Ancillary bookings represent a significant opportunity for hotels to add revenue while increasing guest engagement. The airline industry adopted the practice of cross-selling and up-selling trip extras more than a decade ago with impactful results. How can hotels do the same and best complete their guests’ travel experience by offering products beyond hotel rooms?
iSeatz, a technology company specializing in custom, brand-driven ancillary booking solutions, partnered with Phocuswright to research the business travelers’ interest in purchasing trip extras from hotels. The results from that research are presented and discussed in their new white paper, Business Travelers and their Demand for Ancillary Services.
This article will share some of the findings of the new white paper, which show that the majority of business travelers surveyed are very interested in purchasing either on-site or off-site extras. The research also identifies business traveler segments and details the preferences on when, where, and what extras business travelers are interested in buying.
The hotel dilemma
Hotels, both large chains and independent boutiques, can learn from other companies in the travel sector who have successfully implemented an ancillary sales strategy. Airlines were quick to offer ancillary services more than a decade ago. Now these non-core services such as priority booking, baggage fees and car rentals make up an estimated US$28 billion in revenue annually for the top ten airlines. This trained travelers to purchase travel add-on services during checkout, and at other cross-sell merchandising points such as confirmation emails.
Hotels that participated in the white paper cited reasons why they do not currently offer ancillary services. Many talked about resources, including a lack of technology to streamline ancillary offerings for both on-site and off-site trip extras. With many hotels having their staff and management doing multiple jobs, hotel management is reluctant to add another task to management’s plate. This highlights the need for digital ancillary technology to address these valid concerns and reduce such effort while simultaneously scaling the operation.
Both general managers and revenue managers alike understand the need to offer a positive experience to their guests and to create loyalty to the hotel brand. Based on our research, managers are focused on perfecting the on-site process, instead of branching out and offering new services to differentiate their brand from their competitors.
