Hotel marketing – Waldin Duran
Waldin Duran has worked for more than 10 years in the hotel industry and he is an expert in hotel marketing for the Peruvian Market. He combines it with operations and sales. What he likes best in the area of hospitality is the wide range of possibilities offered at a creative level and the amount of information that can be analyzed to make decisions and plan strategies.
Waldin explains the peculiarities of hotel marketing and offers us a series of tips to plan effective strategies and increase our market share. It also evaluates the possibilities that an international agency could have to enter the Peruvian market and offers its recommendations.
Why did you get interested in hotel marketing?
Since I started in the commercial area in the hospitality industry, the techniques and strategies used to make marketing, especially the hospital, demand a lot of creativity. I liked that.
In addition, an important factor in hotel marketing is the experience and voice of the client. It’s interesting how much information you can get to make decisions, use it as a weapon or do a SWOT.
What peculiarities does this sector have when it comes to proposing a strategy?
The way to analyze the market and the changing that the strategies you define can be. As well as the market, the clients and the large number of distribution channels and segments that exist.
What type of advertising is most effective for hotel marketing?
It depends a lot on what you want to achieve, what is your strategy and your target audience. What I recommend is to use a blended marketing strategy, since the target audience of a hotel is very varied. It is not a single one!
I would use specific advertising for mobile services and web apps. Most travelers plan their trips on a mobile device.
I would advertise through global distribution systems (saber, amadeus, amex, CWT) OTAs or DMCs. The visibility is immense.
I would apply a lot of digital marketing, social networks and website optimization for SEO.
I would also print advertising, but I would not focus too much on it.
I would use the services of bloggers and hotel influencers.
What capacity of displacement do people have when they hire a hotel? What means of transport do they use?
The displacement is strong, whether for work or pleasure. They use taxi companies recommended by the same hotels. Meanwhile, the use of services such as uber, cabify, easytaxi is growing, but it still needs a lot to match the taxi.
Which book do you recomend us to learn about hotel marketing?
“Human media: las personas en la era de Internet”, by Isra García.
Which marketing strategy is most effective in the hospitality sector located in Peru?
A strategy that contains:
- Events and cocktails where the customer knows the product.
- Digital marketing, content and social networks.
- Marketing campaigns applied in OTAs, GDS, Travel agencies.
- Partnerships with the Chambers of Commerce.
- Partnerships with communityspaces companies. Wework, Regus, Spaces.
- A lot of merchandising material
- Campaigns to promote stays of the local public on weekends. (overnight accommodation packages + dinner, promote them on the networks)
- Swaps with entities that generate exposures, and companies that do networking events. BNI, Businesnightperu. Etc.
- Manage in addition to social networks, the LinkedIn professional network to generate demand.
- Have a budget for participation in tourism fairs, corporate trips, etc.
What role does technology play in marketing for the hotel industry?
With technology, a hotel seeks the following:
- Optimization of processes check in / out, prospection, analitycs.
- Mark the difference with your competitors.
- Strategies of upselling, cross-selling and loyalty.
- Corporate growth and development
What advice can you give us to improve our hotel marketing campaigns?
Have your competitive set, your market, target client and hotel concept well defined.
I recommend defining your value proposition very well and that you notice in your campaigns. It will make you stand out in such a great offer.
Its content should be based on experiences, reviews, recommendations from other clients, success stories, etc.
I also recommend doing events in which the people who make the decisions come to know the hotel (after office, lunch, cocktails). This is very important.
What is the first advice you would give to an international marketing agency that wants to access the hotel market in Peru?
The first thing you have to prove is that you are able to read what the client (hotel) expects from the agency. It is also important to show that the agency can identify with the culture and concept of the hotel. Likewise, they must show that they know how to work hand in hand with the commercial area.
And, of course, understand that the Peruvian market is very loyal to the hotels with which they already work. Making a hotel marketing strategy to position a new hotel is very complicated.
How important is the smartphone device in contracting the services of a hotel?
A specific example is the last report that I took to see who entered the page of my hotel on tripadvisor from a mobile phone and from PC in the last 30 days. 19k viewed the hotel from the computer and 54k from a mobile device.
More and more customers use their phones to read reviews, request services (from the mobile service app), make mobile check in, make reservations or compare hotels.
Do you think we can use the same marketing strategies for hotels in Spain as in Peru?
No, they can be inspired by the progress that is in Spain, but the markets are totally different and you have to adapt a bit as you educate the client about changes and trends.
