How to Use Hotel Management Software to Prep for the Holidays

Are you prepared for the massive influx of holiday travelers expected this year? According to PWC’s holiday outlook, nearly half of consumers are planning holiday trips — including over 60% of millennials! This is excellent news for the hospitality industry, but it also creates challenges.  

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” As a hotelier, the preparations you make now will be the difference between a profitable season and a lackluster performance. 

Learn how a hotel management software system can handle a variety of challenges that arise this season.

5 Ways That You Can Use Hotel Management Software To Prepare For the Holiday Season.

The busy upcoming season means using the best tools available to boost productivity, improve guest satisfaction, and increase revenue. To ensure operational excellence, consider these hotel management tips for the holidays: 

1. Use Your System’s Marketing Features

Whether creating hotel marketing campaigns or sharing notices of inclement weather and closures, a hotel management system will streamline your marketing efforts and guest communications.

Email and SMS texting allow you to communicate with your guests, often with an automation feature that will save your team time. A booking confirmation email is a common example of automated communications; however, there are many other ways to leverage available marketing features to enhance the guest experience. 

Pre-holiday promotional emails are a well-known best practice. However, the right tool lets you identify your non-registered contacts, segment that list according to the criteria you establish, and then send targeted holiday deals and special promotions appealing to each segment and personalized for each individual. 

Your registered guests will also benefit from email and text messaging. These tools allow you to announce special events planned to engage your guests and build loyalty, ask questions to personalize your guests’ stays , or capitalize on your locale by offering upgrades to holiday packages featuring local experiences.    

2. Maximize Your Reservations With Integrations

In addition to marketing to contacts in your database, hotel booking solution integrations help maximize your reservations. 

Using online travel agencies (OTAs) as extra reservation channels puts your hotel in front of the 45% of travelers who will use OTAs for holiday travel this year. If millennials are your target market, that number increases to 60%. 

OTA integrations give you access to guests who might not otherwise know about your hotel. The increased exposure maximizes reservations, improves visibility for your website, and increases guest reviews. Best-in-class hotel reservation software will include a powerful channel manager allowing you to list on multiple OTAs and access deep insights into your traffic on each one. 

3. Set Your Rates in Advance With Dynamic Pricing

Increased demand during the holidays creates the opportunity to increase pricing and maximize seasonal revenue. However, manual price adjustments before, during, and after the season are not the best use of your time. 

It is best to let your hotel management software system handle dynamic pricing. This tool allows you to define pricing rules based on occupancy levels, seasons, or holidays. Once established, a dynamic pricing tool lets you focus on operational excellence, knowing that you have streamlined price management and maximized your profits. 

4. Upsell Your Guests With Loyalty Programs

Holidays mean gift giving, and loyalty programs provide a way to reward your guests, improve retention, and increase lifetime value. 

With a loyalty program, guests can upgrade their stay with loyalty program points to take advantage of special holiday packages or purchase additional products — all while making their reservations. And, even more importantly, loyalty programs can incentivize guests to book another stay at your property.

Why is it so important to use a hotel software management system that includes a loyalty program feature? The value of loyal customers cannot be overstated; existing customers are your best customers. On average, 65% of your sales are from returning guests who will spend 31% more than first-time guests. 

5. Use Your Guest Portal To Help Free Up Your Staff

Team productivity increases profit, and the right tools will increase employee morale. Top hotel management software should include self-service options for your guests. 

A guest portal will quickly become your team’s favorite feature. The portal can give guests the ability to check themselves in or out, modify reservations, upgrade their packages, and more. At the same time, your team won’t need to be involved as often in these processes, freeing up their time to handle the busy day-to-day operations anticipated for this time of year. 

Operational Success Starts With Efficient Hotel Management Software

Using the right hotel management software will ensure that you are adequately prepared for this year’s travel rush and able to provide your guests with the best possible holiday experience.

Find out how to achieve operational excellence and set your hotel up for success. Download our free guide today to learn how to reach your hospitality business goals and elevate the guest experience with hotel management software.