How do I make money fast for my hotel? Marketing Strategies for Short-Term Hotel Revenue

How I developed an interim marketing plan to drive quick revenue growth for Owston Hall Hotel in Doncaster.

Newly acquired hotel marketing challenges:

Owston Hall Hotel is a 32-bed independent hotel, restaurant and wedding venue. It faced significant challenges in 2023 after being newly acquired: it had limited local market presence, low room rates, poor occupancy, and a small database. With plans in place for a full and fabulous refurbishment, Owston Hall needed a rapid revenue boost!

In recent times, the main income and focus of operation was its 18-hole former championship golf course. It was known as a golf club not a hotel. The challenge the business faced was one of repositioning, brand building and visibility.

Hotel marketing objectives: 

1. Develop and implement an interim hotel marketing plan to drive short-term revenue
2. Establish a stronger market visibility in advance of the hotel’s refurbishment and relaunch

Hotel marketing strategy:

Working two-days-per-week over nine months, I focused on quick wins combined with a robust marketing plan. The strategy encompassed these key areas:

• Short-term marketing planning: I created a marketing plan and prioritised key activities where impact would be felt quickly. This included setting up of vital marketing systems, promotions, website completion, OTA and 3rd party listings.
• Reputation management: I addressed and improved the hotel’s online reputation on key review platforms like Google and TripAdvisor. I responded to all Google and TripAdvisor reviews to give the hotel a personality; advised set up of Google Review collection.
• Brand development: I created a cohesive hotel brand image alongside the general manager, and strengthened sales materials. This included designing in-house collateral and ensuring consistent branding across all platforms. Newsletter templates, wedding packs, menus, room service materials etc.
• Visual asset creation: I organised a professional photoshoot to build a high-quality photo library showcasing the hotel’s facilities and ambiance. Updated the brand image across multiple hotel 3rd party sales platforms.
• Hotel website development: I collaborated with the hotel’s IT team to build a new WordPress website. I wrote SEO-optimised content for organic search visibility. Starting from zero, achieved page one listings for key phrases including ‘Conference hotel Doncaster’ and ‘Wedding venue Doncaster’. Set up and managed the Google Business Listing.
• OTA optimisation: I unified and enhanced the hotel’s brand presence on online travel agencies (OTAs) like Expedia and Booking.com.
• Hotel special offers and promotions: I worked with the general manager to develop targeted/seasonal special offers for dining and overnight stays. Promoted an afternoon tea offer to attract locals to the hotel to increase awareness and collect data for cross-promoting services. Achieved over 250 afternoon tea bookings.
• Hotel database development: I developed, segmented and grew the hotel’s database through planned data capture and partnerhip marketing. I establishe newsletter templates for email campaigns to communicate with past and potential guests. Grew the leisure database by 150% through a social media competition and website sign-up forms.
• Wedding venue marketing: Positioned the hotel as a small and exclusive-use wedding venue. Wrote wedding blogs, improved the wedding imagery, created wedding offers and ticketed wedding events. Established partnerships with prominent wedding suppliers.
• Corporate and conference market targeting: I increased brand visibility in the conference and corporate markets. Improved listings with conference booking agents, team building agencies and film location agencies. Facilitated online conference and meeting bookings.
• Social media marketing: I established a social media presence and rapidly grew followers through engaging content and targeted social media competitions. Created a personality for the hotel through stories about the team, house history, food and weddings.
• Revenue management systems: Implemented revenue management systems to increase RevPAR and in-house spend. Including Journey gift vouchers, online booking module meetingsbooker, and a wedding show-round booking widget.

The takeaways

Start with quick wins, not perfection
Focus on activity that drives immediate bookings (offers, listings and visibility) before long-term brand work.

Visibility = revenue
If people can’t find you, they can’t book. Fix your website, Google listing and OTAs first.

Reputation drives conversion
Actively managing reviews builds trust fast and directly impacts booking decisions.

Create offers that pull people in now
Simple, targeted promotions (like afternoon tea or short breaks) generate instant cash and new customers. But don’t give it away! It’s a fine balance between getting new people through the door and making money. Use platforms like Secret Escapes for offers that you can manage at volume and turnaround fast to help you gain some volume traction as they have the audience already.

Build your database from day one
Every guest and enquiry is future revenue so capture data early to keep selling beyond the first visit.

Remember, the groundwork laid during this foundtion period period creates a solid platform for future marketing efforts and long-term success.