Imagine a first-time guest at your hotel arriving tired after a long flight. She checks in via your hotel's app and immediately notices a special offer for a room upgrade at a nominal fee. Intrigued and desiring extra comfort, she accepts the offer with a single tap. This scenario isn't just convenient for the guest; it's a revenue-boosting opportunity for your hotel.

As a hotel with limited rooms and occupancy, leveraging every asset to enhance the guest experience is critical to increasing the spending potential of every guest staying in a room. A guest app for your hotel property is more than just a digital convenience — it's a key player in driving upsells and increasing RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room). By smartly integrating upsell opportunities into the app experience, hotels can tap into a lucrative revenue stream that enhances the guest's stay while boosting the bottom line.

Before we could dive into how your hotel's guest app can become a revenue and engagement booster - lets address the elephant in the room —

Guests don’t want to download an app every time they go to a hotel

Thats correct! And that's why your property should offer a PWA - progressive web app.Compared to a native mobile app, a PWA is designed and built just like a native mobile app but it does not require any downloads. Instead, it works in the guest’s mobile browser.

So when I say a guest app in context of a hotel, I really mean a PWA — accessible via a simple QR scan, no downloads required.

Now that we’ve drawn clarity on that, let's explore how your guest app (PWA) can increase the spending potential of every guest and hence the RevPAR of your property.

Facilitate in-app bookings for amenities and services

Your guests use digital interactions in all spheres of their lives - from ordering grocery, restaurant food, booking movies and even your hotel. As Millennials and Gen-Z grow their purchasing power, this trend will only go up.

A key reason most people choose technology to access food, services, etc is to save time and minimise social interactions and therefore, avoid hard sells by businesses. With technology, however, this defence lowers because now, there is a device putting an upsell option putting it in front of them, not a real person. This gives them space and autonomy of choice.

In your hotel’s context, a guest app, at the least — could expose your amenities to the guests and removes friction for them to book utilise them. If implemented well, this can help your staff save time, effort and social capital in amplifying every facility and service on the hotel, sneaking in upsells in those conversations. They can then focus more on a “no-strings-attached” interaction with guests and resolving their issues.

While your app and the algorithms maximise chances of upsell giving guests the right space and autonomy to make those choices.

Present personalised offers and recommendations

A hotel app provides a strategic base for your hotel to capture data and build intelligence around your guest’s persona - have they stayed at your property before? Are they travelling with family? Are they travelling for work? Is it their anniversary?

This data can be captured with with simple, digital guest interactions before they arrive, during their stay and after they check out.

With the right data, you can present guests with personalised offers based on their persona and based on events (anniversary, birthday, meetings etc.). Is it a family travelling for vacation with young kids? Let them know you have a creche facility and there are offers for a couple massage at the spa. Is it their anniversary? Offer a romantic dinner by the pool or discount on wine selection with a complementary desert.

An Epsilon research shows that

80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences

All this without having your people ask questions risking to look intrusive and obnoxious — and via intuitive, elegant UI and UX.

Make it easy for guests to pass on room requests

If your hotel app could take room service requests and private dining orders, it could significantly boost food and beverage sales.

The Reason? Human nature. Most people return enter the hotel room intending to relax. If they can, they would avoid interactions with your staff and therefore, any level of anxiety.

If your app offers an elaborate menu of items they can request for the room, or food — and they could make a selection, add their comments, place and track the order, it adds to their convenience.

As a benefit, your team leads could actually get these requests, assign them adequately and track if they are being fulfilled within your internal fulfillment standards.

For food orders, the app may also be able to suggest food pairings or upsell premium items, like wine or gourmet desserts. By simplifying the ordering process and providing appealing options at their fingertips, you can enhance the room-dining experience while driving higher revenue from your food and beverage services.

Use real-time feedback to drive upsells

Imagine a guest who, upon entering their room, desires additional amenities - maybe a different type of pillow, an extra blanket, or a room with a better view.

Through the app, they can effortlessly make this request, enhancing their comfort and satisfaction. This immediacy not only elevates the guest experience but also positions your hotel to monetize these customizations as premium services.

For your management, this functionality means being able to respond to guest needs in the pinch, turning each stay into a tailored experience. Moreover, it provides valuable insights into common requests and preferences, enabling hotels to proactively offer these services in the future. For instance, if data shows a high demand for extra pillows, the hotel might start offering a 'pillow menu' as an upsell. This proactive approach not only boosts revenue but also demonstrates your commitment to guest comfort, potentially leading to higher satisfaction scores and repeat bookings.

By leveraging the power of real-time feedback and customization through a guest app, your hotel can not only meet but anticipate guest needs, creating a unique and memorable experience that guests are willing to pay a premium for.

Sell Access to Events and Experiences

Your hotel guest app could include access to local events and experiences presenting a unique opportunity to offer more than just a place to stay.

This strategy can integrate offerings from local partners, such as exclusive tours, dining experiences at renowned local restaurants, or tickets to cultural events, directly available through the app.

In parallel, the app can also highlight and facilitate bookings for on-site activities like wellness classes, cooking sessions, or themed evenings organized by the hotel. This dual approach not only enriches the guest experience with a variety of engaging activities but also creates additional revenue channels.

By leveraging both local partnerships and in-house events, your hotel can cater to a wide range of guest interests and preferences, making their stay memorable and unique. This strategy also strengthens your hotel's position as a hub for authentic, local experiences.

If you have your hotel brand manages multiple properties, your guest app can also incorporate your loyalty program to further gamify experiences and upsells for guest.

At Haven, we have built a powerful CRM that enables your property release a branded, customised guest app for your property in 3-5 days. The Haven CRM comes with powerful capabilities for your team to easily manage the contents of the guest app and transfers requests and feedback to the right team for maximum guest satisfaction.

We are continually rolling out features to make everything we have spoken about in this article a reality in the coming months.