Text Your Way to Valentine’s Day Success: 5 SMS Marketing Strategies for Hotels

Valentine’s Day is that time of the year when most people think about making their loved ones feel special. People around this time plan trips and staycations with their loved ones and are looking for great hotels and affordable deals.

They’d buy chocolates and red roses, book hotel stays, and travel around the world with their special ones. The Valentine’s Day hotel promotions can start as early as just after the Christmas or first week of January and can go beyond Feb 14th in some cases.

‘Tis the first big holiday event of the new year for the hotels and hospitality industry to get more bookings and promote special packages. With marketing automation tools, it becomes easy for you to communicate and run your hotel promotions on autopilot.

Tools, like Textdrip, come in handy for your business to send instant alerts and spread the love of Valentine’s. Here are some SMS marketing strategies for hotels and hospitality businesses to create your Valentine’s Day campaign and drive bookings:

5 SMS Marketing Strategies for Valentine’s Day Hotel Promotions

Let’s delve into the SMS for hotel strategies that help turn your Valentine’s Day campaigns successful and make your customers fall in love with your offers:

1. Promote Exclusive Deals and Vouchers

Valentine’s is a great time of the year to promote exclusive deals and vouchers to entice and surprise your customers with unforgettable offers. They make a great gift for the receiver and are easy to send through text messaging.

You can just go to your text messaging platform’s dashboard and schedule a message or create a drip campaign to send bulk texts to users. Ensure that your text messages clearly highlight the benefits of Valentine’s Day offers and promotions from your brand.

Also, write concise and compelling Valentine’s themed messaging copy for a high open and response rate.

2. Promote Custom Packages

Another hotel SMS marketing idea is to create custom hotel booking packages that can include romantic brunch or dinner. A simple text message is enough to alert your guests about the different packages available with your hotels and how much it’ll cost them.

Additionally, you can offer discounts to early birds who book their hotel stays way before Valentine’s Day. Text messaging also allows you to promote a special Valentine’s Day menu or dining arrangements for couples who want to spend some quality time.

Start promoting such custom hotel booking packages early on so that you can capture the attention of forward planners and get your spaces booked in advance.

3. Target Gift-Givers

People celebrate Valentine’s Day across the world. They plan outings for themselves, and for their loved ones, or book a special treat for their parents or friends. Thus, you are not catering to couples only but also to another kind of—gift-giver—the audience that wants to treat themselves or send a lovely gift to others.

Thus, keep this in mind when you send short and compelling text messages to your customers. Apart from couples seeking romantic experiences, tailor your messages for the gift-givers or singles who want to spend a day of self-care and indulgence.

4. Promote Experiences and Bundled Offers

People won’t remember the walls of your hotel rooms or the food choices you offered, they’ll remember the experience they had while they stayed at your hotel. Thus, promoting experiences is your best bet to drive bookings and boost revenue for your hotel and hospitality business.

In addition to the romantic gateway, you can bundle your package with special treatments such as a rejuvenating spa, massage, complimentary bottle of wine, or city rides. Moreover, bundling your packages is better than heavily discounting your hotel stay packages.

Through SMS, you want to sell these experiences and not just the 4-walled colorful rooms. Articulate your text messages that highlight these great experiences you offer and see your booking soar.

5. Target Date & Deadlines for Bookings

Another smart way for hotel text message marketing is to target the date and the deadline for the bookings. Let’s say you have started a Valentine’s Day campaign to drive more bookings, then it’d be better if you add a deadline date at the end of your promotional messages.

This would create a sense of urgency and FOMO in the users’ minds to book hotel stays as early as possible while the offer is still valid. Your messages should highlight the packages, menu, or other experiences you are selling and the last date for availing those benefits.

Set a frequency of messaging by sending the first message 20 to 25 days before the deadline date, then the second at 10 days, and the third 4 to 5 days before the offer ends. You can even send a last-minute reminder a day before to compel users to avail the benefits.

Let There Be Love

Valentine’s Day is a day of love and messages should reflect and spread love. However, keep in mind that the definition of love varies from person to person; some want to spend quality time with each other while others want to gift that quality time to their family and friends.

Thus, it’s important to think carefully about what your strategy should be for Valentine’s Day hotel promotions. Another crucial element is how you play with your strengths and provide value with your Valentine’s special packages, experiences, and exclusive deals.