Six Ways to Increase Upsells for Your Hotel Business

Hotel Business

When done well, upselling is crucial to keep your business’s bottom line healthy and your guests making repeat bookings. When not done so well? You risk irritating those staying with you and running an inefficient operation.

Luckily, developing an upselling strategy that works is easier than you might think and can both drive up profits and improve the guest experience. Here are the seven best ways to get started with increasing upsells – starting today!

Build a Relationship with Your Guests Before Arrival

This is the foundation of all effective upselling. The best way to increase hotel upsells is to anticipate your guests’ wants and needs so they feel personally taken care of. The idea of presenting them with tailored services, upgrades, and offers is to enhance their overall stay.

To do this, you need to build up a rapport. Scheduling the sending of pre-arrival messages with all the information your guest needs is a great way to start. You could also consider producing a digital guide that gives your visitors all the details about the upgrades and services available so this info is accessible and easy to locate.

Be wary of laying on the selling too thickly, however, and take care to limit the number of promotional messages you send – feeling as if they’re being given the hard sell is one of the quickest ways to scupper a trust relationship with your guests.

Anticipate Guest Needs

You can do this in several ways. Hotel management systems can be really useful in identifying what your guests may want by analyzing the details of a former visit. If they enjoyed a particular treatment in the hotel spa, for example, you could offer them a hotel spa pass or extended treatment at a discounted price.

Carefully considering the guest demographic is also crucial. Would someone making a reservation for a business trip also like to book a conference or meeting room? Would a family be interested in local theme parks and nearby kid-friendly restaurants?

Link with Local Businesses

As part of your upselling strategy, consider teaming up with other local businesses offering services or experiences your guests would be interested in. Perhaps you could connect with nearby tourist attractions, experience providers (such as rock climbing instructors or companies offering boat rides), or businesses that hire out bikes or diving equipment.

As well as adding value and convenience to your guests’ stay, this is a great way of earning a passive income from the sales commissions made.

Seasonal Upselling

Seasonal and other annual events offer an excellent opportunity to upsell. Schedule events throughout the year and put in place plans to promote and upsell them accordingly. Offer guests a luxe festive feast over Christmas, ask if they’d like to upgrade their bottle of prosecco to champagne for New Year, or ask guests with kids if their little ones would like to join the Easter Egg hunt and activity afternoon you’ve arranged in the Spring.

Think about local events that run every year, too. Is there a boating regatta, film festival, or parade that you could incorporate into your upselling strategy to boost revenue and ensure your guests enjoy an unforgettable stay?

Upsell Hotel Products

An easily-actioned element of your new upselling strategy could be to sell hotel products to guests and visitors. Whether it’s the fluffy towels used in the hotel spa or the luxury toiletries that your guests enjoy using in their rooms, selling these items is an effective way to generate extra revenue.

Think outside the box: could you connect with local artists, for example, who would be interested in displaying their work throughout your venue? Commission earned from sales of prints or originals is another easy way to upsell – and give interested guests a lovely reminder of their stay.

Post-Stay Upselling

And don’t forget that check-out and beyond offer further opportunities to upsell meaningfully! Do this by training frontline staff to offer additional services or discounts on future stays when guests arrive at the desk to check out.

During this process, be sure that staff members ask how the guests’ stay went and check that everything is in order. As part of check-out, why not ask if they’d like to join your loyalty program or offer a money-off voucher to use on a future booking? Post-stay emails can also encourage a guest to return – again, tailoring offers to tempt them back is a great strategy.

Blue Sky Thinking to Keep Your Business in the Black

When it comes to upselling, creating a strategy is vital. As part of this process, think of all the ways you could potentially add value to your guests’ stay while also boosting revenue. As outlined above, there are many ways to do this. Consider every stage of your guests’ journey and the points for upselling that may be present along the way.

Keeping things balanced is essential. Upselling can backfire if it’s over the top, doesn’t add value, or comes across as a ‘hard sell.’ Always ensure that the guest experience is kept front and center, both in your upselling strategy and how it’s presented.

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