How to Market Your Hotel As the Ultimate Holiday Gift :: Hospitality Trends

Holiday marketing for hotels that showcases properties as easy, exciting experiential gifts entices shoppers to give loved ones getaways or resort gift cards. Whether viral decluttering techniques or a renewed emphasis on YOLO lifestyles influenced people’s preferences, more than 90% of adults today say they wish for holiday experiences over material gifts. Hoteliers can position their brand as the ultimate experience to take advantage of this mentality and offer shoppers an excellent gift idea.

We’ll explain how to market hotel stays as ideal experiential gifts to increase holiday bookings and off-season occupancy rates.

How Hotels Fill the Need for Experiential Gifts

Market your hotel as a solution for those who’ve joined the bandwagon of people giving experiences as gifts. When you highlight the hotel’s best features, like a water park, spa, or restaurant, shoppers can easily see whether a stay at the property makes a good gift—and often, it does. Holiday specials create an urgency to encourage early bookings, and when the deals include spa packages or other experiences, add-on sales increase.

How Hotel Marketing Benefits Holiday Shoppers

Exasperated shoppers are relieved to find impressive gift ideas in a holiday marketing guide for a hotel. It’s even better when the property’s advertisement directs the shopper to an informative, intuitive landing page where they can book quickly and confidently. The next time they need an exceptional gift, they’ll know exactly where to look.

Holiday marketing campaigns also assist procrastinators who need a gift that will arrive on time. A hotel stay or gift card to a resort is the ultimate last-minute gift that won’t feel like an afterthought. And when a purchaser joins the brand loyalty program, they’ll earn points or rewards they can use toward their next stay.

Holiday Marketing Benefits for Hotels

Holiday marketing for hotels is different from marketing in other seasons because this is the singular time of year when every retailer, restaurant, and business is vying for shoppers’ attention. But hoteliers shouldn’t be discouraged by email inboxes and social feeds bursting with flash sales on stuff. Research has shown that people value experiences—pool time, getaways, and spa treatments—over material things, giving hotels a definite edge. 

Hotels can use early-season marketing campaigns to combat dips in hotel occupancy rates during winter holidays, including Christmas. When the deal is right, people are happy to experience the holiday in a new destination and surprise loved ones with the ultimate getaway. Hotels can adjust the booking dates for the sale to encourage people to book a gift during off-season times to increase occupancy.

Besides increasing seasonal business, holiday marketing for hotels also encourages visitors to sign up for emails and follow the brand on social, expanding the hotel’s audience.

How To Market a Hotel as a Holiday Gift 

Hotels should begin sprinkling holiday marketing into their campaigns as early as September and continually ramp up messaging as December—or the deadlines for promotions—near. Planning for these campaigns can start as early as six months beforehand to ensure you’re rolling out organized, intentional holiday ads for your hotel. Here are a few things to remember when deciding on seasonal ads, social posts, email marketing, and website offers:

Use Strategic Messages for a Hotel’s Holiday Marketing

Hoteliers must make their marketing campaigns stand out amongst the barrage of holiday messaging that hits shoppers each season. Selling hotel stays or spa packages as experiential gifts is one way to do this. Use social proof marketing that features testimonials and reviews, and showcase a hotel stay as the ultimate gift using these ideas:

• Market the hotel to target specific gift recipients, like families, couples, or friends
• Hotel gift cards don’t require shipping, and delivery is instant
• Sell lasting memories as irreplaceable presents
• Upsell spa services or water park passes as add-on gift ideas

Advertise Hotel Amenities To Elevate Revenue and Satisfaction

Finding the perfect present is important to many people, and a hotel that advertises its amenities can gain an advantage with experiential gift-givers. Marketing the pools, entertainment, and on-site food programs can sway people to pay extra for a gift or add services to give an upgraded experience. This increases the hotel’s Revenue Per Room (RevPAR), and when a hotel meets or exceeds the advertised expectations, guests are satisfied and likely to return.

People holiday shop with certain loved ones in mind. Hoteliers can target various personas to feature a hotel’s amenities as the ultimate gifts for specific audiences, such as: 

• Relaxation Seekers: Spa treatments, whirlpool, sauna, luxury bedding
• Tourists: Shuttle services, attraction packages, concierge services
• Health-Conscious Guests: Workout room, juice bar, healthy entrées
• Families: Water park, arcade, complimentary breakfast, in-room movie rentals
• Couples and Adults: Happy hours, shopping packages, water amenities

Promote Seasonal Offerings for Hotel Stays

Everyone looks for promotions during the holiday season and a hotelier should be prepared to offer deals and extras. These can include rate cuts or add-on packages that give the purchase extra value. Offer promotions for subsequent stays to encourage the gift-giver to become a guest.

There are several ways to promote a hotel stay as a must-buy gift, including:

• Focus on End-of-Year sales, similar to Black Friday deals to encourage early bookings.
• Create a strong gift card program and offer bonuses and spending-based rewards.
• Promote gift cards for the spa and restaurant as add-on presents.
• Make gift certificates printable for gift-giving ease.
• Create a FOMO campaign around a guest’s past booking dates to entice them to lock in their annual vacation plans at a discounted rate.
• Partner with local boutiques and businesses and promote packages as experiential gifts.

Updating advertisement landing pages, tweaking the website, planning social posts, and sending emails  while keeping up with guests and holiday happenings isn’t easy. Consider hiring a digital marketing agency to assist. Your hotel ads will attract people seeking perfect gifts, and you can focus on customer service and creating an unforgettable stay for your guests.

‘Tis the season to embrace the trend of experiential gifting. Promote hotel discounts and offer gift card deals to make your hotel stand out as a gift that gives back. Contact TravelBoom for a free evaluation or to discuss your marketing strategies for the holidays and beyond.

About TravelBoom Marketing

TravelBoom specializes in developing and executing customized data-driven marketing solutions that drive direct bookings and growth for its clients. With over 25 years of experience in digital marketing for travel and hotels, TravelBoom leverages advanced data science and analytics to uncover insights and develop strategies that greatly enhance results for our clients and reduce reliance on third-party channels. TravelBoom is also host of the world’s #1 ranked Hotel Marketing Podcast and its quarterly Traveler Sentiment Study both of which can be found at www.travelboommarketing.com.