In the fiercely competitive landscape of the hospitality industry, it is vital for hotel marketers and hoteliers to continuously innovate and find strategies that will not only attract guests but also guarantee their return. Building guest loyalty plays a crucial role in the success of any hotel business, as satisfied customers are more likely to return if they have had a memorable experience during their last stay.
NB: This is an article from Bookboost
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In fact, a recent survey conducted by the American Hotel & Lodging Association discovered that a staggering 57% of guests were more likely to return based on their previous experience. In that matter, a big part of working on your guest loyalty has to do with loyalty programs.
These kinds of programs are an excellent strategy for fostering repeat guest visits, but in modern times most of them have lost their appeal and hardly ever stand out from the others. Most of guest loyalty programs reward guests with points or discounts when they book multiple rooms or stay for a specific number of nights within a year, but they don’t go further than that, offering something that elevates the experience while keeping the essence of the brand.
Since hospitality is such a competitive industry, having an “okay” guest loyalty program is not enough anymore. If you are truly trying to turn your one-timer guests into returning ones, you need to craft a loyalty program that stands out from the crowd.
How to craft the right loyalty program?
The real question is how can you make your guest loyalty program a program they actually want to sign up for? How can you turn your loyalty program into “the right” one? Here are a few ideas you can use to make your loyalty program transmit your brand while exciting guests and bringing them back.
Start by extracting insights from your guest data
First, you need to look back at your guest data and try to identify all the insights you can get.
What do we mean by that? Basically, go into your hotel CRM and look into your guests’ preferences. What are the most popular services you have? What are the ones that are normally fully booked and what are the most boring ones?
Then, you can also look into your rooms and what seem to be the most requested ones and also the least favourite ones. What is the main difference? Is it a matter of space or amenities?
Prepare an appealing offer
Remember, one big thing to consider is that every type of guest should find value in your guest loyalty program. For example, offering free tickets to a kids’ show will probably interest your family bookers but not your business guests.
That is why using your guest data as fuel for your guest loyalty program is key. Because first, you need to understand who are your guests before you can come up with something valuable to offer them.
