If you’ve read an article about hotel technology in the last 6 months, you’ve probably heard about the guest journey. Typically, the journey describes three main phases: pre-stay (or search & booking), onsite, and post-stay.
NB: This is an article from Rainmaker
When building or iterating on your hotel tech stack, take a step back and think about how your technology and solutions fit in the guest journey. Are the processes and solutions you have in place setting you up for success during each phase? Much like a game of darts, if the two pieces are strategically aligned, there’s no way you’ll miss your mark.
When it comes to revenue management, the information and data points provided can ensure hotels are strong across the entire guest journey. Revenue managers are leveraging these solutions to encourage more bookings, create a lucrative on-site stay, and boost loyalty among their best guests. Here’s how you can do the same:
Create Rates that Drive Bookings.
Price of the room is the #1 decision-making factor in a guest’s hotel booking. Therefore, it’s crucial to know where your hotel’s rate stacks up against similar options. With revenue management solutions, you can see which price points are working — and which are not — to better inform your decisions regarding ADR. Additionally, with competitor benchmarking, you can ensure you’re offering the most competitive price. By combining your own room forecasting with competitive analysis, you can drive bookings and profits at the same time.
Promote, Upgrade, and Upsell.
In my last post, I talked about the benefits of pairing marketing and revenue management. This especially comes into play when your hotel wants to increase ancillary revenues. According to Robin Berrendorf, Co-Founder at MyEventBUTLER, 77% of tourists plan their trip activities when they are already at the property. Referencing back to the guest journey, this would mean that the best time to have guests book spa appointments, restaurant reservations, or tours/activities sponsored by our hotel, would be while they are staying at your property. A revenue management tool can help identify if these trends are also true at your own property. Whatever the trend may be, sharing this information with your marketing team can ensure that promotional opportunities are not wasted.
Leverage Your Most Loyal Guests.
Every guest is important, and they all interact with your hotel in their own unique way. When their interactions lead to transactions, that’s where revenue management can be of assistance. These solutions find the “most valuable” guests based on number of bookings, price points at booking, and upgrades purchased. Once again, by working closely with your marketing team, you can run promotions that will drive more valuable guests to rebook, better leveraging the post-stay guest phase, and thus starting the guest journey again from the beginning.
One of the best approaches your hotel can take to drive revenue is to put the guest first. This doesn’t mean you need to cater to them in every possible way, but rather take them into consideration when making strategic decisions. The more you align your technology and processes with the guest journey, the closer your hotel revenue targets hit the bullseye.
