8 Proven Hotel Guest Retention Strategies

As a hotelier, it’s obvious to ponder over how to get guests back, and you must have drafted a strategy to accomplish the same. In case, your strategy fails to work, there’s no need for you to panic as we bring you the best hotel guest retention strategies that have worked wonders when it comes to bringing guests back.

The hospitality industry relies on the guests for its growth, which is only possible when guests continue to return to the establishment time and again. Given that most guests typically stay for a day or two, hotels need to up their game in order to ensure guest satisfaction and their likeness to return.

To help increase guest retention rates, here’s a comprehensive list of effective tips that have been instrumental in bringing guests back by delivering an immersive guest experience.

Fostering Trust

The hotel business is all about building lasting relationships with the guest, and trust serves as the ultimate key to foster such relationships. The process to nurture trust starts with making guests feel comfortable throughout their stay. From thereon to retain guests’ trust, hotels need to keep track of their reservation history.

This will help hotels identify their repeat guests and they can accordingly offer discounts, updates, additional services etc. Thus, the simple art to building trust lies in delivering the services promised during booking and if your hotel cracks this code it is bound to be packed all year.

Receive Feedback

One of the most impactful ways to improve guest satisfaction and enhance guest retention is through receiving guest feedback. To facilitate this process, guests can use feedback systems with which guests can provide ongoing feedback about their stay, rooms, experience, amenities and other crucial factors.

In tandem, hotels need to encourage their guests to offer feedback by outlining the possible advantages of guest feedback for both the guests and the hotel.

Take Negative Feedback as Opportunities for Positive Improvement

There might be cases when hotels encounter negative feedback, instead of taking offence about the same, hotels need to recognise this as an opportunity to make improvements wherever needed. This means that hotels need to turn these complaints into avenues for improvement by responding politely, and finding what bothers their guests.

Post which, hotels need to take steps to rectify the same, and alert all departments to avoid making the same mistake twice. Also, don’t forget to express your gratitude for their contribution to your hotel business.

Leverage Guest Retention Programs

The best way possible to ensure your guest’s return is by keeping in touch with them. After the guests have left, hotels can send them feedback surveys asking them about the stay, how they got to know about the establishment, and how likely they are to return.

With this information in-hand guests can create a follow-up communication plan which can encompass newsletters, updates, promotions, or coupons, basically anything that guests may find useful and entertaining. By taking these little extra steps, hotels can go out of their way to make their guests feel cherished, remembered, and valued.

Use Loyalty Rewards

In recent times, hotels leveraging the power of loyalty programs are more likely to become profitable than their competitors, thereby underscoring the significance of using loyalty rewards to boost hotel guest retention capacity. Not only are these programs rewarding but also help in building guest relationships.

Hotels can offer loyalty rewards in the form of early check-in, special amenities, etc. These loyalty rewards will be awarded on the basis of the points collected by guests when they make a booking with your hotel. Subsequently, guests can redeem these points to avail such exclusive benefits.

Harness Automation

Hospitality automation bets on easing hotel operations, whilst improving the customer touchpoints to increase repeat guests. Nevertheless, hospitality automation is incomplete without the implementation of NLP chatbots that are helping hotels reduce administrative burden and boost guest engagement.

At the same time, using a CRM system enables hotels to create automated interactions. This essentially means that hotels can send a message to the guest via the system which will keep guests updated, while offering them with new services that they might have not known about previously.

Deliver Timeless Experiences

Creating a memorable experience for your guest can be as simple as offering them a welcome drink that matches their palette or a personalised welcome card. By hosting your guests with open arms and providing them with a more intimate experience, hotels can boost guest retention.

Hotels need to make sure to make their guests feel special the moment they walk in their property. It’s as simple as that, the more hotels focus on investing in these small gestures, the more they are likely to build a loyal guest community.

Make use of Referral Programs

Referral programs are the best form of word of mouth advertising, primarily because they are low-budget and highly effective marketing tactics. Hoteliers can incentivize hotel guest retention rate by offering referral points that can be collected during check-in or offered as parting gifts.

In fact, hotels can also use these referral points to provide guests with additional rewards like one night extra stay or 50% off on their next stay at the property. With this strategy hotels are not just getting new guests but are also retaining the existing ones.

Bottomline

Hotel guest retention serves as the foundation for hotel marketing which acts as the key to unlock business success and growth. By taking these hotel guest retention strategies into consideration and putting them right into action, hotels can significantly improve guest satisfaction.

Thus, hotel guest retention strategies are a great place to start when it comes to improving guest experience.

FAQs

Q1. How to retain customers in the hotel industry?

Ans: The art to retaining customers in the hotel guest industry lies in the power of a memorable guest experience which needs to be delivered from the moment a guest walks through the doors of your property.

Q2. Which is the best strategy to ensure guest satisfaction?

Ans: There are myriads of strategies to ensure guest satisfaction, but the best one is hotel retention strategy which encompasses offering incentives like referral awards, loyalty points, superior guest experience, amongst others.

Q3. How can a hotel increase customer loyalty?

Ans: The best way to increase guest loyalty starts with offering loyalty programs. tHis means that hotels can offer their repeat customers with exclusive rewards like early check-in, special amenities, free upgrades, along with delivering the experience promised during booking.

Q4. What are retention strategies?

Ans: Retention strategies are effective methods or tactics used by hotels to increase the number of repeat guests by delivering them with an unparalleled guest experience, stimulating the development of a loyal guest community and boosting retention.

Q5. What is the key factor to retain customers?

Ans: The key factor to retain customers is building trust, and showcasing promptness to address any issues faced by them during their stay. At the same time, valuing the guest and their feedback is also a fundamental factor to hotel guest retention.