Increasing the average spend per customer is a primary objective during the guest's stay. Upselling and cross-selling are sales strategies that seek to increase guest profitability and improve their experience. Implementing them requires a subtle, personalised approach to prevent these sales strategies from being perceived as intrusive and ending up achieving the opposite effect.
Keys to communicating with your guest
The main challenge when implementing 'upselling' and 'cross-selling' strategies in the digital environment lies in avoiding being intrusive. Nobody wants to feel pressured into spending more than necessary, so it is essential to strike a balance between offering value and aggressive promotion.
It all comes down to knowing your guest; their preferences, tastes and, especially, their needs during the stay. Gathering relevant information through surveys, booking forms and tracking their activity at the hotel allows us to offer personalised, relevant suggestions that fit and enrich their stay without making them feel forced to consume more.
The way in which offers are presented is crucial. It is more advisable to introduce parallel services as a subtle, elegant suggestion, highlighting the benefits and added value of each option, rather than focusing solely on price, which generally gives a more advertising-led first impression.
Sending the information at the right moment is another of the keys to building this kind of sales strategy. Upselling can be effective during the booking process or at check-in, while cross-selling can be implemented through in-room messages, staff recommendations or digital platforms. Don't forget that offers must deliver real value to the customer. It is not just about increasing spend, but about improving their experience and exceeding their expectations. Offering exclusive services, special discounts or preferential access to activities can make all the difference.
How to communicate with your guest
Once we are clear about how and when we should connect with our guest to improve their experience at our hotel, it is important to know which channels and formats to use, so that they are effective and we increase the chances of success for both parties. The ideal is to create an omnichannel communication strategy and use a CRM for hotels in which to centralise the information.
There are various channels for communicating with your guest, from email campaigns to SMS messages or web push notifications. But if what we want is to increase the chances of a sale, the ideal is to communicate with our guest through channels with a high open rate, such as WhatsApp and app push notifications. During the stay it is unlikely that your guest will check their email, so it is advisable to use channels that are more instant, customisable and that let you visually amplify your offers or communications with multimedia content.
WhatsApp is the most powerful tool for connecting with your guest, offering a fast, simple way to communicate. Hotels can use WhatsApp to send welcome messages, confirm bookings, offer personalised recommendations, manage requests and resolve issues efficiently. The great thing about this channel is that it allows a high level of personalisation and also lets you use multimedia content: images, documents, gifs, emojis and even videos.
On the other hand, web push notifications are messages or notifications sent through the browser that appear on the guest's screen. These notifications can be used to send specific promotions, recover unfinished purchases, offers, and relevant information about the hotel and the surrounding area.
Data management and its subsequent analysis
Storing guest data and enriching their profile information in our database is another crucial element in being able to keep communicating with them during the stay and once they have left the hotel. The CRM must integrate with key data sources such as the PMS (Property Management System), the booking engine, email marketing and WhatsApp systems, social media and satisfaction surveys. That way, we will have a complete, up-to-date profile of each guest in a single place.
Fideltour's CRM has an excellent filtering and tagging system that lets you get to know your guest in depth, in order to improve your marketing strategies and increase their effectiveness.
Next, advanced segmentation becomes a key tool. By analysing consumption patterns, stay frequency and spend level, it is possible to classify guests into different profiles. This segmentation makes it possible to design strategies aimed at each group, offering products and services aligned with their interests and needs.
In these strategies, automation optimises the impact of upselling and cross-selling actions by triggering messages at the key moments of the guest journey. Through scheduled communication flows, it is possible to send personalised offers depending on the stage each customer is at, ensuring that the commercial proposal is timely and relevant.
Omnichannel is key to ensuring that each message reaches the guest through the right channel, respecting their preferences and maximising conversion. Consistency in communication reinforces brand identity and improves the customer relationship. Intelligent, efficient data management drives profitability and loyalty, delivering personalised experiences aligned with the guest's expectations.
In conclusion
Upselling and cross-selling are an effective way to increase profitability while improving the experience and communication with the guest. However, it is necessary to use the data and interactions obtained to create ever more personalised strategies that enrich the stay and are not presented merely as advertising messages. There is no doubt that it is necessary to centralise the data, collect it, segment it and analyse it. The key lies in using the information intelligently and ethically to deliver value to guests at every touchpoint.
