Are You Using the One Tool That Can Increase Your Guest Bookings by Over 20 Percent?
You have invested significant time, effort and money into attracting potential guests to visit your hotel website. But what if they come directly to your site and stop mid-way through booking their stay? That’s someone who is more promising than other potential guests who never made it this far.
A reservation abandonment campaign that reaches these potential customers can convert them into booked guests more than 20 percent of the time, especially if it’s within the first 30 minutes.
Retail websites have long used programs and shopping cart recovery campaigns to make the most out of abandoned online shopping carts. Customers who leave before completing a purchase receive reminder emails, pop-up windows or even text messages encouraging them to return to finish their transaction. A retailer might throw in a discount to sweeten the deal.
It’s time for the hospitality industry to embrace the abandoned shopping cart approach to boost their bookings.
These visitors are the closest they can be to a paying customer without quite getting there. They have already expressed interest in your property. All they need is a little reminder, a friendly nudge or a slightly better offer. A reservation abandonment program does just that.
Let’s explore how these campaigns work for hospitality sites like yours, the additional layer of customer service they can provide and the customization features they include.
Booking Abandonment Campaigns Meet Customers Wherever They Are in the Process
So how does this work?
An abandonment campaign uses tracking technology on your website to collect and store important information as a user conducts their research: Email addresses, phone numbers, pages viewed, dates entered and so forth.
The information can be recorded from anywhere on the site, and if they leave before completing a booking, you can send them a series of personalized emails, SMS texts and push and pop-up reminders encouraging them to come back.
With such a reservation system in place, anyone who inputs their information is automatically enrolled in the campaign. How you follow up with them and usher them along toward completing their reservation is entirely up to you.
You can reach out with reminders in a multitude of ways, with imagery and offers curated from information website visitors have shared. You also provide better customer service through your website because these campaigns pay close and careful attention to their preferences.
Are they looking at a romantic getaway for two? A campaign can include an image of their ideal room in an email. Are they considering dates around a popular event nearby? A campaign can give them details in a pop-up window before they leave your site. Have they been guests in the past? A campaign can send them a reduced rate and entice them to come back.
Each campaign is designed to be responsive to the individual customer and delivered in any format or frequency you choose.
Reservation Abandonment Campaigns Are Like Insurance for Your Marketing Program
As the hotel industry continues to become increasingly competitive, you want every marketing dollar spent to pay dividends.
You’ve also spent countless hours making your website attractive and engaging for potential customers. You’ve spent just as much on boosting your social media visibility to draw those visitors to your website.
Now that they’ve finally arrived at your site, you need every assurance that you can convert that visit into a sale. A reservation abandonment campaign gives a better chance of recouping that investment.
A 2021 study showed that at 81.1%, the hospitality industry has the highest rate of shopping cart abandonment among all industries surveyed. The same study found that $4.6 trillion in purchases is abandoned across all online shopping but that $260 billion of that is recoverable with the help of abandonment campaigns.
These campaigns are like a safety net. They’re not a luxury. They’re a necessity.
How A Campaign Leverages Emails and Text Messages to Get Customers to Complete a Booking
Emails are the most effective revenue driver in any booking abandonment campaign. They are highly personalized reminders that are sent to visitors who began the booking process but then walked away.
The campaign automatically personalizes email reminders with the visitor’s travel dates, room and property information, making it a seamless transition for them to drop back into the booking engine and complete their purchase.
You can also send your guests targeted text reminders on their phones. More than 50% of hotel bookings are abandoned on mobile devices. An SMS campaign ensures that you can reach them on the same device where they abandoned the process and encourage them to return and finish.
And while email generally has the highest rate of recovered revenue, SMS messages typically have the highest rate of engagement. When was the last time you ignored a text message?
Maximize Your Profits With a Reservation Abandonment Campaign
You already recognize the value of direct bookings on your hotel website. When customers come straight to your site and make their reservation in your booking engine, you don’t have to share any of those proceeds with a third party.
An abandonment campaign gives you peace of mind knowing that you have the best chance of maximizing every dollar you have spent on your extensive marketing efforts.
Don’t ignore 21 percent of your prospects who are already engaging on your site. If you’d like a demonstration or to hear more about how O’Rourke can help implement this program on your website, let’s talk.