The millennials hotel crowd is a key demographic for many establishments. As this generation is now entering their prime spending years, they've got a lot of disposable income to spend on things like travel and leisure.
But marketing your hotel to the Millennials can be difficult. Because, unlike its prior generations, they have their own beliefs, value different things - and use different marketing channels. So you'll have to adapt the way your hotel performs loyalty initiatives and marketing activities.
So, to help you attract customers to your hotel, we’ve condensed 5 effective tips that will give you the best results.
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What Is the Millennial Generation?
Before we get into the best marketing strategies to attract Millennials to your hotel, let’s start by defining this generation.
The Millennial Generation is an age group born between 1980 and 2000. This generation shares many common traits. But the most important one is the fact that they were all raised in a relatively affluent environment.
They are also known for their optimism, confidence, and high expectations. And they are the first generation to come of age with digital technology as an integral part of their lives.
The Millennials have been shaped by a world where information is instantaneous, and where the opportunities for self-expression are limitless. Hence, they desire to do what they love, not what they've been told to do - all of these factors are impacting the way they travel and select hotels.
Top 8 Reasons Why You Should Target Millennial Hotel Guests
Many argue that Millennials are the future of the hospitality industry. They earn more money than other generations did in their age. While their free spirit makes them more willing to travel frequently than their predecessors.
If you’re still not sure whether Millennials are the right group to target, take a look at this list below.
1. A high disposable income.
2. They are more likely to spend money on experiences than material goods.
3. They are the largest generation in the world.
4. Easy to target due to their strong digital presence.
5. More open-minded than older generations about self-service technology adoption.
6. Well-educated, affluent, and diverse generation.
8. Willing to try new things and be receptive to new ideas.
9. Promising future outlook as they grow older.
How Do Hotels Attract Millennials? [5 Hotel Strategy Tips]
While the millennials are becoming a very important generation as they are entering their prime age, it is important to note that they're not the same as the previous generations.
We've summarized five effective strategies to help your hotel market towards Millennials.
1. Adapt Your Marketing Messaging to Their Values
When it comes to the hospitality context, millennials have grown up with a different set of values than their predecessors.
As such, they want more from their experiences and they're not afraid to speak up about it. If your hotel doesn't make an effort with this demographic, you'll lose them as customers for good and they'll share their experiences online or with friends.
One tactic to attract millennials is to always target your messaging to their values.
Hotels can win over millennial hotel guests by highlighting:
Wellness and Healthy Living (e.g. highlight your organic food and fitness center)
Social Responsibility (Reduce carbon footprint or donate money to charities that support sustainability efforts.
Community Experiences (e.g. implement lobby or areas for work, or organize in-house events)
Convenience and Technology (e.g. offer digital hotel check-in, contactless ordering, on-demand TV, and high-speed Wi-Fi)
Personalized Service (e.g. track their preferences using a CRM system for hotels, adapt communication methods)
Food and Beverage (e.g. updated decor in the restaurant, delicious drinks, and gastronomic experiences)
2. Market Your Hotel on Social Media Channels
Social media can be a powerful marketing tool for hotels. And this is particularly true when it comes to attracting Millennials.
In fact, according to Expedia, the media consumption among Millennials is much higher than any other group - and they actively seek third opinions or influence. When it comes to platforms, you want to be present on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. If you want to learn more about social media, you can read about social media tactics for hotels.
The most popular social media platform by age group from WordStream
3. Send Out Targeted E-mails to Them
Targeted e-mail marketing is the new marketing frontier. We've said it before in our hotel email marketing guide, that sending out targeted e-mails is especially effective for Millennials, as they desire personalized communications.
Unlike generic e-mails, these e-mails are specific to what the person needs and wants - so you can cater the messaging to these distinctive groups.
To achieve this, you’ll need email marketing software that can slice and dice your guests' data into different segments. Below is a summarized instruction on how we help our clients do that.
As a part of our email marketing automation module in our hotel CRM system, we allow our clients to create distinctive segmentation based on multiple filtering criteria. In the scenario of targeting Millennials, it typically would be sufficient to create a segmentation based on an age group.
The next step, design an e-mail template and personalize the message to the Millennial Generation. Think of what messaging resonates with them the most, and highlight the facilities they care the most about. Add a clear Call-To-Action, like a time-bound deal.
After you’ve done that, select the type of marketing campaign, whether that would be a one-off campaign, drip campaign, or pre-scheduled e-mail. Once set up, the email software will run without any further action by you.
And once the campaign is done - don’t forget to evaluate the results and further optimize it for the future.
4. Use Customer-Facing Technology as a Point of Differentiation
Millennials are quick to adapt to new technology and they know the value of it when they are looking for a hotel. More than 43% of Millennials manage their personal life daily on a mobile device.
They want to be able to work on their laptop or watch Netflix on the TV. Beyond that, they love any kind of technology that increases the level of convenience they experience. For example, they are receptive to digital hotel check-in solutions, and contactless on-demand ordering systems.
5. Improve Your Online Reputation
Millennials are a highly educated and well-traveled generation. This generation is also more likely to share their experiences on social media and review sites, which can be an opportunity for hotels to generate word-of-mouth advertising whether positive or negative.
When booking a hotel, these generations are cautious. Expedia found that Millennials are on average reaching out to 3.7 sources, compared to 3 from their older counterparts for travel inspiration. If they see upon their research that your hotel has a low review rate or bad online reviews, they’ll refrain from booking it.
One effective way to target Millennials is simply by improving your online reputation. Always respond to negative reviews, and encourage your guests to share photos and reviews of your hotel across all platforms, whether that would be Social Media, Tripadvisor, or Third-party channels. Learn more tips on millennialhow to improve the hotel guest experience here.
Conclusion: How to Target Millennials to Your Hotel for the Best Results
As Millennials are entering their prime spending years, and have a lot of disposable income. This segment is getting more attractive as the days pass by. But if you want to attract these customers to your hotel, you need to know what they want and do it differently.
Strategies to attract Millennials to your hotel include:
Adapt your marketing messaging to reflect their core values (e.g. sustainability, wellness and health, technology, personalization, and community experiences)
Improve your presence on social media channels.
Send out targeted, personalized e-mails.
Use customer-facing technology as a point of differentiation
Improve your overall online reputation on third-party booking channels, social media, and Tripadvisor.
At Metasphere we have developed an advanced hotel customer relationship management software, that has an email automation module, allowing you to create targeted personalized e-mails, whether that’d be to Millennials, Gen Z, or Baby Boomers. Click on the button below if you’d like to book a schedule with us.