What is hotel branding?

Hotel branding is the strategy of hoteliers to differentiate themselves from their competitors and make a lasting impression on their guests. Also known as hospitality branding, it aims to establish the hotel’s credibility online and in the market, attracting more guests to become brand advocates. Best hotel branding examples include eye-catching logos, unique amenities, and exceptional customer service.

How important is hospitality branding to a hotel?

Hotel branding is more important than ever because every hotelier is vying for travellers’ attention. In today’s competitive landscape, brand building helps accommodation providers to stand out.

The hotel industry is a busy space in which complacency can quickly lead to irrelevance. You need a strong brand in order to continue to attract guests. Every hotel worth its salt has something unique or spectacular to bring travellers in, and when you’re one of dozens of hotels promising a similarly amazing experience, it can be easy to get lost in all the noise.

Your hotel brand is something that your competitors can’t really copy, and that your guests can’t easily compare with other hotels in terms of price and features. A clever hotel identity branding is particularly important online, where almost all travellers now find and book their next stay.

What are the benefits of hotel identity branding?

One of the most impactful benefits of hotel branding is improving your bottom line.

In industries as competitive as hospitality and tourism, catching the eye of potential guests can be difficult. But with an effective hotel branding strategy, you can differentiate yourself in a way that elevates you above the rest and ensures you’re noticed by your target audience.

In turn, those guests become return customers, and hopefully brand advocates who share the good word about your hotel. It ultimately puts more money in your pocket, since more people are aware of your hotel, book your hotel, and keep coming back to your hotel.

If you commit to developing and implementing long-term hospitality branding, you can expect your investment to generate a sizable return.

Hotel brand strategy: How to market a new hotel

Hotel branding not only takes a lot of time and effort, especially for new hotels, but it also needs to be strategic at the onset. To help hoteliers get started with their hotel brand strategy, make sure that it includes these 3 foundational elements:

1. Branding

An eye-catching logo, a distinct style or colour scheme, a commitment to environmental friendliness, a custom fragrance floating through your halls… There are a wealth of ways to brand your hotel to stand out to your preferred customer.

2. Amenities

What does your hotel offer that your competitors don’t? Welcome gifts, on-site spas, stunning views, a kids club, free bikes, coworking spaces, entertainment; when your amenities are particularly generous, alluring and memorable they can form the differentiator your hotel needs to stand out.

3. Service

When done well, service can be a powerful differentiator. Service differentiation is about welcoming each and every guest as if they’re the most important you’ve ever hosted, maximising the personalisation of every experience, and doing whatever you can to make each stay a positively memorable one. It’s a culture that you need to nurture within your hotel.

Hotel branding process: How to build a great hotel brand

Building your hotel brand can seem overwhelming at first, specifically because you have to keep an eye on the competition and stay up-to-date with the latest trends in the industry as well. Here is a simple hotel branding process hoteliers can easily follow in 4 steps:

Step 1. Understand your target audience

Before you begin branding, you first need to understand who you’re branding for. Develop a buyer persona – an avatar that represents the sort of person you aim to host. Give them a name, age, occupation and backstory. Once this persona is developed, view your subsequent branding efforts through their eyes, and continually ask yourself whether your brand will resonate with this type of guest.

Step 2. Understand your current brand

How would you describe your current hotel brand? If the answer is ‘I don’t know’, that’s a sign that you don’t actually have a brand yet. Sure, you might have a logo, a motto, or a mission statement for your hotel, but your new brand needs to be so much more than that. It should be a set of instructions that informs every business move you make.

If you have previously developed a hotel brand, look at it through the eyes of your buyer persona to see whether it resonates with your target audience.

Step 3. Analyse your competitors’ brands

You can’t effectively build your brand if you don’t know what you’re differentiating from. Take a close look at your competitors: any accommodation provider in your area who appears to be targeting a similar guest to you. How does their name, logo and look compare to yours? What personality do they project through their website and social profiles? How do they sell themselves?

While it’s fine to gain inspiration from competitors with great branding, remember that the aim of this particular game is to set yourself apart. Be inspired, sure, but make sure your sequel is better than, and quite different to, the original.

Step 4. Develop your hotel brand strategy

Once you’ve done the homework, it’s time to capitalise on all this recently acquired knowledge. Between your logo, colour scheme, voice and tone, hotel website, social media profiles, review responses, loyalty programs and promotions, developing a hotel brand strategy is really a subject worthy of its own article.

Hotel branding ideas: How to make your hotel unique

Developing an effective brand for your hotel is no small or simple job, which is why many hotels partner with branding and marketing professionals to do it. But in general terms, hoteliers can quickly jumpstart the process by taking inspiration from these top 5 hotel branding ideas:

Idea 1. Nail your branding on your website

Your website plays an important role in developing your brand.

While you need to incorporate the basic facts about your hotel on your website — such as your booking availability, your current rates and photographs of your property — you also should use it as a way to connect with potential travellers.

Share the story of how your hotel came to be. Explain why you choose this particular location, or the role you have played in the community throughout the years.

Develop a free logo, colour scheme and font. Make sure it’s reflected everywhere, in places like your booking engine, social media profiles and email signature.

Also ask yourself if your website can replace all of the enquiries you typically get over the phone – even when it comes to reserving a booking. The more useful your website is, the more your guests will feel your brand is truly aligned with their needs.

Idea 2. Build a community on social media

Whether you are monitoring your reviews on TripAdvisor or tracking the comments you receive on Instagram, you will want to make sure you are being as responsive as possible.

Social media is a vital part of everyday life because it helps people to connect with one another. Take advantage of this, as it helps you establish your brand and develop a personal relationship with your guests at every step of their journey.

Idea 3. Manage your reviews wisely

Reviews are one of your strongest weapons when it comes to building your brand online. To that end, ask all your guests to leave feedback after their stay.

If someone mentions that they enjoyed staying at your hotel, be sure to thank them for their comments. Likewise, if someone leaves negative feedback in a review, be sure to address the review in a polite and professional manner.

It’s also a good idea to limit the number of people at your property responding to online reviews, so you can keep the tone consistent.

Idea 4. Offer an authentic experience

One of the top reasons that people book a room at a bed and breakfast or a small hotel is because of the intimate, authentic atmosphere that can be found at these accommodations.

Create a destination guide that points out the best locally-owned restaurants, boutiques and tour companies in your area.

Establish a theme for your hotel and implement it throughout the property. In many cases, travellers are willing to spend more in order to enjoy a unique atmosphere.

Idea 5. Create customised promotions

Building your brand further by creating packages that give guests a customised experience at your hotel.

For example, you could create a romance package that includes a bottle of wine from a local winery as well as cheese and crackers upon their arrival.

Guests will view this as an enhanced experience that is available only at your hotel, and it’s an opportunity for you to earn an additional profit on bookings. An all-in-one solution like Little Hotelier includes all the features you need to build your brand and drive bookings. Watch a demo or start a free trial of Little Hotelier to see how it works.

Hotel branding examples: How hotels create brand awareness and loyalty

The best hoteliers around the world undoubtedly utilise their unique brand to generate more awareness for potential customers and deeper loyalty from return guests. Below are 3 of the best hotel branding examples and how they used today’s technology to boost their hotel brand:

Achieve next-level hotel brand standards with Little Hotelier

Branding can be the stepladder that places your hotel head and shoulders above the rest of the hotel crowd. And once that stream of guests starts flowing through your doors, the Little Hotelier can ensure you deliver the sort of guest experience that keeps them coming back, all while saving you 35 minutes per booking, increasing revenue by up to 43%, and delivering 63x ROI.

By Dean Elphick

Dean is the Senior Content Marketing Specialist of Little Hotelier, the all-in-one software solution purpose-built to make the lives of small accommodation providers easier. Dean has made writing and creating content his passion for the entirety of his professional life, which includes more than six years at Little Hotelier. Through content, Dean aims to provide education, inspiration, assistance, and, ultimately, value for small accommodation businesses looking to improve the way they run their operations (and live their life).