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You probably know the feeling—you walk into the hotel you booked weeks ago and everything just feels great. The welcoming atmosphere, the friendly staff who greet you by name like a long-lost friend, and the perfect pillow waiting, just the way you like it.
This seamless experience doesn’t happen by accident; it's all carefully planned through what we call 'guest journeys'. A guest journey tracks a guest's entire hotel experience, from the moment they dream of a getaway to sharing their stay with others.
If a hotel is able to understand each touchpoint, they can personalise service and exceed expectations, creating a long-lasting relationship with the guests, which, in turn, keeps bringing revenues.
A guest journey typically includes stages like inspiration (dreaming of a trip - yes, you can influence this stage already!), booking, pre-stay communication, arrival, during-stay experience, and post-stay follow-up. Different hotels may have variations in their guest journeys. For example, some hotels might add a touchpoint after arrival to confirm if everything meets guests’ expectations.
Some hoteliers completely ignore the guest journey, and some send too much information in an attempt to create the perfect guest journey - both can affect guest experience negatively.
Bombarding guests with emails, text messages, and calls can annoy them, while not sending anything can make them feel unvalued. It’s like working on a road trip itinerary: too sparse, and they miss out on great stops; too packed, and they’re too overwhelmed to enjoy anything.
The key is to find the golden middle to ensure a smooth and enjoyable journey for everyone.
Here are 5 strategies to enable guest journey optimisation, which can improve guest satisfaction and keep bringing guests back.
Ever gotten 10 emails from the same company about a single purchase? Annoying, right? The same applies to guest communication.
The key to a balanced communication strategy lies in sending only valuable touchpoints.
So, what makes a touchpoint valuable?
A valuable touchpoint is one that enhances the guest’s experience or eases their journey in some way. It's all about quality over quantity. Each email, text, or notification should add something meaningful to the guest's experience, rather than just filling up their inbox.
Therefore, think twice before you click send. Ask yourself: Is this message truly relevant to the guest's stay? Does it fit their interests or preferences? Will they find it appealing? Does it offer an opportunity for them to interact positively with your services?
To answer these questions, you need to know your guests.
Take a look at your guest data and learn about where they come from, what are their preferences, and what are their past purchasing behaviours. Not all guests value the same things, for example, a family on vacation might not care about the co-working space, whereas a business traveller might find it crucial. Remember to only send information that is relevant, timely, and personal.
Learn more about how to use data to elevate your hotel services.
In this video, you can learn more about it.
Does your current guest journey not deliver the results you expected? Then you should take a step back and look at it from a bigger picture, identify and optimise the key moments at every stage of the journey.Not every interaction in your guest journey carries the same weight. Think of key moments as a turning point that have the power to significantly shape a guest's perception of your hotel.Typical key moments include:
You can also personalise these guest interactions to cater to your unique hotel experience and target audience.
Blasting out the same message across every channel is simply too much for today’s guests. When choosing the right communication channel, consider these factors: the urgency, the message length, your guest preferences, and the market you are targeting.
For urgent matters like last-minute deals or check-in reminders, WhatsApp and SMS are the most effective channels. These channels ensure messages are delivered quickly, as guests tend to check them more frequently than email.
On the other hand, for more detailed information such as newsletters or personalised offers, emails remain the preferred channel.
Moreover, you can do A/B testing to identify which channel resonates most effectively with your audience. Analyse open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to evaluate which messages or channels generate the most engagement for each guest segment.
“One channel fits all” is not a thing anymore. A key best practice for communicating with guests is to adopt a multi-channel strategy.
Let’s be real, profitability is undoubtedly the lifeblood of any business.
However, if you focus too much on closing deals and filling rooms, you might ignore the importance of creating a seamless and enjoyable experience.
To keep bringing guests back long-term, you need to shift your focus from solely driving sales to prioritising guest ease. If your guests have to jump through hoops to communicate with your staff and get what they want, they'll probably not come back since there are countless other options available.
Therefore, start by analysing your guest feedback, particularly complaints about miscommunication or lack of clarity. These are golden opportunities to improve your guest communication and ensure guests have all the information they need.
Finally, it’s always a good idea to look at data and track KPIs such as CTR, open rate, and deliverability to get a clearer view of what works, what doesn’t, and what steps you need to take next.
There are many hospitality technologies that can help you with this, but it is easier when you have all data in the same solution you are using to plan and send your guest journeys. In Bookboost CRM, you not only plan and visually organise your guest journeys and all messages, but there is also a marketing dashboard where you can easily track your most engaging campaigns.
And iterate! Nobody has the perfect guest journey from the beginning. By embracing a data-driven approach, you can continuously improve your guest journey, ensuring it delivers a consistently positive experience that keeps your guests coming back for more.
Building a balanced guest journey and continuously improving it will help you increase revenue in the long run. Today more than ever, building a relationship with guests is key to foster loyalty and repeat business. This means a guest journey is not a “nice to have” anymore, it has turned into a “must-have”.
If you don’t have one now, go create one! Take ownership of your guest journey and don’t let OTAs take the first step.
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