Faced with increasing dependence on online booking platforms (OTAs), online advertising and social networks, emailing remains a promising direct marketing method for hotels. At a time when building customer loyalty is becoming a priority and every euro invested in marketing should generate a tangible return, emailing is proving to be a simple, cost-effective and lasting solution!
However, many hoteliers still too often overlook the possibilities offered by this type of marketing action. In this article, we take a look at the fundamental reasons why emailing deserves to become a pillar of your strategy.
Emailing : your trump card for a winning marketing strategy
Communication without intermediaries
Emailing is not a marketing practice like any other. It’s based on your own database of acquired hotel guests (and even potential future customers). Unlike your ‘followers’ or ‘fans’ on social networks, your email lists are assets that belong to you. This means that emailing escapes the rules of platforms, imposed algorithms and additional costs compared with other marketing practices. Your audience receives your message straight to their inbox. In an industry where customer relationship management is becoming a strategic issue, this is an invaluable asset!
The ultimate way to build lasting relationships and loyalty
Far from being a simple promotional channel, it also allows you to transpose your reader into an experience and into your hotel brand values. By personalising content according to the customer’s profile, the history of their stay or the services they have already used, you can anticipate their needs, propose relevant offers and create a tailor-made relationship, all in keeping with your image. This ability to adapt to each customer, without excessive effort, is essential today.
Emailing is also a powerful way of building guest loyalty. It prolongs the link after the stay, brings back fond memories and rekindles the relationship at just the right moment. It’s not just about selling: it fosters a sense of belonging, gradually turning your customers into regulars and sometimes even ambassadors!
One channel in the face of the OTAs: regaining control of your distribution
This ‘independence’ has a direct consequence: every booking generated by an email is a direct booking for your hotel. This means 0% commission for the OTAs (Booking, Expedia…) and 0% cost linked to your visibility… a net gain for your hotel ! So you increase your margin. The message goes out, the customer clicks, books, stays… and you keep 100% of the value. This is where emailing makes the difference: by combining commercial effectiveness with immediate profitability.
Turning potential into profit: the key principles to remember
Consent and value : the basis of a healthy relationship
It all starts with a properly constituted base. Far from the old practices of collecting addresses, effective emailing is based on transparent data collection that complies with the GDPR rules and, above all, is motivated by a real promise. Offering an exclusive discount, a local guide or reserved advantages creates contact acquisition based on an exchange. Customers give their address because they find it interesting. And over time, this base becomes a high-value marketing asset.
Content as a driver of performance
What makes an email open, read, clicked on or ignored is not just its subject line, but the genuine interest it arouses. All too often, emailing is used solely to send promotions. But results can also come from a more relational approach: talking about local events, sharing news, offering practical advice… all ways of nurturing the relationship without reducing it to a generic offer.
Establishing a deep connection helps to generate trust. This paves the way for conversion, without necessarily needing to make huge cuts in your room rates.
Segmentation : a prerequisite for effectiveness
Successful emailing also depends on the quality of the segmentation. Sending a ‘family holiday’ offer to a solo business traveller is not only pointless, but counter-productive.
This is where the use of a CRM like Experience comes into its own. It allows you to create segments automatically, without importing manual lists, based on criteria such as :
- The frequency or date of the last stay,
- The type of room previously booked,
- The amount of the average basket or upsells consumed,
- The declared level of satisfaction,
- The reactivity to previous campaigns…
This segmentation enables offers and messages to be finely personalised, without requiring time on the part of the hotelier. In this way, it is possible to intelligently tailor a number of key campaigns to specific profiles, with no limits.
Planned automation but personalised !
The danger of automation is that you end up with a generic message that is not very appropriate. However, when properly configured, an automated scenario can, on the contrary, reinforce the feeling of closeness.
Take a customer who has booked a ski holiday once in winter. In October, he receives an automatic personalised email:
“Hello, winter is approaching… how about coming back to enjoy the mountains this year? Your last room is still available, and we’ll give you a very special welcome.”
The email is automated, but it is based on real data (his last stay) and speaks to the right person at the right time.
With a hotel CRM like Experience, these scenarios are easy to set up, thanks to :
- Customisable triggers (date, type of stay, customer behaviour, etc.);
- An intuitive visual e-mail editor;
- Reusable templates according to season, target or objective;
- Automated translation available for multilingual campaigns according to your needs.
All without disrupting day-to-day operations.
Emailing, a channel that can be measured and managed
One of the major advantages of email marketing is that it allows you to clearly monitor performance. Unlike a poster, a post on social networks or a Google Ads campaign, each email sent can be analysed precisely:
- What is the open rate?
- How many clicked?
- How many booked?
- Which segment performed best?
These indicators can be used to understand what’s working, adapt campaigns and optimise them on an ongoing basis. In the long term, this means greater efficiency without necessarily increasing the volume of mailings.
It’s also a useful marketing tool in off-peak periods, identifying the segments that are most sensitive to relaunches, thereby maximising opportunities.
Conclusion : email marketing is not an option, it’s a strategic necessity
In a digital world dominated by hotel distribution giants and changing algorithms, emailing remains one of the only channels you really own. It gives you unfiltered access to your customers, allows you to act without extra cost, personalise without complexity, and build loyalty without artifice.
It’s a tool that you can put to work right away, with visible results in no time. But it’s also a long-term lever that feeds your customer knowledge, nourishes your brand, and builds a more autonomous ecosystem. And today, channels like WhatsApp Marketing even offer hoteliers a new opportunity to get even closer to their customers, by extending this direct, instant and personalised relationship!
