How to Use PR to Generate Awareness and Interest in Your Hotel

Many hotels and destinations push off introducing  public relations strategy After all, they already have a sales department, a marketing team, and a social media presence. What more can PR do? Most people view PR and marketing as the same thing, but this is not true. While both generate exposure and results in sales, public relations brings something else: credibility.

This is something that hotels should be actively seeking, so here are some ways that hotels can do great PR:

Find something that is positive and newsworthy about your hotel…

Public relations is all about connecting to the public, and nothing does that better than a story that connects them with your business. Do members of your staff routinely volunteer at the local shelter? Does your hotel have an anniversary coming up? Is there a special story about your hotel you can share? These are the types of stories that newspapers love to publish and give your hotel positive exposure to generate interest.

Emphasize your best assets.

What makes your hotel unique or what do you do better than any other hotel? What is your point of pride in your business? Make this a focus of your PR campaign. In every story you tell the media, make sure you emphasize what sets you apart from the competition.

Know your audience…

This means knowing exactly what types of customers your hotel attracts. Maybe you have mostly business travelers. In that case, your public relations campaign could talk about the amenities you provide that make traveling easier, or onsite business facilities such as conference rooms or fax machines they can rent for their room. Maybe you cater to families with children. Your campaign could focus on the fun features that you have so kids are entertained, or a day camp for kids so adults are free for several hours during the day.. Knowing your audience means you can focus your PR campaign and target your audience to attract them to your hotel.

Make a comment…

No comment is no answer at all. When you say “no comment,” it allows the media to fill in the blanks with whatever they want. This can be disastrous and almost comes across as an admission of guilt in a sticky situation. Instead, say something along the lines of “I’m not at liberty to discuss this right now. Are there any other questions I can answer?” This response doesn’t require you to divulge information that you don’t want to give out, but it also doesn’t make you seem like you’re trying to hide something.

Understand PR and manage your expectations…

Public relations is valuable to any marketing plan, but it shouldn’t be the complete plan. When launching a PR campaign, make sure your expectations are realistic. No campaign is going to guarantee front page coverage, and you may not even see results right away. Instead, think long-term and be aware of how public perception of your hotel changes in different markets.

Hotels with great PR often see an increase in sales. Adopting any of these five ideas will help your hotel to have great PR.