Great news, you’ve got a booking! You now have the opportunity to drive more value from your guest’s visit. From pre-arrival through to departure, you can utilise automated communication and booking extras to entice your guest and make more money.  

Why 

At the pre-arrival stage of the guest lifecycle, you should communicate with purpose. Here’s some of the reasons why you might reach out to your guest: 

• Inform: You should consider the type of information your guest must know. This might include how to access your property, amenity instructions or general booking confirmation.  

• Educate: What can you share with your guest about the local area that’ll enhance their visit? What do they need to know about your property? Could this be arrival information or must-know details about your property? Go a step further and personalise your approach. Consider segmenting your audience to personalise your message. What would someone taking their furry friend want to know? If your guest is travelling with children, is there anything they should know?  

•  Inspire: There’s plenty of opportunity to drive additional revenue at the pre-arrival stage. It’s a chance to build anticipation and excitement for the experience that awaits. Can you offer a food hamper? Access to activities on-site or through local partnerships? How about dog-friendly extras for when you have fluffy visitors arriving? You can inspire your guests with tempting additions that await them on arrival.  

• Convenience: Take the ‘self’ out of self-catering. There’s another chance for you to drive additional revenue ahead of arrival. Whether providing locally sourced produce and a recipe box for the first night’s stay, extra logs for the fire or hiring accessibility equipment, consider what you can offer your guest that’ll promote comfort and convenience during their stay.  

 What

There are various opportunities to communicate with your guest at the pre-arrival stage of the lifecycle. Here’s some examples to get you started:  

When 

Timing is everything. Your potential guest is unlikely to be tempted by a breakfast hamper four months ahead of arrival. But, in the days leading up to their stay they’ll be more interested. Using the examples provided above, let’s consider your lifecycle cadence: 

Who 

Automated communication doesn’t mean you need to compromise on personalisation. SuperControl’s automated email and SMS tools enable you to be specific and intentional when communicating with guests. Our trigger-based targeting and tagging functionality allows you to create a personalised journey, fully customisable to your business needs.  

• Tags: Emails and SMS can be set up with ‘tags’ that pull through the guest, property and booking specific information. You can also utilise custom field tags that generate property specific information to share with guests. For example, this would be useful if you have multiple properties with different keycode information. 

• Triggers: Once you’ve deciphered the type of emails/SMS you’d like to send in your lifecycle sequence, you can use ‘triggers’ to choose the conditions of when an email is sent to a guest. As standard, you’d likely want to set up triggers to send automated emails when a booking is placed, or payment is due. You can customise this based on the booking extras you offer. For example, you can set up specific emails for those that have selected to bring their furry friends or if they require accessibility equipment such as hoists. The options are endless! 

Follow this guide to learn how to use tags and set up trigger-based automated emails in your SuperControl account. 

How 

We’re all about keeping it SuperControl simple, which is why we’ve created readymade templates and an email creation worksheet to help you build your ultimate guest lifecycle communication journey. Access the worksheet below or embed our range of templates within your account and start communicating with confidence today. 

The principles outlined in the pre-arrival guide apply to each phase of the guest lifecycle. The areas that become interchangeable include why, what and when. When your guest arrives, you can continue to add value and build momentum through welcome messages and incentives. 

Why 

Your guest has arrived, so why continue communicating?! Well, there’s a host of new opportunities to enhance their experience:  

• Inform: Consider sharing timely information about how to utilise amenities and information about pre-booked extras or activities.  

• Educate: What in your local area might your guest find useful after arriving? Perhaps the number to the local takeaway or directions to the nearest restaurant. 

• Inspire: #ShareYourStay. While your guest is enjoying their holiday, there’s a significant opportunity to collate ‘user generated content’ by encouraging them to share images to your social media channels during their visit. After all, everyone likes sharing that they’re on holiday! 

• Convenience: After the first night’s sleep, reach out to your guest and ask if you can be of assistance. This is another touchpoint where you can advertise your onsite amenities or optional extras to enhance their holiday. Additionally, you can offer a stay extension or late checkout to maximise the value of their stay.  

When 

During the arrival phase, it’s important to use your intuition. If the guest is only visiting for three nights, you should be careful not to overcommunicate. A balanced approach is key, but there are some key touchpoints to consider:  

The departure phase of the guest lifecycle is when you can convert a one-time visitor into a repeat customer. It’s also when you should focus your energy on capturing reviews, feedback and the moments of magic created during your guest's time with you. 

Why 

Ultimately, the goal at this stage of the lifecycle is to drive more reviews for your business. It’s worthwhile carefully planning the objective of your intended communication, making the ‘call to action’ clear to your guest.   

• Inform: On departure, ensure your guest continues to stay informed with relevant checkout information. If they've hired any equipment, have a key to deposit or have any household tasks to complete before leaving, now is a perfect time to highlight this. Use this time as your first opportunity to encourage your guest to leave a review on your preferred platform. 

• Educate: Do you want to learn more about the guest experience? How can you continue to improve your offering over time? On departure, you can ask your guest to leave feedback through a customer satisfaction survey.  

• Inspire: Entice your guest to leave a review for your property. Remind them of the memories and magic made. This is a perfect opportunity to put SuperControl’s UpFront reviews into action. You can also consider providing a rebooking offer at this stage, encouraging them to visit you again in the future.  

What

When 

It’s important to share communication with your guest immediately or soon after departure, so the visit is still fresh in their mind. Consider your objective and be sure not to overwhelm the guest with too many ‘asks’. Ultimately, you need to decide which of the above suggestions matters most and make fulfilling your request super simple. 

By harnessing your guest database, you can plan thoughtful marketing campaigns through SuperControl’s auto email/SMS functionality to entice repeat business. This phase of the guest lifecycle presents a significant opportunity to encourage more direct bookings.  

Why 

At this stage, the purpose of reaching out to the guest is simple: encourage repeat business and advocacy. You should continue communicating with your past guest over time, building a sense of nostalgia and inspiring action. 

• Inform:  If your guest initially booked via a booking channel such as Airbnb, highlight the benefits of returning to your property by booking direct. Highlight any additions to your business such as new properties or amenities. 

• Educate: Keep in touch! Why not add past guests to your marketing database if you offer a regular newsletter? If your business has won any accolades, made improvements or grown, drip feed good news to ensure you stay at the front of mind.    

• Inspire: There are various ways you can encourage a guest to return to your property. If it’s approaching the anniversary of their booking date or their visit, birthday, or any other key dates in the diary, you can reach out to connect and consider providing a voucher or special offer.  

What

When  

The choice is yours! Make the rebooking stage of the lifecycle work for you. You can formulate scheduled emails that drive interest and conversion by taking a strategic approach, assessing occupancy, and planning for the low season.