Which channels do we have to use to sell upsells depending on the booking stage?

Nowadays, competition is brutal between vacation rentals or hotels. Cancellation rates are so high because guests book different hotels at the same time and decide at the last minute which one to stay with. Upselling, in this case, is key during this stage to keep the bookings.

If you offer guests a different and engaging experience, you can influence the booking decision stage!

Upselling through the guest journey

Upselling before arriving

This is the most important stage because the experience here will impact on the full journey experience.

We can do reactive upselling with the web chatbox (remember, reactive upselling is to turn a question into a transaction). For example, when a guest asks if we have a restaurant, not only ask the type of restaurant or opening hours but respond with a deal.

In this matter it is important to understand the 20 more asked questions by the guests in order to perform a good reactive upselling.

We also can do proactive upselling 

• By our online check-in service

About this, many days before the arrival, is important to be focused on room upgrades as it is the best way for that stage (because the initial standard room could be resold again improving our KPIs).

Close before the arrival, better be focused on guest experiences.

• By email (3 to 21 day out, 2 times recommended).

Same personalised offers and timing as with the online check-in.

• By texting from Omnichannel (1 day out) as it is more intimate.

When is the best time to upsell?

Data says for business and leisure types, 1 pm for leisure (that time is lowest for business) and 10 am for business (lowest for leisure).

What deals to offer? 

Here we can talk about the paradox choice – Too many choices, people will end up making no choice so revenue goes down. But that is not true after analysing real data like follows:

• Between 11/20 deals per guest has the highest conversion.

• 5 room upgrades has the highest conversion rate (rooms upgrades doesn’t mean only type of room, but also attributes like viewings, close to the elevator…)

• SMS has an opening rate of over 90% (97%) within 15 min of sending the text message. This is a more intimate channel to conclude the pre arrival stage.

Upselling at the check-in

Doing pre arrival upselling well, it will increase the possibility of upselling at the checkin stage because when they check in they have more information about the hotel and services.

Upselling during the stay

At this stage, obviously the email doesn’t work

Which channels could we use then?: 

• Wifi landing page. 
• Hotel TV. 
• Beacons. 
• Text messages 
• Omnichannel
• QR codes

Benefits upselling during stay:

• Can be accessible to all guests
• We can offer convenience
• Alignment of the offer with the hotel’s priorities

Upselling before the checkout

This is the kind of guests that have signed up for a newsletter or loyalty program. The goal is to get them to return to the hotel. We offer according to what upsells they have consumed before.

Jose A. Fernández

C.P.O. and Creative Director at Chekin

If you’d like to connect, say hello on twitter @joseafernandez