June 5, 2022

Impact of Customer Experience on Hotel Businesses

The tourism industry is booming over the past decade with the constant rise in bookings across airlines, hotels, and transport services. However, the competition intensifies as travel brands struggle to get reservations.

According to a report by SaleCycle, the travel industry suffers the highest cart abandonment rate (87.08%), resulting in poor conversions.

Understanding the customer’s priority is one of the key factors in the hospitality landscape to improve sales. A traveler’s journey is the overall experience of a traveler with a travel brand or product.

In this blog post, we have provided a guide to the traveler’s journey and how it impacts a property business.  

Traveler’s Journey - An Overview

A traveller’s journey is an all-inclusive approach to evaluating the travel cycle experience of an individual on a trip. It all starts with the inspiration of choosing a holiday location and proceeding through various steps until the end of the vacation.

This research process is crucial for every hospitality business to convert a first-time visitor into a returning client and improve sales. It helps hoteliers understand how a travel aspirant finds a room and makes a reservation.

Search for Travel Inspirations

During the initial phase, a traveler has a pool of ideas in their mind. It all starts with taking interest in a holiday destination. However, inspiration is not limited to choosing a tourist spot. There are other things in mind during this phase- transportation and accommodation, tour duration, places of interest, etc.

Tips to Attract Visitors to Your Property

  • Develop a content strategy to attract guests to the tour locations nearby. Promote content across various platforms- travel blogs, social media networks (Facebook and Instagram), etc.
  • List your hotel on leading channels- Google business listing, Expedia, Bookings.com, etc.
  • Create a detailed profile with accurate info on all platforms.
  • Post photos of hotel rooms, furniture, window views, adjacent locations, etc.

Research and Planning

During this phase, travelers do elaborate research on various airlines, car rentals, and lodging options. The prime factors to impact their decision is customer reviews, health protocols, and rates.

Strategies to Get More Bookings:

  • List your property across various popular distribution channels to reach potential customers
  • Work with metasearch websites, OTAs, Multi-dimensional advertising, and local travel agents, for multi-dimensional advertising
  • Make sure your property is listed with Google with a complete hotel profile to boost your chances of being found
  • Develop a comprehensive digital marketing program, including sponsored listings to optimize your website for online visibility across search engines, social media, etc.

Pre-Trip Communications

If a traveler has made a booking with your hotel, it marks the start of a series of interactions with the client. All bookings do not result in sales. A last-minute cancellation can ruin all your efforts.

Mum silences are annoying and one of the prime reasons travelers look for alternatives. Maintaining easy communication with the client raises trustworthiness, and chances of conversion.

Best Practices to Stay Connected with Your Client

  • Use an automated notification system for instant response to booking requests. A traveler needs confirmation that the hotel authorities have received a booking request.
  • Send personalized reservation confirmation info via email, text, or phone call
  • Send details about upgrade offers, combo packages, add-ons, etc. (as per the hotel policies)
  • Enhance the experience with fast digital check-ins, contactless payments, and self-checkouts

Integrating Technology for Enhanced Hospitality Services

Technology helps hoteliers improve the guest experience before, during, and after reservations. From automated notifications to AI-based chat tools, there are several methods to ease the trip for a customer.

Today hoteliers help travelers to customize their tours, and provide navigation details through maps, and destination info via blogs and social media, to name a few.

However, it all starts with promoting the lodging business on appropriate platforms. Appearing on multiple distribution channels bridges the gap between a potential client and the hotel property. A channel manager software eases the daily chores for the hoteliers to update inventory and rate info across all platforms quickly and efficiently.

What's next?

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