We found a noteworthy article titled 'How you can use your hotel restaurant to increase bookings' on Accomnews that we thought would be good to share with you.

A recent study by Leonardo revealed that the most viewed images by travel shoppers were guest rooms, but the second most viewed were restaurants.

This indicates that travel has two major needs: 1. a nice place to sleep, and 2. a nice place to eat. Hotel restaurants are a solid driver of revenue and an important part of a hotel’s identity. So as Accomnews has advised, your hotel restaurant’s ability to market and sell your hotel should not be underestimated.

Increasing direct bookings in the hotel industry is a universal challenge. In Europe, 75% of online bookings for independent hotels are made through OTAs or other third party entity, reported by Phocuswright in conjunction with SiteMinder. This presses hotels to salvage some of those bookings and turn them into direct reservations.

To restore the balance of bookings between your hotel website and OTAs, you need to focus on the natural advantages your hotel has to drive more traffic to your hotel directly. Something that can be successfully used to cast a net over more potential guests is your hotel restaurant.

Below are some reasons your hotel restaurant will drive more bookings and how you can aid the process:

1. Individualise your restaurant

The first thing is to maximise the quality of your hotel restaurant by treating it as a restaurant in its own right rather than a glorified bar only accessible by guests.

Turn your restaurant into a premium dining experience that focuses on the whole package including the food, lighting, music, decor, and wine lists.

This way, your restaurant won’t only be the bait to bring new customers in, but also an incentive for current guests to return when they revisit the area.

At the same time it’s important to remember who your customers are and understand what they want and what they can afford. Create a menu that will sell, not one you think is cool and trendy, and make sure the pricing is in alignment with the rest of your hotel. Using local produce will help with this.

2. Give your restaurant its own website

By creating a separate website for your restaurant, it will help maximise revenue and potentially increase traffic to your hotel via page links.

The restaurant website should feature large, high-resolution images and videos to showcase the food and decor. Hopefully, if guests land here and see they can also stay in the hotel, they’ll be more convinced to stay and book direct.

By cross-referencing both lines of business you’ll improve your search engine optimisation and maximise the traffic and conversions you receive. You should make sure everything is optimised for mobile devices and you could also include a direct link to your hotel’s booking engine on your restaurant website.

Dedicating a separate website for your restaurant will increase your web presence.

3. Make offers or give discounts

Offer different restaurant deals in different parts of the week to further motivate people to book with your hotel.

Midweek you might advertise via social media or another medium giving away cheaper drinks or free desserts.

You can also offer a discounted three-course meal with a booking.

To read the source article, click here.