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Selecting a new hotel marketing agency is a massive decision and sometimes it's hard to figure out in a sales pitch whether you're talking to a top hospitality agency who can ramp your online presence or an amateur. Not only are retainers high but digital agencies are the stewards of your hotel's paid media budget (digital advertising). Agencies who are skilled at website design will drive increased RoaS with higher conversion rates and better messaging. Digital marketing services in hotels go beyond SEO, SEM (PPC) and web design though, a hospitality marketing agency should be effective with social media marketing, understand key e-commerce fundamentals, and deeply understand the latest industry specific trends like Google updates and metasearch bidding strategies. Hospitality brands will require completely different tactics and partners than independents who's digital marketing strategy must drive brand awareness from scratch to build trust with consumers.
Digital marketing agencies that specialize in hotels understand the great benefits of channel distribution, namely the diversification of budget and brand control that such a strategy gives. However, their goal is always direct bookings and limiting the number of large commissions being paid from clients to the OTAs.
Generally speaking, hotels should expect to pay between $4,000 - $18,000 for a new website that usually should be revamped every 18-24 months. Hotels should also expect to pay a retainer in the range of $1,000 - $10,000 per month for services such as SEO, SEM (paid advertising) and social media. These ranges are so wide because each scope put together for a property will be fully customized to their specific needs, and pricing models are able to adapt depending on those needs. Agencies usually discuss and discover the needs a property has then develop a custom proposal based on those objectives. Connect directly with agencies on Hotel Tech Report to get fully customized price quotes for your property.Even below this range, there are digital marketing companies that will charge a few hundred dollars a month, and they’ll “set and forget” activity. Properties will see a return, but ROI will unlikely increase. This level of engagement is fine for hotels that don’t concentrate much on leisure room night business or hotels that have corporate marketing teams handling most of their digital marketing efforts.
For a property looking to utilize a robust suite of services and technology - four weeks is a reasonable expectation. This gives time for proper discovery and for all campaigns to launch in the strongest manner possible. For those with lesser scopes, we can typically launch inside a few weeks.
How do I know when it’s time for my hotel to move onto a new digital agency? Independent hotels represent nearly 30% of the U.S. hotel room inventory and more than 85% of global hotel rooms. The segment has many unique challenges and opportunities. Failed engagements don’t drive improved KPIs and often neglect to deliver top-notch customer support. Agencies should be true partners offering coaching and learning for your marketing team - if you aren’t becoming a better marketer by working with your current agency - it may be time to consider what another agency can offer.
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