Blog last updated on July 2019
We are continuing our SEO case study series (previous ones were about luxury spas and restaurants) with an analysis of the hospitality business in Siem Reap. This blog was updated in December 2021 almost 2 years into the covid-19 pandemic.
BRIEF MARKET SITUATION ANALYSIS
Siem Reap has witnessed a explosion in the numbers of hotels in the past 20 years alternating periods of undersupply and oversupply. In 2002, only 47 hotels were registered (guesthouses not included) which at the time was not enough to accommodate the growing numbers of tourists visiting the temples of Angkor.
Fast-track to 2012, this year saw a ”siem reap boutique hotel fever ” and the next few years saw more constructions leading to an oversupply and to a drop in the daily rates.
At the same time, long time established luxury hotels like the Raffles and Amansara were faced with more competition. Accommodations geared towards backpackers expanded as well with both private rooms and dorms.
In 2019, you could find all types of accommodations in Siem Reap: small villa hotels, boutique hotels, container hotels, capsule hotels, private bungalows or villa, luxury tents with a price ranging from USD 2 in a dorm to several thousand dollars per night in the most luxurious hotels.
In July 2019, hotels are still being built but many are closing down. At the same time, the tourism is down in temple city and this trend is expecting to continue all through the the year. At the time of writing, 728 properties were listed on Booking , 768 on Expedia, where as 3027 are available on Agoda. Many hotels are also listed on AirBnB….
Looking at the same platforms in december 2021, we found only 273 properties on Booking, 724 on Agoda which shows partially the impact of covid-19, the real number being likely lower.
SEO VS SOCIAL MEDIA
You are probably using social media like facebook, instagram or twitter to keep your audience up to date with images and videos. You are likely to be satisfied with the many likes you have but is your social media bring you new bookinks every month.
People seeing the posts are most likely not looking to book a boutique hotel in siem reap for their holidays.
When people go on search engines like Google and are type booking boutique hotel in siem reap there is actually a search intent and they will visit only teh webpages which are on the page of results. This is where SEO works and give you visibility on many keywords on the first page of Google.