With hotel reservations slowing in the United States because of our horrible econmy, hotels will have to be even more aggressive, and creative than ever before to fill their guest rooms. One huge concern I could forsee is owning a hotel on the beach. Usually these are 'destination' places, and require travel by air, or car, a task that most americans are foregoing in today's economy. I have run into this challenge with a client of mine in North Carolina.
Lets say for example you are looking for beach hotels in Ocean Isle Beach, NC. In google search results, you will probably notice the top few hotels for Ocean Isle Beach, including my client, The Islander Inn. First off, you will notice the top 10 spots for Google Local...You need to be here no matter what kind of hotel..! To begin the process, you need to make sure you are listed in the local search engines, this is in addition to the regular search engines.
Next, make sure your site is optimized, and have performed thorough keyword and competitive research for beach hotels, ocean front hotels, etc. Use this data generously throughout your website content, and meta information.
Next, Look to for opportunities to get your hotel listed into hotel affiliates, or travel / vacation aggregators, and directories.
Next, start a PPC campaign and geo target certain cities nearby that are within a days driving distance. In these campaigns or even print material, offer to PAY THEIR gas! Yes, that's right, pay their gas to come to your hotel. So say for example you live in Raleigh, NC, and you want a Ocean Isle beach front vacation hotel, but it's just to expensive to drive your family. Imagine if you saw an add that said "Raleigh residents, we will pay your gas if drive you here to the Islander Inn!" Well, if you do the math, at 3 hours of driving, that is about $60.00 round trip they would pay you. The point is you have to be creative to get people to your hotel, and in todays economy, telling consumers you will pay their gas is a great way to lighten their pockets, and get them to stay in your hotel. I hope to try this out with my client...
Finally, why not make a website commercial? I find most hotels have not made one, and today these can easily occupy a line in the search results page. Give it a try, you can usually get these done cheap these days.
So in review, here are a few things I suggest (I cannot divulge all my secrets)
Make sure you are listed in all local search engines (Google Local, Yahoo Local, MSN, Superpages)
Make sure your site is optimized for keywords, phrases
Seek affiliate sites to advertise on, such as Orbitz, Expedia, free local directories, vacation sites
Well after many months of refining our old site, we have finally rolled out our new website:). My family is pleased to let everyone know about our 'green baby' Green Eco Communities.
Why did we make this site?
After trying (with no success) of finding other eco-communities in the US, on one website, we wanted to develop this site to be a resource for this ever growing need. We are certainly going to enhance the site as we go, creating informative articles on green real estate, news by state, green builders, and much more.
I would love to hear your feedback, and would love suggestions on communities, articles, and builders. We have been overwhelmed with requests to add communities as we are doing this for free, (Until January 2009) but will have to be selective, mainly because we only want to showcase true 'Green Communities'. No Greenwashing...:)
Green is the new "gold". Have you heard that lately in real estate? I have several times, and it is not going anywhere. I ran across this new website that lists Green communities in the US by state. The problem is that there are not alot of eco-friendly communties out there yet! I am sure that will change over the next few years.
I really like the concept of this site, as it has alot of marketing possibilities not to mention if you do a search on the internet for green communities, there are hardly any sites that list communities, but this one does.
It’s true, even though the market continues to stabilize, for some odd reason Wilmington, NC waterfront homes are still selling, and still for sale at great prices. Many feel the reason is the area, for example the cost of living is still reasonable, the location is accessible to a major airport, shopping, over 50 golf courses, and so on.
Also, CNN recommends Wilmington, NC as a place to invest for the future. Some people are taking advantage of extremely good prices on waterfront communities in North Carolina such as one I have spoken about before, Mason Landing Yacht Club. This community only has 34 private lots, its own marina, clubhouse and pool. It is still under construction, however now is the time to inquire at pre-construction pricing. Take a look at the home plans, they are very “Native” Carolina, and are built by one of the leading builders, Sullivan Builders in Wilmington, NC.
Also, don’t forget to sign up to have a chance at winning $1000.00 in a drawing soon to be held.
The other day I was reviewing some videos I made for a couple of my real estate clients, and noticed a new feature on YouTube that allows you to add annotations to your videos. I have a client that offers golf course homes, golf communities, and real estate that had a professionally made video, however the video was made without optimization OR social media in mind! I have been racking my brain as to how to add the websites name to the video to no avail. Now however, you can add names or whatever you want to the video. Take a look at this video, and notice the banner at the top, and if you hover over the video, you can see additional text I placed in there as a call to action. UPDATE!!! For some reason the annotations only appear on the YouTube site, so just start the video, then click on the YouTube icon. By the way, if you would like a web video for your real estate website or blog, contact me, I have very low prices for agents.
Introducing Mason Landing Yacht Club in Wilmington, NC. This is an exclusive waterfront community with homes for sale, as well as custom homes built. Lots are limited, but each lot comes with it's very own private boat slip! These lots will sell quickly, as this is an incredible investment opportunity. Visit the Mason Landing website for details, and a chance to win $1000.00 just for signing up to receive information on the property!
Ty Downing (Marketing Green Real Estate)
It’s true, even though the market continues to stabilize, for some odd reason 
Introducing 
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