Today, Broadcast allows hotels to send messages to groups of guest either on-property or arriving later that day. Usually, our customers find it useful when there’s a property-wide incident such as loss of water, or when managing large events and providing scheduled updates.
We don't recommend you use our service to fulfill any personal agendas:
Let's ignore the OTAs for a moment. What about driving ancillary revenue? This happens to be a good strategy to offset the OTAs' grubby hands reaching into your piggy bank. And for our hotels that offer additional amenities or services on property, we are presented with a unique opportunity.
On a more serious note, I wanted to share with you some best practices we've seen around driving revenue on property with this upgraded set of broadcasting tools.
1. Find a unique opportunity for additional spend.
It's best to cater your message based on what your current goals are. Do you have a full house Friday, but a lot of extra vacancy on Saturday for some reason? This looks like an opportunity to offer your guests late checkout in exchange for booking services at the spa.
Even better, create rules around this behavior so Akia will automatically broadcast this message to on-property guests whenever she sees a lot of next-day vacancy (reach out to participate in the beta).
2. Make it personal.
Nobody wants to receive spam. Unfortunately for email, this has become normal, which explains the exceptionally low open-rates as compared with text-messaging.
Tag or group your guests appropriately within Akia, so you are sending the appropriate message to the appropriate guests.
3. Can you cater to specific events that your guests are in-house for?
Personalization can extend to events or time of year for your guests. Is it close to Valentine's Day? Remind your guests arriving in a few days that your concierge can also help with reservations, and at the same time, that upgrades to your Valentine's Day suites are still available.
4. Also think about what happens when you're successful with your goal.
I just wish everyone ended their work days like this guy.
Well, you've done it. You've successfully broadcasted and got all your check-ins today to upgrade to the previously vacant suites. Opportunity for revenue doesn't just live within Akia. Now that you have those vacant junior rooms, don't forget to make a push for flash deals on services like HotelTonight. Let's get paid.
5. Don't be spammy.
"Hello, and please don't hang up" 🙄
Don't send pricing or discount percentages. Lightly touch on the opportunity while letting guests know messaging is an available avenue for communication. This will keep the channel open for guest requests, while gently reminding them that services can also be booked over text-messaging.
In general, we work closely with our hotel partners to design and identify unique ancillary revenue strategies that work well for them and their clientele. Reach out to us to start a conversation and let's see if we can help.