If you own a hotel, you need to know some excellent hotel sales strategies. If you don’t, you won’t get the return on your investment that you want. In this article, we will discuss hotel sales and several of the most prominent strategies in this area that you might like to employ.

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What Are Hotel Sales?

The term “hotel sales” simply refers to selling hotel rooms and related services to your guests. Most hotels have a dedicated sales team. It is the job of these individuals to figure out the best hotel sales strategies that will make your hotel a profitable business entity. 

Boosting revenue and improving hotel room sales can be tricky. What works at one point may not work forever, as the industry is always changing. However, that being said, there are some hotel sale methods that have a history of working. We’ll talk about some of them right now.

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1. Make It Easy to Book Rooms on Your Website

UX means user experience when you’re talking about websites. If a potential guest visits your hotel’s site, they should have an easy, painless experience. 

Would-be guests will immediately form a negative impression of your hotel if they visit your site and find that it’s impractically designed or difficult to navigate. Conversely, if someone visits your site and has no trouble finding all of the information they need and booking a room, they will have a positive impression of your hotel without even setting foot in it yet. 

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2. Building Local Partnerships Can Be Helpful

In most instances, there will be other businesses around your hotel. The one exception might be if you’re situated somewhere very remote.

If there are other business entities around your hotel, it’s often useful to partner with them. These mutually beneficial partnerships can work wonders for you. 

You can co-promote with entities like museums, restaurants, theme parks, adventure companies, and so forth. Doing so works because cross-promotional efforts can bring in new guests who might otherwise never have been aware of your hotel. 

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3. Cross-Selling Efforts

Cross-selling means offering supplementary or additional products along with the one the customer is already buying. If you have some additional services or products you can offer along with your hotel rooms, that might be the extra added incentive a guest needs to book with you. Something like a local tour or a massage might do the trick. 

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4. Re-Marketing Efforts

Re-marketing refers to reaching out to individuals who have looked at your site but who have not booked with you. In order to figure out who has been visiting your hotel’s website but hasn’t reserved a room yet, you need the right software. 

Certain software suites allow you to monitor who’s visiting your site. If they don’t book, then you can try some targeted re-marketing efforts. If a potential guest is on the fence about booking with you, a gentle reminder might be what it takes to get them to commit. 

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5. Upselling

Upselling is certainly a part of being a hotelier that you should not neglect if you’re trying to increase your profits. This is when you offer a more luxurious or expensive option than the would-be guest might have originally wanted. 

You need to upsell delicately. You want to offer a more opulent option, but don’t be pushy about it. If you make the guest knowledgeable about what upselling choices you have available, that might pique their interest enough for them to treat themselves by going with the more expensive selection. 

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6. Use Online Reviews for Your Best Advantage

If you have a positive online reputation, that can help your business and sales tremendously. You can ask your guests to leave you feedback on OTAs, Google, TripAdvisor, and so forth. You can also respond to reviews quickly.

Thanking a visitor who gave you a positive review definitely helps, but it’s even more crucial for you to address any negative issue that someone who stayed with you raised. Ask them what you can do to alleviate the problem. This shows to other potential guests that you care about customer satisfaction. 

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7. Optimization with OTAs

OTA stands for an online travel agency. There are large, powerful ones operating online, such as Agoda, Booking.com, and Expedia. If you can optimize your hotel’s listing on these sites, that’s an excellent sales strategy.

Look at your hotel’s listing on these sites. Make sure all of the information there is correct, including your hotel’s main contact phone number, address, email, etc. You also want there to be plenty of high-quality professional photos. 

In addition, make sure that you are managing your availability and rates on these sites. Doing so means every possible guest will have an accurate idea of what’s available at all times and how much it will cost if they are interested. 

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8. Your Revenue Management Sales Strategy

You should always try to maximize the number of your hotel’s rooms booked at any time of the year. To help with this, you should have a revenue management plan in place.

Such a plan might call for you to drop some of your room’s rates during the offseason when you are not getting as many customers. This should help to keep your hotel afloat during the downtimes. Raising rates during the times of year when traffic is high also makes sense. 

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9. Guest Reward Plans

The Millennial generation, which currently makes up quite a bit of the job market, has shown that they are highly interested in guest reward programs. If you set one of these up, you can often see positive results from it. 

Creating a guest reward program can entice guests to come to your hotel more than once. If you incentivize staying at your hotel frequently, that might convince guests to come back more often than they otherwise would. 

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10. Rewards for Referring Family and Friends

A referral program can also be an effective hotel sales strategy. If you say you will give your guests some attractive incentive for telling family members and friends to stay at your property, that can help you in two ways. You might be able to get new guests to stay with you, and you also make it more likely the original guest will return if you made them a tempting offer. 

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11. Cross-Promotional Sales Strategies with Local Events

If any events are happening near your hotel that you think people will enjoy, like concerts or festivals, doing some cross-promotional efforts with that event might bring in more guests. For instance, you might have a shuttle that runs from your hotel to and from the event venue. You might also discount blocks of rooms for larger groups who plan on attending the event. 

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12. Destination Marketing

This concept has to do with promoting the area or region in which your hotel is located. You might do this while cooperating with other local entities, like tourism bureaus.

If you contact a tourism entity and let them know that you would like them to mention your hotel in their guidebooks, you can also reciprocate. As a way of returning the favor, you may have brochures in your lobby that direct guests to the local tourism office. 

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13. Set Up a Contactless Guest Experience

The pandemic was a time when many business entities, including hotels, had to experiment with contactless guest experiences more than ever before. Many hotels found out that most guests like being able to check in and out without ever having to speak to anyone in person.

Even now, when COVID-19 is largely in the rearview, many hotels still like to have a contactless guest option. Many busy travelers enjoy being able to get their room key when they arrive and drop it off when they leave without ever needing to communicate directly with a member of staff.

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14. Promote Sustainable Tourism Through Your Hotel

Many individuals are more aware of their environmental footprint these days, and your hotel should be no exception.

A guest who wants to live sustainably is more likely to book a room with you if they feel that your hotel is doing the same thing. Think about engaging in any local conservation efforts. Implement some energy-saving practices or offer some eco-friendly amenities. 

Make sure to mention all of these efforts on your website. It might attract some guests who may not otherwise stay with you.

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15. Use AI

Artificial intelligence is making inroads into virtually every part of society, including the hotel industry. In the area of hotel sales strategies, you can often use bespoke AI to enhance a guest’s experience.

The easiest way to do so is by using AI as a digital concierge. If you infuse your hotel’s website with this technology, it can offer personalized recommendations that the customer should appreciate. AI can often handle issues a guest is experiencing a lot faster than a human employee could. 

In addition, you might use AI along with your revenue management system. The AI will likely have some ideas about how you can refine your marketing strategies based on the historical data you have compiled.

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16. Try Having a Flash Sale

You might also think about having a flash sale on your website from time to time. If you are in a traditionally slow time of the year, that might be an ideal moment to discount some of your rooms.

You can also make former guests aware of the sale by sending them targeted emails. If a former guest sees that a lower price on your rooms is time sensitive, that might compel them to buy more urgently than they otherwise might. 

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17. Continuously Train Your Employees

You should also focus on continuing to train the employees of your hotel. The hotel industry is always evolving, with advances in technology and new ideas. You want to ensure that your workers remain aware of these.

Your front-line staff and sales staff should certainly be getting this kind of up-to-date training. The training might include the latest customer service techniques, updated knowledge about your hotel and offerings, etc.

You can train your workers in how to upsell, how to resolve guest issues quickly, and how to offer friendly and personalized recommendations. If your staff is well trained, that makes it much more likely that your guests will enjoy their time spent at your hotel. It makes repeat business more probable as well.

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18. Be Mindful of Wellness Programs

Some hotel guests nowadays travel for their personal well-being. Promoting packages for health-conscious travelers makes sense. 

You might offer a room that also comes with spa privileges or yoga classes. You can also include healthy dining options as part of such a package. If you make it clear to guests that you are as committed to their wellness as they are, that should bring loyalty and satisfaction. 

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19. Focus on Corporate Group Sales

Some hotels like to target particular niches. For example, targeting corporate groups can be helpful, especially if you offer amenities like free Wi-Fi, conference rooms, and other perks that a group or individual traveling for business might appreciate.

You might also consider partnering with an entity like Surf Office. They set up company retreats. If you have a partnership with them, they can make companies looking for lodgings in your area aware of your hotel. They might send a group of dozens of guests or more your way. That type of group booking can give your hotel a meaningful revenue boost. 

No matter what hotel sales strategies you employ, you should always be mindful of the latest industry trends. That’s because what has worked for you historically might not always work for the foreseeable future.

You should always collect as much data as possible about who’s staying with you. This information can help your sales and marketing team make decisions that should keep your hotel solvent.