PreFitur Academy: Upgrades, upselling and cross-selling

The main source of income for a hotel is the sale of rooms. But we are not revealing the wheel by stating that it is not the only one and, depending on the hotel, the complementary services can make a very important contribution.

In addition, the moment of purchase can condition, and a lot, the choice of the guest at all levels. Thus, the type of room you choose, the diet that accompanies the accommodation or the additional services that complete the reservation will often be determined by the buyer's mental, economic and personal situation. It is not the same to book at the beginning of the month than to do it at the end, nor is it the same to book in January, when we have just made a large outlay during the Christmas season, than to do it in March. And what about the sun? We handle data that confirms that good weather translates into optimism and this favors the willingness to buy.

As we already saw in the "PreFitur Academy: Business Intelligence" webinar, the booking engine is a valuable source of information that can contribute, and a lot, to the success in developing our upselling and cross-selling strategies. For example, we can easily identify which boards or rooms are most in demand based on the market of origin, the lead time of our different targets, which segments are more likely to consume extras, etc., and based on all this data, propose actions that help us increase the value of reservations before, during and after the stay.

The moment chosen by the guest to book his vacation, his getaway or his business trip, is not the only sales opportunity that we must exploit and, the better we know him, the easier it will be to make him feel special and understood. Valdas Tverijonas, Key Account Manager, will talk about all this on Thursday, November 25, from 11:30 a.m., in the penultimate PreFitur Academy webinar, “Upselling, upgrades and cross-selling. We start in a while, which means you still have time to register.

How does it work?

Let's start by differentiating concepts to fully understand the topics that we will address in this new training session:

• Upselling: we offer the customer who has already booked a service the possibility of booking a better service. For example, if you have booked a Standard Double, we invite you to exchange it for a Superior, paying the difference. Or if you have chosen AD, we can try to get you to change the regime to MP.


• Cross-selling: we offer associated services to customers who have already booked a service at our hotel. For example, if you have already reserved a room, we can invite you to buy parking, a spa session or breakfast. Additional services, in other words. It is common to offer them in the second step of the reservation process, after choosing the room.


• Upgrade: we must understand upgrades as a type of offer, that is, a technique to encourage purchase and build loyalty, through which the guest will enjoy a better service than what they have paid for. We will be doing an upgrade if we leave you a Superior at the price of a Standard Double or we offer MP at the price of AD.

Therefore, in short, they are all marketing techniques that, according to a certain business rule, seek to increase the value of the reservation and the total income of the establishment. And, as we already mentioned, we can use them before the purchase (by communicating the promotions we have in force on our official website), during the purchase (in the step corresponding to the choice of additional services or through the implementation of active retargeting tools), during the stay (being the hotel staff, or some type of automated communication, in charge of offering a certain service), and even after it, as a loyalty mechanism, seeking to build a repeat guest profile.

With the Paraty Tech booking engine you can put these techniques into practice to sell what interests you the most, how and when it suits you best:

• Additional Services: you can use the second step of the booking process to upsell, cross-sell or upgrade. There is room for everything you want: from a box of chocolates, to the entrance to visit a monument, through a room or diet upgrade, a spa session, parking, theming, a transfer, etc. You decide what to sell, how far in advance, in what range of dates, at what price (per stay, person, night, free, etc.), the space available, etc.


• Newsletters: Take advantage of the segmentation of your database to offer each segment what you know they like. Newsletters are very effective for informing, but the opening and click rates improve a lot when you communicate offers or discounts. Make use of them to remember certain additional services available to you, but, above all, so that your potential guests can benefit from your promotions. Upgrades, for example, work very well in newsletters and their segmentation capacity is very high.


• Pre-Stay Email: probably the most effective resource at your disposal for upselling. You decide the periodicity of this shipment (7, 3 and 1 day(s) before arrival, for example), in which you can configure the additional services or upsellings that you consider appropriate. Thus, if the guest booked a Standard room in January, a few days before their stay, planned for July, you can suggest changing it for a Superior room, or invite them to complete it with an excursion. Probably, a few hours after enjoying your vacation, your mood is skyrocketing and you are more willing to spend.


• Birthday greeting email: we all love to be remembered on our birthday. Use the birthday greeting email to lower the price of a certain additional service (downselling) or offer an upgrade, via promocode, for the next reservation. Your guest will highly appreciate this initiative and will probably spend more when they stay at your hotel again.


• Online Check In: online check in, due to the Pandemic, has gained many followers, opening a new door for sales. Take advantage of the fact that your guest accesses your online check-in system to up-sell and cross-sell.


• Loyalty Clubs: you have gotten them to join your club, a great first step. Now you must take advantage of that segmentation to do preferential upselling and cross-selling. Reward loyalty to offer upgrades, additional services with limited availability or at a better price, etc. You can do it via login (once the guest is identified as a member of the club) or with a simple newsletter.

As you can see, the options are endless. During this training, we will not only tell you everything you can do, but we will teach you how to configure it yourself, so that you acquire the degree of autonomy that you demand. The benefits of implementing a good upselling and cross-selling strategy are many.

Benefits for the hotelier

Ultimately, upselling and cross-selling aim to increase the total revenue of the establishment. But there are more implicit benefits:

• Build loyalty: when applied properly, all these techniques will make your guest perceive your interest in improving their experience, encouraging them to repeat.


• Strengthen lines of business: launch new lines of business and use your direct channel to boost sales, helping to increase the value of reservations.


• Improve the guest experience: the more variety, richness and quality you are able to offer the guest, the better their experience in your establishment will be.


• Increase ADR: a correct upselling and cross-selling strategy will help you increase your ADR.


• Increase your revenue: the higher the ADR, the more total income. Exploit the profitability of your establishment.

Don't you have additional services? Remember to ask us about Transfers & Experiences, the latest member of the Paraty World family. Integrate your catalog of products and services with your booking engine and get ready to see how your income grows without worrying about anything: excursions, tickets, transfers, car rental, exclusive experiences, etc.

Do not miss the webinar "PreFitur Academy: Upgrades, upselling and cross-selling", on Thursday, November 25 from 11:30 a.m., with Valdas Tverijonas. Register now!