How to Increase Revenue in a Hotel

3 min read

Are you wondering how to increase revenue in a hotel?

Running a hotel is demanding, the challenging day-to-day operations can divert your attention away from the bigger picture. That’s why in this post we have listed pro-active strategies to implement in your hotel, that will have big results in increasing your revenue.

So, without further ado let’s dive straight in.

1. Sustainability

Green Hotels

Sustainability has emerged as one of the biggest hotel trends back in 2018, and it’s gaining traction. Consumers are not only making ‘greener’ choices with the brands they associate themselves with, but it even stretches to their experiences with companies.

Did you know a whopping 68% of tourists choose to book with eco-friendly accommodation?

And tourists don’t just prefer to book with green hotels, they even spend an extra $10 more to stay there and stay for up to 3 days longer than the average guest!

With hospitality being known as one of the largest industries for energy and produce waste, hotels who are putting sustainability at their core are taking the lead in guest choices.

Hotels can make greener choices through the products they use. From replacing one-time use soaps with re-fillable containers, swapping plastic cups and straws with paper. They can choose local resources, such as farm-to-table restaurants and composting. Or even choose to power using alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power.

Some hotels even go a step further and introduce energy waste reduction measures with in-room signage, asking guests to be mindful of the water and heating use. There’s a way to do it tastefully too. The Oakley Court, winners of the Green Tourism awards,  are leaders in running a sustainable hotel and encourage as much waste reduction as possible with their guests. Through encouraging guests to use bikes in the local area instead of their cars, limiting the use of the lights, heating and air conditioning in your bedroom and reducing water usage.

An impressive example of the water-saving systems is demonstrated by  The Shore Hotel in Santa Monica. Who saves an incredible 5 million gallons of water with their conservation practices. This is achieved with installing water recycling and filtering systems, using aerators on faucets and installing low-flow toilets and showers. You can read more about this hotel and more energy-saving solutions for hotels here written by Proven Partners: What Makes A Hotel ‘Eco-Friendly’? 

Communicating your green print is key!

It’s important that if you do take these greener steps you shout loud and proud about it! HydroFinity found that companies who are communicating their strong environmental management are twice as likely to get support from millennials.

 

2. Technology

Technology in hotelsIn our technological world, it is expected for hotels to be up to date with technology as a minimum. Guests are flocking to hotels who are combining their experiences with the latest technology.

Simple things are now an expectation such as:

  • Having a fast running website
  • Having an online booking system
  • Having a mobile-friendly website and booking system
  • Have a high quality of images on your gallery

If you don’t have these basic and expected functions you can say goodbye to up to 60% of customers. To maximise your reach and revenue check out our blog post on clever website design here.

Got the basics covered?  Get a step ahead by providing technology that guests don’t have access to at home. Increasing the quality of the experience, and leaving a long-lasting impression.

  • Real-time messaging

Real-time messaging, otherwise known as instant messaging is becoming more and more available. Messaging apps are becoming the fastest-growing channel for communication. Many hotels are now using real-time messaging for room service, bookings, notifications, offers and invites. Sending messages are an easy way to keep in direct communication with your guests and make their experience with you feel more personal.

  • Automated software

Having a good quality automated software installed throughout your hotel can save hugely on outgoing costs and you’ll get a guaranteed service equal to all hotel guests. Automated software can range from sending guests booking confirmation to upselling hotel promotions and experience reminders based on your guests’ personal likes and preferences. A quick text to remind guests of their dinner reservation and to wish them an enjoyable time is not only helpful but it’s likely to stay in their memory.

  • Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is being incorporated into hotel experiences in a pleasant and enjoyable way. From voice control to change the lighting and music, to robot room service. Check out our post on ways hotel AI can work for you.

3. Focus on your staff

Forbes has found that a happy, healthy workforce can reduce costs by up to $1,600 per employee!

It sounds simple to just say make sure your staff are happy, but in a busy hotel environment, this is one of the most difficult and challenging hurdles.

Regular staff training and encouraging them to be involved with hotel decisions will allow your staff to feel a part of the bigger picture and more attached to your hotel brand. Encourage their ideas such as ways to deal with guest complaints or ways to increase sales and cut costs.

Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective people encourages principle-centred leaders to build a workforce around trust and communication. One of the ways he establishes to do this is to put the responsibility of business decisions on the employees.

Another motivating factor for a happy workforce is to introduce reward schemes for high achieving staff. The incentive of reward will give your staff goals to work towards, in turn increasing their productivity by 63%. This results in a 58% return on company profit margins.

Staff up-selling

Often many guests will not even be aware of many of your services and experiences. Therefore, it is vitally important that your front of house staff is communicating and letting your guests know what’s available. It will be greatly appreciated by the guest, and you’ll increase your revenue drastically.

8% of all gift vouchers transacted through the Enjovia system contain a product add on. This not only demonstrates that consumers are wanting to personalise their experiences, but will spend more to have ‘extras’ to enrich their experiences.

Happy staff equals happy guests.

4. Focus on Customer Satisfaction

88% of consumers will pay more for a better experience! But the experience of your guests expands much further than within the walls of your building.

An effective way to leave a lasting impression is how you deal with queries and complaints. Shockingly, for every 26 unhappy customers, only 1 will voice their complaint.

So it is important to use this slim opportunity to salvage poor experiences. The likelihood is you’ve already lost the other 25 unsatisfied guests.

Your customers will be significantly more active on social media than on your own website. Which makes it way more convenient for them to contact you on these platforms.

Social Sprout has found that social media is now the top choice for people seeking customer service.

With social media and review websites being such a huge part of the customer decision-making process, it’s more important now to respond well publically. Otherwise, up to 50% of customers being ignored on social media will switch to a competitor.

However, answering a complaint via social media increases customer advocacy by 25%.

Go one step further.

While answering public complaints can save your online reputation, you need to go one step further than just listening to really make a big impact.

And that’s implement changes in your hotel to reflect reoccurring complaints and feedback. Yes, this demonstrates that you listen to your guests and their opinions are important to you. But it also gives you key information to what your guests really want, instead of guesswork.

5. Engage in social media marketing

social media marketingDid you know a huge 74% of customers actively rely on social media when making a purchasing decision?

Having an online social presence is now expected by your guests. If you don’t have a Facebook or an Instagram page you could be saying bye to many potential paying customers. Many people, when hearing about a hotel will look at their social media pages first to get some insight into what they can expect from their experience.

Your customers will rely heavily on their peer’s opinions and experiences before committing to it themselves. With 92% of consumers trusting word-of-mouth recommendations.

It’s an easy way to connect and interact with guests. People like to feel that they are a part of something and using social media is a clever way to do that. You can introduce prize giveaways and use hashtags to get your guests involved in your brand.

Your guests will love to see your personal hashtags on your branding so that when they are posting their experiences on social media they can tag and involve you. A great way to do this is to have selfie booths when hosting particular activities and events. You can even run competitions and give a prize to the best social media post with your hashtag.

And don’t forget to converse and respond positively to guests interacting with you on social media. It will go a long way to their experience with you and lead to their loyalty to your brand.

6. Offer other products

Another great way to increase your hotels’ revenue directly is to sell your own hotel-branded merchandise. It will be easy to implement and it gives guests a chance to take home a gift or memorabilia from their experience with you. From robes and slippers to candles and chocolates.

It doesn’t have to stop with products either. Offering Netflix upgrades on the room TV or same-day spa treatment discounts are a great way to boost that extra revenue and capture on unsold slots.

 

7. Offer unique and high-quality experiences

Having a worthwhile experience is one of the top preferences for consumers when it comes to spending their money. A great experience is now favoured over physical goods.

This is a big win for hotels!

Offer gift experience vouchers:

So make the most of this by offering your service as ‘experiences’. What is the best way to do this? Through offering gift vouchers. Gift vouchers are a fast track way to increasing hotel revenue. One of our customers The Celtic Manor Resort went from making £700,000 in voucher sales to £2.3m in just a couple of years.

Gift ExperiencesThrough our own figures, we have found that,

  1. Increased Revenue: 10%-15% of all gift vouchers expire. This is revenue directly to your bottom line without ever having to pay out for the costs of goods sold.
  2. Increased Brand Awareness: 60% of consumers say they’ve been introduced to a new brand through a gift voucher and 17.7% have become regular customers as a result.
  3. Increased Customer Spending: 72.1% of consumers spend more than the value of the voucher, adding 55% on top of the average value of the card itself

Combine your hotel experience with external events and activities in your local area:

A fantastic way to get guests swarming to your hotel over the competition is to combine tickets for local events with your hotel services. Work with local theatres, activity centres and so on to create bespoke and unique experience’s. So if there is a wildly popular show in your local city, offer an experience package including a ticket, overnight stay, transport and an evening meal.

Inform your guests!

It’s so important to make sure your guests know about your experiences. There are many ways to do it which we have already covered in this post.

  • Display it on your website
  • Post about in on social media
  • Instant message your guests in-house
  • Front of house staff to upsell

As you can see there are many ways to increase revenue in a hotel. You just need to make bold decisions and implement proactive solutions like the ones we have covered in this post.

For more information on how you can boost revenue for your hotel, get in touch here and see how we can help!

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