Define Your Hotel USP: A Guide

Let your hotel personality shine through.

Before you engage in any hotel marketing activity, your first action should be to define your hotel USP. This lays the foundation for any and all of your marketing activities, as it gives you direction, a target market and the means to increase your direct bookings along the way.

It is your bread and butter for all things hotel marketing.

But how do you define your hotel USP? And what should you consider when incorporating that USP into your marketing strategies?

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What is a Hotel USP?

A USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition and it isn’t exclusive to hotels. Any business, whether service or product-based, has a USP. It is the means by which companies distinguish their products or services from their competitors and stand out from the competition in an otherwise crowded market.

For Hotels, it is no different.

Your unique USP depends upon a variety of factors – each one will add a splash of colour to your overall marketing appeal and create a collage of your hotel’s personality.

It is vital to have a clear picture of your hotel USP before engaging in marketing activity. If you misrepresent your hotel’s USP, you can leave guests with underwhelming or disappointing experiences which will be reflected in their guest reviews post-stay. Likewise, if you engage in targeted marketing, an incorrect hotel USP will lead you to focus on the wrong hotel guest types.

With an accurate, well-defined hotel USP you can optimise your hotel marketing strategy to increase your conversion rates, improve your online reputation and lower your costs.

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How to Develop Your Hotel USP

We may call it a USP, but in reality – it is more common sense.

You simply need to ask yourself – how can a hotel be unique? What can you offer your guests? 

The first, and most obvious option is to study your competition. Hotels always have competition within the hospitality industry and each one is trying to sell its own personality – that’s why compset research is so vital. As you research your target market, you’ll discover how much your hotel differs from your competitors – and therefore, where you should focus your hotel USP.

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Hotel USP Factors

Consider the following factors below. Each one will give a different reflection on the budding personality of your hotel.

Location

Destination marketing plays a big factor in defining your Hotel USP – are you in the city? Or located by the beach? Should guests come to you because of easy access to the airport or are your guests more likely to be spending their time on the nearby ski slopes?

Hot or cold, metropolitan or rural – you’ll need to consider these factors when defining your hotel USP. Don’t forget about history either – many hotels promote themselves based on the history of their location or city.

Facilities

So maybe you have a great deal of competition in your area – what else can you offer to guests to make them choose your hotel? 

Do you have an in-house restaurant? A cocktail bar? A pool table by reception that is perfect for making new friends? Maybe your hotel provides live music every weekend allowing guests to wind down and relax after a long day spent doing activities.

On top of that, spas and massage treatments go down a treat – especially for luxury travellers!

Activities

Your hotel USP can also include activities that you may or may not directly provide to your guests. By working with local businesses, you can reach understandings with them. 

For example: that snorkelling / paragliding / dirt biking company just down the road from your hotel – if they offer 10% discounts for your hotel guests, you can promote their businesses across your online presence. You’ll not only help your local partnerships, but the snorkelling / paragliding / dirt biking becomes incorporated into your online presence.

It could tip the scales in your favour when website visitors come looking!

Staff

Your staff are the clockwork that keeps your hotel ticking and they can just as easily become incorporated into your hotel USP.

You shouldn’t base your entire marketing basis around these figures, yet having an award-winning chef serving your guests 5* dishes every single night is a massive factor for any foodies taking a look at your hotel.

Exclusivity / Quality

You may be a high-end boutique hotel dedicated to providing accommodation for only the upper echelons of big spenders – and that’s great! As long as you incorporate your “once-in-a-lifetime experience” focus within your hotel USP.

If you are a budget hotel that prides itself on offering perfect value for money – then that’s great too! You’ll equally have to emphasise your low prices, while still demonstrating a high standard of comfort, service and accommodation.

Every Hotel has its unique USP, and for every different USP there are millions of ideal guests.

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Featuring Your Hotel’s USP

You can consider your hotel website to be the centrepiece of your entire online presence. 

Obviously, your social media feeds will have to be correlated to match the featured styles of your hotel website, but it all begins with your first point of contact with guests. This can be your landing page, homepage, or even hotel website blog posts – but your hotel USP needs to be heavily optimised on these pages.

Secondly, we can break down your USP into (2) main priorities. Text, Images, and Themes.

Text

Your text needs to highlight your unique opportunities and do so with minimum effort. Exciting activities, 5* quality or stunning locations need to be the features of your sentences. This also plays into Hotel SEO, as the metadata displayed on SERPs will immediately entice or deter visitors on your hotel website.

Images

High-quality images of the services within your hotel USP should go without saying, but there is far more to it than just that. When it comes to hotel photography you need to ensure uniformity of editing across all of your images. Consistency is key when you try to present your hotel USP. 

On top of that – ensure that your images are resized and compressed to a decent standard. No website visitor will stick around as your page loads for 20 seconds, regardless of how beautiful your images actually are.

Themes

This can involve anything from colour schemes, to fonts and more.

They are small, subtle alterations, however they can cause an enormous amount of cognitive dissonance if not used correctly. How would you feel about a high-tech SaaS company that used a flowery, decorative font? It doesn’t feel right, does it? 

Keep your styles matching your hotel USP, and it will reinforce your message to your potential guests!

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Any More Questions?

 

The world of hotel marketing can become overwhelming. Just as a multiplying Matryoshka doll, within each marketing activity, you can find another, more complex task that needs to be completed.

That’s why we create these hotel marketing guides for you to learn and grow your hotel. But nothing is as good as a proper meeting. So fill out the form below and arrange a one on one discussion about your hotel marketing presence. We will even offer a free hotel audit – there’s no sign up or fee required!

We look forward to hearing from you soon!