What is hotel upselling? (+10 upsell techniques) (source: Depositphotos)
Imagine a bottle of wine waiting for you in your room upon arrival at your hotel. Or a morning yoga class offered on the hostel’s rooftop. Even just a late check-out to prolong your vacation before returning to the airport.
Upsells can transform the guest experience from good to great and leave a lasting impression. They are often an overlooked but highly valuable component of a hotel’s revenue management and guest experience strategy. Phocuswire found that ancillary bookings (or upsells) represent a $28 billion opportunity for properties to drive more revenue, increase engagement, and build customer loyalty. How can accommodation providers implement an upselling strategy? Here we discuss how to implement upselling opportunities throughout the guest journey, upsell techniques to incorporate, and upselling tools.What is upselling in the hotel industry?
Upselling is when hotels offer guests additional features or add-ons to enhance their stay for an extra cost.
An effective upselling strategy includes relevant offers explicitly developed for your property’s guest demographics. Additional services and add-ons should be carefully thought out to add value to a guest’s stay.
Upsells are mutually beneficial for hotels and guests; they help hotels generate more revenue while adding value to the guest experience. Additional benefits include:
Upsells are add-ons or features within your property, while cross-sells are products or services outside your property.
Upsells include room upgrades, late check-outs, pet fees, and valet parking.
Cross-sells include city tours, wine tastings, airport shuttles, and bike rentals.
Hoteliers can leverage cross-sells to expand their offerings without investing in additional amenities or resources. By forming partnerships with other local businesses, hotels can keep costs low while delivering exciting opportunities for guests to explore the area.
The opportunities are endless for what your property can offer for upsells. Commonly, upsells can be broken into three categories:
Examples include:
Examples include:
Examples include:
Within each category are just a few examples of what you can offer! Be creative and intentional when crafting your upsells, and consider your target audience.
While some upsell offers will remain relevant across property types like late check-outs, breakfast, and parking, other upsells are better suited to specific property types.
Successfully upselling is both an art and a science. It requires an understanding of your target audience to craft creative offers, and proper timing to execute and convert. Including meaningful touchpoints throughout the guest journey from discovery to post-stay is the optimal strategy for reaching guests at the right time and place.
In the discovery phase, you need to make your upsell options known. Consider including a storefront on your website explaining your available add-ons and packages. Ensure all your options are integrated into your booking engine to make it easy for travelers to buy.
Live chat is a great tool to help travelers down the path to book and can be used to promote upsells. Studies show that customers that use live chat before making a purchase have a 40% increase in conversions.
Sending guests a quick text message pre-stay can help build trust and also provides an excellent opportunity to upsell when travelers are most excited about their trip. Using guest engagement software, you can send guests a link to your integrated marketplace with preloaded add-ons a few days before arrival.
On arrival day, create a frictionless check-in experience by sending a digital registration link before the guest’s check-in. This saves your front desk staff time and allows you to include last-minute upsells as part of your digital guest book.
Once guests have settled into their rooms, send a quick text to ensure their experience meets expectations. In this message, you can see if they need anything delivered to their room or recommend some activities that may interest them during their stay. Utilizing self-service technology in this phase is key to increasing incremental revenue, as customers spend an average of 20% more when ordering themselves.
One day before departure, reach out to see if they’d like anything on their last night or need transportation to the airport or train station.
Upsell opportunities don’t end once a guest leaves your property. It’s important to follow up periodically with special ‘loyalty’ emails and texts which contain offers on your rooms and services.
 
What is hotel upselling? (+10 upsell techniques)
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There’s no doubt that upsells bring immense value to properties of all sizes and types — but many lodging operators struggle to get started. Here are 10 hotel upselling techniques to help jumpstart your strategy:
Ensure that you create packages and draft communications that resonate with your target audience.
Your upsells should provide added value for guests and make sense for your property type and location.
Be strategic regarding where in the guest journey you’re offering extra services. You don’t want guests to feel pressured into purchasing something they don’t want or need.
Upsells are a fantastic marketing opportunity! Make known what on-site amenities, packages, and other special features you offer at your property. Use a storefront to promote these items and ensure they are included in your booking engine.
Work with local vendors to provide upsell opportunities like premium liquor or seasonal flowers for weddings, family reunions, or other special events.
70% of business travelers are interested in purchasing more than core hotel products as they can expense costs back to their company. Consider food and beverage, fitness, or dry cleaning upsells for this group.
Visuals make a difference when it comes to selling products. Consider using images in your communications to promote your offerings.
Immerse guests in your local community and culture with unique services and activities. Offer tours to local tourist attractions or beer from local breweries.
Simplify your team’s job and improve communication with guests with hotel upselling software that automates upsells throughout the guest journey.
To ensure efficiency, your upselling software should integrate with your property management system (PMS), so everything from upsell to folio can be done through a single system.
Studies show that the number one reason that hotels don’t have an upselling strategy is a lack of technology. Without the right tools and functionality, upselling can be highly tedious and time-consuming. Thankfully, great systems exist within the hospitality industry to support this initiative.
Incorporating upsells throughout the guest journey is more than just a smart revenue management strategy. A well-thought-out upsell catalog results in higher guest satisfaction and loyalty. With the help of upsell technology, hoteliers can schedule and automate upsell touchpoints to streamline the process without additional work. Remember to measure what upsells are most popular across your target audience and gather feedback to make improvements.
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