Hotel Upselling: Understanding Your Guests

To effectively upsell at your hotel, it's crucial to understand your guests and their needs. By gaining insights into their preferences, you can offer them personalized and relevant upsell options that enhance their experience and increase revenue for your hotel. Here are some ways to better understand your guests:

Collect guest data

Collecting guest data is critical to understanding guests' preferences, habits, and behavior. This data can be collected through various channels, such as booking engines, loyalty programs, surveys, and social media. The data can be used to segment guests based on their preferences and behavior, making it easier to personalize offers and suggest relevant upsell options.

Type of guest data to collect:

1. Personal Information: This can include the guest's name, age, gender, date of birth, email address, phone number, and residential address.
2. Payment Information: This can include the guest's credit card details, billing address, and payment history.
3. Reservation Details: This can include the check-in and check-out dates, room type, number of guests, and any special requests or preferences.
4. Travel Information: This can include the guest's travel itinerary, flight details, and other transportation arrangements.
5. Communication Information: This can include any communications that the guest has had with the property, such as emails or phone calls.

Use technology

Hoteliers can use technology solutions such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and Property Management Systems (PMS) to gather and analyze guest data. These systems can also help hoteliers personalize the guest experience and suggest targeted upsell offers. Our upselling platform plugs directly into most popular hotel systems, check out our integrations here.

Pre-arrival upselling systems integrate with a hotel's tech stack, such as the Property Management System (PMS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, and mobile app, to offer personalized upsell options to guests before their arrival. By leveraging guest data and preferences, these systems can suggest targeted upsell options that align with guests' needs and desires, creating a seamless and efficient process that benefits both the hotel and the guest.

Front desk upselling tools are integrated into a hotel's PMS and function as point-of-sale systems for front desk staff to offer guests room upgrades, add-ons, and other services during check-in. These tools leverage guest data and preferences stored in the PMS to provide real-time upselling opportunities to staff, enabling hotels to personalize their offerings to guests.

Understand Guest Segmentation

Guest segmentation is the process of dividing a hotel's customer base into distinct groups based on similar characteristics, such as demographics, behaviors, and preferences. This allows hotels to tailor their marketing strategies and services to better meet the specific needs and desires of each group.

Business Travelers: This segment typically includes guests who are traveling for work or attending a conference or meeting. They may value convenience and efficiency, and may be interested in upsells such as early check-in or late check-out, access to a business center, or a shuttle service to the airport.

Leisure Travelers: This segment includes guests who are traveling for vacation or leisure purposes. They may be interested in upsells such as room upgrades, spa treatments, or tours of local attractions.

Families: This segment includes guests traveling with children. They may be interested in upsells such as larger rooms, cribs or rollaway beds, or family-friendly activities.

Couples: This segment includes guests traveling as a romantic couple. They may be interested in upsells such as a room with a view, a couples' massage, or a special dinner package.

Luxury Travelers: This segment includes guests who are seeking a high-end travel experience. They may be interested in upsells such as a suite upgrade, a private butler or concierge service, or exclusive access to hotel amenities such as a rooftop pool or lounge.

Budget Travelers: This segment includes guests who are looking for a more affordable travel experience. They may be interested in upsells such as discounted packages, lower-priced room options, or free breakfast.

Offer personalized experiences

Personalized experiences can go a long way in enhancing the guest experience and increasing upsell opportunities. For example, if a guest is celebrating a special occasion, such as a birthday or anniversary, the hotel can offer personalized amenities, such as a cake or flowers, to enhance their experience.

In summary, understanding guests is crucial for effective upselling. Hoteliers can use a variety of methods, including collecting and analyzing guest data, using technology and offering personalized experiences, to better understand their guests and increase revenue through upselling.