Bottom Line Success for hotels?

📰 In This Issue

✔️ Supporting that bottom line, or TREVPAR if you want to.
✔️ Acquisitions everywhere, what does it mean for industry?
✔️ [Meme Break]
✔️ Dalton Talent - Skip the pdf search
✔️ Next time; AI and how it impacts the guest experience.

🌟 Spotlight: Innovative Tech of the Week

🔍 Oaky and UpsellGuru– The two big dogs of upselling, or at least I thought so.
💡 Upselling has been around for as long as humanity itself. If you want a pint at the local pub, how about snacks? I remember being taught the concept of upselling at hotel school, but no one ever taught me sales. Big difference!

Front-line staff already have a lot to worry about, with Guest Experience being top of mind for each of them. Figuring out how to do sales in a way that doesn’t come across as second-hand car sales is a tough ask for most.

Upsel tools are quickly becoming the go-to solution for many hotels and for a long time, I thought Oaky and UpellGuru were the way to go. This week I’ve worked with two hotels using Canary and loved it. One Sales and Marketing director described it as follows: “They spent 10 minutes installing it, it works and we love it.”

Canary uses WhatsApp as a communication method in South Africa, and my made-up statistic is that just under 100% of South Africans use WhatsApp. Way more than email, especially when traveling.

Whichever way you look at it and whichever company or product you are looking at, upselling is evolving from extra snacks to an elaborate sales journey crafted to each guest’s specific needs and wants. Big opportunity to boost that bottom line!

🚀 All three products are well integrated with most PMS and Channel Managers, which is great for hotels. I’ve seen big and small hotels use upsell tools, what they all have in common is amenities and experiences. If you have something more than a bed and restaurant at your property, then Upselling is a possibility for you.

Here is a great article by Oaky on how to start upselling: Click Me!

📢 Industry Insights: Tourism & Tech News

📰 Acquisitions happening all around.
📊 Paycorp acquires Pilot software, this is not the first time a payments company has acquired a Point of Sale. The goal here is to control the payment interaction, which is also where the friction and guest experience is. Control this and you control most of the guest journey.
📌 Things to keep in mind when selecting a POS:
- Payment fees, if it’s owned by a payments company they want the fees, with little room for negotiations.
- Transaction data - where is the money and who is the guest? Can you get this info and can you use it?
- Support and ongoing development - Payment companies build payments, not hospitality systems.

🔗 Media statement here.

😂 Meme of the Week

🎯 Sponsored Ad

If you’ve tried hiring anyone in hospitality lately, you’ll know that you have one of three options:
1) Post an ad, receive way too many applications that don’t match, and read mismatched pdf’s for three days.
2) Use LinkedIn, spend crazy money on an ad for your job search, and get applications from the wrong industry.
3) Pay a recruiter a hefty fee. Works, but expensive.

Dalton is on a mission to flip it on its head.

1) Clearly defined search filters that give you a standardized digital resume, with references, an introduction video, a clear work history, and defined skills.
2) No crazy ad money, simply search and pay a small fee for each CV that you want to contact.
3) Get all the assistance from a recruiter, without the hefty fee attached to it.

They are new, attracting good talent to the platform, and looking for hotels to partner with, if this sounds interesting, reach out and we will connect you.

📌 Final Thoughts & What’s Coming Next

✨ Upselling is here to stay! Get to know the tech and process to make it work for your hotel.
🔮 AI and the guest journey, there is so much more developing in this space.
📩 If anything here is interesting, please hit reply and let us know. If it’s really bad, also let us know. Share with your friends from work.