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Different Kinds of Emails Hotels Should Send To Guests

by Increase MyClientsin Emails, MarketingLeave a Comment on Different Kinds of Emails Hotels Should Send To Guests

Email marketing is one of the best ways to keep in touch with your hotel guests. But how do you do it properly? There has to be some reason to send an email to your guests. If you just send emails without rhyme or reason, it will look odd and eventually the guests may lose interest and may not check out your mails.

In this article let us give some ideas of what kinds of emails you should be sending your guests at different stages. If you employ this strategy you can establish a strong communication with the guests and open the pathways for long term relationship.

Pre-Stay Emails:

1. Reservation Confirmation: This is an automated email that should be sent as soon as someone books a room at your hotel. The purpose of this emal is to confirm and reassure the guest that the reservation was successful. This is a kind of acknowledgement from the hotel which can provide the guest with a peace of mind that the booking has been done and their credit card information is safe with the hotel management.

2. Thank You: This is a personalized message which should have a friendly, warm tone. In this email you thank the guest for booking room with you and giving you chance to serve them. You should mention that you look forward to hosting them and providing them a pleasant and memorable stay.

This email should ideally be sent a day after the confirmation email. This email creates a warm feeling in the guests and can make them excited.

3. Preparation, Preference & Reminder: As the guest stay draws near, you send them an email to make sure everything is in order. In this email you can remind them of their check-in and check-out times, inform them of all the documents they need to carry with them, and any other terms and conditions that you want them to be aware of.

Use this email to learn more about the guest – their preferences, if they have any allergies, etc. There is an excellent opportunity to upsell or cross-sell them in this email. You can upsell your extra products or services.

Post Stay Emails:

1. Feedback Request: After the stay is over, you should always ask your guest for feedback and suggestions. Whether the guest had a pleasant or an unpleasant stay, don’t miss the feedback request. Even if you know the feedback is not going to be good, you will at least have information of what the guest felt like and what changes or improvements you can make to improve your hotel service.

If they leave a positive review, kindly ask them if you can use their review for marketing purpose. Usually they will say yes. You could even forward them links to popular online hotel review sites and ask them to kindly leave a short review at all or some of these websites.

If they leave a negative review, still thank them and assure them that you will take necessary steps so that such a problem does not happen again in future.

2. Promotions and Offers: Hotels should try to drive repeat bookings. An excellent way to do this is to stay in periodic touch with previous guests who have stayed at your hotel. You can send them promotional and discount offers from time to time. These offers will serve as a reminder of your hotel and could also entice them to book with you again in order to avail the discounted rates.

You could send them seasonal promotions or special offers that are only for selected people who have stayed at your hotel earlier.

Why Hotels Should Capture Their Guests Emails

by Increase MyClientsin Emails, MarketingLeave a Comment on Why Hotels Should Capture Their Guests Emails

Emails can be a powerful marketing and revenue-boosting tool for hotels. Capturing guest data including their email addresses and phone numbers has become critical part of hotel marketing strategy. Email is one of the most important communication channels with the hotel guests.

Even with the growing usage of smartphones and messaging apps like Whatsapp, Telegram, etc, email still remains number one chanel for engaging with users. In fact the popularity and usage of email communication has shown a steady increase year by year.

Some of the reasons for the popularity of email communication are:

– People can check their emails and reply at their own convenience. When they get a phone call they have to receive it then and there whereas in case of email they can choose to reply at a later time that is convenient for them.

– Many of the hotel guests may be from different countries and different time zones. So email is the preferred mode of communication with such people.

– Email communication is free whereas phone calls can cost money. As a major portion of a hotel’s guests are likely to be from a foreign country, it is not economically feasible for the hotel to keep making phone calls to these guests as the costs can add up to substantial figures.

– Emails are a form of non-pressure communication. The guests don’t feel as big a pressure when they receive an email as they feel when they get a phone call. The guests do not have to reply immediately to emails which is not the case with phone calls.

Due to the above mentioned reasons, emails form a big part of business communication with customers. This is true with most businesses, but more so in the hospitality and travel industries.

So hotels should not be neglectful of capturing email addresses of their guests for future communications. Email marketing is one of the most popular and highly effective mediums of marketing. It is a great way to stay in touch with your guests in a non-intrusive way.

You can send periodic emails to the customers; you can send reminders or promotional offers, discount coupons, etc; Effective email marketing starts the moment a person books room at your hotel. You should look forward to building and nurturing a long term relationship with each of your guests, long after their stay has ended.

An award winning hotelier has revealed that pre-arrival emails are very effective at cross-selling addon services. Pre-arrival emails are those which you send before the guest comes to stay at your hotel.

Guests emails can be a goldmine for your business if you know how to harness maximum benefit out of them. However capturing email addresses is just the first step and there are lot more things to do. You need a good PMS and other software applications in order to store those emails and contact the guests at regular intervals. A good PMS or CRS application will keep track of all the email communication. You can check AIO’s feature-rich and affordable PMS which could help boost your business substantially.

How to Capture Maximum Emails: 

Train the Staff – You need to educate the staff on the importance of capturing emails. Ask them to recheck emails by repeating them to customers.

Ask for Limited Information – Don’t give out long forms to guests to fill out as that can make them frustrated. Nobody likes filling out long forms. Try to ask for information that is relevant and important, like the email address and other critical data.

Confirm Reservation By Email – Whenever guests register a room online or on phone, send confirmation through email. This way you can ensure that the guests are providing you a valid and working email id.

Tips to Write Great Content for Your Hotel Website

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Many hoteliers are clueless about what to do next after they develop their website. They have heard or read about the importance of building a website. They probably noticed most of their competitors have their own websites up and running, so they thought if they don’t develop a website they may be left far behind in the race. So they finally decide jump in.

However, developing a website is just the first step in a long, arduous journey which you need to undertake. Just slapping together a few pages and publishing it online may not do you much good.

Remember this – in the online world, content is the king! If you don’t have proper content on the website, you may not be able to go far. Let us give some pointers about how to publish amazing content for your hotel website.

– Good content is all about details: The more in-depth, informative and detailed the content the better it may perform. If the content you publish is very informative, useful and comprehensive it may get lot of social shares and likes. People who read it will see you as an authority figure in this industry. You can gain lot of recognition, trust and fame by publishing well-researched, in-depth content that covers a topic from many angles.

– The titles are very important: Whatever content you publish, you need to make sure you give it a great headline. Title is the first part of the content which the users see. If the title does not interest them or arouse their curiosity they may not even read the rest of the page. So the title should be enticing and interesting.

– Titles should not be misleading: The rest of the content should deliver on the promise of the title. Whatever you promise in the title should be fulfilled in the content. If the content fails to deliver on the promise, it will turn out to be a big disappointment for the readers. Title is like a promise which the rest of the content fulfils. If the title reads ’10 Tips to Travel on a Budget’, make sure the content covers 10 tips, otherwise readers are going to feel misled and annoyed.

– Organize the content: Make sure the content is properly organized and is easy to read. Remember that web content is usually written for the general public – the layman. It should be easy to read and understand. Avoid using difficult words. Organize the content in topics and subtopics. Use subheadings, pictures and bullet points in order to make the content look organized and easy on the eyes.

– Make the content laser-targeted: Make the content targeted to a specific audience. If your content is not directed to any particular user, it is unlikely to perform well. So decide beforehand who are the people to whom you are addressing with a particular blog post, video or article.

We shall be providing more tips and suggestions on writing awesome content for your hotel websites, stay tuned!

AIO Online Hotel Room Booking System

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Booking engine that helps you earn more. More and more people are prefering to avoid human interactions whether it is during room booking or during check-in or check-out. The more operations that can be automated the better.

Automation will help not only in minimizing human contact, it will also help in providing faster and seamless user experience. There will no longer be any need to wait in long queues. Human errors or mistakes can be minimized as there is minimal human involvement.

Modern day guests expect and demand more. They want better experience, pleasant engagement, faster reaction, higher flexibility. People are busy and have limited time, so they want faster service.

People also like ease of use. They want to be able to check out hotel rooms information whenever they want. They want the information about a hotel available to them at their fingertips at any time of the day or night so that they can search and book a room whenever they want through their mobile or laptop.

Hotels which do not provide such facility to users are likely to miss out a huge and growing percentage of hotel guests. Recent surveys conducted by various business organizations point to the fact that growing number of people are prefering to book rooms online without the need for human contact.

So it is very important for hotels to provide an online hotel room booking system that is simple, user-friendly, convenient, fast, reliable, secure and has got all the required features that people expect! Thankfully AIO Hospitality provides such an excellent online booking engine and associated software applications that do the job!

Our prices are highly reasonable and affordable. We have feature rich applications built for the hospitality sector. Our applications are suited for all kinds of hotels ranging from small motels and lodges to big hotel chains.

You can connect your hotel booking engine with channel manager, PMS and with GDS/IDS. The GDS/IDS can connect your hotel to 650,000+ travel agents and 2000+ OTAs. Contact us to know more about the AIO hotel room booking system solution!

Survey Results – 90% Prefer App Rather Than Human Interaction

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Software solutions provider Metova has conducted a survey of 1000 people in USA in 2020. The survey involved those people who have stayed at a hotel or resort in the past 2 years. They found that most people are hesitant to interact with humans and would much rather prefer to do their operations through a mobile app.

Nearly 90% people said they prefer hotels to have a mobile app which would let them manage all activities related to their stay without the need to interact with another human being.

This is a profound revelation which has come to light after this survey. The post-Covid world is likely to be very different than the one we have been used to. Almost every area of our life is going to be different. Businesses have to adapt to the changing world, specially the hospitality and travel industries.

If any hotel has been neglectful of integrating technology, now is the time to jump right in otherwise you may be left far behind. Hotels need to develop a fully functional website which has a booking engine integrated so that guests can book rooms online. Not just website, but hotels would also need to develop mobile apps which allow users to manage most of the tasks related to their stay.

Automating as many tasks as possible and reducing human interaction seems to be the key. If your hotel does not have a mobile app or a website, you may stand to lose nearly 90% customers because they would prefer some other hotel which has a website and app.

80% Hotel Guests Are Likely To Download App to Check In and Out

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As per a latest research from hotel technology solution provider Criton, 80% of hotel guests are likely to download a mobile app that would help them to get information about a hotel, book room online and allow check-in, check-out.

This research has pointed out a growing trend among travelers and hotel guests. They no longer prefer public kiosks nor would they prefer human interaction. Doing all these operations through a mobile app can be much more convenient and safe for the guests.

The research has revealed some very interesting facts:

  • Around 62% people said they prefer check-in and check-out through a mobile app while 30% said they prefer to do it through a webpage
  • Only 8% people revealed they would check in or out through a public kiosk
  • Almost 80% people revealed they were willing to download and install a mobile app which would provide all information about a hotel and allow them to book online
  • 48% people said they are likely to stay at a hotel if they had an option to order food through an app

Hotel management has to deeply ponder the findings of this research. It shows how important it has become for hotels to have an online website and a mobile app. If you don’t have an app or website, you may lose a huge chunk of people who will go to some other hotel which has these features.

Hotels can no longer ignore website and app, nor can they ignore having an online presence and doing digital marketing. These things assume more importance in the post-pandemic era. If you are serious about your hotel business then you should have a decent website with booking engine integrated, preferably along with a mobile app. You should also build your presence on social media sites so that potential guests can find you.

Good PMS Software – An Urgent Need of All Hotels

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A good property management system (PMS) plays an important part in the success of a hotel. A good PMS system will make the front desk workflow easy and smooth, paving the way for a seamless guest experience.

Gone are the days when hotels could ignore the use of technology and run their business the traditional way which they had been accustomed to from decades. In today’s time and age if you don’t embrace technology and make it an integral part of your business you may suffer huge consequences.

Those hotels which have a good PMS system enjoy numerous benefits such as:

Efficiency of Operations – In today’s fast paced world, business operations are quite complex and can take lot of time to complete, requiring the involvement of numerous staff members. However, the use of PMS can automate a lot of these tasks, freeing up the staff to focus on the guests and provide them a better service.

Save Time & Manpower – Hotels can save lot of time and manpower when they integrate a PMS system. Earlier if there was a need for 10 people to do certain tasks, that could be reduced to 5 or lesser people with the use of PMS application. Hotels may need to employ fewer people and thus save lot of money. Deployment of PMS not only saves time and labor, it also makes the work more efficient, error-free and effective.

Streamlining Bookings – Guests don’t need to wait in long queues or check-ins or check-outs. PMS systems help the hotel staff to perform the front desk operations with ease and speed, thus saving lot of time. Thus the guests don’t have to wait for long periods and can get quicker service.

Choosing Right PMS:

The important question is which is the right PMS for your hotel needs. You need to define your requirements and then select a PMS that has all the features you need. Then you need to consider the initial and the ongoing cost of the PMS, to make sure it falls within your budget limits. You also need to consider the company behind the software – is the company reliable, does it have long standing in the market, etc.

We invite hotelier to check out our AIO PMS software solution. We have been in this industry from 15+ years. We are a hospitality solutions company which provides affordable, cloud based PMS, CRS, GDS, booking engine, channel manager, OTA/TA connections, web development, marketing and distribution.

7 Reasons to Choose AIO Hospitality Software

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1. Built by hoteliers for hoteliers – Our software suite is developed specifically for hoteliers. The team behind the development of the software applications has been in the hospitality industry from many decades, so we know what are the requirements and challenges facing the hotel management, and what software features are the most required. We have developed the software applications keeping these considerations in mind.

2. Feature rich – Our applications are feature-rich, allowing the hotels to use them for improving their operations, efficiency, and business growth. The applications can automate lot of operations and manage huge amounts of data. This data can be really helpful in analyzing the business and making better decisions.

3. Cloud based – Another beauty of AIO applications is they are hosted on fast, reliable servers. There is no need to install anything locally. You can access the PMS, channel manager or any other application from anywhere in the world. This can be quite helpful for managers and owners if they are traveling and want to check out some reports or access any data. They can login from anywhere as long as they have internet access.

4. Secure and reliable – If the software is not safe then there is no way hotels can use it, after all there is going to be lot of sensitive data that will be stored in the software applications. Data like customer details, contact and address details of staff and guests, guests booking history and preferences, credit card information, etc are all very valuable and highly confidential data that needs to be securely stored so that there are no mishaps happening which could land the hotel in legal trouble.

5. Powerful capabilities – The software modules have been built keeping in mind large hotel chains. So the capabilities and functionalities of the software modules are quite comprehensive and extensive. The software can be equally used by medium to smaller sized hotels as they can be used by large hotel chains.

6. Reasonable – Even though the software applications are powerful and secure, we have priced them reasonably enough so that almost every hotel can afford it. We are not charging exorbitantly like other software companies because we want to make it easily accessible for all hoteliers so that they can improve their hotel operations.

7. All under one roof – The beauty with using AIO hospitality is that you will be able to use all the software applications you need under a single roof. There are many companies in the market who only have their own PMS or their own booking engine. Hotels which use their booking engine would have to go somewhere else for channel manager and other applications.

 

Why Hotels Need a Property Management System – Simple Benefits

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Why Hotels Need a Property Management System

Originally, hoteliers weren’t dealing with online bookings. They were collecting very limited information such as a name, residence, room and time of arrival because the majority of their clientele were walk-in guests.

Efficiency of Operations – In today’s fast paced world, managing hotel’s operations is becoming more complicated. There are lot of activities which need to be carried out, the performances monitored, results compared, etc. All this would take enormous amounts of time. The more the human involvement the more chances of errors and mistakes.

Automating a number of such day to day tasks can make it much more smoother and easier to manage a hotel efficiently. It can help the hotel staff to take better care of the guests as the mundane tasks are automated, leaving time on the hands of the staff to take care of other important things.

Time and Labor Efficiency – Lot of time can be saved when hotels automate the tasks that can be automated. This means the hotel can save human labor which would have otherwise been employed on the tasks which the PMS is now performing. A lot of manual, human labor can be cut down as well as lot of time saved. When a human does a certain task it may take him longer duration than a machine or a software program to do the same task, which can result in hundreds of hours of time saved over a period of a few months!

Better Decision Making – Managing the hotel becomes much more easier because you have lot of information and data available at your fingertips which you can study to find where you can make improvements in the business. Decision making can become easier with the availability of statistical data. Emerging trends can be identified and hotel can make changes to its approach to adapt to newer trends and even capitalize on them for its business growth.

AIO Booking Engine – Perfect Solution for Hotels To Increase Room Bookings

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Hotel room booking software has become a must for most hotels. If you don’t have a booking software you may be missing out on a large number of potentials guests and reservations. Most people these days search for hotels online and make reservations. Many travellers to a city try to book rooms many days or weeks in advance. They mostly do it online.

So having an online hotel room booking facility available and having it connected to GDS/IDS systems can be really helpful to increase bookings and revenues. AIO Hospitality offers a powerful booking engine that can provide you all the features your hotel needs.

Our booking engine solution adds the capability of easy, quick, seamless and user-friendly reservations from your website. People can book a room with your hotel directly thus saving you hefty OTA commissions. Our booking engine solution is designed to make it as easy for the user as possible by minimizing clicks. Searching for rooms is easy for the users and the room and rate information is laid out in easily viewable format.

With our booking engine you can display room rates along with any offers or discounts so that guests can see the amount they will save, which will help them in making a decision.

Benefits of Our Hotel Room Booking Engine Software:
– Easy, quick and seamless online reservation
– Simple, few clicks process
– Simple and clean presentation of rooms data and prices
– Display rates along with offers and savings
– Easy integration with any website
– Mobile responsive and user-friendly interface
– Ability to personalize it to match your brand and website design and color schemes
– Integration with online payment gateways
– Safe and secure transactions
– Thoroughly tested and reliable
– Ability to up-sell extra services and addons
– Connect it with PMS software

Using our excellent hotel room booking engine you can easily start accepting online reservations and multiply your revenue. Our booking engine fees are quite reasonable and affordable.

As an addition you can also connect the booking engine with GDS/IDS. We can help connect you to over 650,000 travel agents and 2000+ online travel agents. That can provide huge exposure to your hotel and help in tremendously increasing the bookings.

If high costs were a deterring factor to you previously, you can breathe a sigh of relief as our prices are not unreasonable. You can rest assured you will be getting your money’s worth. You can stop doing things the old fashioned way and switch to using powerful, modern technological tools like the AIO hotel room booking software.