“Up-selling” is a sales technique that refers to convincing customers to increase the amount they are spending from their initial purchase. Think magazines or candy bars by the cashier at the grocery store. For hotels, up-selling comes in a variety of forms, from upgrading to a higher-value room, selecting a value-added service, or choosing a package.
To drive up-sells, timing matters. Unlike a grocery store, hoteliers have longer with their guests during which they can purchase additional services to enhance their stay. Up-selling is the process of improving RevPAG (revenue per available guest), the measurement of how much revenue you are making per guest, instead of per room.
Your hotel welcome email can drive upsells prior to their stay. And once they arrive, your front desk agents should be trained to offer up-sells at check-in.
Before they encounter any communication via email or on property, your hotel booking engine software should also be optimized to increase up-sell potential. The design and features of your booking engine have a significant impact on revenue. Your booking engine must be:
- Mobile-first, integrating all the features below into mobile view as well
- Powered by real-time data to increase accuracy
- Seamlessly integrate with your website
Here are some of the ways your hotel booking engine can promote up-sells.
Visualize Room upgrades
The way your booking engine displays room options should be easy and intuitive. When your future guest is dreaming about their getaway, they are comparing rooms. Make the difference in value between your rooms as clear as possible.
To help promote up-sells, the Fuel Booking Engine displays all available rooms with real-time data. We have designed the booking engine for comparison shopping. As you can see above, this includes:
- Highlighting large pictures of each room
- Giving clear opportunities to see more
- Displaying a compact view either list or gallery style, eliminating scrolling and making It easier to compare (especially important if you have a lot of room types)
Your booking engine should allow customers to see and read why they should upgrade their room. In the Fuel Booking Engine, you can write out a description for each room, and use the icons to break down the key facts that every potential guest wants to know.
If your booking engine makes it difficult to see the difference between your rooms, you are losing out on potential upsell revenue. It should take as few clicks as possible to see the value of room upgrades. An overly complicated interface is just one of the reasons you should consider switching your hotel booking engine.
Packages and add-ons
Other than room upgrades, packages and add-ons are the other key method to drive up-sell opportunities. You still have opportunities to prompt guests to consider them, either via email, hotel SMS marketing, or during their stay. But your booking engine should make these opportunities visible and convincing.
Here are the three basics of promoting packages and add-ons:
- Put them where guests expect them, such as alongside other rates
- Show the value (text and visuals)
- Tailor them to your target demographic
Some booking engines will display rate options and then have guests select from available rooms that match the selected rate. This is counter-intuitive to a guest’s shopping experience and will decrease the likelihood of them selecting an upgraded room. Instead, we put the room options front and center (see the example above) and then let them choose available rates.
Once a guest has selected their room and rate, we highly recommend creating tailored add-on services. Value-added services, such as parking, shuttles, romance packages, and so on, are an essential strategy to boost ADR.
To convince more customers, these services should seem enticing and not an after-thought. Some booking engines display small, hard-to-see images with little to no space for additional text.
Fuel’s Booking Engine knows the importance of visuals. We have space for large, relevant media, on both desktop and mobile versions, to help sell your packages as well as space to provide additional details. We display add-ons after the room has been selected but before booking.
Creating add-ons and building them in your booking engine is also a great way to boost guest satisfaction. Let guests feel like they are building a custom experience at your hotel, even if you have only a few amenities to work with.
A booking engine designed to increase RevPAR & RevPAG
With all these features and more, the Fuel Booking Engine is designed to increase direct revenue. The booking engine integrates with our full suite of hotel marketing and e-commerce solutions. Boost direct revenue with our booking engine, white label app for hotels, and guest messaging system.
Get in touch today to see how we can help your hotel or hotel group.
