Building long-term relationships with guests is often critical to the success of any inn, bed & breakfast, or small hotel. The relationship building process doesn't start when your guest makes a reservation or end when they check out. It is important to maintain communication with all your guests. Build a foundation with pre-stay and post-stay emails.
Confirmation Email
A confirmation email communicates information about your guest’s reservation. You should deliver a confirmation email as quickly as possible once a reservation is made. At a minimum, the following should be included:
- Thank You - A sincere, personalized, and brief thank you goes a long way with guests. Write something that will be automatically included on all confirmation emails.
- Date and Time - Include the date and time of arrival and departure. Make sure you call out check-in times.
- Price - Provide a clear breakdown of the reservation including room rates, taxes, and fees.
- Policies - Do yourself a favor and provide an upfront overview of your cancellation, pet, and child policies.
Pre-Stay Email
Pre-stay emails are a great way to continue to build relationships with guests. They are also a useful way to communicate details that make your life easier. We recommend sending pre-stay emails one week to 48 hours prior to checkin. The following are items to include in yours:
- Relevant Note - Just like with the confirmation email, include a personal note. As most pre-stay emails are based on a template, write something that is authentic and relevant to your property. Give guests a "feel" for what they can expect.
- Up-sells - Pre-stay emails are a great time to suggest upgrades, extras, or add-ons.
- Date and Time - Reiterate the reservation date and acceptable time of arrival.
- Additional Information - Any additional information they should know i.e. construction, new amenities, breakfast specials, etc.
- Invitation to Connect - Invite them to call with any questions or connect on social media.
- Additional Contact Info - Any additional phone numbers or emails they can reach you at if you're not on your property.
You may also want to include:
- Requests - Do you have any special requests or instructions?
- Check-in Details - Do you have a unique process? Where does check-in happen? What times?
- Directions - provide easy to reference directions
A well crafted pre-stay email will make your future guests more comfortable upon arrival and enhance their stay. To make your life easier create an email template that can be reused. When you create your template make sure to be authentic and use a tone that represents your property.
Post-Stay Email
Post-stay emails are one of, if not, the most important emails for building relationships with guests. I stress relationship building so much because it is a pivotal factor in creating repeat customers. Repeat customers spend the most money and will make up a higher percentage of your business. Post-stay emails are also the ideal way to ask for a TripAdvisor or Google review, which in turn, lead to more new guests.
Your post-stay email should include the following:
- Thank You - Thank guests for selecting your property.
- Ask for a Review - This is the big one: Ask for a review! Provide clear instructions on how to leave a review. Better reviews correlate to more money in your pocket. Check out our blog "How Online Reviews Impact Hotels"
- Social Media Invitation - Links to your social media accounts. (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
Continuing Post-Stay Communication
Post-stay communication should continue on a regular basis. It’s a great way to remind your guests about your property. Here are five post-stay emails to keep guests engaged:
- If a couple stays with you on their anniversary reach out to them 10-11 months after. (i.e. Offer them a free bottle of wine with their stay or a discounted package.)
- If a guest stays with you every year for a convention, offer them an extra incentive or perk.
- Let previous guests know if you renovated your property or added a new feature.
- Send previous guests a survey to provide additional helpful feedback.
- Remind previous guests of interesting local events and promotions.
Conclusion
Pre and post-stay communication is an important aspect of building long-term relationships with your guests. It’s low cost, low effort, but offers big returns. There is no exact script to a pre or post-stay email but rather a set of guidelines to follow. Remember to be creative, personable, and human in your communication.
Looking for ways to generate positive reviews? Download our new Innkeeper Checklist: How to Get Amazing Online Reviews. It includes:
- Simple, real-world tips for encouraging guest reviews
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- How to leverage social media for more reviews
Download the checklist and start getting more guests from reviews.