Travel Marketing: Try the other guy's product

Affinia Hotels partners with Land's End and Ben & Jerry's.  What are
the little things you do? And how do you find out what the other guy
is doing? Make the effort - it will pay off. (PRNewsFoto/Affinia Hotels,
Talisman Brolin)

Try your competition and see what's on their menu of offerings.  True, you'll have to give them the money, but what you get in return will far out weight the expense.  As the owner, head of marketing, and those at the top of your business' food-chain, you need to get into your competitor's business, try it for all it's worth, and figure out what they're doing.

How is their customer service?  What do they do when you walk in the door?  How do the customer's respond in those first moments of their time on site?

From the moment you walk in the door, you need to be paying attention, acting as both guest and businessperson, and step into a realm where you can learn as much as you can about how the other guy is doing it.

Wearing two hats for the duration of your visit, you need to be watching like the marketer you are, but enjoying like the customers you are wanting to attract.

Notice every little detail of the experience.

From the design to the ambiance, you need to take note.

Yet, even more important, what are the details?

How are the employees interacting with the guests?  What do they do about issues?  How do they handle unusual requests?  What are they doing to provide the little things that make them stand out?

Taking notes

Throughout your visit, be certain to take notes.  Surely, nothing to draw attention to yourself, but do things that will let you remember what you're seeing.

Bring an audio recorder to speak into when no one is watching, keep a small note pad and pen with you, carry a camera and record things that strike your eye.

When you return to your room, sit down immediately and write things out.  However you will remember, take notes about the things that you liked, hated, stood apart, or grabbed your attention.

Being in observing mode, you should also notice those things that other guests are doing, experiencing and how they are reacting.  Certainly you've seen when someone is having a good time, so write it down.

Whatever it is you're experiencing, keep good records so that you can take that back to your business and formulate plans and ideas.

Tactile is important

As a writer, I need to notice things like smells, colors, feelings, and those tactile experiences that we often experience, but don't really take into a conscious level of thought.

Act like a writer and think about those things.

How did it feel when you walked in?  What did you smell?  Did something give you goosebumps, or perhpas made you stop a moment and look more closely?

What are the details that greet your guests upon arrival? (Photo
courtesy of Tremain Street Cottages)

Write down the physicality's of the experience.  Use descriptive words.  Big, little, blue, hot, cold, hard are all good words, but they leave you with nothing to describe the experience.

Even breathtaking and awe-inspiring are helpful, but can they put you back in the moment?  I love using novel-like but it can only take me so far.

So, when you're writing down your experience, and in an effort to help you recreate or re-experience it, close your eyes and step back into the moment.

How did you feel?  What did you smell?  What did it look like?  You don't have to be a writer, just describe.

Walking though the large entry, glass doors spreading smoothly and reveling the interior like a theatre, I looked around to see the lush greenery.  Everywhere I looked, I felt as though we were in the tropics, green trees and bushes popping with reds and oranges, yellows and purples of tropical flowers.  Water was at once rushing and falling.  I was inside, but felt like I was on an island somewhere, about to be alone with my family, ship wrecked with all the finest luxuries that the Swiss Family Robinson would have done wonders with.  There was a smell of something tropical.  Perhaps, the combination of fruity drinks in coconuts and tourists with suntan lotion, but it was sweet and wonderful.  Before I could even step a foot further, I was eased out of the moment by a smiling young woman in a tropical gown of red and white.  She reached out her hands to place a lea around my neck and with that warm smile, wished me Aloha.  She said our bags were already on the way to our room, and if I'd just step over to the desk, she'd have me checked in and on my way, or I could go to the bar for a drink and to watch the sunset, and venture to my room later, when I was ready.  This was all so relaxing, calming, sweet and comforting, and I suddenly didn't know if I wanted to go to my room to take a nap, sip that tropical drink, or lay out by the pool and watch the tiki torches flickering in the moonlight.

Okay, so that may or may not be something you can write.  I tried to keep you in the moment, not make it too over the top, but put you into a place where you could understand those first moments of being at this hotel. 

Later, if I were to go back and read this, I'd be able to slip more easily into the moment, and remember not just what I experienced, but it will help to pick things out that you may have forgotten, or not thought too much about in the first place: the women's greeting, her outfit, the smells of the tanning lotion and the drinks.  What about the feeling of being greeted at the door and not having to go to the desk, being welcomed as if into a home, rather than a typical hotel?  And that I could jump right into the rest of the vacation, or go to the room and start from there?  Everything is taken care of and my only job is to relax and enjoy.

What is it like at your place?

Now when you think of that experience, and compare it to the way someone enters your establishment, you can compare the two, and see where your competition may do it better or worse than you. 

This opens the doors to new ideas, new ways of doing things, new ways of providing your guests with a unique and wonderful experience at your place.  This exercise will give you the edge to help you develop a plan: how can we make our businesses reflect our beliefs, what we're trying to provide, and how we give our guests the best possible experience.

Benefits

Finding out how the other guy does it, for better or for worse, will only help you develop your niche to its fullest, keep you on top of the competition, and help you stay fresh, new, and true to your objectives.  Not to mention, will help you provide your guests with an experience you yourself would enjoy.