Selling hotel experiences and gift vouchers online. Part 2: the treats

Now that you have your team engaged in the project, it’s time to think of what kind of experiences and gift vouchers you will want to sell. 

Each hotel we work with is different and the key is to understand what it is about your property that appeals most to your target audience and who your target audience is. Is it going to be local residents, expats, and businesses? Or will you also use the platform to sell experiences to guests planning to stay with you? 

Helping hotels define their offering is a part of our service and we will be with you every step of the way. We will also work with you to group your treats into categories and collections to ensure they have maximum visibility online. In the meantime, here are a few tips from our most successful clients:

Make the most of what you have

What is it about your hotel that is most attractive to local residents? Perhaps you have an awe-inspiring terrace overlooking the ocean that you could use out of season to organise classic movies screenings with dinner? Or maybe you just hired a local celebrity chef to re-vamp your menu and (s)he can't wait to show off the new tasting menu? Or maybe your Spa just acquired a new, state-of-the-art equipment that no-one in the area has? 

Full price range 

The most successful hotels create treats for all budgets. This typically includes a few high-value treats like dinner + spa + accommodation packages (often purchased by local businesses as corporate gifts or bonuses), but also a few more affordable treats local residents can purchase as gifts for their friends or treats for themselves.

All year round

Some treats will be appealing throughout the year. These typically include Sunday Brunch, Afternoon Tea, Spa treatments & packages, Gourmet Tasting Menu, etc.

Seasonal

Some treats will be particularly popular at certain times of the year. Make sure you create treats like a Dinner & accommodation package or Couples Massage available around Valentine’s Day, or a particularly fancy Afternoon Tea or Flower Arrangement Workshop around Mother’s Day.

For guests

Make sure you create a few treats that can be bought by your guests during their stay, or for your guests by their friends or family. For example, create a package that will include a dinner on their first night and an anti jet-lag massage the following morning for guests traveling from afar. Hopefully they will love the experience so much, they will choose to have dinner at the hotel again on the second night too. Or perhaps you work with local tour guides and you can offer individual tours of the city, booked directly by you, not Viator? These type of treats are very easy to promote - even if the booking is made via an OTA, chances are the guest will come to your website prior to arrival. Or you can drop them an email a few days before they arrive. We have seen one of our customers replace the hotel mobile application with our online shop. Guests turned out to prefer buying additional services and experiences online, instead of having to download the app first. 

In some hotels, we also see treats are purchased for guests by their friends or family. For example friends of honeymooners buy a couples massage or a bottle of Champagne to be delivered to them during their stay. 

Events

The platform works great for selling a high volume of tickets. Our clients often organise and use Hotel Treats to sell tickets to events like New Year’s Eve Galas, Open-air Concerts, Re-opening events, Culinary Workshops, Mixology Classes, appearances by local celebrities or motivational speakers.

Merchandise

Hotel Treats can be used to sell physical products too. These typically include hotel bathrobes, towels, slippers, key rings, etc. 

Monetary gift-cards 

This is the simplest form of a treat. Your clients will be able to purchase a voucher for any value you allow and it will be redeemable in line with your terms and conditions.

What other ideas will you have? You can amend treats and create new ones anytime, so start with a few ideas and review sales after a month. If you see a few treats are selling particularly well, create more similar to them. 

Once you create your treats, have a look here to see ideas on how to sell them. 

 Photo by Karlis Dambrans on Unsplash