How to obtain the loyalty of your guests

There is no greater satisfaction for a hotelier than seeing loyal and frequent guests, as that means that things are working wonderfully and the clients are happy. But this is a great challenge and effort on the part of hoteliers. For that reason, we bring you the best strategies on how to obtain the loyalty of your guests.

Make a great first impression

The importance of a great first impression is an aspect that as hoteliers we should not neglect, as it is the first contact that guests have with us.

Nowadays, the channels where the first experience of your potential customers occurs are in your hotel's profile in a metasearch engine, or on your website.

By dedicating resources and effort to optimize these channels with quality content, attractive photos, updated rates, etc. users will have a better opinion of your hotel even before visiting you.

Likewise, having a simple reservation process is vital to get more reservations. Remember that users are looking for a fast and practical booking experience when planning their trips.

Customize your hotel

Other things that your visitors appreciate are the small details that give life and personality to your accommodation because that makes the difference from the rest.

You can implement personalized welcome emails, greetings or phrases specific to your hotel and even train your entire staff to provide recommendations for nearby activities, places and attractions as well as transportation, food, etc.

Especially with important or recurring clients, having attentions beyond the normal service of your hotel will help you create the perfect environment to obtain their hotel loyalty. Some examples include the option of check-in and check-out flexible, surprises in the room or invitations to exclusive events.  

Create aployalty program

Now, to get your guests to return you need hotel loyalty programs. These will provide an extra appeal to your customers that motivates them to return.

In accordance with a PWC investigation, there is great interest on the part of travelers to obtain certain benefits and rewards. The question will be to define your audiences, understand their interests, tastes and behaviors and thus define the benefits for each one.

Another strategy in the your hotel's loyalty program should focus on encouraging direct bookings since these have much higher profit margin than through the different OTAs.

Some of the benefits that you can take advantage of are exclusive promotions, free nights, agreements with different brands or businesses, accumulation of points, invitations to special events, among many others that your guests will surely appreciate.

To get more affiliates, be sure to properly promote and communicate your program. During your guests' stay, mention the program, how to become a member and the benefits it will have for them.

Finally, take advantage of the data that the OTAs and your website provide you to do retargetting with your special offers. All the information of your visitors allows you to make quick decisions and offer the appropriate services and amenities to attract the attention of each client.

Take advantage of your guests' informationit is

In the same way, the information of digital users is what will help you understand the behavior of your guests, what type of content attracts their attention the most, what offers or ads work best, etc.

With this, hoteliers will be able to create optimized advertising and marketing campaigns to directly reach their target audience and achieve higher conversion rates.

For example, email marketing campaigns are extremely effective in keeping in touch with your former guests, reminding them of their stay, and offering them incentives to rebook your accommodation.

Listen to your customers

Don't forget to conduct quality and service satisfaction surveys as well as enable channels for comments, reviews, etc. Thus, you will get first-hand the suggestions of your visitors, with which you can determine the course of action for your continuous improvement.

Customers need to be heard and have their opinions really taken into account. Only in this way, you can strengthen a closer relationship and loyalty with your guests.

Cross campaigns with other businesses

Create strategic alliances with other businesses or brands to offer added value and win loyal guests to your hotel. Use the information of your audiences to determine their preferences and choose the allies that are most attractive to your clients.

Research, find out what shops, restaurants or businesses visit when they are staying at your hotel and build campaigns based 100% on the choices or shopping style of your visitors.

Benefits

The advantages of obtaining the loyalty of your guests are numerous. On the one hand, The cost of retaining existing customers is less because it involves less convincing work and has a higher margin than the cost of acquiring a new visitor.

In addition, in the aforementioned PwC study it was concluded that current hotel guests are willing to spend more on their favorite hotels than on a new one, as well as generate complementary income, and act as brand ambassadors, contributing to the positive word of mouth advertising.

With GuruHotelYou will have all the first-hand support with hotel experts, to provide the technological tools to your hotel so that you can spend more time creating strategies to obtain the loyalty of your guests.

Do not miss the opportunity to obtain new sales opportunities with guests that you have already managed to conquer.

If you liked this article, maybe you can like: