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Google Analytics, is one of the most important tools that can help hoteliers improve their strategy and increase their hotel bookings and revenue. Below, you will find some basic Google Analytics tips, that highlight the importance of understating this tool, which Google offers for free. Keep in mind that:

  1. Hoteliers should visit the Google Analytics platform at least twice a day, in order to ensure the optimum performance of their website.
  2. The official website of each hotel is the main communication tool with its potential clientele and the strongest medium for sales.

Google Analytics Tips – Online Travel Agency

  1. Using Google Analytics can lead to the evaluation of the channels you are using for advertising and promotion. Moreover, it will help you gain insights for the analysis of the popularity your hotel receives from the collaborating OTA’s.
  2. As OTA’s do not have direct links to your website that would allow you to measure the publicity you get from them, you can make an estimation of the possible traffic they generate, through your organic results.
  3. Check through Google Analytics and Webmaster tools the number of times that travelers have searched directly for your hotel name. This can provide a rough estimation of the promotional benefits that your hotel gets from the various OTAs.
  4. Keep in mind; Some travelers may find your hotel on a different channel (and not an OTA), which will also lead to a direct search using your hotel name. This is quite rare since online users prefer to click on direct links.

Google Analytics Tips – Location

  1. Try to understand how appealing your hotel is to each geographical market and
  2. Avoid focusing on the overall visiting time that the analytics overview provides.
  3. Go to AudienceGeoLocation and see the average time and pages per visit generated from each country. This will help you make the appropriate adjustments and improvements for achieving better engagement with potential travelers from different countries.

Google Analytics Tips – Device Category

  1. Mobile performance is vital for the online success of your hotel.
  2. Go to AudienceMobileOverview in order to see the performance of your hotel website in each device category.
  3. Then, contact your web development team or partners and ask for the necessary improvements.
  4. In the Device section, you will be able to see how your hotel website performs in the various device types and operating systems.

Google Analytics Tips – Data Accuracy

  1. Measure everything correctly! Sometimes, even Google is not able to give you 100% accurate data, so it provides you with the right tools to optimize your results.
  2. Before linking your hotel website anywhere, from advertising channels to social media, use the Google URL Builder Tool. It will create an enhanced, tag-enriched URL which will allow you to measure the exact results of each action.
  3. By doing this, you will significantly reduce the number of ‘no set’ visits, giving you a more clear view of the results of each channel.
  4. With the URL Builder Tool, you can insert tags like the Channel (i.e. Facebook Ads), the Medium (i.e. boosted post), and organize your different actions by giving them specific campaign names. For example, you can name all the actions coming from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as ‘Social Media Campaigns’ and monitor the level in which these channels influence your bookings.

Google Analytics Tips – Setting Goals and Conversions

  1. It is essential to set goals and conversions, in order to evaluate if your campaign has achieved a satisfactory ROI.
  2. Keep in mind to have always a wider view of your hotel performance. Many channels might bring you quality audience that will not convert immediately or will convert later through a third party.
  3. In order to evaluate each collaborating channel, have a look at the overall traffic it generates to your website. Then, check the time spent as well as the number of the check availability actions it has generated.

For ensuring the optimum performance, Destsetters Hotel Experts advise all hoteliers to either collaborate with a Digital Marketing Company specializing in Hotels or hire an in-house online marketing specialist, for maximizing their revenue using all the available online tools in the best possible way.