Along with a surge in business travel, in-person events have returned with full strength, bringing a new scope for hotel properties. Therefore, if your hotel has a meeting or event space, you should capitalize on this golden opportunity by optimizing your website. In this article, you’ll learn how to capture the MICE (Meeting, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) market segment of direct bookers.
MICE Guests: The Opportunity
Most likely, your hotel website is designed under the assumption that the vast majority of website visitors are leisure travelers. However, the demands of both business and leisure guests are completely different, so a good hotel website should be able to convert meeting planners just as smoothly and seamlessly as they do for leisure travelers. It’s essential to offer each of your visitors an online booking experience catered to their needs and interests; this is where tools like The Hotel’s Network website personalization comes into play.
Delivering a website experience that completely adapts to the meeting planner’s booking journey and provides key messages at specific moments of each stage will nudge them down the booking funnel and ultimately guide them towards a reservation.
4 Powerful Tips to Personalize The Website Experience for MICE Segment
Today, we are bringing you four different ways you can personalize the hotel website experience to increase direct reservations from meeting planners and boost your meeting space sales. Let’s take a look.
1. Offer a Warm and Friendly Welcome
When a user visits your Meetings and Events page for the first time, welcome them with a friendly and personalized message from your events team. Provide your contact information and include a clear CTA (call to action) so they fill in an RFP (request for proposal) – this is a wonderful approach to get things started!
2. Highlight What Makes Your Spaces Special
While a meeting planner explores your Meetings and Events page, you can utilize personalized notifications to outline the special features of your property. With numerous options that could be of interest in this area, it all depends on your hotel’s offerings and how you communicate them on your direct channel.
For example, to keep event planners engaged on your website, you can make your notifications clickable, so they have the option to view other relevant pages. It could prove worthwhile to nudge them towards a gallery of your conference rooms or to promotional videos showcasing the places where they can meet and network.
3. Growth for Your Meeting Planner Database
Including a customized form with your marketing messages not only increases your marketing database, but it’s also a simple way for meeting planners to obtain more information about your venue. A complete win-win!
Picture this: A meeting planner visits the dining, gallery, or even your rooms page. The fact that they have reached this step of the booking journey indicates that they want to learn more about your facilities, leading to this crucial moment that you should seize to get their contact information for forthcoming opportunities. This is the moment you can make use of a form builder tool.
4. Close The Deal with Unique Offers
Lastly, you can offer them unique discounts or incentives based on their profile, so they are encouraged to submit their request directly. Make sure to include relevant perks such as Wi-Fi access, complimentary coffee breaks, or even a banquet discount – highly tempting!
What’s more, to add a sense of urgency to your offers, you can set a flash sale with a countdown clock, so visitors feel the need to book now to not miss out on the opportunity.
There you go, four mighty tips to engage with meeting planners on your hotel website. And don’t forget, to successfully convert those meeting planners searching for their next business meeting location, always provide a personalized website experience catered to their needs and interests.
Free Case Study: How Silken Hotels & Condes Hotels Increased Web Conversion of Their Paid Traffic by 31%
Frequently hoteliers believe that increasing their site traffic would result in more direct sales. This, however, is merely the first step. Complementary efforts may be performed to maximize the conversion of additional visitors to your website and considerably increase direct bookings.
Click here to download the hotel case study “How Silken Hotels & Condes Hotels Increased Web Conversion of Their Paid Traffic by 31%”.
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