should focus on creating and communicating additional hotel perks such as:

• Suite upgrades
• Exclusive packages
• Dining credits
• Free gifts
• Late check-outs
• Extra concierge services

Use Eye-Catching Images & Video Content to Attract Attention

Nothing says unstimulating more than long-text based ads or slideshows that seem to have no end to it. In a world full of non-stop scrolling, you’ll have to create enticing content that attracts attention.

Video content is one of the top online engagement tactics. It receives more views, reactions, comments, and shares than still images. By taking full advantage of this trend, you can highlight your luxurious amenities with video ads to increase engagement and customer base.

Video ads allow you to provide existing and potential guests with online tours that show the exclusive experiences awaiting them. Here are a few tips for epic video content:

• Use high-quality videos
• Shorter, concise videos are more effective
• Set the mood with music
• Understand your strengths and highlight what your brand does well

You can find an example of how a luxury resort can use video content to convey its idyllic experiences in the video below.

Value Emotion & User-Generated Content

Considering consumer emotions is a critical component when developing your advertising strategy. The hospitality industry seeks to provide customers with happiness, comfort, and enjoyable experiences. As such, your marketing efforts should aim to generate positive emotional reactions.

To create the best hotel advertisements, this should be implemented in the finer details as well. For example, an image of a hotel room shouldn’t just display the design. It should capture the way guests will feel when sleeping with the softest sheets and premium pillows.

Sending clear and impactful messages will help you spark emotions, boost engagement, and influence perceptions. It also helps to increase user-generated content and gain insights at a low cost. A few ways to boost user-created content include using hashtags, online campaigns, and leveraging current trends.

Post Your Resort Advertisements on Social Media Platforms

Social media is one of the most effective tools that you can use to increase engagement, generate relevant web traffic, and get more bookings. Focusing on your luxury hotel social media marketing strategies will allow you to improve your business success at a relatively low cost.

The social media platforms that you can use to engage with your target audience include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok. When creating hotel ads, it’s important to have a clear call to action that encourages users to respond.

You should also examine your call to action across your social media platforms to ensure that it’s effective and evokes emotion. Additionally, individuals may not be ready to book right away. So, it’s best to encourage a connection through actions such as signing up for a newsletter or entering an exclusive giveaway.

Use Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has become one of the most popular and beneficial tools for online advertising. Taking advantage of influencers’ online power will help your hotel business gain trust and increase revenue generation.

Like most individuals, luxury travellers are active social media users seeking entertainment, reviews, and inspiration. Although influencers are highly recognizable, they are ordinary people whose followers trust and value their recommendations.

As such, it’s profitable to establish long-term symbiotic relationships with relevant influencers as it can influence bookings and help your business succeed. But, keep in mind that your partnerships should align with your brand image and desired audience.

A great way to use influencer marketing is by offering a paid stay at your luxury resort in exchange for social media posts about the experience. This way, the influencer will showcase the hotel from the viewpoint of a typical guest. And by doing so, it will inform their large and loyal audience about your opulent accommodation while influencing attitudes and purchase decisions.

Provide Superior Customer Service

Customer service and marketing are synonymous, especially in the hospitality industry. To provide superior customer service, you’ll need to ensure that your guests are happy. You can achieve this by exceeding their expectations and being available throughout the customer journey.

It’s important to note that you should provide exceptional service before, during, and after guests have stayed at your hotel. If you go the extra mile for your guests, it increases the likelihood that you’ll get favourable online reviews, referrals, and returning guests.

Establish a Sense of Exclusivity With Luxury Hotel Ads

It’s important to make individuals feel valued for choosing your hotel. Additionally, your advertising content should build anticipation of a splendid stay. To effectively promote your business, you’ll have to understand your audience and what interests them.

Individuals looking for deluxe accommodation have different customer profiles, from jet-setting families to adventurous solo travellers. As such, it’s best to target your ads to the right audience. This way, you can describe the perfect escape with luxurious amenities.

Be Available Where Your Potential Visitors Are

In today’s digital era, individuals want answers instantly. And they find this information online. When looking for accommodation, your potential guests are likely conducting comparative research on their preferred platforms.

As such, it’s essential to ensure that they can easily find your hotel when searching online. Needless to say, if a hotel business isn’t already online, it’s missing out on countless potential visitors.

To reach your audience with the best hotel adverts, you should maintain effective integrated marketing communications across your chosen online platforms. Additionally, it’s important to monitor your website analytics and see which areas generate the most bookings. By doing so, you’ll know where to focus your advertising efforts in the future.

Have a Mobile-Friendly Hotel Website

While this might be an obvious tactic, many hotels disregard the importance of having a user-friendly website. An unclear and unattractive website that’s difficult to navigate will likely result in an unsatisfactory user experience.

It’s crucial to have a clean website that is eye-catching, straightforward, and offers simple navigation. If you don’t have captivating hotel website designs, it will negatively impact the perceptions of your property and hotel experience.

A few ways to create a user-friendly website include:

• Keeping the language simple and clear
• Having an easy direct booking process
• Use high-quality images and video content
• Prioritise good search engine optimisation (SEO) practices
• Ensure that all web page elements are responsive (links, buttons, etc.)

Additionally, it’s best to focus on hotel mobile marketing to provide an enhanced user experience on your website. ​​Over the past decade, the percentage of global web traffic on mobile devices has surged. As of July 2021, around 56.75% of web traffic came via mobile phones.

As such, it’s crucial to ensure that your website is compatible with mobile devices. This includes optimising for usability, speed, and appearance.

Upload Regular Blog Updates on Your Hotel Website

Blogging is an excellent way to leverage content marketing opportunities. It allows you to provide in-depth information about your offerings and nearby attractions and expand on relevant topics.

It’s best to upload blog posts regularly with informative content to become a top luxury experience resource. Your messages should not only inform individuals but intrigue them as well. Keep in mind potential questions that individuals may have when visiting a particular destination.

Additionally, your content should include SEO best practices to increase visibility on search engines and drive traffic to your blog. A blog can also help to link your website and social media accounts. A great example is having Pinterest boards with luxury experience ideas that direct users to your hotel website.

Prioritize SEO to Increase Visibility on Search Engines

Focusing on SEO is essential for a successful luxury hotel marketing strategy. It’s vital to be easily searchable online and visible to your target audience. Hotel SEO is a process that aims to improve a website’s ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs).

Implementing good SEO practices will help to improve the quality and quantity of web traffic from organic search results. Many luxury travellers don’t scroll past the first page of search results from search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. So, it’s important to focus on both off-site and on-site optimisation.

Here are a few SEO basics that will help you to increase unpaid web traffic and get more bookings:

• Make sure you’re providing high-quality and relevant content
• Keep your information up-to-date and optimise existing content
• Optimise web page content – page titles, meta descriptions, URL structure, heading tags, etc.
• Include broad and long-tail keywords to increase your discoverability
• Focus on obtaining backlinks from other websites

Invest in Personalisation & Customer Loyalty Programs

It’s well-known that affluent travellers enjoy pampering and perks. And hotels that make their guests feel valued will likely receive positive online reviews and return visits. One way that you can enhance interactions is by enhancing user experiences on your website.

For example, you can automatically fill out online forms based on past experiences. You can also add personal touches by offering incentives and complimentary gifts based on customer interactions.

A great way to obtain the necessary personal information is through customer loyalty programs. This tool provides benefits to both the customer and the business. For instance, it makes it easier to keep track of customers’ eligibility for extra perks and allows you to create the ideal packages.

Get More Bookings With Google Hotel Ads

One of the best resort marketing tools is listing your business on Google Hotel Ads. It helps to increase the visibility and brand value of luxury resorts. As such, many hotels use this method in their advertising and ppc strategies.

Additionally, it reduces your dependency on online travel agencies. This effective method increases direct bookings on your hotel website and provides more control over the customer journey.

Advertising in this way helps to build trust, a loyal customer base, and increased profits. But, it’s important to provide up-to-date information on your rates, availability, and hotel room types.

A Footnote on Luxury Hotel Marketing Strategies

As individuals constantly rely on the internet for information, it’s essential to promote your luxury hotel on online platforms. With well-executed advertising efforts, you can understand your audience, emphasize your superior services, and influence their decisions.

Now that we’ve covered the top advertising tactics, it’s time to create the best hotel ads. Implementing the strategies highlighted above will help you create epic ad campaigns, remain competitive, and get more bookings.