Halloween’s pumpkins have been traded in for Christmas trees. Mariah Carey is back dominating the festive airwaves. Holiday season is well underway – presenting hoteliers with an opportunity to fill their stockings with extra revenue!
It is, after all, the season of giving.
Hotel staff are often overwhelmed with functions and events, special menus, and servicing rooms during a peak travel season. This is why technology empowering the guest to manage their own purchases prompting ancillary spend on items such as gift vouchers and spa products is essential.
After all, good technology is not just for Christmas – it’s the gift that keeps giving to your business year-round.
When to upsell
Despite its moments of joy, the festive season can be a stressful time for hoteliers and guests alike. Catering for Christmas and end of year parties, welcoming guests, and juggling staff rotas over extended opening hours to accommodate the business needs rightfully take focus, ensuring guests have a memorable experience.
For hardworking frontline staff at reception, reservations, and outlets such as restaurants and spa, the process of upselling may slip their minds as they deal with peak demand. That’s where technology can help.
Using automated systems which prompt bookers to add to their reservation before arrival eases these pressures on your staff. Automated marketing emails sent to guests on the lead up to the day of arrival are easy ways to drive incremental revenue.
Upsell can also happen when the guest is onsite, with personalised digital guest self-service technology such as check-in kiosks helping drive up spend. Whether it’s those last-minute add-ons or room upgrades, the wider Access Accommodation family also features upsell capabilities – ResDiary and ePOS help drive dining and point-of-sale boosted revenues, without weighing down the staff in paperwork or administration.
Engaging guests through personalised communication, using the knowledge your CRM holds on your guests, hotels can appeal to individual interests which is likely to drive greater guest spend.
Gift cards capture last minute shoppers
Gift vouchers should also be a key part of your holiday sales strategy. In the UK, 39% of residents prefer to receive gift cards at Christmas, making it the most desired present – even beating cash!
Almost 4 in 10 gift card sales occur in the lead-up to Christmas, with e-gift cards particularly popular amongst last minute shoppers, 46% of e-gift card sales made in the last week of December.
For high-end luxury hotels, physical vouchers – often printed on opulent paper and sent in luxurious envelopes – are still popular, but for many buyers, the ease of digital vouchers (or e-gift cards) appeals. Digital vouchers can also be purchased and sent anywhere in the world.
Technology makes it easy for recipients to carry vouchers with them for ease of use via mobile phones and payment wallets. It also makes it easier for hotel staff to process redemptions via clear details (no need to navigate the illegible and easily-forged handwritten vouchers of yesteryear), and finance teams to reconcile transactions as part of their accounts process.
Make it a happy holiday season for your hotel
Despite the operational pressures the festive season brings hoteliers, this time of year represents an exceptional opportunity to drive sales. From upgraded drinks orders at Christmas parties to gift voucher sales, technology is vital in helping hotel staff be efficient and in empowering guests to think beyond the norm and buy more.
At Guestline, our hotel management solutions and integrated partners provide assistance on every facet of your holiday needs. Christmas and New Year present huge opportunities to secure direct bookings, reducing commission costs, by offering unique discounts, customised packages, personalised deals. By working seamlessly with our award-winning Guestline PMS, a hotel’s chosen CRM can help marketing create meaningful and well-timed campaigns that drive conversion and boost sales. Our GuestVoucher system, integrated with your PMS and point-of-sale (POS) makes it easy for staff to sell and redeem gift vouchers, freeing them from behind the computer screen to focus on delivering exceptional customer service.
Driving extra revenue and delivering excellent guest experiences don’t need to rely on a Christmas miracle this festive season. They just need a reliable and robust technology solution, with platforms that pull together to get the job done – just like Santa’s reindeer working as a team to fly his sleigh.
Discover more about how Guestline’s solutions can help your hotel this festive season and beyond at www.guestline.com
