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...

Next, set up a profile on socialmedia network Squidoo.  For example, take a look at this Squidoo page targeting the phrase: Ocean Isle, NC Beachfront Hotels.

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. Here is the video made for The Islander Inn Hotel.

Next. Pictures! Pictures! Everyone looking to stay at a hotel needs to see, and imagine themselves staying there, so you need to grab that angle by creating multiple outlets of pictures to be seen by potential customers.  For this we set up a few "Search Engine" indexible sites that would showcase the Islanders pictures.

The Islander Inn on Flickr
The Islander Inn on Fotki
The Islander Inn. Ocean Isle Beach, on World Is Round

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
• Start a PPC campaign, target cities
• Be creative in your advertising (Pay their gas?)
• Set up photo sharing accounts
• Create a viral video