S1 E5 Your hotel’s location is your greatest marketing asset (feat. Marc Saunders, Splendid Hospitality Group)
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Your greatest marketing asset is right in front of you! We’re joined by award-winning marketer Marc Saunders, who will be advising our listeners on how they can utilise their hotel’s location to improve guest experiences. As the Director of Marketing at Splendid Hospitality Group (SHG), Marc has expertise across a wide property portfolio.
The hotel industry is increasingly competitive, with guest expectations at an all-time high. In this episode, we’re sharing how you can utilise your location to provide unique experiences to attract customers and gain loyalty.
On the Pack a Punch Podcast we make sure we give our listeners key takeaways that can be actioned and implemented straight away. In this episode, Marc discloses why your hotel’s location is your greatest marketing asset.
Show Notes
In our latest podcast, we spoke to the Director of Marketing for SHG, Marc Saunders. Marc recommends ways that you can utilise the uniqueness of your hotel locations to make them your greatest marketing asset.
Marc’s first piece of advice is that no matter the location of your hotel, there is always a unique selling point that encourages bookings. Identify your customer segments and their reason for visiting, whether it’s corporate, leisure or something else. Once you have identified the needs of your guests, you can market to them in the right place, at the right time.
Marc also strongly encourages listening to the hotel staff. Working closely with the General Manager and their teams helps you to understand the local community and dissect the true essence of the hotel. Insider knowledge is crucial, and many of these people are local experts who know the area better than anyone else. Rather than looking online at the top attractions, the best way to discover the USP of your location is through a personal staff recommendation.
Finally, Marc is keen to emphasise the importance of partnerships. He advises not to go for the easiest, nearest or most obvious partner, but to spend time choosing value-aligned individuals or businesses. Understanding what the customer wants is essential, as well as giving the guests something they can’t get anywhere else.
Marc Saunders is the Director of Marketing at Splendid Hospitality Group. SHG has an impressive portfolio of 21 properties, ranging from independent boutique hotels to major brands like Accor and IHG. Marc has won multiple awards in his career, most recently being awarded HOSPA’s Inspirational Marketer of the Year.
The Pack A Punch Podcast is brought to you by Punch Creative, a full-service marketing agency in Leeds. Since 2007 we’ve been establishing brands, filling hotel rooms and making headlines for the hospitality industry. Get in touch today to give your brand some love.
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The Pack a Punch Podcast brings you impactful marketing talks with industry expert guests. Hosted by marketing agency Punch Creative, each short but mighty episode contains actionable advice for you to implement into your own marketing strategy. So grab yourself a cuppa, get comfy and listen as we dive into the latest trends and share our triumphs and mistakes for you to learn from.
In series one we are pleased to welcome some wonderful guests from the hospitality industry. We will be talking to hoteliers and hotel marketers about their goals and predictions for 2022 and asking them to share their wisdom from their many years in the industry.
