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OpinionSales & Marketing


CAPTURING HOTEL DEMAND AT SCALE: HOW DIGITAL MARKETING AUTOMATION IS SHAPING THE
FUTURE OF HOSPITALITY

By Toni Marti
Global Head Channel Partnerships at DerbySoft
7 min read18 December 2024
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Capturing Hotel Demand at Scale: How Digital Marketing Automation is Shaping the
Future of Hospitality — Photo by DerbySoft

In today's hyper-competitive hospitality landscape, hotels can no longer rely on
a “build it and they will come” mindset. The hunger for travel is insatiable,
but the demand for a hyper-personalized experience that starts long before a
potential traveler clicks ‘book now’ has hit an all-time high. In this market,
loyalty must be earned – not given, and digital marketing is not a luxury, it's
a necessity.

As hotels face increased competition from both traditional rivals and
alternative lodging options, like Airbnb, capturing demand at scale has become
more important than ever – but it’s also increasingly complex. What was once a
straightforward task of promoting rooms and services has evolved into a
sophisticated, data-driven effort to capture attention, appeal to individual
guest preferences, and establish meaningful relationships. With personalization
now at the core of guest expectations, the ability to deliver targeted, timely
marketing across multiple channels is the key to driving bookings. For
hoteliers, the challenge is not just how to execute these strategies, but how to
do so efficiently and at scale, while ensuring return on investment.


THE EVOLUTION OF DIGITAL MARKETING IN HOSPITALITY

The rise of the internet and the emergence of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) in
the late 1990s reshaped how travelers searched for accommodations, and the
emergence of digital-first marketing strategies quickly became inevitable. As
digital touchpoints usher in new norms of convenience and personalization,
attention has become a commodity, and hotels must meet prospective guests where
they are (online) if they hope to capture their interest. After all, travelers
begin their ‘planning’ journey via multiple online sources, from social media
inspiration to online research and reviews, long before they ever finalize the
details of their next trip.

To this effect, research from Expedia revealed that travelers spend an average
of 303 minutes, or over 5 hours, engaging with travel content in the 45 days
leading up to a booking decision.

Moreover, that research found that travelers utilize an increasingly diverse
range of online resources during their planning process, including:

 * 80% of travelers rely on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)
 * 61% turn to search engines
 * 58% use social media for inspiration
 * 54% visit airline websites
 * 51% explore meta travel websites

The digital landscape is vast – but it can also make for a fragmented journey,
and travelers embark on an extensive period of research while considering their
next destination. With this in mind, hotels must establish a strong online
presence to connect with guests at each point in their pre-booking journey, by
focusing on owned, earned and paid digital channels.


THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: DIRECT BOOKINGS AND OTAS

The tug-of-war between hospitality brands and OTAs is not new, and it won’t end
anytime soon. OTAs have been the fastest-growing distribution channel in the
tours, activities, and attractions space over the past decade. Still, throughout
the pandemic, travelers demonstrated a renewed preference for direct bookings.
During recessionary periods, however, OTAs typically experience an uptick in
performance as guests become more cost-conscious.

Direct bookings allow hotels to capture more revenue per booking and establish
direct relationships with guests, which provides opportunities for upselling and
personalization that may otherwise be missed. At the same time, however, direct
channels alone can limit a hotel's reach, as OTAs have a global presence and
extensive marketing budgets. Through OTAs, hotels can reach guests who might not
otherwise consider their property.

Hotels should always employ tactics to increase direct bookings; however, they
should also strike a balance between OTAs and direct bookings by leveraging OTAs
as an entry point to reach a broader audience, capturing first-time guests who
may later be converted into loyal, direct bookers. By promoting direct booking
benefits, such as exclusive discounts or tailored packages, hotels can encourage
repeat guests for future stays, thus cultivating stronger, more personalized
relationships. When hotels establish a healthy balance between both channels,
they can preserve their brand identity, maintain control of guest data, and
ultimately drive more sustainable revenue growth across all booking platforms.


HOW TECHNOLOGY EMPOWERS HOTELS TO SCALE AND OPTIMIZE DIGITAL MARKETING

Fortunately, the embrace of digital-first marketing strategies allows hotels to
collect valuable guest data, enabling a far more impactful and scalable result
than traditional, one-size-fits-all campaigns of the past. After all, expanding
marketing reach across diverse markets, languages, and cultural nuances while
ensuring that campaigns remain relevant and personalized is no small task. This
process requires sophisticated data integration and tech-enabled automation,
where guest preferences, booking behaviors, and regional trends are all
captured, interpreted, and automatically leveraged to tailor marketing messages.

Notably, digital marketing technology has become more cost effective and
measurable than legacy methods, largely due to its iterative design. Digital
campaigns can be tracked and adjusted in real time, allowing hotels to pull in
guest data from various touchpoints, optimize their marketing spend, and improve
return on investment (ROI). Unlike the “spray and pray” tactics of the past, a
dedicated digital marketing platform offers A/B testing, audience segmentation,
and budget allocation to achieve better, measurable outcomes.

What’s more, hotels can accelerate (and automate) the deployment of promotions
across multiple channels, without the need for tedious, individual reviews
across disconnected platforms. Using a centralized system, designed specifically
for marketing to travelers, hotels can ensure consistent messaging across all
channels, while eliminating inefficient and repetitive workflows.

As the saying goes – you can’t manage what you can’t measure, and the use of
digital marketing technology unlocks deeper insights, providing hotels with
customizable, automated reports. These performance summaries provide hotels with
a roadmap to refine their strategies, improve bookings, and build stronger guest
loyalty. It should come as no surprise, then, that research from the
HotelTechReport revealed that 81% of hoteliers believe it’s very likely that
technology will be more important for the success of a hotel business in the
next five years.

With such a fast-paced, data-driven world, hotels that fail to embrace digital
marketing automation risk being left behind. By leveraging powerful digital
marketing platforms, hotels can seamlessly navigate the otherwise complex world
of modern guest expectations, efficiently manage multi-channel campaigns, and
strike the right balance between direct bookings and OTA visibility. With the
right digital marketing automation platform, hotels will not only drive demand
at scale – they will also foster meaningful, lasting relationships with their
guests while curating stronger brand identities.


ABOUT DERBYSOFT

DerbySoft is the Travel Commerce Accelerator, with a mission to converge the
diverse elements of travel, creating a unified and efficient ecosystem of
connectivity services, high-performing AI-driven marketing services, and an
end-to-end content platform. Our world-class services are designed to deliver
seamless, frictionless commerce, accelerating the pace at which properties can
connect, grow, and optimize profit. DerbySoft consistently pushes the boundaries
of innovation to unlock new opportunities and accelerate travel commerce. Our
team of travel industry experts is passionate about uniting people and
technology and committed to enhancing every aspect of travel, making it more
accessible, efficient, and enjoyable for all. Our approach is centered on making
travel better - not just for today, but for years to come. Headquartered in
Dallas, Texas, USA, DerbySoft's cutting-edge technology is trusted by the
world's leading online travel distribution partners and hotel companies in 197
countries. To learn more, visit DerbySoft.com.

With six offices around the globe and over 300 employees in over 11 countries,
DerbySoft continues to grow and develop the next generation of online hotel
distribution infrastructure. DerbySoft.com.

Caroline Terry
Director, Corporate Marketing
DerbySoft

View source

Sales & MarketingTravel TechnologyDigital Marketing

Toni Marti
Global Head Channel Partnerships at DerbySoft
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DerbySoft
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