Pre-Arrival Upselling: How it Works
Maximizing Hotel Profit Flow-Through with Upselling
June 25, 2023
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July 7, 2023
In the fast-paced world of hospitality, the pre-arrival phase is a golden opportunity for hotels to lay the foundation for a remarkable guest experience. One powerful strategy that has proven its worth is pre-arrival upselling. In this article, brought to you by UpsellGuru, we'll take you on a journey through the inner workings of pre-arrival upselling and reveal the secrets to its success. From personalized communication to irresistible offers, get ready to master the art of captivating guests before they even set foot on your property!
Do your Homework
Let's take "SB City Hotel" for example, their London property is a popular destination for business and international travelers due to its convenient location in the city center. The hotel is well established and has been upselling in some traditional ways, but are looking for ways to optimize their hotel inventory, automate their upselling and increase their bottom while enhancing guest experiences.Â
Identify Opportunities
Some of the easiest wins you can make are almost always hidden in plain sight. Let your eye's readjust and start to reimagine your hotel inventory, even if it means a tour to each room and personally experiencing some of the amenities (we recommend this). It's easy to become unintendedly complacent when you become comfortable with the normal flow of things in your hotel. We challenge you to revisit your hotel as a guest, and reinvent the experience as a hotelier even Gustave from "The Grand Budapest Hotel" would admire.
Recommended Room Upgrades & Extras
Now lets zoom in and focus our lenses on specific guest experiences and reveal stay purposed upselling opportunities that can be applied for all bookings. Take a look at John Doe's booking information, an international business traveler who has booked a standard room for 2 night stay during the week.
Guest Segmentation
By understanding John Doe's booking information, and purpose of stay the hotel is able to provide targeted offers that speak to the needs and desires of the guest more effectively.Â
- Room Upgrade Recommendations
- It would make no sense to offer an adult business traveler who is traveling along a twin or family room.
- A business traveler is more likely to opt in for rooms with a focus on amenities and convenience.
- (WiFi, access to gym facilities, conference / meeting rooms, etc)
- Suggested Extras
- While some business travelers who are visiting a new city for the first time may be interested in (and find the time for) more leisurely activities, it is important to focus on the extra's and amenities that speak to each guests desires and preferences.
- A business traveler is more likely to opt in for early check-in / late check-out especially incases of early or late flights.Â
- (Shuttle service, WiFi vouchers, F&B options, Dry cleaning, etc)
Pro-tip
Use an upselling platform with specific upselling program's such as UpsellGuru to automate, customize and enhance your entire upselling strategies across all stages of the guest journey. While UpellGuru automates the entire pre-arrival upselling stage, its supporting on-arrival and in-stay upselling program's synchronize the entire guest journey while equipping you with the tools you need to realize your revenue potential.
Using a two-way integration allows for full automation, meaning your room availability, reservation and transactional information all update in-sync.
Now that we have set the stage for technology in hotel upselling and how UpsellGuru fits into the picture, lets get back to pre-arrival before we get too carried away. Next up, lets look at how branding, customization and all the other shiny nuts and bolts assemble into an exciting offer that will blow our friend John Doe away.
Customization & Personalization
John Doe wakes up one morning and starts he's usual routine with a morning mantra and some breathing exercises and almost as if the universe had answered his subconscious desires, he receives a perfectly timed email from SB Hotels, what's this he thinks, its three days before I arrive - the perfect time to check on the reservation details and perhaps personalize the experience further. - Its a kinda magic!
Like most leading hospitality chains, SB City Hotels values the appearance and perception of their brand, and have worked long and hard to build and protect their place in the hospitality industry. The SB City Hotels brand is recognized for its service excellence and has been trusted by travelers in London for many years.
Lets take a look at how UpsellGuru was able to align their brand image and voice through professional automated emails and customized guest pages with dynamic offers that speak to each guest type.
Bidding/Fixed & Dynamic Pricing
Pause, wait a minute. What is all this fuss with bidding and dynamic pricing you ask? We'll for that we should take a side quest. are you ready?
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Bid-for-Upgrade: In pre-arrival upselling, the bid-for-upgrade model allows guests to submit their desired upgrade price, creating an engaging and interactive experience while giving hotels the opportunity to generate additional revenue by accepting the highest bids that meet their criteria.
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Fixed Price: Alternatively, the fixed price approach in pre-arrival upselling offers guests a set price for specific room upgrades, providing transparency and convenience while allowing hotels to capitalize on upsell opportunities without the need for negotiation.
And where does Dynamic pricing fit into all of this you wonder as the metaphoric buffering symbol pops into your head. Fear not, your WiFi is good, and your processing power is online but lets dissect this into digestible bytes shall we:
Dynamic pricing in pre-arrival upselling leverages supply and demand dynamics to capture additional revenue during high-demand periods and incentivize bookings during low-demand periods.
Real-time Market Analysis: Dynamic pricing in pre-arrival upselling involves constantly monitoring market conditions, including demand trends, competitor pricing, and other relevant factors. By analyzing this data in real-time, hotels can adjust their upselling prices to optimize revenue and capture the maximum value from each offer.
Demand-based Pricing: With dynamic pricing, hotels can leverage the principles of supply and demand to set prices that align with guest preferences and market conditions. When demand is high, such as during peak travel seasons or for highly sought-after amenities, prices can be adjusted accordingly to capture additional revenue. Conversely, during low-demand periods, prices can be lowered to incentivize guests and increase conversion rates.
Personalized Pricing: Dynamic pricing in pre-arrival upselling allows hotels to customize prices based on individual guest profiles, preferences, and booking history. By utilizing data analytics and guest segmentation, hotels can offer tailored pricing options that resonate with each guest, increasing the likelihood of acceptance and maximizing revenue potential.
Time-based Pricing: Timing is everything in dynamic pricing. Hotels can implement time-based pricing strategies where prices fluctuate depending on the timing of the offer. Early bird discounts, last-minute deals, or limited-time promotions are examples of how hotels can leverage time-based pricing to drive urgency, encourage immediate bookings, and optimize revenue.
Continuous Monitoring and Optimization: Dynamic pricing is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and optimization. By analyzing the performance of upselling offers, tracking conversion rates, and monitoring market dynamics, hotels can fine-tune their pricing strategies to maximize revenue and adapt to changing market conditions effectively.
Room Upgrade Bids, Extra's & ConfirmationÂ
Now now, getting carried away there again. We know how easy it is to get pulled towards the bells and whistles, but lets not forget about our friend John Doe, he has just made a bid on an upgraded room, and personalized he's stay with two extra's. Not sure if you are as excited as we are when a bid comes in, but if we had to describe the feeling: imagine seeing the Bat-signal light up the sky and having that adrenaline rush through your veins knowing there is someone out there needing saving! Well in this example our friend John is safe and sound but still, we can save he's upcoming stay (or at least enhance it) with these exciting offers. So let's not leave him hanging.
Not so fast, why rush off? Auto-pilot lets smart hoteliers focus on arriving guests by taking care of the confirmation process. It would be really easy to make this part sound super technical and gain some nerdy bragging rights, but we've already got a ton of those. So simply put, UpsellGuru uses its integration with your hotels PMS to confirm availability and confirm bids that are within preset floor and ceiling prices.Â
Where does that dynamic thing fit into this now? Well before giving you a chance to ask, we will just go ahead and fill in the blanks. Before we go ahead, some of those bragging points may be in order - remember how we cleverly introduced dynamic pricing before dropping you like its hot? It was all part of our plan to trick you into looking at the left hand while the right hand steals your watch. Just kidding, but imagine we could do that virtually - again just kidding.
So with dynamic pricing, your upselling system and PMS connect to a rate shopping system which allows even smarter offers and acceptance of bids. By shopping city demand, competitive rates, and other key datapoints you can take your pricing strategy to even greater heights. Consider ways to leverage upselling and combat rate parity among the other obstacles in your revenue relay race.Â
Before we drift into those clouds again, back to our good friend John Doe...
Statistically speaking if you are not excited by now you are likely not breathing anymore. Come on, you have to admin seeing the effects of upselling on the hotels bottom line made your BPM raise by a few beats at least.
But its not just about revenue. Our friend John has received confirmation of the upgrade and extras and excitedly looks forward to arriving for he's stay, even if it is for that annual conference he has grown bored of.
The highlights
- Additional spend of $430.00 on the original booking fee of $280.00.
- TrevPAR: $710.00 | RevPAR: 360.00 | Upselling Impact: 430.00.
- Enhanced guest experience, satisfaction and repeat visits.
Where to Now
Our story of John has only just begun, like the famous song by the carpenters: "We've Only Just Begun" our story is only beginning so if you need to take a quick toilet break, now is your chance. Just kidding! We had to squeeze in one last gag while we had you with us. Most importantly however we wanted to leave you with some creativity and an understanding of how these principles can be applied across the entire guest journey, and while we would love to hang around and tell you about our on-arrival and in-stay programs which synchronize guest registration, arrival, and in-stay experience's, we can only promise that John Doe is in good hands.
Check out the complete journey below and get inspired by the different guest and stay scenarios. Identify and translate these opportunities at each and every stage of your guest journey to realize your hotels revenue potential, equip your team, monitor and reward success, and most importantly drive guest service optimization (GSO).
