Hotels miss marketing target

Most money spent by hoteliers on marketing their businesses is wasted because of ineffective targeting.

Only 10% of the public visited a UK hotel at least once last year and just 1% stayed for more than 20 nights, said Grahame Senior, joint chairman of Senior King.

He suggested a seven-point plan to ensure that marketing money was well spent. The points were: identify who you want to talk to; understand what these people want to hear; say it clearly; brand strongly; build an accurate database; integrate your marketing effort; and develop a long-term approach.

There were sophisticated systems available, he said, which categorised potential customers. For example, the Acorn system defined consumers under 54 headings and postcodes could be used to map where they live.

They could then be identified by name from the electoral role.