How Can Scoring Content Help Hotels Drive More Bookings

We all understand the importance of content in today’s digital world. It is what helps us establish a better understanding of the product and then make more informed decisions. As the world came out of the pandemic, guests became more aware about hotel amenities and policies — as volatility forced a lot of travelers to have flexible plans.

General property information, photographs, room features, and available amenities — anything that informs a customer about an establishment must be included in static content. That material is the single most crucial factor in driving bookings.

Now, listing channels have different systems to assess the content. In an ideal world, you’d evaluate which channel brings in the most conversions and update the information accordingly. However, that’s not always possible.

So, this article will highlight the critical factors in generally updating and prioritizing content to drive more bookings. That will enable you to improve global conversion rates and better understand what works and what doesn’t.

Read on to know more.

The ABCs of high-scoring hotel content

Source

Static hotel content has become vast now due to constantly evolving customer demands. Somebody wants a pool; another guest may desire a dedicated bar at the lounge. Simply making these additions to an establishment isn’t enough. You also have to advertise them.

OTAs assume the same. These platforms want details such as:

• The available room types
• Price points for accommodation
• Property images, including photographs of guest rooms

Omitting such crucial information from your listing will make a potential customer assume that your establishment isn’t up to par. At this point, it doesn’t matter if you offer the facilities they want. You’ve already lost them.

Consider this example. In a 2021 survey, 70% of hoteliers wanted to eliminate traditional guest handbooks and digitize hotel information. Why do you think that is?

The answer is pretty straightforward. Comprehensive online information on an OTA is more easily consumed.

Quick tips to improve your content score

Source

While each OTA might treat and prioritize content for hotels differently. They include:

• Keeping the property and room descriptions accurate and engaging
• Providing a minimum of four high-resolution pictures or videos for each listed room type
• Regularly reviewing and updating the associated content, including managing online guest reviews

The key is in the details. The more quality information you put out there, the better your hotel content score will get. That will directly drive conversion rates.

Technology and automation can make all of this easy

Now that you grasp the importance of a content, you also need to realize that it may not always be easy.
Most of that difficulty comes from the lack of automation in the process. Operational teams manually update static material or focus primarily on one listing channel. It also doesn’t help that management teams relay feedback on the broader content through a convoluted processes.

Source

Hotels can solve this by incorporating optimization platforms such as Content-AI to circumvent such challenges. One simple click and the application will update property information across all platforms simultaneously.

What else can it do?

• Identification of crucial property attributes that drive conversions across global demand channels
• Auto-generating image tags to improve platform visibility
• AI Optimization of existing static content by cross-referencing data accuracy between the listing channel and the official hotel website

All of that adds up to one thing—a higher property score. And, as implied before, a better score means more bookings.

Content checklist to improve property rankings

Source

You have a broad idea of what to work towards now. Still, what exactly do you need to improve your hotel content score?

The correct approach lies in being as detailed as possible. This applies to your property overview, room information, categories, etc. Essentially, it’d be wise for you to elaborate on anything you can. So, here are some things to check off that list.

1. A perfect caption

   Often, OTA merely display your property caption. That means a potential customer has to go solely off the property name. They won’t see anything else.
   So, consider adding a by-line that describes what your hotel is all about. What are the attractions nearby? What do you offer that other places don’t? Anything that helps differentiate you from the rest works here.

   Be as creative and unique as you want. That’ll only help grab more eyeballs.

2. Straightforward room codes

   Optimization tools like Content-AI enable you to structure room information comprehensively. The idea is simple. Assign a code to a listed room. Then, any associated picture or information gets the same designation.

   That streamlines customer experience, helping them browse better. The simpler the code, the better it is for bookings. For instance, say you offer two penthouse suites. You could assign something along the lines of ‘PS-01’ to the first suite and follow the same idea for the second.

   A prominent factor influencing customer engagement is the idea of conveying expertise. What you need to realize is that expertise doesn’t necessarily mean jargonistic terms. The more straightforward you make things, the more engagement you get.

3. The proper tags and categories

   Search engines rely on your tags to filter online results. So, if you haven’t tagged or categorized your content appropriately, it will be excluded from the displayed establishments.

   This goes deeper than people may realize. Merely listing a category as ‘guest rooms’ will not work. You need to provide better information. What kind of guest room is it? Is it a deluxe suite, a honeymoon suite, or specifically meant for corporate figures?

   In short, categorize room information and then offer sub-categories. That will help improve the general hotel content score while streamlining the search process for channel visitors.

4. Curated and descriptive content

   Some listing channels display more than the caption and may offer a brief overview of the property and the available facilities.

   Your listings need to take advantage of such opportunities. Don’t consider anything to be irrelevant. Do you host a karaoke bar? Great, put that in there! Does your hotel offer pan-Asian cuisine? Even better!

   Ensure that you leave nothing out. Remember, hotels sell an experience before anything else. So, even minor details can make someone choose your establishment over another option.

Wrapping up

Particular platforms offer some general guidance to help improve your overall hotel content score. However, it’d be best for you to learn how to identify the vital assessment areas independently.

All of the information in this article can be captured in one mantra: The more details you offer, the better engagement you receive. Include pictures in your listings, and you’ll notice a higher conversion rate. Highlight some recently added facilities and more guests book rooms to use them.

The world has moved on from basic demands. What people considered a luxury yesterday is a necessity today. So, your focus should be on getting the highest score possible. In doing so, you invariably draw attention to your property.

And, if this wasn’t already established, the more attention you get, the better it is for you.