5 Hotel Promotional Video Ideas That Actually Work (With Examples)

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Author: Lumi Films
Date: March 29, 2023

Inspiring people to travel and stay in your hotel is no mean feat. You must find something unique about your hotel that makes them feel that they have to be there. Using outstanding hotel promotional videos can help you achieve that effect.

Quality videos naturally immerse guests into your unique stories and flaunt your amenities. Done well, video content can build your hotel brand and increase bookings. 

But what are the best videos for marketing your hotel? We’ve discussed five hotel promotional video ideas in this post, each with an example.

Keep reading also to learn how you can create each of the ideas for your hotel.

Website Introductory Video of Your Hotel 

Want to show prospective guests what to expect in your hotel? Make a short introductory video showcasing who you are and what you exactly do. 

But most importantly, start with a strong introduction—you only have a few seconds to grab your guests' attention. You can highlight your hotel’s unique facilities, design, scenery, and more.  

In short, your video should have a great hook. This is the first few seconds in your video that serves as an attention-grabber by using intrigue, suspense, or value. It can be an alluring visual, an intriguing personal question, your unique selling point, or stating a startling fact.

The idea is to snatch the viewer's attention and cause them to watch the rest of your hotel video. 

In the rest of your video, reveal what staying at your hotel is like and what amenities you offer. If possible, demonstrate your staff’s hospitable culture and dedication to excellence so potential guests can anticipate a welcoming stay with top-notch services. 

Additionally, highlight some of the landmarks and main attractions in your location that’ll entice travelers further.

This two-minute introductory video of the luxury Samanvaya Resort & Spa is an excellent example of a website introductory video. 

It begins with an enchanting aerial view of the resort and highlights some amenities and main attractions in the location. The music further sets the tone for the video and makes the viewer imagine the relaxed feeling they’ll have while staying at the hotel.

This kind of video can boost your hotel’s awareness and drive bookings.

Short Guest Testimonials and Interviews

Asking guests to share their opinions about your hotel through a video testimonial can attract new customers. The video testimonials are an opportunity to show a first-hand account of your guests' experience and what future guests can expect.

But it's more than that.

Creating a video riddled with positive guest reviews is also ideal for speaking your customer’s language, building trust, and providing social proof. All these are essential for effective marketing and driving conversions from your promotional videos. 

So, how do you get guests to give you video testimonials?

Upon checking out, ask them if they’d be willing to give a good word about their stay in your hotel through a short video.

Simple questions such as “Did you enjoy your stay?” or “How was your experience at our hotel?” will help score an excellent video testimonial.

Ask them to voice any suggestions and improvements so that it doesn't seem like the guests are made to only speak good about the hotel.

You can also ask them questions that get right to the heart of the benefits you're trying to communicate in your video. For example, “Which of our amenities did you enjoy the most?

But first, take time to reassure guests who might be nervous about recording a video. Not everyone is ready to jump in front of the camera (with LED lights beaming on their face). 

To steady their nerves, you can use your phone camera to capture the video. Most people online are willing to accept lower-quality videos nowadays for something raw and authentic. That’s why social videos get more shares than images and texts.

Try weaving together several video testimonials, then throw in some background music. You can also include B-roll footage to enhance the viewing experience.

Here’s an example of guest testimonials weaved into a video. It features guests talking about their stay in the hotel and how much better it is than other facilities they tried. 

Such authentic guest testimonials can help drive new customers to your hotel since they get to hear about the fantastic experiences of other guests. Moreover, the use of video allows viewers to see and feel the joy and satisfaction of other guests, which is something written reviews cannot capture as effectively.

Engaging Room/ Property Tours

Alongside guest testimonials, provide short virtual tours of your hotel. There’s no better way to present prospective guests with a surreal and immersive experience.

Room or property tours help you connect with potential guests as they can see and explore your entire hotel on their devices’ screens from anywhere. It’s like providing a front-row seat to your hotel, revealing how all-rounded your amenities are — without the person having to be there physically.

Through virtual tours, you can increase interest in your hotel, especially when people can't travel due to certain restrictions (think the COVID-19 pandemic). 

Potential guests can envision themselves staying in the room or being at your hotel, and over time this will be engrained in their minds. As a result, they are more likely to remember your hotel when it’s time to plan for their trip.

So flaunt anything that makes your hotel stand above the competition, including scenic beaches, pools, outdoor amenities, restaurants, lobby spaces, and individual rooms.

For example, the luxurious Samanvaya Resort & Spa created a video walkthrough of one of the individual rooms in their resort. The short, comely video explores the room’s features, giving potential guests a feel of what to expect upon arrival.

Rather than bogging down guests with wordy descriptions of your hotel (that they hardly need), create a simple video tour that resonates with your would-be guests. That way, they’ll have a chance to “try before they buy.”

TikTok (and Other Social Media) Short-Form Videos

Want to reach more people, even those who may not have seen your website yet? Do it with short-form videos on social media platforms. 

Explore TikTok. This popular social media platform can effectively market your hotel to people who want something short and quick.

Currently, few hotel brands explore TikTok, despite being among the most popular social platforms in the world and offering unique marketing opportunities. Still, it’s not too late to jump into the TikTok bus. The earlier, the better for your hotel’s marketing efforts.

But how exactly can exploring TikTok videos help in hotel marketing?

Displays the Hotel’s Excellence

TikTok is an ideal platform to present your hotel to potential guests. 

Create short and snappy videos of your property. Unlike the virtual room tours discussed above, TikTok videos allow you to quickly highlight your best spots and amenities with each shot.

Boosts Hotel’s Awareness

Do you want more potential clients to watch your videos but don’t have that many followers? Your TikTok videos can garner millions of views even with a small following. 

While other social platforms like YouTube and Instagram require you to have followers first, TikTok’s algorithm can make your videos get noticed quickly, even with a small following. 

This is how it works. TikTok will present your video to users’ For You Page even if you have few or no followers. If the users engage positively, TikTok’s algorithm takes note and can go on to present that video to thousands or millions of other users. Your video can, therefore, go viral exceptionally quickly, boosting your hotel’s awareness.

Targets Specific Guests

TikTok displays relevant content based on viewing habits and likes. So use TikTok videos to target people who regularly watch travel and accommodation or location-based videos. 

Do this by creating videos around a specific niche that’s in line with your services, for example, travel and leisure. Then use relevant hashtags to boost visibility.

Forges Strong Relationships

Most TikTok users globally are between 18 and 24 years old. Therefore, if your would-be guests include this age group, posting TikTok videos can help you forge a strong relationship with them.

Apart from just posting videos, you can also nurture a TikTok community for your brand via giveaways, campaigns, and contests.

Build your brand by leveraging hashtags

Adding hashtags to your TikTok videos has two benefits. Firstly, they help TikTok’s algorithm identify users interested in your content. And secondly, hashtags help categorize videos. 

Therefore, apart from using popular hashtags like #smallluxuryhotels to increase your reach, add hashtags that describe the kind of services you want to be known for, e.g., #romantichotel. That way, you get to build your hotel brand.

Ads

Depending on where you upload and publish your hotel promotional videos, you’ll reach a certain number of viewers. However, creating ads enables your videos to be seen by even more people and in a targeted manner. 

Even so, the success of your video ads depends on how well you make them. And the best way is to have videos that appeal to the emotions of your ideal client.

Research shows that the payoff can be huge when people connect emotionally with a specific brand. Customers trust them and are likely to buy their products or services. 

Also, if you run ads that spark an emotion in viewers, you're likely to experience a spike of 23% in sales than when pushing purely rational ads — a sobering fact that speaks volumes.

Consider this ad by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, for example. The YouTube video is only fifteen seconds long but exudes such exciting emotions of fun, play, and happiness. It’s perfect for promoting a family hotel because it easily attracts parents looking for a fun place to go with their kids.

Moreover, the ad’s stats prove how catchy it is—in a span of less than 2 months since going live on YouTube, the video ad has garnered 7.4 million views.

So what’s the best way to achieve this kind of emotional advertising in your hotel promotional video? Identify your potential guest’s pain points, make this the video’s main focus, and then zoom in on your services’ solutions. 

For example, if your audience's main pain point is the hustle of traveling with children and wondering how to keep them entertained throughout, show a video ad that highlights your kid-friendly amenities. Create a fun video that produces feelings of joy and happiness as the family spends time together (like the Four Seasons video above).

Be as honest as possible and authentic in your promo videos, and more people will want to travel and stay at your hotel. 

Increase Your Video Marketing Efforts Today!

Now that you know the five best hotel promotional videos, are you ready to take the plunge and begin or level up your hotel’s video marketing? 

Video content offers significant benefits to your hotel business, including

  • Increasing brand awareness,
  • Growing revenue,
  • Improving conversion rates,
  • Boosting engagement with your target audience,
  • Building trust

Digital experts reveal that most people spend a massive part of their time on the internet watching videos. So it’s a no-brainer that this should form a big part of your marketing strategy.

Lastly, always remember that you’re creating content for your guests. So, put yourself in their shoes, think about what they would like to see and what’ll entice them. That way, you have a clearer idea of what your video marketing strategy can be.

So, if you want to boost hotel awareness, be sure integrate your hotel videos on all your marketing channels.

Lumi Films, your go-to team for hassle-free video production. We understand your goals, craft tailored videos, and focus on your success. Let's create together.
Chat with ushello@lumifilms.sg+65 8906 2903
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