Catching as many direct bookings as possible at your B&B will deliver more profit, since you won’t have to pay commission to an online travel agent. Guest data plays an important role in this.
NB: This is an article by Little Hotelier
Collecting and using guest data properly can be the key to capturing these direct bookings, encouraging guest loyalty, and ensuring your customers return regularly.
OTAs have been creating guest profiles and using guest data in their marketing strategies for a long time now. When a guest books through an OTA, any information they submit is added to their profile including things like name, age, location and all special preferences. With this they can then re-target customers or use their information to build custom campaigns and promotions to encourage return bookings.
By obtaining guest data you are tapping into a goldmine of marketing insights. These insights can be kept in your guest profile system that can be accessed, reviewed and updated to better serve guests during future stays.
Here’s the guest data that will help hoteliers increase direct bookings at your B&B…
Email Address
Email marketing is a cost effective and efficient way for hoteliers to encourage return visitors.
Obtaining your guests’ email address means you will be able to include them in your marketing campaigns and advertise specials and deals encouraging them to book with you again.
Name and Age
Knowing the small details like age and greeting your guest by name, are two very important techniques that facilitate guest loyalty.
Using an online front desk system will allow you to research this information prior to arrival and build on the guest profiles of returning guests.
Knowing how old your guest is will ensure you follow the right customer experience techniques. For example, keep Millennial guests happy by providing the WiFi password upon check-in, making sure you touch base with them before their stay, being present for check-in, and remembering all of their special requests.
Guest Preferences And Reason For Visit
A key to survival for hoteliers in the industry is to be ever mindful of personalisation and be sure you’re doing the most you can for your guests. Show you care by collecting pre-stay preferences and requests and use them to cater more holistically to customer needs.
If you have a strong social media presence you could even look online and check which content they are interacting with the most. For example, if they are constantly liking photos of your specialty coffee, give them a free coffee voucher on arrival.
Positive Or Negative Feedback
After a guest departs, collect feedback and ask for any ways you could make their stay better. This way you will know what matters to them and be able to avoid this issue when they book a return visit, or send them an email welcoming them to stay with you again when you resolve the issue they raised.
