Manage phone calls and achieve better results and revenue for your hotel
While technology has taken over the tourism and hospitality industry, we live in a world where most tasks, activities and more are done through the internet, an email or an app. However, you will be surprised to learn that at least 50% of the population still uses phone calls as a booking channel, especially those who don’t get along very well with technology.
As Smart Travel describes in one of its many articles, the telephone is one of the cheapest booking channels, and the number of phone calls can be surprising. A phone call to a vacation hotel usually takes several times longer than a simple reservation for a corporate guest calling to book a single night at the contracted rate (now slowly coming back in this segment as well). However, this channel is of utmost importance, it will often determine the quality of your hotel and therefore the guest’s decision may be influenced by how we serve him in a call.
For this reason, it will be necessary to follow certain tips that will help you develop this booking channel in an effective and productive way, for this, we describe below 3 very important aspects that you should pay attention to:
Prepare the hotel staff.
We must be sure that the reservations department or other department handling the calls is fully trained to give good and polite customer service, that they have received clear instructions on how far they can negotiate prices and schedules.
If for some reason the hotel decides to make some rooms available on OTAs and the guest calls in, he/she should have a more favorable rate than the one visible on the OTAs. In most cases it is enough to offer a slightly lower rate over the phone to effectively “close” the phone booking process. So let’s give the team clear guidelines and make sure they are respected.
Internal communication within the hotel
An important issue related to revenue optimization is transparent internal communication within the hotel. All departments directly or indirectly related to sales should know the occupancy status of the hotel.
They should have no doubts about which segments are accepted and which are not, what rates are sold, what is the minimum expected length of stay, etc. Those involved in marketing or sales should be aware that the hotel does not accept vouchers or complimentary bookings at this time.
Analyze past booking trends to avoid making mistakes.
The last thing to do when it comes to protecting and optimizing strategic dates is to thoroughly analyze them “after the fact”. This is a task the Revenue Manager must always undertake. Production from a given date should be checked by segment to see if our strategy has been implemented correctly.
If, for some reason, our strategy has failed and we have accepted some unwanted and overpriced bookings, establish with the front desk manager why they were accepted. If it was a mistake, let the responsible staff know and make sure it does not happen again in the future.
These are some of the tips that can help you improve your hotel’s telephone sales strategy. Remember that although it is not the main booking channel, it has a very big impact on the results. If you want to learn more about how to improve your revenue or sales strategies, feel free to visit our blog here.
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