Your 2025 budget is calling

“Brrriing! Brrriing! Brrriing!” 

Can you hear it? 

That’s the sound of the voice channel calling to tell you it’s ready to be a part of your 2025 budget. 

This touchpoint is often your guests’ first interaction with your property and a powerful driver for direct bookings. Not only do you save money prioritizing the voice channel by directing marketing spend away from OTAs, but you also create yet another chance to build relationships with potentially loyal guests. 

One person who is ready to answer the budget season call? Meet Jenn, Director of Reservations at Avertine Hotel. She has a plan to make the voice channel her property’s biggest revenue driver. Learn how you can be like Jenn.

Basic CRM vs. hospitality CDP: Which one will help your hotel come out on top?

Discover why investing in the right CDP is key to efficiently collecting and activating data from multiple customer touchpoints across your portfolio in real time.

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Numbers that matter

72% of companies are using AI

• AI is changing how we work, play, and do business — but not always in the ways you might think. Not all AI is ChatGPT or Dall-E For example, with Revinate CDP, AI clustering models are used to identify your guests across different data sources and even different email addresses through identity resolution. 

Google searches for “personalized travel” reach a score of 100

• According to Google, any term that reaches the highest point of popularity within a given timeframe is assigned a score of 100.  “Personalized travel” claims that title for the most searches in the last 12 months. That’s big evidence for hoteliers. Forget reading your guests’ minds because they’re telling you what they want. Get your channels ready — email, text, voice, web — because personalizing your messaging will be crucial for you to reach your ideal guests. 

38% of US consumers aged 18-24 are optimistic about the economy

• What does that mean? This group is ready to spend, spend, spend. A combination of pent-up demand and optimism about the future is fueling the motivations of the younger generation. How you respond to these newfound expectations determines how much revenue you can maximize. Segmentation is the move here to reach your most profitable segment, AKA your most profitable opportunity. 

Trends that matter

Trend #1: BBD: Boomers Book Direct

76% of Baby Boomers are booking their hotel stays directly on your website — 28% more than Millenials. While direct business from any age demographic is positive, what are you doing to make sure that your direct bookings are diversified? To start, take a look at your booking engine because you may be losing guests there. It’s possible to bring them back with a little automation and a little personalization. 

Trend #2: No fee zones — junk fees that is

Guests — and even the United States Congress — have had it up to here with junk fees. There’s a new law to eliminate junk fees close to passing in the Senate, and if it does, any business in the hospitality and lodging industry will be subject to it. While Airbnb is likely to be hit the hardest, hoteliers should prepare themselves for this upcoming pro-consumer legislation to display the total prices and all fees upfront. 

Trend #3: Voice isn't dead

At HSMAI this past month, hoteliers could see clearly that the voice channel is alive and well — and that it can be a hotel’s most lucrative guest touchpoint with enough care and attention. Agents boost conversion rates and take advantage of upsell opportunities as they establish what is often the guest's first interaction with your property. But it is up to hoteliers to give agents the support they need with training they can rely on to meet industry standards for success. Because agents provide the emotional connection that’s invaluable to the guest experience.

Perspectives that matter

INSPIRATION: La Jolla Shores Hotel’s strategic email segmentation drove room nights and guest loyalty

• Email campaigns aren’t one-size-fits-all, especially when you’re looking to target, recognize, and reward your loyal guests. La Jolla Shores Hotel knows exactly how to create a hyper-targeted, successful campaign. With strategic segmentation, this hotel is showing us how it’s done — driving bookings and guest loyalty. With Revinate Marketing this campaign achieved a 78% open rate and generated 279 room nights.

BLOG: 2025 hotel budget season: 4 technologies you should consider

• You’re probably getting ready to wade into the waters of budget season, but before you get too far from the shore into planning, consider these four technologies: Guest data management, automated and contactless communication, call center technology, and artificial intelligence. Implementing just one of these technologies has the potential to satisfy stakeholders and generate even more revenue for your business. Read more to discover the potential of each technology. 

CUSTOMER STORY: Direct booking triumph: How Pacific Hospitality Group’s marketing strategy drove $13M in direct revenue

• Pacific Hospitality Group made it their mission to equip their marketing teams with the tools they need to launch property campaigns that achieve high guest engagement. With campaigns boasting $14k in average room revenue, Revinate Marketing allowed PHG to streamline workflows to make personalization easy — securing more direct bookings with messaging that resonated with every guest. And they’re strengthening guest loyalty with pre-check-in texts — acknowledging guests for their choice to stay with a PHG property. 

PODCAST: How well are you coaching your hotel teams?

• In this episode of the Hotel Moment podcast, Karen Stephens, Revinate CMO, and JC Thompson, Founder and CEO of Pursuance, step into the world of performance coaching — exploring what it means to be a good coach for your hotel staff, especially for reservations departments. Thompson describes the pitfalls of traditional performance coaching methods on staff morale juxtaposed with performance coaching that centers hotel data application and group positivity.

WEBINAR: Successful outbound strategies to maximize direct revenue

• Don’t give up if a guest doesn’t book with you on the first call! Watch this webinar to find out how to easily capture and convert second-chance bookings and discover best practices for following up on regrets, denials, and abandoned calls. Register now to elevate your direct booking strategy.

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