We’ve all been there. We search for new phone offers on eCommerce sites like Amazon and click on a mid-priced model to learn more. The picture appears to be just what you’re looking for, and the description is exactly what you require—but hold your horses! What exactly is going on here? I seem to have the option of bundling my order with additional incentives.
And you realize that they are correct. With my new phone, I want new headphones. And here is where the psychology of upselling and upgrading comes into play. Knowing when and how to employ them both may make or break your hotel’s revenue generation efforts.
Hotel upselling and cross-selling is notoriously challenging. Imagine replicating that for multiple hotel chains! But not upselling is like leaving money on the table because selling to a new prospect has a 5-20% chance of succeeding, but upselling to an existing customer has a 60-70% chance of succeeding.
You can boost income, establish stronger connections with guests, and better use facilities at your chain hotels by leveraging technology such as your hotel management system and a few key upselling methods. Having said that, let’s look at some easy ways that you can streamline upselling at your hotel chains.
- Ensure that your hotel branding is the same at all your properties
To create a seamless, memorable experience for your guests, you need to maintain your branding throughout the customer journey. Providing your guests with an exceptional experience should begin with your online presence, i.e, your social media and website.
In creating the intended guest experience, upselling can play a crucial role. It lets you offer brand-specific deals that are in line with your brand messaging across all hotel chains. By doing so, you ensure that all your properties have a similar appeal and that your guests are aware of their expectations, regardless of the property they’re at.
For optimum outcomes, provide your hotel branches with copies and creatives in line with your standards to further promote their deals. Not only does having ready-to-use promotional material save your on-site team resources and time, but, you make sure that your style guidelines remain intact.
By standardizing even your seasonal offers, you can maintain consistency and efficiency throughout the year. In this way, your hotels are saving time by taking advantage of the deals that your corporate office suggests rather than coming up with something of their own.
Although, in case your properties do come up with or have a creative idea that is cohesive with your brand ideals, you must give it a try. This could add a personalized local touch that your guests may like and appreciate. Also, if these unique to each location offers do well, they could be a part of your brand-wide seasonal deals in the coming year.
- Leverage hospitality software to roll out and upsell offers for your branches:
Digital upselling is no longer a barrier to the hotel industry. With the use of technology like hospitality software & digital platforms, you can now introduce and implement upselling programs simultaneously at multiple locations. These can be done with the addition of pre-approved deals and offers.
With tried-and-tested upsells, your hotels will be able to start their upselling efforts without the risk of faux pas and extra work for your teams.
- Implement a need-to-know communication strategy to streamline hotel communication
Now that’s an unsaid rule, isn’t it? As a room-service guy, doesn’t really need to know about something as out of communication as a guest asking for a couple’s spa. You can avoid these needless notifications by updating your hotel management system settings from the start.
These are a few things you can do:
● Dedicated email addresses s
● Should be used to receive all notifications. Upon reviewing the details, the responsible team member will forward them to the appropriate department.
● Set up a hotel management system to be communicated with the concerned teams directly. This eliminates the need to assign steps manually.
Here’s an example about the same:
A guest books a couple’s spa therapy with the use of the hotel’s mobile application. Now, rather than sending an email blast to all departments, only relevant departments receive the notifications.
Front office: Incorporate the request for the couple’s spa into the guest’s profile, and be ready to direct them there
Spa: To prepare two masseuses for massages, and keep the massage room ready
Concierge: Reserve a couple’s massage in the spa
The housekeeping staff for instance does not need to be notified about the request. This means one less email notification in their inbox. If your hotel uses a hotel management system, requests for upselling can be automatically routed to the correct team inside your hotel. Plus, you don’t have to sort through emails and risk missing guest requests in an overcrowded inbox.
- Automate all the manual tasks associated with upselling
The most difficult part of upselling is delivering the services and products that accompany your direct services. To enable a smooth upselling process, you need to ensure payments are streamlined for the upsells and make sure all staff members are aware of all possible upsells.
Moreover, you need to make sure there is enough inventory so that the staff can deliver the upsell services quickly. Most importantly, you need to offer enough time for the staff to prepare as well as execute these upselling-related activities along with their regular tasks.
Thankfully, automation is a simpler way to deal with all the above-stated challenges. Automating your workflow will not only enable you to slash down to-do lists, but it will also make working together easier, reduce errors and facilitate internal communication. Making use of the same digital upselling tool for the entire brand will help you keep segmentation, offerings, and branding consonant across your brands.
- Use a hotel management system to help control the upselling offerings
A hotel management software enables one to keep a track of hotel’s upselling schemes across the board. Comparing performance, testing schemes, and standardization across hotels can be done from a single spot by the management. When it comes to performance strategy, hotel chains can analyze varying levels of interest in a particular deal across many hotels, thereby giving them valuable insights into the wants and needs of different types of guests.
An upselling scheme, when developed for one hotel, can also be immediately applied to several others in the group with a similar profile. Likewise, when situations or seasons change and a deal is to be upgraded or removed, the hotel management system enables hotel owners to adjust their schemes group-wide within minutes.
Implementing the methods stated above will make your upselling program more triumphant. It will not only cut down manual work but will also ensure you’re keeping up with the changing world while boosting revenue.
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