How To Turn Inbound Reservations Inquiries Into Proactive, Outbound, Reservations Sales Leads

Register your team and participate live, or view the recording, of Doug Kennedy’s next 40-minute training webcast scheduled for Friday, September 20, from Noon – 12:45pm EST. REGISTER HERE

Many leaders tend to think the role of reservations agents is simply to field inbound calls, answer questions, and book those who are not techno-savvy enough to book online. Yet when you monitor the cloud-based phone logs at resorts, vacation rental companies, and luxury hotels as our KTN team does every day, it’s clear that most guests call multiple times prior to booking. KTN President Doug Kennedy

KTN has found that the longer the stay, the higher the rates, the larger the party, the more accommodation types to select from, and the more emotionally invested the guest is in their travel planning, the more likely it is that several conversations will be required to get potential guests of all ages across the finish line.

When you pause to consider the average revenue opportunity from each phone call (total revenue ÷ number of bookings), and on top of that, all the marketing costs involved in making phones ring, it surely makes sense to train your reservations team for proactive, outbound follow-up, added Kennedy. This webcast covers:

Recognizing that all those “quick questions” received by phone, and also by email and in-app messaging, are actually hot leads in disguise.
Reasons why guests may not be ready to book during their first call.
How to help callers narrow down their options during conversations, rather than emailing a long list of all available accommodations that will leave them feeling overwhelmed.
How to ask for their email address and phone number in a way that ensures they provide it!
Sample dialogue and verbiage to use to quickly and efficiently personalize follow-up email templates.
The importance of using a tracking system to organize call notes and trace leads on follow-up task lists.
Advantages of using a reservations CRM, but also how to get in the game right now by making your own form in Excel or Sheets. (Or using a simple form KTN will provide by request.)
How to follow-up tenaciously without seeming pushy or annoying.
Sample phrasing for personalizing your follow-up calls and emails.

Everyone who registers receives a link to the recording, even if they cannot attend. The 40-minute format is perfect for “lunch and learns” or excerpts can be shared at staff meetings. The target audience is anyone who is interested in upskilling themselves or others, and the topic areas are broad enough to be relevant for all sectors of the lodging industry.

Recordings of previous webcasts are available at KTN’s YouTube channel and are now also being distributed on your favorite podcast channel or at KTN’s Spotify channel.

We are grateful to the generosity of our sponsors who have allowed us to offer complimentary admission, said Kennedy. It takes a lot of time to design, promote, and deliver these events, and so we would normally charge at least $99 registration per person, but this series is now completely free to all.

Sponsors include: Travel Outlook, the only KTN Certified call center, and Track Hospitality Software, a TravelNet Solution, whose products include a PMS and CRM.

Complimentary registration can be accessed at www.KTNwebcast.com. Here are the additional topics and dates scheduled so far.

Get Your Guest Services Staff Onboard The Tricycle of Guest Service Excellence!

Monday, October 21 (Noon EDT)

As anyone who has ever attended a convention or a class knows, speakers, professors, and hospitality trainers use tangible, physical objects to represent intangible concepts. The KTN training team uses a tricycle as a model to represent the components that must work together for a guest to have an overall excellent stay.

Join in as Doug Kennedy explains how a tricycle is the perfect model. For one, it has three wheels, just like the three components of a memorable guest stay. The back wheels represent “Technology and Systems” and a quality “Physical Product,” while the front wheel, which is the largest and leads the way, represents guest hospitality, which can only be delivered by way of human interactions.

Regardless of what “wheel” the work you do is represented by, each must roll together in harmony for a guest to have a good experience.
Guest services jobs require everyone to have a key role in keeping all three “wheels” rolling!
The “product” wheel is certainly essential. Guest satisfaction starts with a clean, updated, well-maintained accommodation. Being attentive to housekeeping and maintenance is everyone’s job.
The “systems” wheel is also important. No guest will be happy if we don’t operate efficiently. Everyone has a role in offering suggestions and ideas to evolve our processes.
Yet it’s the front wheel, representing hospitality experiences, that is the largest and which leads the way. It’s this wheel that truly helps your lodging experiences stand out in the minds of guests, creating loyalty, encouraging word-of-mouth advertising and favorable social media posts.
In the end, it’s humans like us who sit down, grab the handlebars, and start pumping those pedals in order to drive excellent guest experiences daily!

Customer Hospitality Is Bigger than Guest Service

Friday, November 15 (Noon EDT)

In the lodging industry, we tend to think of our customers as “guests,” reflecting a concept that many of us were mentored on long ago which is Treat our guests as you would those visiting your own home. However, customer hospitality is a philosophical concept that should be foundational to your entire company culture, reaching far beyond interactions with guests. In this webcast, Doug inspires a more holistic approach to nurturing and sharing the hospitality vibe with everyone we encounter.

Understanding the differences between “hospitality” and “guest service.”
You can mandate guest service scripting, but a culture of hospitality must be organically grown and delivered from the heart.
Strong hospitality cultures are deeply rooted in the etiquette by which colleagues treat one another and are re-ignited at the employee entrance.
In the lodging industry, many “customers” are not actually guests. They are travel agents, meeting and event planners, and literally anyone who enters the building and interacts with staff.
On the vacation rental side, owners are arguably the most important customers.
In all companies, vendor partners and colleagues from other departments are in a way also customers too.
Customer hospitality experiences are your hotel’s best marketing tool, especially as AI powered searches rely on reviews and not key-word stuffing.
Building on the foundation of customer hospitality is good for business, but also strongly impacts staff satisfaction and retention from being part of a team that truly values kindness and generosity.

Reservations Sales QUEST – 2025 Edition!

Friday, December 20 (Noon EDT)

If you are looking to get more direct bookings in 2025, join in as Doug shares highlights from KTN’s 2025 edition of our Reservations Sales QUEST training program that has helped hundreds of hotels, luxury vacation home rental agencies and resorts increase call conversion. Because he is out every month training frontline reservations teams, and with KTN’s Reservations Coaches regularly listening in to cloud-based recordings of real-world callers, Doug is always up to date on the latest trends. Each year he personally updates QUEST, which is KTN’s foundational reservations course. Register your team to gain exposure to easy-to-use tactics and relatable, real-world examples of sample dialogue they can use immediately. This webcast covers:

The important role of today’s reservations sales specialists.
The interplay of voice and online channels. Why do they still call and email us?
Doing “The Basics” EXTREMELY well.
Using Investigative, “Conversation Starting” QUESTions, including updated versions of traditional probing questions.
Storifying Selling: Using “snappy taglines” to narrate the pictures they’ve no doubt already seen online.
Join us for our next webcast in January 2025, entitled Reservations Agents: How To Overcome Objections and Close More Sales, during which Doug will share highlights from the rest of Reservations QUEST 2025!

For additional details, contact KTN at [email protected] or by phone (01) 954.533.9130 www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com.

*Sponsored By Travel Outlook and Track Hospitality Software.

About Kennedy Training Network Inc.

KTN is the lodging and hospitality industry's best source for hotel training programs and supportive services in topic areas of hotel sales, catering/event sales, hotel reservations sales, and hospitality & guest service excellence. KTN President Doug Kennedy has been a fixture on the lodging and tourism conference speaking circuit for decades. Hoteliers worldwide read his monthly hotel, tourism and hospitality industry sales training articles in this publication and elsewhere. Visit www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com or call (01) 954-533-9130.

Doug Kennedy
Kennedy Training Network (KTN)