Summary: <br> {caption}The coronavirus crisis has altered the traditional sales funnel, say hotel marketing experts.{/caption}<br> COVID-19 reshapes the traditional sales-and-marketing funnel<br> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresa-hajko-370b607/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heresa Hajko</a> is director of revenue management for <a href="https://www.spirehotels.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Spire Hospitality</a>, a third-party management company in Irving, Texas.<br> Hajko works from her home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and she got the idea for a marketing campaign Spire Hospitality calls The Great American Road Trip when she decided to travel to unique destinations in search of memorable experiences.<br> Hajko calls her experiential bucket list “quirky” and “unusual.” She visited the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania to see the Synchronous Firefly event that takes place in early summer. She then drove about an hour northwest and stayed at the <a href="https://www.octrr.org/page/caboosemotel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Caboose Motel</a> in Titusville, Pennsylvania, a lodging accommodation associated with Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad, an excursion train. Each room is a free-standing caboose.<br> <br> {caption}CABOOSE? CHECK.: Theresa Hajko, director of revenue management at Spire Hospitality, this summer spent a night in the Caboose Motel in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The experience was on her ‘quirky’ bucket list. During her trip, Hajko discovered she is not alone is seeking unusual travel experiences that include time spent outdoors so she created a marketing campaigned called The Great American Road Trip that offers stay-packages to prospective guests of Spire Hospitality’s hotels.{/caption}<br> During the road trip, Hajko met other travelers intent on checking experiences off their bucket lists. “When I got back, I shared my trip on social media and I told other people. Everybody was so engaged with the idea of the road trip. I think right now travelers are looking to getting out and do something but they don’t necessarily want to involve air travel. Getting outdoors and back to nature is so popular right now.”<br> Hajko said the marketing campaign for Spire Hospitality is meant to encourage the road trip and to generate business for the hotels in its management portfolio.<br> Spire Hospitality’s Great American Road Trip offers package priced $25 above the sell rate. Guests participating in the program get gifts such as dining coupons, a S’mores-making kit and a picture frame.<br> The program kicked off in mid-August and so far Spire Hospitality’s hotels have sold more than 80 packages.<br> <br> LISTEN: CARE PACKAGES: Hotels can attract business during the coronavirus pandemic by sharing a message of safety and caring. The care must be obvious with how the business treats its staff as well as serves its surrounding community, say experts. Episode 286 of Lodging Leaders podcast examines how the coronavirus crisis has reshaped the traditional sales-and-marketing funnel and what hotels need to do to attract the attention of prospective guests.<br> Besides the guests who booked are hundreds more who were made aware Spire Hospitality’s hotels through the campaign. “A unique package will get attention and drive potential guests to your hotel’s website,” Hajko said. “If that potential guest doesn’t make a reservation right now maybe they’ll (book) in the future.”<br> Creating consumer awareness is step one in the traditional marketing funnel.<br> At the top of the funnel is discovery or awareness. Next is engagement with prospective customers as they learn about your business. Then there is lead nurturing, when the customer is considering the offer and marketing leads turn into sales leads. The final step is the sale or the conversion from a looker to a buyer.<br> While some marketing tactics remain tried and true,
