Hotel sales is notoriously challenging, but some sales strategies may result in easier sales than you think. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%. But surprisingly, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%. By leveraging this knowledge and a few key upselling strategies throughout your sales cycle, you can increase your revenue, build deeper relationships with customers, and better utilize your property’s amenities.
What is upselling?
Upselling is, quite simply, offering your customers relevant extras to make their stay or event even better. Upselling involves getting a customer to spend more on their current product consideration, such as upgrading their choice of room, while cross-selling involves selling ancillary products or services, such as a spa treatment or a local tour, on top of their room. Besides increased revenue, upselling offers a number of benefits, including:
- Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty through service personalization and added value.
- Higher profitability through increased guest spending.
- Richer guest data for future personalization.
- Greater utilization of property amenities.
You’ll find that many customers are open to buying a more expensive product than they initially planned, as long as it represents good value, is convenient, and feels like it’s adding something relevant to their stay. So how do you start including upselling in your hotel sales cycle?
1. Identify the right customers for upselling
First, you will need to identify the customers that are good targets for upselling and cross-selling. Not every customer is a good fit for an upsell, and you should never try to push additional products or services on someone who doesn’t truly need them. As a general rule, if you can’t explain how the additional purchase will benefit the customer’s overall goals, then it’s not an upsell worth pursuing.
Take a look at your Sales and Catering CRM and Property Management System to determine your most likely upselling targets. Customer types who have spent on additional purchases in the past are a great place to start. Do you have wedding groups that tend to add extra rooms before the big day? Or do couples booking for their anniversary often order a bottle of wine or champagne from room service? Identifying trends that already happen can give you a good idea of which products to suggest to which customers. Offering more rooms to wedding parties, or the ability to buy a bottle of champagne when you book a room for a special occasion, can be both convenient and valuable for your guests.
It can be challenging to figure out when to introduce upselling into your hotel sales cycle. Since the purpose of upselling is to augment the guest’s experience, it actually has a place throughout the sales cycle, as long as the value is apparent. Let’s dive in to a few areas where upselling and cross-selling make sense for your customers and your hotel, especially to grow your group sales business.
2. Include targeted upsells and cross-sells on your hotel website
Even before your guests book their room or event, they are browsing your website to find the product that will best meet their needs. Including relevant offers throughout your website increases the chance that a customer will come upon something they like. Ideally, you’ll place upselling offers near products that are geared toward upgrades, customizations, and similar value-added features. You can draw attention to the upselling feature on the page using highlighted buttons and graphics, as well as contrasting these offers with other page elements. Make sure to test all of your offers to see which ones result in the best conversion rates.
