Whether through the television or their own devices, screens have a captive audience. And since guests are already staring at one, shouldn’t that screen offer them something of value? Something that might enhance their stay, make their lives a bit easier or provide that little extra splurge many justify when traveling?
With Enseo noting that more than 70 percent of guests turn on the television during their stay, and Hilton finding that 65 percent of travelers value hotel greetings or communications delivered by text, the proof of concept is there.
Hotels just need to monetize it.
“The biggest opportunity is turning the guestroom into a personalized revenue channel rather than treating it as a place to display generic promotions or simply consume content,” said Brian Gurley, CEO of Enseo. “The guestroom TV remains the focal point of the arrival experience, and when paired with personalized messaging, hotels can drive reservations at on-property restaurants and spas while introducing upgrades, late checkout and other experiences that are relevant to each traveler.”
What Sells–and When
The guest experience may happen on-site, but the selling can start long before that. Chris Cheney, executive vice president of commercial strategy at Stonebridge, argues it should.
“Don't think of on-property promotion as the starting point,” he said. “The greatest opportunities to increase guest spending occur before arrival.”
It’s during the period when guests are still planning their experience and are most receptive to enhancing their stay. Advance-purchase and pre-arrival upselling through drip campaigns and product-specific offers can even begin during the initial booking process when properly bundled or promoted.
“There is data that shows the farther in advance a hotel can bundle additional experiences and amenities, the greater the likelihood of increasing average trip value and spend, both for rooms and ancillary products,” Cheney said. “It allows guests to build a more personalized trip and typically results in higher overall trip spend than waiting until they are in the experience.”
Stonebridge typically sees the highest adoption for offers that package the room with parking or breakfast. Spa appointments, golf, wellness activities and other resort experiences also benefit from an earlier pitch, when guests have time to consider the purchase and availability isn’t yet limited.
Once travelers arrive on property, their priorities–and purchasing behavior–change. That’s when the television can introduce what’s available at the hotel, while mobile messages can reach guests wherever they happen to be and give them a direct path to buy.
Kevin Rohani, founder and CEO of CAMO Hospitality, said the strongest on-property offers are those guests can want, order and receive within an hour.
“On-demand services dominate for exactly that reason,” he said. “They share three traits: the guest already wants the thing, the value is obvious without explanation and fulfillment can be triggered the moment they tap.”
In-room dining and food delivery, late checkout, early check-in, parking and room upgrades all meet that test, though F&B tends to be Rohani’s favorite category.
“They're the most repeatable,” he said. “Late checkout sells once per stay. Hunger shows up two or three times a day, every day of the stay and a guest who has a good ordering experience on Night One comes back on Night Two without being prompted.”
That compounding effect, he said, is where the gold is at. The first frictionless transaction trains the guest to use the channel again, while every subsequent offer converts better because trust has already been established.
Making the Sale Work
Of course, the operative word in that last sentence is “frictionless.” Remove the barriers between the offer and the guest, and that compounding effect can grow. Damage that trust through even a few bumps, however, and the hotel has lost its captive audience.
That’s why Rohani believes the message and its fulfillment have to be one system instead of two different departments hoping to coordinate.
“This is where most programs die,” he said. “The marketing side sends a beautiful push notification, the guest responds and then the request lands in a phone call, a sticky note or an inbox nobody watches. You've spent money to manufacture disappointment.”
For Rohani, three requirements separate a revenue-producing program from digital clutter. The first is real-time inventory control.
“If the kitchen is closed, if housekeeping can't support late checkouts on a sold-out night, if valet is at capacity, the offer needs to disappear automatically, not when someone remembers to pull it,” he said.
That’s why the second requirement is automation. This isn’t necessarily automation of the service itself, but of the handoff. Each redemption should route directly to whoever fulfills it without a middle man.
“If every redemption creates a phone call or a manual task for a lean front desk, the team will quietly stop supporting the program within 90 days,” Rohani said. “The transaction needs to route directly to whoever fulfills it, whether that’s an on-property team or an outside provider.”
The third requirement is attribution. Hotels need to count completed transactions traced to the messages that generated them. What doesn’t count? Impressions and opens.
“When the guest transacts inside the same channel that delivered the offer, attribution stops being an analytics project and becomes a receipt,” Rohani said.
Producing that receipt becomes more difficult when guest preferences sit in one platform, reservation and stay information live in the PMS, restaurant availability is stored in the POS and spa, golf or activity inventory remain in separate booking systems. In many cases, the technology doesn’t connect without employees manually filling the gaps, which harkens back to Rohani’s point about automation. It’s a sentiment Gurley appreciates.
“Too often, hotel teams become the integration point between technologies, relying on manual processes to deliver the seamless experience guests expect,” he said. “The next phase of innovation isn’t simply introducing new tools. It’s making existing technology more connected, more intuitive and easier for hotel teams to manage.”
All of this makes departmental coordination even more critical. Marketing may create the offer, but operations must confirm it can be delivered. Revenue needs to establish the price and audience. Finance needs to know how the income will be tracked. Meanwhile, staff and outside partners–from valet operators to third-party food providers–need to understand exactly what’s been promised.
Targeting is also important. Guest preferences, stay patterns and trip purpose should determine who receives an offer and when. For instance, a four-night vacationer may be open to golf, spa or a premier dining experience, while an overnight business traveler may be better suited for parking, a grab-and-go breakfast or late checkout promotions.
“Sending every offer to every guest creates noise and lowers engagement,” Cheney said. “The key is delivering the right offer at the right moment in the right channel, one that understands you know your guest and you’re not simply sending more messages.”
This article was originally published in the August/September edition of Hotel Management magazine. Subscribe here.