Part 4 of 4

We have already discussed Distribution by Season, Tracking Demand per Room Type and Pricing of the Room Type Supplements and the Power of Value Adds to Increase Bookings. In the last part of this blog series, we will discuss Targeted Email Marketing to Drive More Business During Lower Seasons.

A great way to run offers and promotions is to target past guests of your hotel. In order to do this, you must be sure to collect the email id of each guest that had stayed at your hotel. Two ways to go about doing this are –

  1. Collecting the information at check in or by placing a card at in the guestroom

OR

  1. Collecting this information via Wi-Fi log-ins, post-stay surveys or registration on the website

Remember you must obtain the guest permission for email marketing so ensure that you give them this option to receive promotional emails from the hotel.

Once you have a solid database built, consider whom you want to target and how you want to construct the offer. Consider directing these offers at leisure or business guests that can reach your hotel by driving, train or short travel distances. You could also consider creating weekday and weekend offers to entice both types of guests.

Next, you need to consider what types of inclusions and value adds (as discussed in Part 3 of the series) you want to include in the offer. Ensure that you change the offer often enough to impact all of your seasons. During higher demand, seasons consider creating offers that include F&B and Spa components or upgraded room types. Obviously, in the lower seasons, use discounts and value adds to make the overall offer attractive.

Encourage your staff to collect as much information about the guests profile as possible. Marketing is much easier when you have collected certain demographics of the guests such as;

  • Reason for Stay
  • Age of guest(s)
  • Feeder market
  • Ancillary revenue spent in a hotel (and from what outlets)

Having this information can give you more power to personalize offers.

Lastly and very importantly, you will want to track the success of the email campaign. Track all opens, click-through, inquiries and bookings stemming from your emails, which is easily done through an automated email marketing system. Hotel Email marketing can be a fun and creative way to drive more guests to the hotel as well as building a solid base of direct customers.

Seasonality in the hospitality industry can be managed with the use of comprehensive revenue management solutions that offer a 360 degree insight into hotel revenue management.

Stay tuned and subscribe to our blogs at  https://rategain.it/blog/ for more of such articles.