Dear WuBookers, as you well know, in addition to local tourism, tourism from abroad can be an important source of revenue for many entities. To attract international guests to your facility it is essential to develop a multichannel strategy that meets their expectations and addresses their specific needs: here is our 5-point (+1) guide to get you started.

1. Analyze and understand your target audience

Tourists are not all the same: there are families, single travelers, organized groups, business travelers and so on. In addition, when we talk about foreign people, we also have to take into account specific habits, values and sensibilities, which may be different from our own.

First of all, then, it is crucial to identify the target audience you would like to address, and understand the reasons why they might be interested in staying at your hotel, B&B or vacation home. 

But where to start? For example, from the data. In fact, it is likely that some bookings from abroad have already arrived in the past and perhaps continue to arrive: analyzing this flow – taking into account aspects such as origin, type, and period of greatest attendance – is the first step in understanding how to target supply and increase future bookings.

2. Speak their language, online and offline

Once you have identified your target audience, you need to ensure a good level of mutual understanding, starting with your online tools.

English is the language of communication par excellence, so your site should include at least this version. However, if you are targeting a non-English speaking clientele, it is always advisable to add their target language as well to facilitate navigation and put them at ease during the booking process.

A procedure that must be as simple, accessible and immediate as possible: in fact, at the first difficulty, your potential customer might interrupt or abandon the page without finalizing the transaction (and recovering him, regaining his trust, might be more complicated than expected!).

It is equally important that the same thing happens offline, i.e., that there is someone within the Hotel Staff who can speak multiple languages to reassure and make international guests feel welcomed right away.  

3. Build special rates and packages

Texts, photos, videos, social posts are all essential information to tell about your facility and convince a potential guest to book, but something is still missing: the offer. Thinking about your target audience, means that designing rates that are thought for each audience, in terms of activation period, conditions and services, is crucial.

It is known that in Italy most people vacation in August, while Germans and French prefer spring to travel. Different habits, which may be instrumental in creating special rates to attract foreign tourists when they are most interested.

Discounted prices or reduced cancellation policies are appealing leverages, but services can also make a difference when comparing multiple competing facilities.

So why not build ad hoc packages based on audience preferences or the specifics of the hotel and its area? For example, France and Italy are renowned for their food and wine offerings and are ideal destinations for lovers of good food: the combination of lodging and tasting experiences could prove successful.

4. Get found, especially online

Translating the website, unfortunately, is not enough to stand out in an industry where competition is high. Therefore, it is advisable to work on several channels simultaneously, taking advantage of their peculiarities.

Increase your site’s visibility with SEO

SEO, an acronym for Search Engine Optimization (like Google first and foremost), is still a valuable tool for gaining online visibility organically, that is, without advertising investment.

This requires that the facility’s site is built respecting certain technical parameters and that its content is optimized for placement on the search results page.

Before writing page texts in various languages, define a set of keywords relevant to the target audience and relevant to your site, while also paying attention to how people online conduct searches and what they expect to find. For example, “summer vacation tuscany” and “summer deals tuscany” may seem similar, yet they return very different results: in the first case, you will mostly find informational pages that give guidance on different vacation options in Tuscany. In the second, on the other hand, you immediately locate sites of hotels and facilities that offer affordable rates for your stay. Knowing how to choose your keywords well means getting visibility for the right search intent. 

But this is not the only thing you can do. Among the best practices in the SEO for hotels is also the compiling of metadata (small strings of text that can be read by Google and users), the presence of photos and videos, and the ability to navigate the site even from mobile devices such as smartphone tablets. This ensures a better browsing experience and, consequently, higher chances that Google will reward your site by showing it in higher positions than others. 

Choose OTAs according to target audience

In addition to the website, which encourages direct sales, it is increasingly common – and sometimes essential – to also be present on one or more distribution platforms, such as OTAs and metasearch. OTAs, in particular, are very popular with foreign tourists who, in just a few clicks, can quickly view numerous options taking advantage of the benefits reserved for them.

Because of the amount of traffic they manage to generate, OTAs procure visibility, reservations and revenue for a fee.

Airbnb and Booking.com are among the most popular and frequented, but they are not the only ones: there are in fact numerous alternatives that are distinguished by their territorial spread and/or by the type of audience they target. Choosing those most in line with your geographic area and clientele of interest is therefore not only possible, but recommended.

In addition to indirect bookings, OTAs can also generate direct inquiries and sales, that is, from the hotel’s own channels: this is the so-called billboard effect and should be counted among the advantages offered by online agencies. 

Invest in Google Ads

SEO is not always sufficient to achieve the desired results in a short time. A boost in this regard can be provided by Google Ads, or paid advertising on Google. 

Despite the recent changes imposed by the European Digital Markets Act, Google Hotel Ads remains one of the most effective tools for generating visits and potential reservations.

However, optimal management requires some experience and financial investment that is not always trivial.

5. Harness the potential of social media

Finally, do not overlook the potential of social networks. Again, choosing the right channel depends on your target audience, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Whether you decide to run a Facebook page, Instagram or TikTok, remember that just being there is not enough; you need to preserve the channel proactively, producing appropriate content, studying a dedicated communication and marketing strategy, and soliciting and responding to any comments from the community.

Speaking of communities, there are already well-known and recognized profiles that could help you reach new users: the influencer marketing campaigns involve precisely a collaboration with influential personalities and established content creators promoting your facility on social networks.

This is, for all intents and purposes, a paid activity that can be coupled with sponsorship of posts and content aimed at increasing site visits and direct bookings.

One last tip: make the best use of technology

Technology can be a valuable aid in many of the day-to-day operations, including those involving business strategy and communication.  

With Zak, WuBook’s accommodation facility software, for example, you can: 

• create customized packages and offers and manage direct sales through the Booking Engine. This booking system offers many advantages and advanced features, and can be integrated within existing sites or purchased together with the site created through the same PMS. An option that saves on the production and maintenance cost typical of other custom solutions, without sacrificing customization of your content;
• Manage your new site in 18 different languages (Italian, English, French, Spanish, Greek, Russian, German, Dutch, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Brazilian, Ukrainian, Czech, Hebrew, Polish, Estonian, Latvian, Romanian) and thus give international guests the opportunity to find the information they are looking for by navigating in the language they prefer; 
• insert and edit SEO metadata in each language – a necessary step to aid international search engine rankings;
• manage the online distribution and sales through the Channel Manager, to also propose to a foreign audience on the relevant OTAs; 
• accepting payments in foreign currencies by establishing the most convenient way of displaying prices and finalizing the purchase for you and your customers.   

A multichannel approach combined with the right tools allows you to open up to new markets, and while these are not zero-cost or risk-free operations, the results can be extremely positive for your business.