Hotel Guest engagement is not just about sending the right message to the right people at the right time.
NB: This is an article from ARO Digital
It means keeping your brand in front of potential guests on a regular basis by adding value to your relationship.
We’re going to talk about 5 mistakes hoteliers are making in respect to hotel guest engagement and what you can do to avoid it.
How can you attract more guests to your hotel?
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1. DON’T JUST SELL TO YOUR GUESTS BUT COMMUNICATE WITH THEM
If you open your email, you’ll see lots of emails to convince you to buy stuff.
Is it engaging? You will be attracted to the email that is pushing something you’re already interested in.
The company who has sent this offer has built customer engagement by adding value to the relationship.
This value makes your life easier.
To build positive guest engagement and retain loyal guests, you need to communicate with them by sending information or offers which resonate.
Often when you try to sell to guests, you send the same offer to the whole database.
What will happen?
You will send irrelevant offers to some potential guests and there is no chance of a conversion.
Engaging emails not only inform guests, but they help to retain them.
Customer who purchase products through email spend 138% more than those that don’t receive email offers.
Having an engaging email marketing campaign gives you the power to attract, retain and encourage repeat customers.
Tip: Don’t send the same email to all guests who have different interests and needs.
Use your database to learn about your audience and how to interact with them.
Segment your guests to send personalized offer and messages.
You will retain your current guests by delivering information they care about.
2. SEGMENT GUESTS BASED ON THEIR PREVIOUS BOOKINGS
Booking your hotel is not only the end of a guest journey, it is the start of another one.
Now you should ask yourself what services makes the best experience of your hotel for your guests?
E-Commerce websites like Amazon do the exactly that.
They suggest products you might like based on your previous purchase history.
Tip: guide your guests directly to the best experience they can have with you based on their own preferences.
How?
Create segmentation of your guest database based on factors they have in common.
After that, send email retargeting to their specific needs at the right time.
Another way of segmentation might be based on the travel demographic of your guests. For example, business, family vacation, local guests (within driving distance of the hotel) or solo travelers.
There are many ways of segmenting, but the important factor is always to tailor your message to your guests’ needs.
For instance, sending an email with a message “if you like this (their previous booking), you might also like this” shows your audience that you pay attention to their interests and needs.
You are also showing them that you value them, listen to them and that you provide services that are valuable to them.
