In the hospitality industry, time is money. With only 24 hours in a day and a limited number of rooms to rent, the challenge is always to rent as many rooms as possible in a given day to maximize occupancy. Potential revenue from room sales perishes as each day expires with rooms yet unrented.

Smart advertising is the key to attracting a steady stream of hotel guests. Whether you employ a branding or a directional message, keeping your message fresh in the minds of your prospect is an investment you can’t afford to neglect. While there are many choices when considering where to advertise, few are as advantageous as an advertising campaign for your hotel that you could launch without any concern for the cost. Sure, you may have an ad budget, although perhaps less than in years past. But, wouldn’t it be smarter if you could pay for your advertising with those empty rooms that you hope to fill with that advertising?

Equitrade International is a commercial bartering firm, which converts your perishable excess capacity into a barter currency that you can use for advertising and a host of other services that you currently purchase with cash. We not only supply you with the new customers to fill your vacant rooms, but we also provide the outlets for you to spend your new barter bank account.

If you have an ad budget, you replace cash that you have already budgeted when you barter. By the process of substitution, those empty rooms that you bartered cause those ad dollars to drop to the bottom line and create additional revenue.

The guests that we send to you to redeem the barter that we receive as payment for advertising also provide a host of benefits to you. Since you will no doubt treat them the same as a cash-paying customer, their positive experience at your establishment will cause them to give you great reviews and refer friends and family, all who are cash-paying guests. If you have a restaurant, they will most likely also spend some cash during their stay for meals.

The biggest benefit of all is the positive impact that the additional advertising will have on your business. Because you chose to advertise the smart way, you can afford to “outspend” your competition and capture more than your fair share of the market.

You may be saying to yourself, “This sounds great, but how does it work?” Equitrade recommends that you structure your barter payment in the form of a room voucher or certificate that can easily be transferred. Your room night certificate can be deposited into your Equitrade account for immediate credit in advance of the rooms being used. This gives you the added benefit of spending your excess capacity even before you incur any costs. Barter vouchers are always restricted to availability, giving you total control in preference of cash business. Equitrade remarkets the room vouchers we receive from you through secondary channels, bringing customers to your hotel that you otherwise would never have. When you think about it, those bartered rooms are an advertising program all of their own with a dual benefit.

As you look forward to the next year, what will your marketing strategy be? Will you do what you’ve always done and pay for what you can afford from the profits of your existing cash business? Or, will you leverage those vacant rooms which will expire worthless every night and gain an edge over your competition by outspending them the smart way?