Lets talk storytelling Give your guests a story to tell The future - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Let’s talk storytelling Give your guests a story to tell

The future of distribution. What’s changing around us?

Voice will be the new search Significantly changing the way we buy. Alexa, book a room in Stockholm please.

The disruptors are being disrupted The OTAs goal is to create more direct, and less Google.

Direct net rates are best Net revenue from discounted "book direct" loyalty rates exceeded net revenue from third-party agencies by 8.6%.

What is the easiest way to boost my direct bookings?

What is the easiest way to boost my direct bookings? For every field in your booking process, there is a 10% drop-off.

What is the easiest way to boost my direct bookings? Move unnecessary fields from your 
 booking engine to your pre-stay.

+10% +10% +10% Afghanistan Upgrades Packages Address

Combining data with storytelling Develop a pre-stay strategy that your guests will love. Make it easy for me to Send me personalised book upgrades, services and offers, at the time when I’m local experiences. ready to buy.

• quality of content Conversion • personalisation • # of deals pre-stay is • volume all about • price • time

When is the best time to post on Instagram? Monday and Thursday at any time other than 3–4 p.m.

When is the best time to post on Facebook? Saturday and Sunday at 12–1 p.m.

When is the best time to post on LinkedIn? Tuesday at 10–11 a.m.

When is the best time to up-sell to hotel guests? We analysed 750,000 emails to find out.

Time of day vs Conversion

Time of day vs Conversion 10,9% 9,3% 7 ,4% 10 13 15

Time of day vs Conversion (leisure)

Time of day vs Conversion (leisure) 11% 10% 9,1% 10 13 15

Time of day vs Conversion (business)

Time of day vs Conversion (business) 4,3% 4% 2,8% 10 13 15

The best time for leisure guests is the worst time for business guests. 11% 4,3% 10% 4% 9,1% 2,8% 10 13 15 10 13 15 leisure business

Days before check- in vs. conversion 10% 8,3% 8,2% 8% 7 ,7% 7% 6% 5,6% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 All reservations, brand.com

Day of the week vs conversion 10% 9,8% 9,4% 7 ,7% 7 ,6% 6,4% 6,4% Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun All reservations, Brussels

Weather vs conversion

Let’s check out some use cases. How hotels are using pre-stay to solve problems or create opportunities.

5 star City hotel Challenge: • Struggling with selling higher room categories during week-days. • Giving away free upgrades at check-in. Opportunity: • High demand on standard rooms. • 5 room types

Solution: • Letting guests to upgrade early at a discount. • Sell the same room again. Occupancy Oaky upgrades 100% 75% 50% 25% Standard Superior Suite Booking Check-in Re-Sold Rooms Room Upgrades

Result: • +300% in upgraded room nights & direct revenue! • 10% room upgrade conversion € 50 (0% discount) € 25 (50% discount) # of nights upgraded 30 90 # of nights re-sold 21 63 Re-sold revenue € 3.150 € 9.450 Supplement revenue € 1.500 € 2.500 Result € 4.650 € 11.950

4 star Beach hotel Challenge: • Need of driving F&B revenue, guests often eating at 
 one of the local restaurants. Opportunity: • Have a big bar with great views.

Solution: • Reach out to guests with personalised dinner deals. • Offer free (salty) snacks at the bar…

5 star City hotel Challenge: • Struggling with selling the most expensive Suites. Opportunity: • Presidential Suite overlooking the Prague Castle. • Lots of Asian tourist coming there to take pictures in 
 their wedding outfits.

Solution: • Up- and cross-sell wedding photos by the hour, including 
 champagne in the Suite.

3 star City hotel Challenge: • High housekeeping costs. Opportunity: • Strong focus on environment from both hotel and their guests. • Fun branding.

Solution: • Reward guests for turning down housekeeping with a Free Pizza or a Beer

4 star Resort Challenge: • Being pro-active with giving kids an amazing experience. Opportunity: • Many families visiting with kids. • Long booking window

Solution: • Offering personalised kids’ deals, making kids excited about the stay. Happy kid, happy parent.

City hotels Challenge: • The transfer from the airport to the hotel, including luggage 
 is a pain-point in the customer journey. Opportunity: • Working with luggage partners like www.valizo.eu and 
 taxi transfers we can smoothen the ride for the guest.

Solution: • Making it super easy for the guest to arrange luggage transfer and/or taxi before arriving at the airport

Psychology & consumer behaviour How can we influence our guests to make choices we want them to make, or feel the way we want them to feel.

“Things we see, but think we don’t see." –Priming

___NGE

We tend to like faces better if we’ve seen before.

James Isabelle

How can priming make your guests like James & Isabelle more + feel better about booking direct?

In summary By mixing data with storytelling, you’re able to use the pre-stay experience to drive long-term profit in many ways. Profit Room Upgrades Profit Re-Sold Rooms Profit In-House Products Profit 3rd Party Services

Erik Tengen Co-Founder erik@oakyapp.com