5 Ways to Increase Revenue With a Hospitality CRM

If there is something that people working in marketing in hospitality is talking about is the power of a CRM system. But why has it become so important? Today, the challenges of hotel marketing are increasing consistently. People demand more personalization, better reach, multi-channel approaches, etc. And if you are not meeting these requirements, the numbers will show it. 

The Benefits of CRM Software

One of the main points that accommodation providers must consider is how to stand out in front of other hotels. There are so many brands offering the same and using the same messages that brands must fight to get travelers’ attention.

However, one of the most powerful tools to help you make this happen is CRM software focused on the hospitality industry.

With a CRM, you can build a relationship with your guests and make the best use of your guest data, which is extremely important for hotels to increase revenue, guest loyalty, and guest satisfaction.

A CRM tool holds incredible power to help you navigate those waters and help you deepen your customer relationships, and increase conversions, but only if used properly.

5 Ways to Increase Revenue With a Hospitality CRM

These are five ways that a hospitality CRM will help you to increase revenue and achieve your goals:

1. Personalize Your Communications from Pre-Stay to Post-Stay

The power of personalization is real. 79% of people say they are more likely to engage with a brand if the communications they receive are targeted especially to them and consider their preferences.

With a CRM, you can create different audiences based on hundreds of characteristics. For example, identify high-spenders, one-time visitors, returners, business travelers, and more.

You can track guest behavior and preferences, such as their room type preferences or preferred amenities, and use that information to personalize their marketing efforts. For example, you can even personalize the communications based on the type of room they chose or the services they bought when they stayed at your hotel.

Personalizing your communications across the entire gets journey will greatly impact your open, click, and engagement rate. More interactions mean building a relationship with your guests, and, therefore, a higher chance of ending in more bookings and more services acquired.

People want to be seen and heard, and by receiving relevant information, you show that you consider their preferences.

2. Unlock the Power of Multi-Channel Communication

If the CRM you use is multi-channel, like Bookboost, you have even more power. Guests not only use email. Some of them prefer to be reached via WhatsApp or SMS.

A multi-channel approach allows you to reach your guests most effectively, translating into 8 times more conversions than an email-only CRM. The right channel added to the right message sets you up for success.

Hospitality brands using a multi-channel guest journey have highlighted that, among the main benefits, the brand comes across as more professional and innovative, leading to increased brand awareness, better positioning, and increased revenue.

3. Get Insights to Empower Your Services and Offerings

To leverage your guest data, you need a way to organize it and structure it. A CRM is a tool that will allow you to do it. You can start crafting insights once the data is structured and duplicates are gone.

You can identify opportunities to upsell and cross-sell services or amenities to guests. How? By obtaining and reflecting on the data about your best-selling services. What do the people that buy them have in common? You can identify preferences based on location, the type of traveler, and even the other services they bought, to put together smart packages that are more likely to be bought.

Again, paying attention to your guest data is key to increasing revenue, enhancing the guest experience, and generating guest loyalty. To get more details about this topic, take a look at these 6 hotel mistakes that destroy your guest experience.

4. Nurture a Relationship and Increase Guest Loyalty

Acquiring new customers is highly more expensive than engaging with your existing customers. And this is the same for hotels. Therefore, nurturing the relationship with your guests once they leave the hotel is key to turning them into loyal customers.

With a hotel CRM, you can track all your communications and create nurturing workflows to ensure you are communicating to the right people and with the right message to bring them back to your hotel.

An example is using your guest data on the CRM to create an audience from people who haven’t made a reservation in the last six or twelve months. You can go further and then divide them by the type of traveler, if they booked family stays, leisure or business trips, and so on.

5. Lead the Guest Journey

One key point is that your CRM can track 2-way communication. This means not only tracking what the guests send you but that you can start the conversation as well.

In this way, you will go from being reactive to being proactive, and you can lead your guests across the entire guest journey instead of just reacting to their messages and answering their questions.

When you are proactive, you can be a step ahead, providing information about their concerns before they even realize it and building bridges between your hotel and guests.

Proactively taking care of your guests across the entire guest journey will result in higher guest loyalty and higher revenue.

Despite CRMs being among the top topics in 2022 and present in the hospitality trends for 2023, a great percentage of hotels still haven’t looked into it or considered it a new addition to their tech stack.

Without a doubt, a CRM system will help you achieve higher revenue and provide an enhanced guest experience to your guests and increase your guest loyalty, both key for a hotel’s survival and success, both now and in the future.

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