5 Key Elements in Creating a Strong Hotel Brand Identity

Posted on Aug 17th 2020 in Hotel Marketing

On the surface, your brand identity is how you carefully present your business and its overall purpose, but underneath, it’s how you make your customers feel - both initially and consistently.

Laying the groundwork to create a strong hotel brand will build trust and confidence, memorability and loyalty, and originality and authenticity with both guests and your general market audience, in turn paving the way for a dominant reputation and lasting overall success.

With that said, let’s jump right into the 5 key elements needed to create a strong brand identity for your hotel:

Passion and Purpose

Your background in becoming a hotel or resort owner is a compelling story in itself, likely beginning with a specific passion that your customers need to be aware of - not necessarily in a literal sense, but in the service and experience your hotel delivers on the whole.

Passion drives purpose, and this is where your hotel must outline, and present overall, what its intended purpose is for its guests in a simple and straightforward message to be associated with your brand, whether its comfort and warm service, affordability and convenience, luxury and exclusivity or something else.

Staff Uniformity

Having a brand purpose in mind, the next factor to consider is your employees. Your staff are the living, breathing examples of your brand’s intentions, and the core foundations that make up the service your hotel provides its guests day in day out.

With guidance, positive wellbeing and clear leadership by example, your staff will effectively share in your passion and carry out your brand’s purpose, creating the best possible experience for guests with a unique and memorable service that will retain, get them talking and leave them desiring to come back time and time again.

Website Design and OTA Experience

First impressions are important, and your hotel website can be the deciding factor between a direct booking and a customer leaving to book somewhere else. A website that is difficult to navigate, dull in appearance and flawed will always lose to a website that is professionally designed, seamlessly functional and 100% representative of what you offer.

Eye-catching photography and logo design are equally crucial, and are additionally some of the factors you have control of in portraying your brand across OTAs. Furthermore, OTA reviews are first-hand examples of the service and purpose your hotel aims to deliver, with even bad reviews providing invaluable opportunities to flaunt your brand’s voice and its importance on customer relations.

Long-Term Marketing Strategy

A clear-cut marketing strategy will go a long way, and can be integrated with your brand identity to entice new hotel customers, extend your market reach and engage with guests on an effective B2C level.

Components to implement that will generate powerful marketing momentum for your brand include frequent special offers, loyalty schemes, email marketing, paid ads and campaigns, SEO blogging, local brand partnerships and enticing website features such as guest reviews and interactive virtual tours.

Social Media Presence

Social media is a dominating online force that shouldn’t be ignored if you’re looking to establish your brand on a larger scale. These widely popular platforms are where you’ll be showcasing what you have to offer on a regular basis, while authentically engaging with customers for the world to see.

Social media marketing is a dedicated process that requires consistent hard work in feed design, ad creation and audience engagement, but is one that will pay off in establishing your brand as an authoritative presence if executed correctly.

Ultimately, not only is how you visually present your hotel’s purpose and customer service the key to building a strong brand identity, but how you make your guests feel and, subsequently, what they’re saying about your brand both online and via word of mouth.

Have you focused on any of the above in building your brand? Let us know in the comments below!