Geotagging your Hotel – A Customer Journey Shortcut

Geotagging your hotel is more than a recommendation now, it’s a vital part of your customer journey in so many ways. If even a single available channel isn’t covered, it can be the difference between a direct booking at your hotel and yet another guest provided via an online travel agency (OTA).

Or even worse – your guests choosing another hotel entirely.

But what do we mean when we call it a shortcut in the customer journey?

Bear with us. By geotagging your hotel, you are extending your online presence through a variety of platforms. The further your reach, the more likely your hotel will be the chosen destination for a holiday, honeymoon, or business trip.

Let’s use Instagram for an example.

Instagram is a hotelier’s dream. A free marketing channel (with optional promotions available) that draws people with imagery. There’s a reason why we say that “a picture paints a thousand words” and Instagram’s success stands testament to that.

Sunsets. Puppies. Rugged landscapes of wild destinations. The variety available to Instagram users is incredible – and that’s why people are glued to their screens. 

A survey by Schofields actually revealed that 40% of respondents based their holidays based on how “Instagrammable” it was.

What does this have to do with geotagging your hotel?

Gone are the days when Google Maps was the first port of call for holiday-goers. Now social media like Facebook and Instagram have map features incorporated into their apps.

Customers can and often do search for their holiday destinations via Instagram. That’s why you will have been geotagging you posts and your business itself. 

As they type in their destination to gain a feel of the place, you will pop up. Your venue. Design of your architecture. That gorgeous pool within your facilities. Radiant sunsets from your rooftop bar. 

But how is it a shortcut?

With the right guide to promoting your hotel on Instagram, your profile is a well-honed, utterly captivating landing page for prospective guests.

It also provides a direct link to your website.

By capturing the hearts of your guests via social media like this, they are funneled directly to your website. Your location, your surroundings, your features are all collected in an easy-to-view profile on Instagram.

All because of geotagging your hotel.

Prospective guests don’t have to search your location on Google maps. They can see it on Instagram. 

You provide all of your information – with no need to research for more.

If you haven’t geotagged your hotel properly, customers will continue down the traditional customer journey and start searching on Google. With a great deal of effort, Google Hotel Ads can be your friend, but OTAs lurk on Google.

OTAs whose main priority is a booking – ANY booking. They are as likely to send a guest to your competition than they are for you. Which is what can make the traditional customer journey so dangerous for Hotels.

In short…

This is just one singular example of how geotagging your hotel can become a shortcut in the customer journey. It can drive direct bookings, and of course guests in turn become inadvertent marketers for your hotel on their social media.

This can repeat itself all over again. Whatever social media you are using, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. The more you geotag – the greater your chances of hooking guests in, and retaining your bookings from OTAs.

It’s something small. Something that does not take a lot of effort. But the payoff can be enormous.