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Winning the holiday rush: Last-minute moves that convert
The Black Friday, Cyber Monday (BFCM), and Travel Tuesday rush has arrived, and so has the opportunity to capture last-minute demand. In our webinar, “Winning the holiday rush: Last-minute moves that convert,” we shared proven outbound strategies to drive room and ancillary revenue during the busiest time of year.
You’ll hear how leading hoteliers unlocked new streams of revenue through upsells, packages, and on-property experiences. Walk away with actionable tactics you can apply right away to maximize every booking opportunity and finish the holiday season stronger than ever.
On demand
Meet your hosts

Anisha Yadav, VP Customer and Product Marketing, Revinate

Angela Berkey, Senior Director, Reservation Sales & CRM, CoralTree Hospitality

Melissa McMullin, Product Marketing Manager, Revinate
What you’ll learn
Proven outbound strategies to capture last-minute demand and fill rooms fast
How to drive more ancillary revenue opportunities through upsells, add-ons, and holiday packages
Tips to maximize outbound efforts across channels to convert more guests
Proven outbound strategies to capture last-minute demand and fill rooms fast
How to drive more ancillary revenue opportunities through upsells, add-ons, and holiday packages
Tips to maximize outbound efforts across channels to convert more guests
You everybody for logging in today. We are just giving you the a couple more minutes for folks to log in, so we will start our session shortly. Thank you again. Okay. So let's get started. Thank you for joining us. This is our third webinar of the Black Friday Cyber Monday series. Super excited to have some special guests with us today. So our topic today continues to be on the holiday theme. So I know everybody is prepping their campaigns and getting ready for Black Friday, Cyber Monday. So today, we're gonna focus on some last minute moves that you can kind of implement, tactics that you can have for your properties to really move that conversion across your property campaigns and look at some more examples from our special guest on our session today. Okay. So quick introductions. I'm Anisha Yadav, and I lead product and customer marketing at Revenate. I'm really excited to have Angela Berkey join us, and I'll let her introduce herself. Hello, everyone. My name is Angela Berkey, and I am the senior director of reservation sales and CRM for Coral Tree Hospitality. And super excited to be here, so thank you. Awesome. Melissa, you wanna go next? Yeah. I am Melissa McMullen. I'm a product marketing manager at Revenate, and I work on our voice products, reservation sales, and Resforce. K. Thank you so much, ladies. Super excited. So before we get started, quick housekeeping items to keep in mind. So all attendees are on mute, so you can use the chat panel to ask questions, and we do have some time saved at the end. If you don't get your question today, we'll make sure we respond to you via email. We are recording this session, and we will share a recording of the session and the the content that we're presenting right after the session is done. So thank you again for joining, and let's look at our agenda. So we have lots to cover today. We'll kick off with some industry trends. We'll see what's happening in the market and why is it relevant for today's session as well. We look at some of the outbound strategies that Angela is gonna share from her experience, her extensive experience in the industry, so we'll look at that. We look at some examples specific to revenue opportunities to answer the aspect of the business, so not just rooms. What are we seeing across our customers that's really driving the revenue for them? And lastly, we have some time saved for questions. So keep keep your questions coming in the chat, and we'll get to them at the end of the session. So with that, let's kick off with some industry trends. These shouldn't be new. Some of the things that we've been reading at Revonade specific to what's happening in the market. So the first one talks about McKinsey and Company. They came out with it. It's it's about personalization. We've heard a lot about that. Through webinars like these and industry sessions as well, there's a lot of focus on not just, you know, one size that fits all, but really understanding where your guests are coming from, who are these micro segments that's actually converting for your properties. So making sure you understand their booking behavior, their spend pattern, what is it that that's actually driving that demand for your property. And the second trend from Deloitte speaks to how do you activate that data. Right? So they're seeing a shift in in market shares really investing in in those technologies that help them activate that data. And from Deloitte specifically, they also call about more trips are happening. Customers are taking longer trips, so guests are booking longer stays. And it's really the experience that's moving the needle. So it's not so much about the destination, but that one coffee shop in Spain that was trending on TikTok, that's driving the demand to that city or that destination. So it's really about the experience that's moving the needle for for our guests. And lastly, from CoStar, this was big at the hotel data conference in Nashville as well. We are seeing a shift in experiential travel, and that's making our commercial leaders think through that lens too. So what else can they do to really move that total RevPAR for the property and think about the packages, the experiences that they can deliver that can move the conversion for their hotel? So we'll talk a bit about that in a bit as well. So just wanted to share that out. Angela, any comment on the trends that you're seeing? Yeah. I mean, we are definitely seeing those trends as well, and we've really leaned in, this year in twenty twenty five into our guest journey. So really thinking through what unique experiences can we provide our guests, for everything from prebooking all the way through departure. And I think, you know, what other partners, you know, can we what can we post experientially on our web sites that give our guests a reason to visit are really key factors, and it's gonna really be a focus moving forward. Right. And I think also, like, thinking through, like, not just the property, but the destination, like said. What are the other activities and events happening in the city that you're in and weaving that into your communication across the guest touch points? So, I think taking that a step further, what we're looking at now on this slide is data from CoStar again, speaking about food and beverage revenue growing really fast compared to rooms. Again, the purple bar represents a revenue per available room, and the green bar kind of shows you the food and beverage revenue. So if you see that year to date, so I think this is published in September of this year, twenty twenty five, we're seeing an uplift of about twenty percent already in food and beverage revenue. And like we'll see in the next slide as well, with FIFA coming in next year, there will be more demand into this experience and food and beverage element of it. So further in twenty twenty six, that that line should be going, further again upwards. Again, some other other data and themes that we're seeing from EHLA here that talks about same expediential travel, food and beverage, That's really gonna drive the needle and making sure that your operations team, your GMs have those technologies to deliver the experience that you are promising in the forefront. Sustainability and cleanliness is obviously number one for hotels as well. And then understanding the preferences and the buying behavior of this new Gen z and mill millennials is gonna influence a lot of your activation experiences at the property level. So, again, understanding the experiences and also having the technology and tools to deliver those experiences on property is gonna be key. And super excited again. So these dates are out. I think all hoteliers in the industry have been watching it very closely already. We're seeing an uptick of about forty eight percent in ADR for destinations where the FIFA games are happening. So you see those plotted here on the map. So FIFA is gonna be in all of these host cities. So on the right, we've kind of mapped out the dates where important dates to watch out. So I think you're a commercial leader, you wanna make sure you're tracking these dates for your cities and really preparing for the experiences that you can deliver at your property and how can you monetize the wallet share for all of the guests or all of the fans that are gonna be in the cities as well. Okay. So with that, I'll pass on to you, Angela, to talk us through some of the outbound strategies for CoralTree. Thank you so much, Anisha. Really appreciate that intro. Coraltree really leans into the outbound revenue initiatives. And I think before we get started, it's important to know what we utilize for the revenue products first and foremost. So, of course, we use, revenue sales platform, which is key to really understanding the leads, what our guests are looking for, getting that Yummy revenue data both for bookings and not booking nonbookings so that we know what's working and what's not, as well as the CRM. This is very key for us. We recently went all in, this year with revenue for our CRM for independent properties, and that's gonna be really great because it's gonna go hand in hand with that reservation sales product. And then finally, we do utilize the revenue surveys, which is key as well now that the CDP is coming along and we're all installed, and we'll talk about that in a little bit. But those are the three products that we really use, and we feel, very grateful to be partners with Revenue to help us mix be successful. That's awesome. And so, before we dive into those cyber sales and travel Tuesday trends, I think it's important to highlight the everyday outbound initiatives, which will make us successful throughout the entire year. So these are the three areas that we really think of for day to day outbound. The first one is, the Resforce leads that come back to us. So, again, utilizing Revenue, Resforce for our overflow partners. We do see Resforce as an extension of our team. So if Resforce isn't able to book something, they will push that lead back to us. We're able to do that outbound call. We really see these as our warmest leads and our best opportunity because there's been a recent conversation. And so this is probably, I would say, a good fifty percent of of the importance of outbound. And then moving on to nonbooked leads from the previous day. Here, it's really important to be lockstep with our revenue management team. Oftentimes, there's some kind of hurdle and some reason why we weren't able to book it. It could be a minimum length of stay. It could be a pricing, you know, yielding decision. So really working with revenue to say, okay. How do we remove this roadblock? That becomes our opaque strategy. And so the public doesn't necessarily see it, but we're able to close that sale and also help the guest. And we want them to stay with us, so it's kind of a win win there. Yeah. And, you know, finally, our inventory, openings that might happen are pattern management. So I know there are stories all over about, you know, a group wash and then what happens with that. So we recently, Hotel Polaris, which is here in Colorado Springs, had group wash. They immediately started dialing for dollars, as I say, and we're able to help fill those rooms in conjunction with the front desk team. We had a perfect sell. So it's a great example of, you know, how we can really ensure that we're we're optimizing any wash that might happen and also opening up patterns, you know, on our in our tape chart. So if we just move a few things around, will that open up some additional opportunities for us to outbound and, of course, optimize our business? Yeah. No. That's a great example. And I think we also have another customer here in San Francisco, similar story, group wash. And it was for in the week for the week and similar to your example, Andrew, they were able to kind of activate their reservation sales team and also did, like, an email campaign for that softer Monday, which was a need period for them within the five days that was approaching in. So great example of having tools that you can use to kind of be agile to the changes in your on property, occupancy and implement these campaigns to fill like you said, dial dial for the rooms and get that demand in for your properties. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I'm glad everybody's using that. Everybody should be using it if they're not. Should be. Exactly. Yeah. So we really you know, I think these are the next kind of things to think about here. Repeat guests, of course, our most loyal guests. We really like to look at them as their own segment, if you will. You know, have they rebooked? So looking at, you know, what their booking anniversary is, have they rebooked already for for this coming year or for a need period. And if that hasn't happened, yet, that's a great opportunity to say, okay, team. Here's here's a contest or here's an incentive to go after, see if we can get those reservations booked. And then busy season, of course. Sometimes here, it's not so much as a discount, although sometimes it can be. But busy season really is, are we calling the guests that booked last year and offering them the courtesy to book that inventory before it sells out? So we wanna give them that preferred opportunity, to book, and those guests feel recognized and seen and heard. So that can be, very successful. We don't want them to miss out, if you will. And then, of course, our cyber sales, which is going on right now for most of us. And so I think, you know, taking a look really at the segments here And seeing, are we segmenting out our highest value guests, and do we treat that guest a little bit differently? So this can be a great opportunity to do some kind of outbound initiative, before a cyber sale goes public or to you know, what does our communication look like on a marketing standpoint here? Again, just how are we leaning into that highest value guest? And, so that's that can be a good success strategy. And then post stay. So because we use the revenue survey, platform, we're really excited now with the CDP to start pulling in some additional, you know, numbers. So, like, for example, if NPS is a one to ten scale, you know, we might communicate, whether it's an outbound call or a marketing campaign with a ten, which is our highest score differently than if somebody gives us a five or a six. That might warrant a phone call or a different kind of communication. So I think having that, integration is gonna be really key for us moving forward. Right. It's almost like the loyalty play for for your portfolio where it's not so much about the points and the redemption and the status. It's like, how do you deliver that experience and how do you kind of vary your communication for your promoters versus your detractor and going that extra step for folks who are having a bad experience and how you turn that around through exclusive offers, knowing what they've spent at your portfolio before. So I love that. Exactly. Exactly. And, of course, what makes us all successful is the what's in it for me. So I think this is really key for our team members when we're thinking about this. And, the first kind of bullet here is incentives. And I think, you know, this is really important, you know, to build confidence with their teams. Not everybody is a salesperson. And so and and outbound sales just doesn't come naturally for a big percent of, humans. So I think really leaning into an incentive a a profitable incentive program for our team is important. And here too, you know, just sharing some bruises I've had over the years, making sure there's some gatekeepers in there. So, you know, do we have an inbound conversion goal? Do we have a measurement to ensure that, you know, call results aren't being, you know, gamified, if you will? Making sure that we're auditing those, is really key here. You don't want, you know, an agent to, you know, basically book an inbound call and then say, let me call you back for that credit card. Right. You know, we wanna make sure that it's legitimately an outbound sale because it's tough. And then I think rewarding on what the agents want, what motive you know? So we know that with, our upcoming Gen Z into the workplace that they're not everybody's motivated by money. Sometimes it's things like an extra PTO day or, being able to pick their schedule, or maybe it's like a fun high-tech desk chair that they can have, whether it's in the office or at home. You know? It could be something as simple as that. And then, of course, money, that's you know, that can still be a a big motivator, but I think it's important to understand what's gonna motivate your team to to do this. And then kind of along with that, of course, is the contest. So thinking, you know, is it just is it an individual contest? Is it a team contest? Is there some kind of overall goal? Those are important things to consider. So really key there. And then recognition. Kind of going along with the incentive piece, it's, you know, what, how do we how does our team like to be recognized? Yeah. So not everybody likes to be recognized in public. So ensuring we really understand that and then meeting, you know, how they you know, kind of their love language. So how do they feel loved is important here. So things recognition can be, you know, at a a manager meeting or something like that, or it could be something as small as the GM dropping a thank you note, to the team member that can be more mean meaningful. And then finally, gamification. So how do we make it fun? We have a, it's not really a reservations, example, but we currently in our in our northeast have a team for front desk upsells where they're doing, bingo. And so there's different things that they can do to win, and there's, like, tears that happen when you get, you know, diagonal or crossways. And so that's just a fun thing I've seen, you know, monopoly reservations monopoly where they move around a board. And as you get you know, achieve certain, you know, things, you get different, incentives. And then, you know, same thing with, like everybody's seen, like, the big wheel award wheel where you can spin it and you can get it online in, like, Amazon or whatever. And so as team members achieve certain goals, they can spin the wheel and, you know, they have a chance to win a gift card or, you know, lunch with the GM or whatever it is. You can get really fun and creative around that. Love those ideas. It's it's amazing to keep your team motivated, and I'm sure your retention's pretty high as well with all of these initiatives. Yeah. I think that's a really good you know, a really big piece here is that Yeah. You know, retention and you know, man, it's a tough job market out there. We want we want the best of the best, so that's a really key point, Anisha. That's awesome. Yeah. Great. Thank you, Angela. Yeah. Well, for this next section, I'd like to cover ways that you can maximize your ancillary revenue through upsells, packages, and on property experiences. So we're gonna take a look at some examples we've seen with our customers and throughout the industry as well. So the examples I'm gonna go over, they're meant to be omnichannel. So you can do these through email campaigns, voice campaigns, even both if you want to, and you might want to. So ways to enhance the room through attribute based tactics. You've already got the reservation, so think through how can you maximize that revenue. Maybe you have some room types that are available for upgrade, or you have an open room with a mountainside view or an oceanside view. These are great ways to upsell to current reservations through email or through your reservations team with an outbound call. Or perhaps with your data, you know you have a family with small children that has a stay coming up. So why not send them an offer with interconnecting rooms? These are awesome great ways that you can think through on how to maximize your revenue with frames rooms that you already have available. And then another way to enhance the stay is with experience tactics. So these are focusing on total RevPAR, not just room RevPAR. So think about the amenities that you have on your property and and how can you take advantage of them and create campaigns that focus on with your golf course, your spa treatments, or even adventure experiences like horseback riding? Yeah. And I think to add to what we were chatting about before on the whole experience with FIFA coming into your destinations to start thinking through, like Melissa said, the experience that you can deliver, and it's gonna be really competitive in the market. So how do you stand out with so much demand coming in to your cities is is gonna be through experiences with on property and also the what the city is offering. So thinking through that, and hopefully, you've already thought through it because it's it's pretty much approaching really fast. So it's gonna be a lot of international travelers too. So thinking through what what do you need from a food and beverage experience to cater to that international demand too and and making sure those those, you know, talk tracks and messagings are shared across the website, your email campaigns. And like Angela said, your reservation sales team also knows exactly what's going on so they can speak to that on their calls too. And then ways to enhance the ease with your guests. So think about convenience and comfort tactics that you can do. So you can also use these offers on your checkout page, in addition to your email and voice campaigns. If you're collecting your guest data through the lead form and reservation sales, target those guests that you know have an early flight. You might wanna offer them an early check-in or a transfer from the airport if you have that available, or create a fun upsell package for their pet. If you have a pet friendly room, offer that to them with a dog bed and milk bones upon check-in. You never wanna underestimate how much pet parents wanna spoil their pets. So think through some creative ideas that you have that you can use to maximize that revenue. And finally, enhance the celebration of your guests that you have coming. So with the holidays coming up, Christmas, and New Years, why not offer a bottle of champagne delivered to their room as an upsell package? Or if you have a guest that you know is coming to celebrate a birthday, send them an email, have your reservations team call, offer them an upgrade package to have a fun dessert delivered to their room, or to book a reservation at a restaurant you have on-site to help continue to celebrate that day for them. So we've reached, the end of our webinar, and I hope you guys have been able to take away some great ideas and best practices. I wanna thank Angela again for joining us and and giving us some ways that she's seeing success with CoralTree. And just to, recap the takeaways for you. So your unbooked inbound calls are missed, potential revenue if you aren't following up. So don't let a chance for direct revenue pass you by just because they didn't book on that first call. Capture the notes in your lead form and then use your follow-up and outbound campaigns to get those second chance bookings. Secondly, think of creative ways to motivate your reservations team to drive outbound revenue. So Angela shared some great ways that she motivates her team. And think of the ways that, you know, who you have on staff, what motivates them. Give them a chance to shine, and then reward them for it. And then finally, go beyond the room by creating compelling packages and upsell opportunities. So, again, don't forget about your ancillary revenue. Think beyond that room and create special upsell packages based on all the wonderful things your property has to offer. So I know Anisha has a couple of things to share with everyone, and then we will open it up for questions. Thanks, Melissa. So, yeah, kind of recapping everything that we've shared so far in the past couple of months, we've been planning towards Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and making sure our customers and hotels are prepared for it. So this is a one stop page with everything that we've presented so far. All the examples, success stories, like Angela shared hers, we've moored that's on on this web page. So it's revenue dot com slash b f c m. And we'll continue to update this between now and the holiday season with more examples, more thought leadership that we're seeing in the industry. So make sure you're on this page and check out all of the examples and get inspired and really, you know, making sure that you guys can get the best value of what we're seeing from market trend perspectives as as well. And the next is a shout to navigate. So this is our annual customer conference. So we're gonna be at the Wigwam in Arizona from April fourteenth through sixteenth. We just launched our, our registration page, so make sure you check out this link as well. And this is your if you haven't attended navigate before, I know Angela has, this is our three day event. We will start with education day, which will be led by our education team. So really going deep into all our products and how tos and learning more about our solutions. So you can definitely come prepared with your questions as well. And the last two days, which is the main conference day, is focused with thought leaders. We've had Mackenzie, Deloitte before. We have Star signed up already this year too. So talking through similar market data and trends that we're seeing. And we have customer led main stage sessions, breakouts, a lot of information that's shared. So I wanna make sure that we share this early. I know it's we are in November, but the tickets do get sold out pretty fast. And we have an early bird right now. So make sure you check out the page and make sure you are factoring this into your twenty twenty six budgets as well. And with that, Melissa, let's look at some of the questions. Yeah. Let's see. Here's here's one for Angela. So, Angela, how how is your team prepping for Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Well, we definitely have been doing some homework. So I think, there's a few things. The first one being that, ensuring that the reservations team, is aware of the offer. Even better yet is if our reservation teams can be, kinda given a sneak peek of the offer, the terms and conditions. I think, our teams that are on the front line have valuable feedback for our marketing teams before we launch something. So that feedback can be incredibly helpful before a launch. And then utilizing, I think, the revenue platform. So when we're creating those campaigns, in that campaign phone number, ensuring we're dropping in the URL with the actual offer, that helps both our on-site teams and overflow team with Resforce so that everybody has the most relevant information. Those are two really key things that I think will help set us up, and things that we prepare for. Yeah. I think that's super important. Making sure all teams are on the same page, everybody know what the offer is, just really help ease that guest experience. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. And I think to add to that, I think what we're seeing with other hotels too, is starting early. So we're seeing a lot of our hotels have started their exclusive early access sales already, going live with, you know, segmenting that to your top spenders, your loyal guests, and making that cadence kind of begin early on so that by the time you come to Black Friday, Cyber Monday and we all get those campaigns, inboxes get really cluttered. So starting early helps kind of stand out in in that clutter and competitive environment and get that reservation for your property early on. Yeah. I think I you know, just to add on to that, I absolutely agree. And I think it goes back to to some of the things that we talked about is, you know, when you are segmenting, does the your highest value, you know, guests, are they the ones that just we're gonna send them the same generic email, or does that strategy look different? And and to your point, Anisha, I mean, we've already launched, many of our properties. Those have been sent out. Yeah. And, you know, we wanna stand out from the crowd, so we just don't wanna be another email on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Exactly. Yeah. Alright. I know we are coming up to the to the end of our webinar here. So just one more question. This is a good one too. So, Angela, in twenty twenty five, what has been the most successful outbound initiative your team has seen? Yeah. I'm, pretty excited to share this one. It's currently in progress. So there's, three phases to it. I won't give up the property or the total amount, but I will tell you that their strategy was a little bit different, in that they wanted to put, reservations on the books for next summer, but start now. So, they sent out a a snail mail postcard, to their most loyal repeat guests that stay during that time period and said, we'll be calling you. And then divided that into the three phases. And so now that agent that sent out that corresponding postcard, is following up with that that guest. So phase one has already produced almost six figures for us, which has been very successful. We've been celebrating it all week, and I probably I think our teams are probably tired of me talking about it. It's really a best practice. And so now we'll we're rolling into phase two and phase three, and we'll we'll see what happens. So, hope to have some updated numbers to share with you all when we have them. That's awesome. Awesome. Congrats. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. So I think with that, we're coming to the end of our session, and I see some more questions in the chat. So we will make sure to respond to these questions by tomorrow. And thank you again for being part of this three part series of our Black Friday summer Monday prep, and wish you all the very best for for Black Friday sales. And like I said, we have the resource page live. We will keep it updated through end of this year with more examples and success stories, so make sure you check it out. And hope to see you back in our follow-up webinars. Thank you again for joining us. Thank you.
Winning the holiday rush: Last-minute moves that convert
The BFCM and Travel Tuesday rush is here. Join this webinar to learn proven last-minute strategies that drive bookings, upsells, and on-property revenue, all before the peak season ends.

Anisha Yadav, VP Customer and Product Marketing, Revinate

Angela Berkey, Senior Director, Reservation Sales & CRM, CoralTree Hospitality

Melissa McMullin, Product Marketing Manager, Revinate
Winning the holiday rush: Breaking through the BFCM inbox
The BFCM and Travel Tuesday rush is here. Join this webinar to learn proven last-minute strategies that drive bookings, upsells, and on-property revenue, all before the peak season ends.

Anisha Yadav, VP Customer and Product Marketing, Revinate

Angela Berkey, Senior Director, Reservation Sales & CRM, CoralTree Hospitality

Melissa McMullin, Product Marketing Manager, Revinate
Hotel Moment
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