With the help of a digital guest experience it’s possible to take a wider and more relevant approach to hotel revenue, create a better guest experience that results in more guests that spend more, and to unlock the potential of data and analytics.
Find out how here.
How to increase revenue with the digital guest journey
Engaged guests are good for rates, revenue and marketing
It’s always been a challenge to increase revenue in hotels, and maybe now more than ever. The world moves and changes quicker than ever, and keeping ahead of the competition and increasing profit has become a science when guest demand and behaviour is turbulent and unpredictable. Mind reading and crystal balls would be valuable tools, but the next best thing (that also actually exists) is digital technology.
The way to measure a hotel’s success and profit is traditionally through KPIs such as ADR (Average Daily Rate) and TRevPAR (Total Revenue Per Available Room). Another very important performance indicator that’s usually forgotten (probably because it’s harder to measure) is guest satisfaction. But today the guest experience is more important than ever, and it will also affect all the other KPIs. Here’s why.
Engaged guests spend more
Selling a night in a hotel room is good, but also selling the hotel’s ancillary products and services is better. Engaged guests like to spend. They actually spend 46% more per yearcompared to disengaged guests. So how do you engage guests? Through personalisation and interaction. With a digital guest journey the guest can interact more with the hotel and its services (order food, request maintenance, get useful information and entertainment etc. through their own device). This interaction will not only create a positive and more engaging experience for the guest, it will also help the hotel to make personal offers. While no one likes intrusive attempts to up-sell, everyone appreciates a personal and relevant offer that will make their experience better. The digital interaction with the guest will provide the insights needed to make personalised offers that feel like a relevant and unique service, and make the guests spend more during their stay.
Engaged and satisfied guests leave plenty of good reviews
Those reviews are seen as a quality indicator by potential guests (93% of worldwide travellers say that online reviews have an impact on their booking decisions), and that will lead to better occupancy and higher rates. The reviews also affect online visibility, and more exposure will also have a positive effect on bookings and revenue. By turning satisfied guests into brand ambassadors through a positive and personalised digital guest journey, they will give you the best and most authentic marketing money can buy. But since they’re doing it for free, it’s a pretty good Advertising ROI.
Engaged guests return
The new generation of guests are not primarily looking for a product, but for a lifestyle. They take their time making decisions, but when they do they want a long term relationship with a service or a brand. As consumers they place a lot of value on a personal and meaningful experience. By giving them a personalised service with attention to detail you’ll ensure that the guests want more of that service in the future. By taking notice of their preferences and patterns you can offer them a tailored loyalty programme to ease them into a prolonged patronage.
Use data and analytics to improve guest satisfaction and revenue
Another profitable benefit with a digital guest journey is how it unlocks the power of data and analytics. With a platform that gathers extensive and relevant guest data, it’s easy to analyse that data to gain and retain guests, make better decisions, and make significant improvements in growth and efficiency.
Match guests and offers
One way to use analytics to improve services and sales is to collect data on what the guests are doing during their stay. Who buys what, and when? Together with what? Data shows what different guests want, and when they want it, and the hotel can match their needs with relevant and personalised offers at the right moment and through the right channel.
Increase gains
Who are your most profitable customers? Which of your products and services are the best contributors to the bottom line? Analytics and insights will help you to find where your best profit is so you can enhance what you know is working.
Reduce leaks
Which products and services are the guests using, and which are the least popular? Remove or reduce what’s not selling.
A system for the strategy
A revenue management strategy is a complex machinery – it involves reaching and retaining guests, making them happy and loyal, finding ways to both increase revenue streams and cut the associated costs, identify patterns to make better decisions etc. A digital transformation of the hotel’s services as well as the guest journey will be a very useful tool for that strategy. But as always with technology, don’t invest in gadgets – find complete solutions and a provider that understands the long term goals of the hotel. It will make for both happy guests and happy numbers.
Read our whitepaper on “4 ways to increase revenue through a digital guest experience” where we take a deep dive into the subject. You can find the link below!