Recession-Proof Hotel Marketing, Part 4: Rewarding Your Best Guests

As I said earlier, cutting price should not be your first reaction to an economic slowdown.  Instead, you should maximize profit by reaching out to your best guests.

Of course, you’ll need a guest intelligence system that tells you who these people are.

But assuming that is already in place, how can you reward your best guests?  Here are some ideas that have worked for others:

• Idea 1: Develop special birthday and anniversary packages.  Send them to your guests on their special day using email or direct mail.  This has proven very cost effective for many hotels.
• Idea 2: Create seasonal specials packages.  Partner with local businesses to offer a specially-priced package on an area attraction.  Send this to guests that have stayed at your hotel in the past.  With joint ventures like this, everyone involved benefits.
• Idea 3: Send “We haven’t seen you in a while” followup messages.  For guests that used to stay regularly, but haven’t for a while, send them an email or postcard with a special offer to come again.  Offer a free breakfast or glass of wine at your hotel bar.  Tell them you miss their business, and look forward to seeing them again.

Again, to execute these ideas, you’ll need an intelligent database like we described earlier.  As you can see, the creative freedom you have to develop truly unique promotions is directly proportional to the quality of information you have to work with.

Let me ask you this: How do you reward your best guests?