Growth thanks to effective online marketing

Always being fully booked, who doesn't want that? But how do you achieve this? Digital hospitality agency The Fully Bookers helps hotels and restaurants maximise their occupancy rates. "We are people with a lot of experience who can come up with cool things. The platforms we use are familiar, but our approach is different."

The story of The Fully Bookers begins with owners Youri Boekelman and Mitchell Ling. They combine their experience in the event industry and hospitality world. Ling: "We have a lot of experience in seasonal work, where time and opportunities need to be used as efficiently as possible. We would like to share this knowledge with the hospitality industry. As a company, we want to be an extension of our customers. With them, we talk about business goals, not marketing terms and tools. We think about the mix needed to achieve the company's goals and get the most out of every budget."

The Fully Bookers specialises in maximising occupancy and results, through the use of digital marketing. "For not all hotels, it is clear what this can mean for them. They believe in booking sites to be findable by guests. However, you can also put the commission you pay for each booking into your own business and marketing." This has several advantages, according to Ling. "If your own website is well findable then you receive all the data yourself, you are involved from start to finish in the process of turning a potential guest into a real guest. A guest who might come back in three months' time."

Making your own website more visible also makes it easier to sell more than just a hotel stay, according to Ling. "You can grow as a hotel by getting in front of consumers earlier and offering something extra. In the post-season, for example, you can think about creating new packages and combining deals with activities in the area. If someone is looking for a fun activity then you need to be digitally visible."

According to Ling, hotels are increasingly thinking about their restaurant concept. "A restaurant is not seasonal and therefore an important source of extra income. Thanks to our experience in restaurants, we are ideally placed to help with marketing, which is substantially different from a hotel. Hotel rooms are intention-bound, while restaurants are often a discovery. Guests are more local and people return more quickly. I see that hotels still have a lot of questions about this. How can you better inspire and entice people to come to your concept? You won't get away with just communicating that people can eat good food. In the restaurant industry, experience is very important." 

The Fully Bookers does not shy away from backlash. "We want to achieve a goal, so we look along with reviews. Is the information we sell true? If not, what can we improve? Having people talk enthusiastically about you is incredibly important. Suppose you improve word of mouth by a certain factor, then that helps you reach your goal."

One of the hotels that The Fully Bookers has been working with for five years is Hotel ten Cate in Emmen. "The great thing about working in this industry is that you really have a stake in a company's success. From Hotel te Cate we were given carte blanche, so to speak. Here we were able to apply our full philosophy. For instance, we link the hotel to outings in the area, such as Wildlands, and the website focuses more on the restaurant. Effective campaigns are run on both."