Hotel Email Marketing – All you need to know
Hotel email marketing is an essential strategy for hotels to promote their services and increase bookings through targeted and personalized email campaigns. By using email marketing, hotels can connect with potential guests, build customer relationships, and drive revenue growth.
A proper email marketing and communication strategy will drastically improve your hotel’s ability to engage with customers, build guest loyalty, and drive direct repeat business, which will set you apart from your competitors.
Before we dive in, be sure to visit our ultimate guides to hotel marketing and guest loyalty.
What is hotel email marketing?
Hotel email marketing is one of the best digital marketing mediums for promoting your hotel.
It is also an effective way to keep your past guests engaged; nurture relationships with guests and prospects; convert inquiries into bookings; communicate to current guests any updates pertaining to their stay at your hotel; and upsell or cross-sell rooms to future guests.
What are the various types of hotel email marketing?
There are three types of hotel email marketing.
- Promotional emails are sent to inform guests or prospects of special offers, limited-time deals, or exclusive content intended to speed up the buying process or create new or repeat bookings.
- Transactional emails are sent to individual hotel guests following a booking or other commercial transaction or a specific action performed by a particular guest.
- Newsletters. Hotels and organizations use newsletters to communicate relevant and valuable information to their customers, prospects, and subscribers; to promote bookings; or to drive traffic to a hotel website.
Why is hotel email marketing important to hoteliers?
Hotel email marketing allows an establishment to maximize the value of guest data by continuously engaging with guests to drive more revenue.
By targeting your guests before and during their stay with personalized communications – relevant booking details, practical information and pre-arrival reminders – you will be able to nurture guest relationships and future bookings.
Furthermore, email marketing is the best tool to keep in touch with past guests even long after their stay, which can result in repeat or word-of-mouth business for you.
Email is also a great marketing channel to promote your hotel and to upsell or cross-sell rooms, even as your guest’s behavior changes.
Finally, it is a budget-friendly channel that will help you connect with potential customers. With an ROI of $42 per dollar spent, email marketing tends to generate stronger results than other channels such as social media, direct mail, search, or tv ads.
How does email marketing help hotels drive more guest loyalty?
There are several ways in which hotel email marketing can help you in the area of guest loyalty.
Email marketing allows you to ask for guest feedback and to thank guests for their visit after a hotel stay.
This follow-up will help your hotel remain top of your guests’ minds for any future trips and will create a real sense of connection with them, resulting in increased loyalty.
Email marketing is also an opportunity to invite guests to join your loyalty program or to send them special offers, discount codes, or other valuable content that can encourage return visits.
Why not also create a referral program to leverage existing or past guests to recommend your hotel to potential new clients?
Integrating your hotel email marketing tool with your CRM and/or guest management system can create more cohesive guest experiences while capturing more bookings and driving revenue.
Integrating these platforms will allow you to create advanced, personalized guest communications such as curated welcome emails or offers based on birthdays, dates of stay or any other aspect of your guests’ past stay data.
When is hotel email marketing recommended?
Reach out to past guests every 8-9 months with an email campaign to remind them what a wonderful time they had the last time they stayed with you and why they might enjoy another visit.
Re-engage them with interesting content on the hotel – property highlights, local restaurants and entertainment, etc. – as well as any current offers.
With past guests who have already re-booked, increase pre-stay engagement with personalized transactional emails, up-sell offers, special food and beverage promotions, or information on attractions or events taking place in or around your hotel.
- Throughout the booking process:
Set up triggered rules to automate abandonment email sending on your website and upgrade offers by using hotel CRM automation. If guests abandon it during the booking process and have provided their contact information, send them an offer to bring them back to your property and complete the booking process. Once they book, offer them the chance to upgrade with a spa package or a room upgrade in their pre-arrival message.
A personalized welcome letter is a small but important factor in optimizing the guest experience, resulting in repeat visits and business referrals. Find out what to include in your hotel welcome letter, how to write it and download 3 templates of successful welcome letters to get started!
Emails with content showing recommended local attractions, restaurants and bars, and events around your hotel can also be sent to current guests.
Hotel email marketing can also be used to keep in touch with guests after their stay. By asking your guests’ feedback through hotel guest surveys, you can thank them for their visit, create a sense of connection, and help your hotel stay top of mind for those guests when it comes to future stays. Post-stay emails can result in increased loyalty, repeat business and word-of-mouth business!
How to get started with hotel email marketing?
Here are a few assets to get you started:
At Amadeus, and as part of Guest Management Solutions, we help hoteliers drive guest loyalty and increase repeat business by understanding who your guests and prospects are and personalizing your communications with them.
Feel free to reach out to us for more ideas on how to successfully kick-start your hotel email marketing strategy!