Top 5 Ways to Drive Your Hotel’s ADR

Email marketing to drive average daily rate (ADR)? Absolutely. As Revinate’s Senior Hospitality Marketing Strategist, one of the first things I’m often asked by Revinate Marketing customers is how they can use email marketing to increase their ADR. Here I’m focusing on the five ways that I’ve seen have the greatest impact.  

1. Upsells and Upgrades

Upsells are one of the easiest and most dependable ways to drive higher ADR. I recommend sending a pre-arrival email three to five days prior to check-in with a clear, bold call-to-action (CTA) that links to room category upgrades. By offering this before your guests arrive, you’re pushing for paid room upgrades and minimizing any complimentary upgrades that may be awarded.

Room upgrades are not the only upsell you should be promoting. Amenity upsells are just as important in generating incremental revenue and enhancing the guest experience. Add the option in your pre-arrival campaigns to book amenities such as early check-in, late check-out, daily breakfast, and local excursions to drive ancillary revenue.

Real Customer Example: This pre-arrival campaign email sent by our customer Colony Palms Hotel entices guests to upgrade to the next level of room type.

2. Drive Direct Bookings

To drive direct bookings, first and foremost, you should create a seasonal marketing plan to help reduce reliance on online travel agencies (OTAs) and their lofty commission rates.

Start by tapping into your property management system (PMS). Set up recurring campaigns targeting past guests who booked through an OTA. Reward guests who have booked directly with a rate or value-add to boost incentives for future bookings. The best practice here is to send your post-stay campaign within 30 days of the guest’s departure.

For guests who have not been on your property in the last nine months or so, create a “We Miss You” campaign to lure them in again. Staying top of mind with your past guests is instrumental in driving direct bookings and building guest loyalty.

Real Customer Example: The Plaza Hotel sends this recurring ‘We Miss You’ campaign to inspire past guests to book their return visit directly, with a little local inspiration to sweeten the deal.

Real Customer Example: Tower 23’s OTA winback campaign incentives guests to come back with 10% off their next visit when they book direct.

3. Seasonal Offers and Promotions

As a hotelier, you need to identify the peaks and valleys of your specific market and customize your offers accordingly.

During peak season, focus on driving rates by offering high-value promotions and eliminating all rate discounts. Conversely, when demand is low, drive interest by offering rate discounts. For example, weekend specials or length of stay discounts to cover shoulder dates are great options during this time.

Real Customer Example: This high-value promotion from Fess Parker Hotel includes a $50 dining credit and a complimentary bottle of wine when booking any stay by the end of the month.

Real Customer Example: In order to bring in more guests during the week, Colony Palms Hotel offered a rare weekday rate of $193.60, a play on the property’s opening year of 1936.

4. Personalization for Higher Conversions: Know Your Guests

Again, personalization starts with data. In addition to focusing on direct bookings, it’s also important to really know your guests and market. For example, guest demographics, weekend versus weekday, average booking window of the market, repeat versus loyal guests, and other data points can help hyper-personalize your email marketing. This personalization of offers will help increase conversions with guests who are already captive. This is guaranteed to optimize your property’s performance, versus outsourcing to more expensive commission-driven third parties.

Real Customer Example: The Sawridge Inn personalized this email by targeting all Sunday departures, inviting them to extend their stay to Monday for only $95 plus a complimentary breakfast.

5. Managing Online Reputation

The correlation between your online reputation and ADR may not be obvious, but your reputation is a driving force behind revenue. A good way to manage your online reputation is by benchmarking yourself against your competition. When deciding which hotel to book, your potential guests are not only comparing room rates but also how other guests reviewed their experiences. Pay close attention to their comments so you can make the proper improvements and investments. Responding to reviews also gives your hotel a voice and opportunity to differentiate. Revinate Guest Feedback makes it easy by displaying all your online reviews and post-stay surveys in one integrated, user-friendly platform.

Request a demo of Revinate Marketing today and start driving higher ADR tomorrow.