5 tips for attracting international visitors to your guest house
The knock-on effect of Brexit on the pound may have cut our holiday spending abroad, but has worked wonders on attracting visitors to the UK from around the globe.
Tourism brings in £127bn a year to the British economy, with an increase of 3.7 million visitors from last year.
So what are you doing to ensure they find your hotel? If the answer is “not a lot”, then we have some tips for you at MCM.
TIP 1: Use social media
But use it properly. This might mean recruiting someone to handle this or looking inwards to see if any of your existing staff want to take the mantle. Images work well across all platforms, but are they saying enough? Try to encapsulate the culture of your hotel or guest house with carefully composed snaps.
Explore social networks from other countries. Chinese visitors spend on average £647 a day, excluding accommodation, but they have their own version of twitter known as Weibo.
TIP 2: Build around your brand
Had a recent refurbishment? Won a local award for Corporate Social Responsibility? Shout about it to the press. Local papers publish their stories online as well as in print, making it even easier for you to endear yourself to the international community.
TIP 3: Post meaningful, inventive content
Enlighten potential visitors about historical traditions as well as newly-founded trends in your local area and beyond. Introduce them to your staff members and their favourite British dish or post your “visitor photo of the week”. This kind of personable content helps tourists get to know the place they visit before they’ve even crossed the threshold.
TIP 4: Upgrade your payment system
Payments from home-grown providers are often not accepted, which can make things difficult for tourists wanting to pay on their card. Speak to your payment services provider about the options to settle with less common cards, and look into Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) while they’re at it. This allows international visitors to pay on card in their own currency, helping them avoid high service charges.
TIP 5: Offer translations
If you have bi-lingual staff, great; but by enabling the Google translate button on your website, you can be speaking your future guest’s language before they’ve even checked in. If you notice a pattern in visitors from specific countries, you can look at adapting your signs to include their language.
Fully prepare for all your visitors, wherever they’re travelling from, by protecting your establishment with the right insurance.
Call MCM to find out more on 0161 786 3150