How Hotels Are Using WhatsApp to Drive Revenue.

In the previous article, we looked at how local laws and regulations in many parts of the world prevent hotels from adopting the latest payment technologies. And how Payment Lite manages to overcome many of these obstacles, offering hoteliers a simple tool that enables approved staff to send time-sensitive, advance payment requests to guests via email, SMS, WhatsApp, WeChat, Line...

In this episode, we will take a closer look at the methods hotels are using to increase call centre conversion and revenue; maximise yield during periods of high occupancy; and improve cash flow.

Why cancellations and no-shows matter

When you ask a hotelier about occupancy, they will have an answer ready. Ask about cancellations and you are likely to encounter a pause. This might seem straightforward, but while the industry emphasizes occupancy, it often overlooks the significance of cancellations and no-shows and doesn't realize that they are interconnected. You may be proud of your 70% occupancy and 25% cancellation rate because they are improvements over last year. But imagine if you could convert less than half of those cancellations—your occupancy rises suddenly to over 80%.

How is it we attach importance to sales, but accept a relaxed approach to payments? It's like a sales team working months to sign a deal and never following up on the agreement?

Building a payments culture

If you’ve got more than one member of your team in reservations, then you have a friendly competition. We suggest you track the number of queries per agent, correlate reservations and confirmed bookings (net of cancellations and no-shows), and reward agents that exceed 90%. Your reservations teams are sales agents, too, and Payment Lite is a cost-effective tool you can use to ensure they reach and exceed their targets.

High Occupancy

Last year, I was offered a complimentary stay at a client’s 600 room hotel, only to be informed the morning of the second day that I would be “walked” as the hotel was overbooked. I asked if all 80+ arrivals were confirmed and the Director of Rooms hesitated and replied, “Andre, we are minus 13, I’m really sorry, but we can’t accommodate you.”

The following morning I checked the night audit report and the hotel finished the previous day with 25 unsold rooms (+25). At $100 per night, that represents a single day loss of $3,800—Not to mention whatever costs were incurred for walking other guests.

During periods of high occupancy, we advise all hotels to call their arrivals, confirm payment and arrival time, and use the opportunity to upsell, if possible. Your payment link via SMS or WhatsApp makes this a snap!

Improved Cash Flow

Another 30-villa property in Marrakech is ramping up for peak season and swapping one PMS for a new, bespoke solution that still has bugs. As a result, there is some uncertainty about an estimated 150-200 future reservations booked thru year end. To compound the situation, we made changes to streamline room categories and as a result there is a risk that future guests may not receive the same room they booked.

Not one to let a crisis go to waste, we instructed them to contact each future reservation, mention the tech migration and our desire to "reconfirm" the booking, and suggest that if they are certain of their upcoming trip, they may wish to benefit from an upgrade and 5% discount on a non-refundable rate.

The operation was conducted over 3 days and generated $28,000 from 45 advance payments collected 48 hours later—from reservations that would have trickled in, or perhaps lost to cancellations in the months to come.

Conclusion

Tools exist to enable skilled workers to do their jobs better. Each of the above examples would not have been possible if agents were required to force guests to complete a bank transfer, or go to a website to complete the payment.

These success stories are made possible by the ease and convenience of an advance payment link delivered to guests' phones via SMS or WhatsApp.

Give your teams the means to succeed—Payment Lite.