Upsel method for sales in the guest accommodation industry.
Apsel is the name of a sales method in which potential guests of real estate are motivated to make a more expensive purchase than they originally planned. As a rule, in this case, offers are used to increase the category of selected rooms or motivate guests to purchase additional bonuses: visiting the spa or gym, ordering certain drinks, a specialized dinner in a restaurant, and so on.
For real estate objects, the use of this method brings not only an increase in income, but also an increase in customer loyalty. For the guest-an opportunity to get more comfort from living, and spend the most positive time on a business trip or tourist trip. The Apsel effect is based on the fact that at a time when the guest has already decided to book and is ready to pay, it is easier for him to agree to a certain surcharge, which will make the future stay in the apartment even better.
Why do I need Apsel?
If you plan and apply the Apsel technique correctly, it will help real estate objects not only earn more, but also successfully promote their services on the internet, effectively create communication between staff and guests, and keep their service at a decent level.
There are several most notable advantages of using Apsel.
Increase the profitability of the placement object.
The method of such sales significantly increases the achievement, ADR and RevPAR of objects due to the fact that guests check into rooms that have an improved category. At the same time, the number of rooms and current costs of the facility’s staff do not increase and remain unchanged. Even if such indicators grow slightly during the working day, for a year of such work, they will be a significant addition to income.
Increase the chances of increasing the number of rooms.
Those cheaper rooms that were released due to the choice of superior rooms by guests are always easier to implement with the help of the same OTA, attracting the attention of customers to them with promotions or even “deliberate overbooking”.
Increase the chances of increasing the number of rooms.
Those cheaper rooms that were released due to the choice of superior rooms by guests are always easier to implement with the help of the same OTA, attracting the attention of customers to them with promotions or even “deliberate overbooking”.
Increased attention of paying guests.
Paying guests are always willing to spend more money during their stay, so having such an opportunity to get additional services encourages this category of visitors to use them more often.
Increase in customer loyalty.
Quite often, when booking, guests simply do not have time to understand the full range of services offered by the accommodation object. After talking to the guest and finding out the client’s wishes and expectations, you can offer them exactly what they want, for example:
* use of the pool;
* visit to spa treatments;
* possibility to order special (vegetarian) breakfasts;
* or book a vacant superior room.
Thanks to such attentive communication, the guest will definitely appreciate the individual approach to it and, in most cases, leave a good review or voluntarily advertise the object among their colleagues and acquaintances.
Savings on commission.
It should be understood that, even in cases when a guest has booked a room through OTA channels, after raising the room category directly on the territory of the object, an additional commission of sales channels is not charged.
How to apply the Apsel technique in commercial real estate objects?
There are two ways to apply the Apsel technique:
* when the manager communicates with the client in person;
* automating this feature.
Today, it is not necessary to wait for the guest to arrive at the reception of the location object or call him by phone to order a reservation, in which the manager can find out his needs and offer additional or more expensive services.
Modern technologies allow you to automate this process, immediately motivating those guests who are capable of additional costs for the sake of comfort.
For example, the booking module of the well-known real estate management service OtelMS has the ability to offer guests to increase the category of rooms immediately, during remote booking.
If you set up such an opportunity in the module, carefully indicate all the advantages of rooms and rates on the corporate website and add spectacular photos – guests will definitely appreciate the ease of finding such information and take advantage of the opportunity to make their vacation or business trip as comfortable as possible “here and now”.
