Creating a relationship with guests is extremely valuable for establishing business opportunities that include increasing direct bookings, creating new revenue streams as well as improving the experience at your hotel or property.
Guest engagement refers to a hotel’s or property’s ability to occupy the attention or guest, involving them in the hotel and starting a conversation with them.
These days, it is clear that the overall experience the hotel offers is what matters most. Guests are looking for an experience, a scene, an adventure- something that matches their travel persona. For travelers, the hotel isn’t just a place to sleep but somewhere to meet likeminded people. Staying at a hotel is a cultural experience and this experience doesn’t necessarily start at check-in.
For this reason, guest engagement and guest experience go hand in hand and the level engagement with guests has a crucial impact on the hotel and business.
A high level of engagement will increase direct bookings, as guests will become more familiar with the hotel brand. It can also create new revenue streams, allowing hoteliers to offer guests more services, not to mention improve reviews and overall guest satisfaction.
Offering Pre-arrival upsells as part of your online check-in
Most Hotels do not really bother engaging with guests before check-in, missing the opportunity to capture the guests’ attention and establish a relationship.
Since the majority of guests book through 3rd party websites and OTAs, without any real exposure to the hotel’s brand, not beginning a conversation with guests prior to their arrival only contributes to the detachment between the hotel and guests.
Online check-ins present the perfect opportunity to engage with guests. While guests may be completing online check-in for logistic reasons, mainly avoiding reception queues and maintaining social distancing, this presents hotels with the perfect opportunity to offer additional services, room upgrades and introducing guests to the full services and experiences your hotel has to offer.
Guest apps and online chat
Having a guest app where guests can easily access content and information about the hotel has become quite the standard these days. A guest app allows guests to engage, read, and discover information about your hotel in the most efficient way. It allows guests to experience your hotel anywhere. These days, guests want to have all experiences on their own terms, they are used to consume information and content on their phone have it available to them on demand.
This is also extremely beneficial for hotels as well. Instead of talking to one guest at a time, hotels can manage more conversations with the same or fewer resources, allowing operations to run more smoothly.
In addition to being able to manage multiple conversations with guests, the guest app also allows hoteliers to present guest with more services and additional experiences all bookable with a click of a button.