Winning Repeat Guests: Strategies for Sustainable Occupancy

As a hotel, once you have won over a guest, you have already mastered most of the journey. Or so you might think. However, the ability to plan for occupancy in the medium to long term through loyal repeat guests is of central importance to hotels. Without the guest feeling pressured by hotel marketing, how can this be achieved?

Influence the decision in a positive way

The trick for hotels is to stay in the guest's mind. This is achieved primarily through ongoing communication - a newsletter here, a blog post there, and a social media post there. However, high frequency alone is not enough to turn a one-time guest into a repeat or even a regular. It all depends on the content the hotel shares. This content should not be exclusively sales-oriented. On the contrary, the guest should be able to derive added value from the content.

Possible topics include

• The best tips for city XY
• This is a must-have for any city trip
• Traveling with children - what to consider
• Car or train - what is the best way to get there?
• Adding a spa to the hotel - great offers for regular guests

By providing this type of information, you make it easier for your guests to decide where to stay, because they no longer have to do the research themselves. Of course, this content must be tailored to the current stage of the customer journey so that the guest feels truly engaged.

Stay in touch

There are different estimates of how many times you as a company need to touch a potential customer before they make a positive decision. Experts agree that a minimum of six different touchpoints are necessary. Some marketers even talk about up to 20 communication points before a one-time guest becomes a repeat guest. Therefore, it is important to target communication at the different stages of the customer journey. This requires an accurate analysis of the guest's previous behavior to make marketing as natural as possible.