Providing an exceptional guest experience is the cornerstone of success for your short-term vacation rental. While clean accommodations and responsive communication are the baselines, offering convenient and premium add-ons can elevate your hosting game to the next level.
With an increased demand for personalized guest experiences, it can be difficult to meet guest expectations. As a host, you want to provide flexible options for your guests’ requests while keeping your operations running efficiently. On top of this, you are continuously competing with other short-term rentals to stand out and increase your occupancy rate.
By providing premium add-ons for an additional fee, like early check-in or late check-out, and connecting them to your workflows, you can meet guest demands without sacrificing efficiency. That’s why we’re excited to announce that Upsells are live for Direct bookings! Now you can offer additional options that enhance guests’ stays while addressing the challenges of revenue generation, personalization, and operational management.
How’s It Work?
Creating Your Upsells
You will find Upsells under the Guest Experience tab in the menu on the left of your screen. Once there, you will see a Get Started with Upsells button which will lead you to a screen with some disabled default upsells, like early check-in and late check-out.
You can enable these default options or create your own with the Add Product button in the top right corner. Essentially, you’re creating a catalog of products for your guests to purchase within their guest portal. If you go into one of your products and edit it, you will see you can update the external name that guests will see, define the product, associate a cost, and segment it by channel, owner, and property.
Making Upsells Available for Purchase
After creating your upsell products, you need to make them available for your guests to purchase. Make sure the offerings you want to present to guests are turned on within the Upsells tab. You now need a way for your guests to access the guest portal, where the upsells can be purchased. There are two ways of doing this.
We recommend automating upsells by adding the AI smart code to your messaging rules. For example, if the upsell smart code is added to a New Reservation message and our AI detects that the day before hasn’t been booked, we will automatically offer an early check-in to the guest and send them the link to the guest portal.
The second way of presenting the guest portal is manually within the inbox. In the left menu by the reservation details, you will see a Guest Portal Link button that you can copy and paste into a message to your guests. This way is slower than our AI detecting and offering the upsells, but it’s good to know where you can always find and share the guest portal link.
How Guests Purchase Upsells
If the guest is interested in the upsell offer, they will click into the guest portal and see the offering highlighted. Once they click it, they will see all the options they can purchase. For example, if they need an early check-in, they will see the different times they can check in and the costs of each. After choosing an upsell option, they can conveniently check out on the same page with the payment method used for the booking.
If the upsell purchased a timed-based one, like early check-in or late check-out, all of your messages and operations automations will automatically be updated to accommodate the change. It’s that simple!
You can visit our help center articles for a full overview of offering upsells or ask our support team any questions through the chat located at the bottom right of the screen once you’re logged into your Hospitable account!
Why Use It?
There are plenty of reasons to offer your guests upsells, but here are three benefits that should make it obvious to use:
- Increase your monthly revenue. Upsells create new streams of income without requiring additional bookings. For example, charging for early check-in or premium amenities can significantly boost profits which can help pay for expenses.
- Enhance your overall guest satisfaction. Personalized options, such as welcome packages or local experiences, improve the guest experience and build loyalty. Happy guests are more likely to leave positive reviews and return for future stays.
- Streamline operations without stress. Pre-packaged upsells like early check-ins or extended check-outs can help hosts plan better during turnover days. This will ensure you don’t get overwhelmed trying to fulfill last-minute guest requests.
What Do You Think?
We would love to hear your thoughts on Upsells. Is there something you’d like to see in the feature's coming iterations? Fill out the form below!
Stay tuned for more product updates!
