Guest loyalty: How hotel guests become regular guests

Returning guests – this is the jackpot for hoteliers and goal number one. That’ s because a solid customer base and guest loyalty create the foundation for lasting success. Loyal guests not only secure the revenue of the hotel, they also are less price sensitive and spend more on site. As a result, they are a lucrative sales guarantor. Therefore every hotelier should have appropriate measures in mind which focus on the loyalty of their guests.

What makes regular guests so important for hotels:

• Regular guests come back and thus secure follow-up bookings and income.
• They spend more money than new guests because they are familiar with the hotel’s entire range of services and are willing to pay more.
• Regular guests are important multipliers and engage positive word-of-mouth propaganda, providing free, authentic and effective advertising.
• Investments in guest loyalty are more profitable than new customer acquisition and less expensive.
• Regular guests attract similar guests, thus influencing the guest structure and enabling specialisation in favoured guest groups.
• Loyal guests get involved and do not hold back if something does not suit them which improves the service quality.

But how can hoteliers communicate their offers and services in a sustainable way and thus remain in the minds and hearts of their guests?

The goal seems simple: guests are only allowed to leave when they have become fans. The key to success is the enthusiasm and the overall impression of the stay at the hotel. There is no such thing as a formula carved in stone for lasting guest loyalty. A good recipe, however, is the triad of inspiring service, a form of reward and constant cultivation of relationships. The hotelier can fall back here on different tools and measures, suitably to its guest structure and its house.

Personal and individual service that impresses guests

Who wants to score in the hotel business with good service, always has to do a little bit more than the guests expect. It’s all about the all-round feeling of well-being from arrival to departure, from the first impression to the last. It is important to question one’s own service from time to time in order to avoid one’s own company blindness. But instead, consider how you would like to be treated as a guest in a hotel.

An impressive guest service definitely includes friendly employees who create a good atmosphere. A smile and a few nice words are worth their weight in gold, because a good mood is contagious. Good customer management is key. The better they know their guests, the more individually they can respond to them. Preferences and personal information about guests are collected and maintained with a program for customer relationship management (CRM software), for example, and can be accessed and viewed at any time. All this creates closeness and commitment. In the long run, this leads to long-term guest loyalty. Not to be neglected is the careful management of complaints. Those hoteliers who take their guests seriously, thank them honestly for positive and negative criticism and respond individually to them give them a special status.

Digital service in the hotel – a standard of our time

Nowadays, digital offers are also an essential part of the hotel guest service. Two-thirds of all travelers expect technologies that improve the experience on site. Digital communication and modern sources of information are no longer trend topics, they are standard. The mix of personal, traditional and especially digital communication, for example via a Digital Guest Directory, a hotel app or info points such as a Touchscreen Kiosk, will make the difference. In this way, guests can choose how they want to communicate or inform themselves, whether via e-mail, telephone, social media, app, Digital Guest Directory or messenger. Any hotelier who offers all the variants, which are in demand among guests nowadays, ensures that they are always supplied with information and well looked after. Even guests who are looking for less personal contact, so-called “silent travelers”, can be addressed and looked after digitally.

Email Marketing

Hotels also stay in contact with their former guests through targeted email marketing, reminding them of their stay and making them interesting offers to convince them to re-book. In this case, for example, a special discount code, a small gift for the next stay or an offer package under special conditions could be suitable. Guests want to know that they are important. And in the end, clever email marketing manages to make regular guests out of guests.

Relationship maintenance by regular guest program

Bonus programs or loyalty point systems are also a good way to stay in touch. Furthermore, they are often an incentive for guests to come back again. By redeeming loyalty points, hoteliers can further increase the comfort for their guests: from on-site discounts, a free room upgrade, flexible check-in or check-out to a free overnight stay once you have collected enough points. The decisive factors in a loyalty program are that the benefits and bonuses are really worth it and that it is easy to collect and redeem points.

With the right measures every hotelier succeeds in increasing guest loyalty and attracting regular guests.

Anyone who inspires guests, turns them into returning customers and cares for them can only win.

With our digital communication solutions, we are happy to support you on your way to winning happy regular guests.

www.guestfriend.com | info@guestfriend.com | +49 831 930 657-0

This text has been translated automatically.