In the few years that I have now spent in the hospitality e-commerce space, and having been speaking to all involved sides, I am often amazed at the multi-level opportunity costs that are generated when hotels simply don’t bother with ancillary product sales. Amazingly, I see these costs not only span the entire range of types of accommodation (from independent small hotels to large groups or all kinds). They also cover a wide spectrum of impact areas, that go well beyond the usually well-measured operational costs and profit lines of the hotel world, and as far as the (all important) environment.
These opportunities are absolutely within the grasp of the interested hotelier. Indeed and often, the only thing that is needed, is a little imagination!
What I am talking about here is using elegant business solutions that can make customers happier, make profit lines healthier, reduce operational strain, and even improve our impact to the environment - all at the same time! Sounds far-fetched? I suggest you read on…
At upgrade2 we saw how possible this was, pretty much from the first installation of the BETA version of our software. Since then, we have replicated this idea of our first client hotel with most customers in our books. The ideal of ‘keeping everyone happy’ seems to be have been met with every one of them, and all they did was to adopt a straight-forward add-on:
The hotel in question (in between quite a few other intelligently constructed offers), immediately set upgrade2 to allow guests to ‘go green’ with their stay. This wasn’t a typical airline-style guilt-assuaging option to pay extra in some voluntary ‘green’ supplement. No. Their approach was more simple and it reached further. What they did was to offer their booked guests the option to not have their linen changed every day. And for every night a guest opted to re-use their previous day’s linen, they received a voucher to spend at the bar – for a free drink. How many of the guests that went there do you think moved on to have their second glass of wine somewhere else?
You are empowering them by giving them options – and guests will love you for that.
I love the elegance of this offer. On the one hand, the operational complexity of not delivering something (which is slightly less simple to do than it may sound to the untrained ear) was managed by our technology. On the other, the hotelier and the guest were left free, to enter into a beautiful transaction. For every guest that took up the offer (over one in three), the hotel immediately started saving their staff's time, the electrical energy and the detergent required for washing sheets and towels. This way they were actively helping reduce environmental impacts whilst reducing the physical work they had to do in each room. And the guest was rewarded in more than one way - as a good offer is never just about the carrot. There is huge value in you, the hotelier, allowing a guest to do good if they want to. You are empowering them by giving them options – and guests will love you for that.
I understand that hoteliers have many, many other fires to fight, and that a hotelier’s world – very much unlike mine – does not exclusively revolve around the online piece, or the art and science of ancillary sales. However, doing good can be simple. It works for us and our customers and I wanted to share this idea - in the hope that it will help you too.
Thank you for reading, and please feel free to leave me any comments/thoughts below; I will be delighted to hear from everyone.
With loads of love from me, and with my very best wishes to all for the new year,
Joy.
Joy Killmar is a senior product specialists at upgrade2.
You can see her full LinkedIn profile HERE.