Tips for improving your hotel upsell program to boost direct revenue
Actionable ways to use upsells for revenue management
A solid hotel upsell program can make a huge difference in generating direct revenue. Generally speaking, you are going to be more profitable if you choose to upsell your existing guests.
So, it’s best to stay upsell savvy if you want to make the most of opportunities to improve your revenue. If you have some questions about how to effectively a hotel upsell program, you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s start with a few tips to keep in mind when designing your upsells.
Target your upsells
An upsell without a target is unlikely to work well. Sending your guests offers without considering their past purchases, preferences, or reasons for their stays, won’t resonate. Why would a guest want to take advantage of a Valentine’s special if they booked a stay for just themselves?
Getting specific with your hotel upsell program builds relationships with guests, helping them feel understood and assured that you know what they want. According to Gladly’s “2020 Customer Expectation Report", 77% of people recommend a brand to friends and family if the company provides a more personalized experience.
The key is to leverage offers that are unique to your guests. Identify the group or groups you’re targeting, and then make those offers relevant. Whether that means capitalizing on the local scene, offering early check-in or late check-out, promoting outside activities, highlighting food and beverage specials, promoting amenities, or even showcasing transportation options, makesure to make the guest knows it’s for them.
The importance of personalizing your upsells
We’ve already touched on the importance of personalization a bit, but it’s worth reiterating since it’s the key to making the sale. Personalization is what will ultimately persuade your guests to take advantage of what you offer, driving revenue each time.
According to Econsultancy, 80% of companies see an improvement in business when prioritizing personalization with their customers. And we know that guests are more likely to become repeat bookers if they feel you’re paying attention to their unique needs.
And the more information you have about each guest, the better you’re able to personalize offers. With a Customer Data Platform, all of a guest’s preferences and details are centralized, allowing you to identify data points that are best for a particular upsell based on criteria such as past interests or travel motivations.
Remember, guests are willing to pay $20 to $24 more for personalized experiences, so gather as much detail as possible. As a result, you can make offers more enticing to each guest.
Upsell at every stage
Your upsell program should take into account every stage of the guest’s journey so that you can maximize the amount of direct revenue you are bringing in.
Booking
Yes, upselling can start at the booking stage by including offers that guests can add to their packages. Think room upgrades or discounted rates.
And it’s beneficial to start the process now — 72% of salespeople say that upselling drives up to 30% of their revenue. You want to make bookers feel they’re getting the best deal possible to ensure they can look forward to a remarkable stay.
Pre-arrival
Pre-arrival is a great time to deploy upsells with automated emails, especially if they are sent 7 days before check-in or 3 days before check-in — according to our data, emails sent at those times get the highest open rates.
You can segment these upsells with criteria such as length of stay or interaction with previous campaigns. And you don’t have to worry that guests will mind receiving these emails, as 74% of customers become frustrated when their email communication experience isn’t personalized.
Revinate customer 137 Pillars Hotels and Resorts proved just how powerful personalization is when they used segmentation to upsell guests before they even arrived on the property. Their hotel upsell program and marketing efforts ended up driving more than ฿28,000,000 ($757,390) in revenue.
Arrival
If you’re using Revinate Marketing, you can optimize your hotel upsell program with arrival reports. These reports can be used to identify guests that have booked and already taken advantage of upsell opportunities. This lets your front desk which guests are more likely to opt for add-on features like food and beverage, room upgrades, or late check-out. You can also send emails after check-in to promote certain offers — we find that sending these 1 day after check-in is most effective.
Post-stay
You can discover additional ways to drive direct revenue after guests have checked out with post-stay surveys. These are a great way to uncover guests’ overall satisfaction with the offers you suggested. Creating a survey allows you to gather guest feedback all in one place, making it easy to use that information to design more profitable offers in the future.
Track upsell performance
It’s important to continually refine your hotel upsell program to ensure you’re optimizing your opportunities to drive direct revenues. The Upsells Reporting page within Revinate Marketing reveals real-time data on how your upsells are performing, allowing you to analyze trends, see what’s working, and make adjustments based on what isn’t working.
Be sure to look at loyal guests, specifically, when measuring your hotel upsell program’s performance. These guests can tell you a lot about the success of your upsells, and you can use data from their previous stays to inform future upsells and promotions. In fact, Martin Resorts doubled their email campaign revenue in 6 months by targeting offers to loyal guests.
Prioritize direct revenue with upsells
It’s good to take a step back to see how your current hotel upsell program is performing. Is it steadily impacting your direct revenue? Or, do you need to alter your approach to make the most of your offers?
While upsells can certainly boost your revenue, they can also deepen guest relationships. So, taking the time to invest in some best practices will go a long way.
Do you want to take your hotel upsell program to the next level? Find out how by downloading our guide, “The ultimate guide to upselling techniques for hotels.”
About Revinate
Revinate empowers hoteliers to directly connect with their guests.
Our Guest Data Platform and communication solutions unlock revenue for hoteliers and put them in control of the full guest experience — initial research, booking, check-in, throughout the stay, and even after check out — all via the communication channels that guests prefer, whether it's voice, text, email, or web.
More than 12,000 hotels globally bank on Revinate to drive direct revenue and deliver delightful guest experiences.
Ask us how we do it. Visit our website to get a demo.
Sanjana Chappalli
VP of Brand Marketing and Communications
Revinate, Inc.
