With constant innovations, the industry is adopting every technology that can enhance business and offer great experiences to guests.

The hotel industry has lately turned to WhatsApp to streamline communications — both with the guests and among the staff.  And to a great extent, the messaging platform has done a tremendous job in delivering just that. 

Want to know how? Read on as we explore WhatsApp for Business and its impact on the hospitality industry.

WhatsApp’s Emergence in the Hotel Industry

If you’re like me, you probably can’t remember when was the last time you went without using WhatsApp, do you?

Every one of us uses WhatsApp on a daily basis. And just like me, you probably have sneaked a peek at least once in the last hour.

(I just kept my phone aside to write this blog.)

This isn’t about popularity anymore! WhatsApp has become a necessity for both individuals and businesses worldwide.

And that fact itself speaks about its emergence in various industries including hospitality.

But let me tell you more…

The hotel industry is a lot about communication. What do I mean by that?

If a hotel wants to succeed, it must offer a great experience along with clear and concise communication with guests.

Being one of the most proactive businesses, hotels were quick to identify the changing preferences of travellers and witness that guests these days are on WhatsApp — for everything. Be it solo travellers, couples, families, or busy business professionals, everyone wants to be reached out on WhatsApp.

And this change in the needs and wants of travellers plays a significant role in bringing WhatsApp and its business solutions to the hotel industry.

Impact of WhatsApp on the Hospitality Industry

The impact of WhatsApp Business across the hotel industry is massive. This communication tool plays a crucial role in multiple aspects of the hotel business – driving profitability and great guest experience.

Following are some of the aspects where WhatsApp is making a great impact:

1. Smooth communications

Guest communication is the very first aspect of a hotel business where WhatsApp plays a pivotal role. The messaging tool has simplified communication both – among the hotel staff and with guests.

9 out of 10 guests prefer WhatsApp to communicate with the hotel.  It can also be seen that WhatsApp messages have an astounding open rate compared to traditional emails.

Meaning, that guests nowadays are inclined towards picking up their phones and sending a WhatsApp text for even the tiniest of queries. And if your hotel has WhatsApp integrated, you’re more likely to stand up to your guests’ expectations.

For example, if your guests want to book a cab for airport transfer, they don’t have to call your concierge to check for availability. They can simply drop a text or pick the service from the catalog and voila!

2. Instant notifications

“Instant notification” might not sound intriguing initially, but in reality, it holds a higher position in the list of positive impacts.

Today, hotels can offer great experiences right from the moment guests make a reservation.

With WhatsApp, hotels are now updating guests in real-time with an instant booking notification. Your guests don’t have to go back to their email inbox to find the itinerary; it's available right at their fingertips.

Speaking of instant notification, it’s not limited to booking. Integrated WhatsApp allows you to notify guests of their stay details upon check-in and also ask for their feedback when they check out.

3. Quick responses and support 

Gone are those days when you would send an email regarding a query and wait forever to get a response from the hotel.

WhatsApp has changed the scenario significantly. Resolutions and responses to guest queries have become quicker, even if no staff is available to attend to them.

With auto-response and chatbots, hotels are now offering continuous and instant support to guests. What was once an area of constant attention, is now on autopilot, enhancing the guest experience by a great level. 

4. Hotel business catalogue

Back in the past, guests always had to pick up the intercom and call the front office whenever they needed something.

That’s not the case anymore.

WhatsApp for Business offers a catalogue that allows guests to avail of any service — be it booking a cab, ordering food to the room, or anything else.

With the WhatsApp business catalogue, hoteliers can now showcase and share their services with guests in the simplest manner possible. Meaning, that guests can browse through a hotel’s services and avail of whatever they want.

For example, if I am a guest staying at your property, I can simply check out your WhatsApp catalog, book a spa session and make the payment right there and then. I don’t have to go through a lot of hotch-potch.

Additionally, this one simple catalogue has opened multiple doors for business. You can even share the catalogue link on social media and other platforms, and drive sales easily.

In this entire shebang of hoteliering and WhatsApp business, this feature certainly steals the show.

5. Gain your guests’ trust

WhatsApp for hotels today plays a vital role in garnering attention and allowing hotels to become a brand that people love and trust.

You might say that it’s possible even without the messaging platform, but what about the following advantages?

When hotels leverage WhatsApp for communication, there’s a strong factor of authenticity. What I mean by that every message is routed through a verified identity (a green tick) with a brand name and logo. Additionally, as the company says, every message is end-to-end message encrypted, keeping all the information safe.

This is a sign of trustworthiness. With such features offered, hotels can easily gain their guests’ trust.

6. Connect better through personalization

Even though the open rate of WhatsApp messages is higher than traditional emails, one thing remains the same — personalization.

A majority of people don’t like emails that are meant for the masses. And to cater to such people, personalization is the key.

Integrating WhatsApp with your hotel’s PMS makes both the system communicate and function in sync. Meaning, whenever you receive a reservation, you don’t have to individually add the contact details of the guest.

You can create a list of contacts based on preferences, booking patterns, and other factors. And this makes it easy for you to create personalized messages for your guest and offer exactly what they prefer.

7. Make upselling easier and better

Upselling is undoubtedly one of the great business opportunities to increase the average revenue of a hotel.

But calling up your guests to pay more for a similar but higher quality product or convincing them to avail of some additional services might not work well. You could try sending an email but then it might never get opened.

But WhatsApp has transformed this as well. Hoteliers now consider WhatsApp as their go-to communication channel for upselling. And why not? After all, messages do get the opens, especially the ones on WhatsApp.

For example, hotels send WhatsApp messages that read something like this — 30% off on Premium Spa tonight for all the in-house guests. And this significantly increases their chances of upselling and boosts their overall revenue.

Upselling, which seemed daunting, considering all the negative responses, is now an easy task to pull off. Thanks to WhatsApp. 

8. Generate greater ROI

Whenever a hotel opts for a tech or a service, ROI is never overlooked. After all, at the end of the day, revenue is all that matters.

WhatsApp and hospitality, have proved to be a match made in heaven. The messaging app has managed to deliver significant results for numerous hotels around the world.

Now when we say revenue, the best and obvious ways for hotels to generate it are by acquiring more bookings and delivering great experiences.

Be it in terms of marketing, operations, or guest experience, the efficiency levels of hotels have spiked. And that’s exactly what hotels need to drive more bookings and make better revenue.

With WhatsApp Business for hotels, accommodation providers today are improving their overall bottom. They are not just able to make the entire experience of guests better but also acquire repeat bookings.

FAQs

The post How WhatsApp Is Revolutionizing the Hospitality Industry appeared first on eZee Absolute.

Gone are those days when you would use WhatsApp only to connect with your friends and family.

Whatsapp is on everyone’s phone.

Yes, literally 9 out of 10 people use WhatsApp daily, unless they’re in China or parts of Southeast Asia.

And with such a wide audience to cater to, WhatsApp has evolved and now offers WhatsApp Business.

Today, as accommodations from all around the world are keeping abreast with new trends, WhatsApp Business for hotels is becoming pivotal.

This might sound a bit perplexing but once you start exploring, the avenues that WhatsApp Business can open for hotels become evident.

So, without further ado, let’s dive into the topic.

Whatsapp Integration in the Hospitality Industry

The WhatsApp you know from your personal use is different than the one I am covering in this article.

WhatsApp Business app and WhatsApp business API are two major options for hotel businesses that have so many features to offer.

They both might sound similar but in terms of use cases and features, there are significant differences.

Let me explain it to you.

WhatsApp Business for hotels has gained good traction in recent times. And why not? After all, it seems to be a decent choice for several types of industry with features like business profile, quick replies, automatic greeting messages, automatic away messages, contact labels, message statistics, catalogs, etc. And it’s a free app not to mention.

However, for hotel businesses where communications happen on a much wider level, WhatsApp Business solely doesn’t work all the time. Accommodation businesses need some of the additional capabilities to enhance their operational efficiency and customer experience.

This is exactly where WhatsApp Business API integration comes into the frame and does the magic.

An Application Programming Interface (API) for WhatsApp Business allows you to integrate it with your hotel management system and explore a whole new dimension.

And this brings me to the next point,

How Can Whatsapp Benefit Hotel Operators?

Speaking of benefits, they are all tangible and cannot be overlooked. And in this section, I am covering the ones that make more sense to a hotelier.

1. In terms of operations

1.1 Get timely booking notifications

One of the top benefits of integrating Whatsapp for hotels with your property management system is that you get timely messages and notifications regarding every booking.

For example, you’re out of the station but you still want to keep yourself updated with the booking flow at your hotel. You can simply opt for a notification option and receive a WhatsApp message whenever there’s a confirmed booking.

Not to mention, you can also receive notifications and messages for canceled bookings, the ones that are on hold, and rescheduled bookings. 

1.2 Stay updated with all the crucial reports

Reports are crucial for hotel owners. It allows them to take a deeper look at all the happenings of the hotel and make informed decisions.

Now, what if you could get these reports directly to your phone without even installing any application?

Sounds intriguing, right?

With WhatsApp Business integrated with your hotel PMS, you can get reports on – high balance, daily arrival and departure, concierge report, daily forecast, daily sales recapitulation, POS terminal, and whatnot.

Keeping yourself abreast with all these reports helps you in getting to know how’s your accommodation performing and what you can do to make things great.

Additionally, you can also opt to receive reports that are important to you. And if you’re not sure, here’s an article on reports that are necessary for every hotelier to analyze.

1.3 Communicate better

WhatsApp’s sole purpose itself is to help individuals and businesses communicate better.

However, “How can WhatsApp help hotel businesses in terms of communication” is the question here. 

Here’s how it works:

1.3.1 With guests

Apart from all the happy-go-lucky marketing messages, it is also important to keep your guests updated with details regarding their stay.

Now, for a moment, step into the shoes of a traveler and check into a hotel. The very moment you enter your room, you receive the wifi password on WhatsApp. Sounds like something right, isn’t it?

Later, you go to the in-house restaurant to have lunch and decide to pay along with the final bill. The very moment you step out of the restaurant you receive the bill on WhatsApp for reference. Not to mention, this also reduces the chances of any discrepancy.

And finally, when you check out of the hotel, you receive your invoice straight into your WhatsApp invoice.

Communications are just about “Hi” and “Hello”, keeping your guests updated with everything also counts. And in this scenario, WhatsApp has done exactly that.

1.3.2 With staff

In terms of staff, communication is mostly about keeping your employees updated with tasks, shifts, etc.

Here’s an explanation of the use case with a scenario.

For example, all your employees have WhatsApp installed on their phones. Every time they are assigned a task, they get notified through a WhatsApp text. Once the task is completed, s/he can mark the task as completed right on the chat window and it gets updated on the PMS.

Now, if that isn’t the definition of convenience then I don’t know what is.

Furthermore, you can also use WhatsApp to keep your hotel staff updated with their roasters and other information with the help of a chatbot. All they need to do is interact with the chatbot to retrieve the required information.

1.4 Share catalogs, payment links, and more

Again, it’s time for an example.

(I and my love for examples are just eternal.)

Joe checks into your hotel today. And after a long flight, he couldn’t go to the restaurant to eat.

Feeling bad?

Let’s fix things for Joe.

Joe arrives at your hotel and while checking in he mentions that he’s really tired. Now, like a good hotelier, you send Joe your in-house restaurant menu on WhatsApp. Joe orders food, gets it delivered to his room, and also gets a link on his WhatsApp for payment.

Isn’t this amazingly convenient?  

Be it a catalog, menu, payment links, or folios, WhatsApp’s integration with your hotel PMS allows you to share and receive everything that matters.

2. In terms of sales and marketing

2.1 Acquire more leads

WhatsApp for acquiring leads might sound a little weird, isn’t it?

But Pal, it does work magically.

This is more of a default advantage of WhatsApp. When you have a WhatsApp business account, you can integrate it into your hotel’s website.

Every time someone visits your website, they see the option to chat directly with your hotel.

Now, for instance, “that someone” texts you, inquires about rooms and prices, and then leaves.

What are you going to do about it? Drop it right there?

Nope!

Save the contact for future pitches but don’t forget to mark. And this brings me to the next point…

2.2 Mark leads/guests according to labels

WhatsApp Business has a labeling feature.

For example, you can label people/contacts who texted you as a fresh lead and can later curate personalized marketing messages and send them to him/her.

In the same way, you can label other contacts as well — be it for a guest, existing guest, potential guest, or just a lead.

2.3 Segment contact list

Another feature that seems a little new?

Here’s the real deal.

Once you’re done labeling your leads or guests, you can create dedicated broadcast lists for each label.

Think of it as audience segmentation.

Now that you have different broadcast lists for each type of label, all you need to do is send the right message at the right time.

And guess what? If you have an audience from various parts of the world, you’ll find it cost-effective to connect with them, since WhatsApp doesn’t charge a fee for international communication.

2.4 Schedule messages

But wait.

There are times when you might not want to stay awake just to send a marketing message to an audience in a different time zone.

This is where scheduling comes into the feature.

You can schedule your messages according to the broadcast list and the time zone they are in, leaving no stone unturned for your WhatsApp marketing efforts.

2.5 Understand customer engagement with statistics

One of my favorite features is the analytics part.

An integrated WhatsApp Business account for hotels allows you to see the analytics reports about your account activity.

You can run real-time monitoring of messaging and spending analytics for your WhatsApp Business account, view the metrics of all conversations, and check graphs to learn how each metric is performing across time.

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