Having a high-speed internet connection might not seem like it can help you learn how to increase revenue in the hotel business. However, having hotel guest WiFi is a surprisingly powerful way to help boost hotel incremental revenue. Here are five ways to help increase hotel revenue by using hotel guest WiFi to increase hotel bookings and more.
5 Ways Hotel WiFi Can Help Boost Incremental Revenue
These five aspects of having free hotel WiFi highlight the usefulness of hotel guest WiFi even if it seems like it wouldn’t help increase hotel bookings. Most are actionable ways you can harness the power of the internet to further guest satisfaction and to ultimately help increase revenue.
1. Understanding guest behavior to personalize marketing.
Authorized WiFi tracking and tapping allow you to take a look into guest behavior in a closer way. You will get a better idea about what guests need and want from their hotel stays. Using this information, you can customize your marketing messages to better suit your guests. The messages can include more personal information that will pertain to a greater number of individuals interested in booking stays.
2. Using fast, reliable guest WiFi to help boost bookings.
WiFi doesn’t just give you more information about guest interests. It can also help you boost bookings more directly. All kinds of situations can come up where a guest might need to book another night or two while still in the hotel. They might also be impressed with the current service and book in for future stays on planned trips. Having free, fast WiFi for your guests allows them to book faster.
WiFi is also a significant draw in today’s age. Whether your guests need WiFi for everyday activities based around their mobile devices or if they need it for work, not having reliable WiFi can exclude your hotel from a wide range of potential bookings. Due to the popularity of WiFi, you should market this free service. You should advertise that free WiFi is offered at your hotel via your social media, the hotel website, and on any booking sites you utilize.
3. Monetize WiFi by creating a three-tiered plan.
Hotel guests have come to expect access to free WiFi when traveling. Although many guests are satisfied with only the moderate bandwidth required to connect to social media sites and check emails, some business travelers require much higher bandwidth — and are willing to pay for that speed. By monetizing WiFi with a three-level tiered system, hotels can enhance guests’ experiences by providing them with exactly what they need, but not wasting money providing every guest with bandwidth they don’t need. Three options could include free WiFi to check emails and connect to social media, small fee WiFi to connect to streaming services and reduce buffering speeds when viewing videos, and enhanced WiFi for business travelers needing to work from the hotel and send large file attachments, connect to a VPN or attend video conferences.
4. Generate an email marketing list from logins to the hotel network.
Email marketing is an effective tool that not enough businesses take advantage of using. You can easily curate an applicable email marketing list when you have free guest WiFi. Simply make the service usable only after the guests log into the hotel WiFi network using their email address. Then, you can use the marketing data you have collected from the above two methods to talk about programs that will directly impact booking rates. Of course, ensure you follow email marketing best practices when developing your own strategy.
5. Supply business travelers with WiFi strong enough to meet business demands.
It can be challenging to know how to increase revenue in the hotel business. However, niche marketing to a specific kind of traveler can help pull people in and effectively increase your bookings. Appealing to business travelers is an excellent way to help get consistent guests visiting your hotel and to spread the news of your reputation by word of mouth.
You can target business travelers by letting them know about your WiFi network. In your advertising, let potential guests know about the strength of your WiFi network. You need to effectively communicate that your WiFi network is secure and that it can handle the demands of a business traveler. It can also be quite useful to clarify where exactly the hotel WiFi access points are available throughout the hotel. For example, are they in-room, in business suites, and also in conference rooms? Clarifying these things on your hotel website will help direct your potential guest more effectively towards booking their stay.
Taking Steps Towards the Future of Hospitality
There are plenty of significant changes you can make to help increase your bookings. The real winners, though, are those small offerings for your guests like reliable WiFi connection. Hospitality Network helps you identify those areas, large and small, that can take your hotel to the next level. Contact our hospitality tech experts today to take the next step towards your hotel’s future.
