After what has been months of lost revenue and hardship for many hoteliers out there. We are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. With borders re-opening and restrictions loosening– hotels are seeing an influx of guests.
But at the same time, in many regions, the number of visitors is nowhere near the numbers we saw in pre-pandemic times. With an increase in the number of hotels opening up - the competition is fierce. So, given this, what are some ways you can increase your revenue in 2022?
Here’s Our Revenue-Generating Ideas Per Cluster:
Hotel Reputation and Guest Experience
1. Hotel Online Reputation Management: Improve Your Review Scores
While we all know that the customer experience is important in hotels. We often neglect to consider that it is extremely subjective – and it comes from the perception of the guest. Guests may perceive certain aspects of their stay differently, all depending on their preferences - and they love to share their experiences online.
Today's digital environment puts your hotel's online reputation on the line. Online reviews often come from third-party channels like TripAdvisor - and they influence your potential customers purchasing behavior. According to TripAdvisor, 81% of guests frequently read reviews before purchasing a hotel booking. They calculated that reviews and scores influence $546 billion of travel spending yearly.
One way to get more sales is to improve your review scores on third-party channels. Try to recover service failures while the guest is on your property, encourage satisfied guests to leave a review – and most importantly, don’t forget to answer the negative reviews. |
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2. Room Service Apps: Make Ordering Process More Convenient
One way to improve the room service ordering experience is by implementing a hotel order taking system for your hotel. These are systems that enable your guests to independently order from your restaurant using a digital menu, scannable with a QR code.
Digital menus have proven to be an effective way to raise the average check size, as they can showcase pictures of your beautiful food and beverage items, increase menu browsing, and reduce the ordering pressure.
3. Give Coupons for In-House Consumption
Handing out coupons to influence the purchasing decision is a well-proven method. In fact, digital coupon redemptions are expected to surpass $90 billion by 2022. And more than 63% of consumers want them more widely available. While it is common to offer discounts in hotels for travel packages, we hardly give them as incentives for in-house consumption. Coupons can be a great way to encourage guests and provide a last little “push” to try out your facilities.
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Few examples: 1. Get 15% off on one of our spa massages 2. Pay for 1 drink and get 1 beverage for free 3. Discounted package price for our afternoon tea 4. 1 complimentary welcome drink in our bar 5. 20% off on our breakfast buffet |
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4. Increase Revenue from Repeat Guests with a Loyalty Program
In an increasingly competitive market, hotels have to become less reliant on third-party channels and focus more on their direct channels. But one challenge when it comes to direct channels is that customers in the hospitality industry are notorious for lacking loyalty. And here is where a loyalty program comes in handy.
Hotel loyalty programs are great ways of turning your guests into passionate brand devotees. It is extremely costly to attract a new customer compared to retaining a current customer. Just a 5% increase in customer retention rates can increase profits by 25%.
Millennial business travelers are willing to pay up to $41 more per night to stay with hotels affiliated to their loyalty program. Deloitte
Hotel Up-Selling and Revenue Ideas
5. Apply Hotel Dynamic Pricing
Dynamic pricing is a pricing strategy that is often used to increase revenue, especially in an industry where demand fluctuates like the hotel industry. As the name implies, dynamic pricing strategy in hotels refers to the strategy of maximizing the revenue based on demand and supply. Primarily by tweaking the price based on various algorithms, including seasonality, occupancy, and competitor pricing. These can often be done by using a proper pricing intelligence engine.
6. Attribute-Based Pricing (ABP)
Attribute-based pricing is a new way of looking at the inventory and its components. Instead of breaking down the inventory into standard room categories like "Standard Room" and "Superior Room", you can set one base room rate per attribute and then mark it up based on what options the guest wants to purchase.
Examples of attributes in attribute-based pricing:
Ocean view
Balcony
Nespresso machine
Early Arrival
Late Departure
Breakfast
Parking
7. Hotel Email Marketing Best Practices: Targeted Personalized Promotions
One of the biggest hotel email marketing mistakes is that we forget the power of personalized promotional e-mails. Research has shown that hyper-specific marketing campaigns drive 73% higher revenue per recipient compared to non-segmented campaigns. And hotel email marketing is one of the best upselling techniques for hotels.
The first step is to create personalized emails by segmenting your guests based on demographics or socio-cultural factors.
8. Upselling Hotel Rooms and Incremental Packages during Check-in
Never miss an upselling opportunity. Research by up-selling software show resorts can get up to €38 additional revenue per room per month – simply by using a hotel upsell strategy.
The best thing about it is that there are so many ways to upsell. Everywhere from your employees' upselling directly to the guests, to hotel kiosks with upselling features, hotel email marketing, and beyond.
9. Offer Early Check-In/Check-Out
Hotels have their published check-in and check-out times. But still, so many give complimentary early check-in/late check-out to their guests. One of the biggest mistakes that hotels make is not providing early check-in/ late check-out options to guests. There are increasingly more flights arriving early and departing late, which means that your guests will show up early and leave later.
For those guests who are willing to pay for an extra bit of comfort, offer them an early arrival or late check-out at a discounted price. Especially if it doesn't disrupt your operations!
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Example: Offering two guests an early check-in for $15 each, would generate $30 additional revenue per day. That’s $10.950 extra revenue in just one year! |
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10. Upselling Techniques in Hotels? Check Out These Other Opportunities!
Don't stop with early check-in and late check-out and room upgrades. There are so many other upselling opportunities in a hotel like:
Parking Fees: It's really become the norm these days to enforce parking fees.
Pet Fees: Many guests would be happy to bring their loved ones for an additional fee.
Shuttle Transportation: Work with other transportation businesses to offer a shuttle to the airport or key local attractions.
Health and Wellness Center: Why not charge a fee for your newly renovated health and wellness center?
Marketing Activities
11. Attract More SMERF Groups during the Low Seasons
A key strategy that is often overlooked is being able to increase the revenue from the SMERF segment. Although these groups are notorious for their price sensitivity, they are great at bringing in a lot of business during the low season.
After all, most hotels are open all year round. Luckily, we uncovered 8 effective SMERF strategies in an earlier article, that you can follow to increase the revenue from this segment.
12. Build Partnerships with Local Businesses
There are surely plenty of other businesses nearby your hotel. The best thing to do is go out and try to form a mutually beneficial partnership with them.
Are you a leisure-oriented hotel? Try to partner with excursion companies that can offer their services to your guests at a discounted rate. What if you are a business hotel? Contact the meetings and convention center and offer them a discounted price for their potential attendees. There are so many opportunities, and your imagination is only the limit!
Let´s conclude our article of 10+ Powerful Hotel Revenue Generating Ideas You Should Implement In 2022
We covered a lot of hotel revenue-generating ideas in this article. But let's break them down so that you have a better overview.
Hotel Reputation and Guest Experience
Improve Review Scores: Reviews influence the purchasing decision of potential customers, so keep on improving them!
Convenient Room Service Ordering: Make your guest's life easier by offering room service apps where they can order room service contactless at their own convenience.
Coupons: In-house consumption coupons are a great way to encourage guests to try out your incredible facilities.
Focus on repeated guests: Loyal guests tend to have higher ADR, and you can build better relationships by implementing a hotel loyalty program.
Hotel Upselling and Revenue Ideas
Dynamic Pricing: A better pricing strategy that helps you maximize your revenue based on demand and supply.
Attribute-Based Pricing: Breaking down the inventory into different attributes or components, instead of pure "defined" room categories.
Hotel Email Marketing: Send targeted promotional emails based on your segmented list of guests - instead of "generic" ones.
Upselling rooms: Seize every opportunity in the check-in process to upsell your room categories and packages.
Other upselling techniques in hotels: Go beyond upselling rooms. Parking fees, pet fees, shuttle transportation, and entrance fee to your health and wellness center are just a few low-hanging fruits!
Marketing Activities
SMERF Groups: These groups can increase your occupancy during the lower peak or shoulder seasons.
Build Partnership: Generate more revenue for your hotel by establishing partnerships with nearby businesses.
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