Upselling Techniques to Grow Hotel Business

In the digital age where a hotel's prestige comes from its online presence, guest satisfaction became the key to better business results. This is why upselling techniques are great opportunities for hotels. Upselling will not only help you generate more revenue, but also offer a guest experience that will result in brand loyalty. 

So if you are asking how hoteliers can benefit from upselling, keep reading. In this article, we will dive into the upselling techniques that will elevate your hotel business. But first, let's discover what upselling means for the hotel industry.

What is upselling?

Upselling implies encouraging your guests to purchase more expensive products with extra features or add-ons to improve their hotel experience. While cross-selling involves the extra services you offer on top of their room, such as tours or spa offers, upselling implies selling more expensive rooms or services than initially intended, like room upgrades. Moreover, it includes offering rooms with special features such as views or hot tub, or unique offers such as breakfast in bed, gym, and even transfer services.

The upselling opportunities for hotels add personalization to your offerings while bringing higher revenue. So once you have identified your upselling opportunities, how do you turn them into profit and guest satisfaction?

Here are the upselling techniques to increase hotel business:

1. Bring Visibility to Your Offerings:

In the digital world, one of the prominent methods to reach the audience in the travel industry is mobile applications. Because with the increasing use of mobile devices, the demands of the guests are no longer the same. People not only use mobile devices to reach information about products and services, but they are also the new sales platforms right at the customers’ fingertips. 

This is why whatever your hotel offers, WeBee’s hotel app promotes them. Via the hotel app, hoteliers now are able to contact their guests and provide information about their offerings as well as special promotions with their dedicated mobile application.

2. Capture Opportunities at The Right Times:

The most imperative variable in upselling the hotel amenities is approaching your guests at the exact times they may consider your more expensive offers. This may include pitching your service before, during, and after their stay. But first, consider building an effective upselling approach during the booking phase. Once your guest has decided to make a reservation, it will be more likely for them to consider spending more on hotel services.

So, make sure you send pre-stay informational emails concerning their in-room breakfast or airport transfer to add value to their experience. And, check-in is another good opportunity to offer the services that will make their stay more comfortable once they have arrived at the hotel. For this, make sure your reception staff also embraces a soft-sell approach as they interact with guests.

Most importantly, using tech solutions for upselling such as hotel experience platforms will allow you to reach your guests at any time and place with high-touch engagement. By utilizing hotel tech like WeBee, you can highlight all kinds of services and lead your guests to purchase or make reservations for the amenities your hotel offers.

3. Identify Your Target Audience Before Taking Actions:

Once you have decided on your touchpoints for upselling, you need to identify the right customers to approach. Remember, push-style marketing actions don't turn to sales if the customers don't need these upgrades. For example, your specific offering might be beneficial specifically for a business traveler or a honeymooner, but not for a vacationer. So, you need to create upselling opportunities in line with your guests' overall expectations.

To identify an effective upselling and cross-selling audience, you can benefit from guest engagement platforms. Only through an end-to-end guest platform can you create personalized campaigns that target guests with all kinds of services that you offer, including special day offers, spa services, on-property restaurants, room service, excursions, tours, and more.

4. Utilize Post-Stay Opportunities to Improve Guest Reviews:

In your upselling strategy, don't miss out on the opportunities you can capture during check out and after stay. Through them, you can not only drive revenue but also boost your online reputation.

For example, as your guests check out, your front-desk staff can offer them a discount for their next stay as they prompt them to give reviews on Tripadvisor about their experience. This also applies to post-stay actions like thank you emails attached with return offers and linked to hotel review websites. 

You can also benefit from post-stay surveys via your guest engagement platform and track their responses. In this way, you will have the chance to detect unsatisfied guests in real-time and take action to change their minds.  

5. Drive Revenue with Next-Gen Hotel Tech:

Utilizing upselling and cross-selling techniques in hospitality management equals gaining guest satisfaction and more income. But as you apply these techniques, mobile guest engagement will be your most powerful tool for never missing out on sales opportunities.

This is why WeBee provides a 360-degree solution to simplify hoteliers' lives. WeBee Guest Engagement Platform helps you to create personalized offers specifically for each guest in your marketing strategy by targeting the right type of guests in up-sells, requests, orders, and more. 

If you want to know more about our easy-to-use platform that enhances guest experiences, drives more service sales, digitizes check-in, eases communication, and more, we are ready to help.