As it does in many industries, repeat sales and reservations play a major role in corporate profitability of accommodation industry. The most efficient and cost-effective method to approach new customers is to let your previous guests do the marketing and promotion for your hotel. Brand loyalty is the way through which you can achieve these two goals.
Only by creating a sound brand loyalty can you increase your chances of ensuring that previous guests prefer your complex for their future accommodations and recommend it to their circles of friends. Is it easy to create brand loyalty in accommodation, though?
It would be unrealistic to say it is ‘a piece of cake’. However, if you know what to do to achieve brand loyalty, we can say that your task would be significantly easier.
Go beyond expectations
A hassle-free, pleasant and fruitful stay at your hotel would encourage your guests to come back to your hotel for their next accommodation and to recommend it for their loved-ones. Full customer satisfaction is most probably one your priorities. But note that you are targeting customer satisfaction not only for today but also for a long-term success. Make sure that you emphasize the importance of customer satisfaction during training courses delivered to your personnel.
Prove your distinguished status
Your complex must offer guests some facilities that set you apart from competitors. Given the vast spread of proper practices and the similarity of the services and concepts offered in a rapidly-developing industry, it is more and more difficult to offer distinctive facilities. That’s why it is about time to come up with ideas about what kind of facilities your complex can offer that are not offered by the others. You can organize a brain-storming session with your personnel to come up with one or more features that would help your guests distinguish you from the others.
Keep in contact
People tend to forget. Note that there would be a not very short, one-year time difference between a pleasant stay at your hotel and the upcoming holiday season and that the influence of these memorable experiences on your guests would start to fade away. Therefore, it would be an efficient method to keep in touch with your guests via e-mail, and to remind your guests of their memorable experiences at your complex, which would also help contribute to guest loyalty in the long run.
Offer gifts to your loyal guests
Gifts and rewards to encourage your previous guests to prefer your complex once more might also be effective. Such a method would prove the value you attach to your guests and help them establish an emotional bond with your complex. However, increasing the financial value of such gifts may change their motivation, bringing about the possibility of hosting guests who would only prefer you to derive financial gains. Discounts are always a powerful way of marketing. However, separating discount policies from guest loyalty would bring healthier outcomes. Which is why, instead of distributing gifts of high financial value, offering customized gifts such as cups, plates, models etc. that your guests would like to keep in order to create loyalty would be highly beneficial.
Find out what provide loyalty
You might well be taking the steps above or doing even more to ensure guest loyalty to a certain extent. However it is of utmost importance to identify which activities are more instrumental for guest loyalty and to separate those activities that do not necessarily serve to your purpose. You may distribute a questionnaire to your repeat guests to find out why they have preferred your complex once more. The findings from such activities would help you see your strengths and mistakes, and revise your activities for loyalty creation.
Today, guest loyalty has become a prioritized agenda item for every hotel. Without a doubt, it would be smart to carry out tasks for guest loyalty in coordination with all the other marketing and sales activities you implement. Did you know that HotelRunner offers countless opportunities and features for loyalty management? Click here and find out what HotelRunner can offer for your hotel…
