In this series of UP2 publications, we will cover a few rules around ‘upselling productively’, aiming at:
converting upsells at exceptional ratios,
making your guests happy (because you offered them something they actually wanted)
helping your operations (your staff will now have time to prepare for the guest’s needs), and
ensuring your revenue increases tangibly and meaningfully through ancillary sales.
There are few golden rules we always follow, which we think hoteliers will find useful. As there is a lot to say on the subject, we have broken this ruleset into several articles, giving you time to consume the ideas and ask questions as needed. We hope you will find this as useful as we have!
In the previous article (here) we focused on the ‘why’ a guest would be motivated to buy ‘here and now’, and introduced five different angles from which hoteliers can look at the offers on the table, and improve them.
Today, we will talk about respecting the message real estate, sending limits, and generally how less can be more when e-mailing a guest. All these guidelines of healthy ancillary sales can be easily summarised in one simple rule:
RULE 4. Respect the recipient
In the world of upselling, it is no secret that the majority of upsells happen well after the reservation is done. (We have some comments on the importance of timing in the article here). This happens both because of the way consumers think (humans tend to compartmentalise our actions in categories of stories we tell ourselves, and deal with one story at a time i.e. at the time of booking a room, the priority is the roomnight), but also because hoteliers now understand more and more the need for respecting the critical path to conversion. Throwing ‘too much’ choice on the IBE tends to ‘freeze’ the decision making process, with detrimental effects on the room sale conversions.
chances are, you are e-mailing your guests. Don’t confuse e-mail marketing with upselling
The chances are that you are reading this article because you have understood the opportunity of upselling to guests. And if you go down this path, you will be sending your guests e-mails (at least one per booker). And herein lies the trap. Sending e-mails tends to feel like familiar ground. Unfortunately, it isn’t! It was not long ago when I heard (with frustration) our main competitor talking to hoteliers about things that were true twenty years ago (before the advent of social media), but which are simply not correct anymore!
Consumers, and the environment in which bookings happen, are completely different to what we knew in the 00’s. One of the most important things that we have learned since then is that if you want to learn the truth about your guests, you have to look at them as a segment, and not what happens across the whole of the society of consumers (as argued here). Each ‘segment’ by definition has its own characteristics, and to make things even more complex, the patterns of behaviour change all the time.
It is noteworthy that there is an important distinction here: Some parameters of the e-mail world are indeed the same (e.g. the importance of thinking about timing of your message), but learnings cannot be universal anymore. It is categorically misguided to decide to send your e-mails ‘at lunch time on Monday because that is when people get back to their computers with a full tummy’. In the real world of constant contact between guests and the internet, it simply does not work like that these days. Not at all. Looking at one dimension of the problem like that (i.e. because of only x, I expect only y), will land you into hot waters.
E-mail marketing to hotel guests who have already booked, is not the same as e-mail marketing to anyone else. Guests are, by definition, people who have already showed you their trust, by sharing with you the magic 16 digits of their credit card (when they were booking the room). You are now talking to someone whom you (well, maybe not your personally, but your company) will meet in person. Your tone has to be very different (see article on content here) and you must respect the relationship you already have with them.
Sending too many e-mails, is definitely still a problem.
One of the universal rules of e-mailing that still applies to upselling today, is to remember not to sending too many e-mails. Unbelievably, this is still one of the biggest reasons for guests unsubscribing from e-mail campaigns. Have a look at the articles below, to get a better feel of what I am talking about.
- Hubspot estimates (source article here) that over half of e-mail unsubscribing happens because e-mails are sent too often.
- CIO claims that it is the second most important reason of unsubscribing (source article here) .
Whichever is correct (I expect there are more than one answers here), there is a very clear conclusion to be made. Oversending happens A LOT. We should not do that.
The fact is that – statistically speaking - nobody wants to see your advertisement. Ever. Even if it is a good one. Of course, if it makes sense, the recipient will change their mind, and they will be grateful. [For those of you that are interested, Daniel Kahneman’s ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ is a fabulous guide to decision making.]
The takeaway from all this is that you must assume that (always statistically speaking) people don’t like to receive e-mails. It is for this reason that when you send a message to a guest, you must make sure it isn’t a generic advert and that is has meaningful content. In e-commerce, what is meaningful, will always be defined by the context.
Context is king
Think for a moment what both you and your guest know about each other in the context of upselling.
You both know that the hotel and guest will meet. Hence you both know there is something more in the relationship than an initial sales pitch. Guests, rightly expect hospitality from you, and that includes your marketing messages!
You both know that the hotel has the guest’s name, address, date of arrival, date of departure, which room they are staying in, how much they have paid, and who is coming with them.
Your both know that the hotel knows the property, its services, stuff that is good to do in the area, and what other guests enjoy doing.
The hotelier therefore has a legitimate reason to help the guest. My advice? Do just that. Do not send them more than one upsell e-mail per reservation, unless the lead in time permits it! You want to say more? Thoughtfully add upsell content in the confirmation and pre-stay e-mails. But always do so mindfully and remembering the context. Guests who have booked to stay with you, know who you are. They will remember if you have e-mailed them before and will know what you offered last time. The e-mail conversation has to be reasonable, and respecting the much more intimate relationship you now have with the guest is paramount.
The critical path of conversion still applies – respecting the email real estate.
The rules around the critical path to conversion, still apply in upsells, as they do with all e-commerce booking paths. Flooding the guest with too many offers in one message, will have the same effect as it always does. It will confuse, delay and kill conversions.
It is for this reason that your upsell software must offer personalisation options, taking into account what the guest already knows you should understand about them. In addition your software should allow you to limit the maximum number of offers to each guest for any period of time. Prioritisation of content (offers) should be done automatically (at the very least through a filtering system, that intelligently deduces what needs to be sent to each guest, and what should be held back).
When it doubt, simply respect the guest
It helps me to think of sending an e-mail, as me knocking on someone’s door.
If they happen to open it and invite me in their house, I don’t want to greet them by shouting ‘buy my stuff at 20% off’!
I will think twice before I knock again, if they didn’t open the first time. If I do,
I will definitely avoid saying the same things as in my previous message.
Finally, I will not say too much. This has to be a dialogue, so I will invite them to have a look at the three-four things that I think may be of interest to them.
I happen to know that UP2 was built aware of categories and channels, exactly because the designers didn’t want to flood the guest with too many e-mails or products. Our software offers ‘categories’ of goods, that the guest can choose and explore. 1. Stay preferences, 2 upsell opportunities, 3. upgrade standby and 4. environmentally friendly options. This structure allows our specialists to narrow down the content of a hotel’s e-mail, and lead the guest to the path that is most interesting and relevant to them. And it does so, always respecting their right to not go down that route. It was remarkable for me to see how by sending out less, we actually got conversions to go up!
I would conclude here that he biggest trick in good upselling efforts, is to have a healthy respect for the guest, at all times, and during all decisions. Choosing what you will put in front of their eyes with this in mind creates huge benefits for both areas of focus for us – improving TRevPAR whilst increasing customer satisfaction!
Thank you for reading!
Joy Killmar
Senior Product Director
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