Generate more direct bookings with automation: Guest journey

How well do you know your guest’s journey? Have you planned the communication with guests at each stage of their contact with the hotel? Find out how you can automate the process of getting direct booking, thus saving time and money.

Direct bookings are a bit like running. You can compete in a run without proper preparation, by running a bit, then walking for a while, and there is a chance that you will reach the finish line in due time. But why risk if you can implement a training plan and have a great time during the whole race? This case is similar to bookings in your hotel. You can take occasional steps yourself or totally rely on third parties in this area. The third option is to prepare a reliable plan which incorporates state-of-the-art tools with a view to planning your operations thoroughly and automating them. This is the cheapest and the most reliable solution which you can implement with our assistance!

Guest journey

Your “ready set go” is a potential guest's query or booking a specific stay at your website. It is up to you to decide how your guest's journey will proceed from there. If a given guest browses a specific offer, but does not complete the booking procedure for some reason, do you contact them and remind them to book? Do you keep in touch with people who stayed at your hotel? It is worth staying close to your guests, notwithstanding the stage of the guest journey they are in. You will get more benefits from planning those activities and using appropriate tools, i.e. automating direct sales, than from just by focusing on gaining “new” customers.

By automating your direct sales strategies:

• you will get more bookings at lower costs,
• you will attract loyal guests who will return to your hotel and recommend it to other people,
• you will not rely solely on OTA bookings, and
• you will save time.

Guest experience

Everything you do while communicating with hotel guests can influence their assessment. You start working on the hotel’s reputation much before the guest checks in at the reception desk.

Your potential guests browse hotel offers on the Internet, read reviews, and ask their friends for a recommendation. For this reason, it is worth not only focusing on the perfect guest experience, but also on taking care of the hotel’s image before their arrival. You only have a few seconds to make a good first impression, so the content you upload to your website is crucial.

What is even more important, your contact with guests should not end the moment they leave the hotel car park. The time following check-out is often the most important stage in terms of the facility’s evaluation and further bookings. First of all, your guests will share their opinions about your hotel on the Internet and with their friends. Secondly, by contacting them after their stay, you can boost your chance of the guest directly booking the stay at the hotel.

Find out more on how to handle booking inquiry here.

Find out more about Profitroom CRM

Author: Justyna Urbaniak, Product Owner