Ditch Discount Blasts and Reward High-Value Hotel Guests

Hotels often rely on blanket discount codes to spark bookings, but these offers rarely resonate with high-value guests. Instead, they attract low-spending visitors who deliver minimal long-term revenue. Today’s travelers expect more: personalization, recognition, and incentives that reflect their loyalty. Guests who feel noticed are far more likely to return, spend more, and recommend your brand.

In this article, you’ll learn why ditching generic discount blasts in favor of targeted campaigns fuels loyalty, revenue, and sustainable growth.

Why Blanket Discounts Fail and Targeted Rewards Drive Growth

Blanket-sending discount codes only target low-spending guests. High-spending guests respond to offers that resonate, incentivize, and make them feel noticed. Hotels that take promotional offers one step further to hone in on strategic discounts for high-value guests see their Find, Book, and Grow strategies flourish with revenue.

Discount codes don’t automatically bring bookings and soaring profits. That’s because a generalized, one-size-fits-all discount code doesn’t leave a lasting impression with the most valuable audiences. If an offer doesn’t make someone feel like it was specifically intended for them, there’s no sense of connection, and little reason to take notice.

Hotels know personalization is key in this day and age. Research shows that 61% of consumers are willing to spend more with companies that offer a personalized experience. Despite this, only 23% of consumers report having a personalized experience after recent hotel stays.

But ditching the discount blasts in favor of a more targeted approach is about more than this. It’s also about strategy. As a hotel, gaining discounted bookings from the lowest-spending guests – who buy the cheapest rooms and no ancillaries – doesn’t make great business sense. Yet being more targeted and rewarding guests who are likely to spend more is a savvier approach. And it leads to sustainable, long-term growth.

Strategies to Reward High-Value Guests and Drive Repeat Revenue

Harness guest data, segment high-value travelers, and incentivize them with personalized rewards to maximize revenue and long-term loyalty.

1. Realize the Value of  Your Database

The customers in your database have more potential value than new customers. Returning guests will spend more at your hotel than new guests. And you don’t need to pay for clicks, social media advertising, and use other paid marketing assets to get them through the door.

These are well-established facts, backed up by research.

Acquiring new customers costs five to 10 times more than selling to a current customer. Not to mention the fact that current customers spend 67% more on average than those new to your business. Hotels have more data on guests who have already stayed – meaning they understand their needs so much better. Catering directly to these needs often means guests will spend more, and they’ll create more visibility too, as they’re more likely to interact with the hotel on social media.

You’ve already done the hard work to get each guest’s first booking. Now it’s time to keep them coming back. Loyal guests are incredibly valuable, and you need to sweat this asset. Nurture, connect, and entice until you secure repeat visits.

Realizing that your database is your centerpiece – and probably a partially untapped resource – is an important first step. Segmentation comes next. You could cut and slice your audience in many ways, but what will bring your hotel the best returns?

Targeting high-value guests.

These are guests who have already stayed at your hotel before. You know they’re willing to spend money with you. And with the right incentives, you can encourage them to spend even more.

2. Give Your Guests a Target

Offering a discount to guests who reach a certain level of spending with you is a powerful way to secure revenue. And it comes from the kind of guests you want to be doing business with.

Take our concept for a ‘Big Spender 15’ campaign as an example. When a guest reaches a total lifetime spend of $5k with your hotel, you can reward them with a 15% discount code, personalized to them. This reward could be a free night, a bottle of champagne, or something else you think will resonate with your guests.

It’s a way to say “thank you”, build positive associations with your brand, and encourage future business with guests who you know – with certainty – are valuable to your hotel. If corporate travelers reach this threshold, they’re more likely to return for a personal trip with their discount code, strengthening loyalty. Instead of a bottle of wine, this approach is more impactful and directly tied to their engagement with the hotel.

For the best results, you’ll need to launch a campaign to raise awareness of the reward guests will get when they meet this threshold. This gives guests a target – something to incentivize them and aim for. An “almost there” trigger campaign can keep the momentum up. It drives them to book more in the meantime, so they reach the $5k target.

3. Incentivizing High-Value Guests

Choosing a partner that offers the ability to generate single-use codes can help hotels take advantage of this smarter way to reward guests. The value of segmenting audiences is clear, and the right technology makes it possible to pick and choose who you target and incentivize, down to very granular details if you want it. Be sure to ask your technology partner if they provide this capability, as it enables hotels to generate single-use codes automatically triggered by criteria you set.

How to Run a Personalized Discount Campaign for High-Value Guests

So how do you run a campaign like this to target high-value guests with personalized discount codes? It’s actually really simple.

• Generate the single-use discount codes. Your CRS or booking engine will do this for you in the dynamic pricing rules section. Just choose how many single-use codes you want, and whether they can be applied to the room only, to the total price, or to particular rate plans.
• Set up the emails. Import your discount codes into your CRM, and create your email template as usual. Ensuring a unique discount code appears for each recipient works in the same way as personalization codes, e.g., ‘dear [name]’ – just choose the discount code tag instead, which will appear when you import the discount codes.
• Choose your audience. This is the part that will revolutionize your emails. Create a new audience by selecting ‘guest contact information’, followed by ‘money spent’ as being $5k or more. And hey presto, you’ll have a list of guests who meet this criteria. (Tip: look through all the other options for segmenting audiences while you’re here – we guarantee it’ll spark ideas for more highly targeted, segmented campaigns).
• Set it to automate and sit back. Next up, set up an automation to send an email out with a discount code every time someone hits the $5k spend threshold. You can set up an alert if your discount codes get low, giving you the option to extend the campaign if it’s working well.

A Strategic Approach to Attracting Guests

Taking a couple of extra simple steps in your discount code emailing strategy can propel your hotel forward. A personalized, targeted approach isn’t hard work or complicated. Figuring out who your high-value guests are can be done in a couple of clicks. And this leads to certainty.

Rewarding high-value hotel guests means you will find your loyal, repeat bookers who add tangible value to your hotel. It means they will book again and again. And this will grow your brand, business, and balance sheet, keeping your hotel on the radar of the guests who are key to your longevity.

Free Guide: Top Tactics to Drive Direct Bookings at Your Hotel

Rewarding high-value guests with targeted, personalized incentives drives loyalty, repeat revenue, and sustainable growth. Apply these strategies today to transform generic discounts into meaningful connections and ensure your hotel achieves lasting success through smarter, guest-focused campaigns.