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If there is one thing we’ve learned from thousands of hotels is that a good hotel guest journey implementation makes a complete difference for the guest experience.
Guests expect you to know all the little details about them and to provide them with the right touchpoints to make their experience fun, easy and memorable.
And the size of your property makes no exception because small hotels are also expected to deliver on this.
Now, implementing a hotel customer journey that is not boring or overwhelming and it hits the right spots is tricky. But not impossible. And in this article we are going to share all the little secrets based on hundreds of examples from different hotels.
Get your notes ready, and let’s dive into it.
Without segmentation, your guest journeys are doomed to fail.
But why? Because you will be doing the classic ‘spray and pray’ approach and as we say around here, one message fits none.
Yet, our report Data-driven Marketing in Hospitality, 1 in 5 hotels don’t use any kind of segmentation.
The point is, your guests have given you their personal information, don’t break their trust by sending them irrelevant information that adds absolutely nothing to their experience.
A few examples:
If you are part of the 1 in 5 hotels that are not using segmentation today, it’s time to change. Having a system like a CRM helps you to ease this work and easily create all the guest segments that you need. But if you don’t have it, you can still take the manual approach.
The breakthrough moment is when you start acknowledging that your guests are different from each other and have different needs, and treat them accordingly.
If you are not sure about which audiences you can create, read this: 9 audiences for better hotel marketing campaigns
Most hotels segment by age or location. Smart hotels segment by what guests actually DO.
Here's why: A 25-year-old who books a suite behaves more like a 55-year-old suite guest than a 25-year-old budget traveler.
It sounds complicated, but it’s not.
It goes hand in hand with segmentation but using the behaviour factor: what have they done in the past.
For example, did they book a suite? Then send them suite-related content only. Did they booked a couple’s massage? Send them a couple’s dinner that could complement the evening.
Make sure the messages they receive are linked to their behaviour and not just to their demographics.
To accomplish it, you can segment guests based on these data points:
Do you want to know more about how to craft an entire guest journey? Download our guest journey template for free. Full of examples, ready to use.
One of the most popular segments where hotels can make a difference with personalised communication is first-time guests versus returning guests.
While first-time guests are just starting to get to know your brand, returning guests have already been there. This means they need different information.
So, what can you say to them?
No matter the size of your property, almost every hotel or serviced apartment can cater to these segments because they always exist, so don’t miss your chance to acknowledge them.
If you send too little, you disappear; if you send too much, you’re desperate and cringe.
Remember, the most important part about guest journeys is that they need to be balanced and personalised.
Some hotels find that having 3 touchpoints across the entire guest journey works for them, while others have gotten great guest feedback with 7 touchpoints. This means there is no exact number of touchpoints because it will depend on what information you send and who are your guests.
In this video, you can learn more about it.
In our guide about how to create balanced guest journeys, you get all the right tips to make sure your hotel customer journey is not overwhelming your guests. You can read it here.
Upselling in your guest journey is not forbidden; on the contrary, it’s a key part of using guest communication to increase revenue.
But you need to plan it accordingly in order to get that revenue.
This is what the “micro-moment” upsell strategy is about. Focus on sending your upselling campaigns in the moments where guests are most prone to take the offers.
If you send it too early, they don’t see the need to take action. If you send it too late, they might be too busy with traveling that won’t notice your message. It’s about focusing on psychological readiness.
A few things you can consider:
- Sending an offer just after a booking was made can be a bit aggressive, since guests just focused on the payment for the reservation.
- 7-10 days before arrival is not too far or too close, and it can be perfect for guests who are still arranging plans
- 3-4 days before arrival is known as the excitement window, and offers sent during that period get better CTR and conversions.
- Before travelling, you can offer an airport pickup or an early check-in
For more tips for upselling and pre-stay communication, read our article: 4 pre-arrival communication mistakes that hurt the guest experience
A big focus of the industry is to increase direct bookings, meaning turn your OTA bookers into loyal guests. Your guest journey can help you to achieve that goal.
A person who makes a booking via OTA in many cases hasn’t even visited your website or had a chance to engage with your brand.
The goal is to build a relationship with that guest through personalised communication and highlight the benefits of booking directly instead of returning through an OTA.
Implementing a guest journey that uses segmentation, personalised communication, and automation can elevate your guest experience and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
And you don’t have to do this alone. With a hospitality CRM system, cleaning your guest data, segmenting audiences, automating processes, and adopting a step-by-step approach, will be an easy task, since this system specialises in that, helping you to create a seamless and personalised guest journey that delivers exceptional service at every touchpoint.
These practices have worked well for different hotels across the world, but if you are new in the industry, we have created a guest journey template. Download it to get ideas on valuable touchpoints and adapt it to your brand.
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Are you ready to increase your revenue and build lasting guest relationships? Take the first step today.
