Sometimes it’s the little things that elevate a good guest experience to a great one. Emails are the perfect example. Every hotelier sends emails to every guest who books with them, and the first – some would say most important – touchpoint once a booking is made is the hotel booking confirmation email.
We don’t need to explain what a hotel booking confirmation email is. The clue is in the name. But what is worth highlighting is its importance in the guest journey. In most cases, it’s the first time you’re messaging a guest directly, so it’s important you get things right. Here’s how.
Why focus on your hotel booking confirmation email?
For a hotelier, the booking confirmation email is an invaluable touchpoint with customers. Confirmation emails have a massive 72% open rate and 25% click-to-open rate. Compare this to the industry average of 17.7% for open rates and 11.5% for click-to-open rates across all emails and it becomes clear that hoteliers shouldn’t waste this precious step of guest interaction. In short: this is the one email we know that guests will read.
There’s another compelling reason to spend some time on your booking confirmation emails: online check-in. Hear us out. Encourage guests to check-in online in your confirmation email, and you’ll dramatically improve your online check-in conversion. Why is this a good thing? More online check-ins mean less stress on your front desk team. It means more time for personable conversations and a smoother guest journey for those who want it. But for online check-in adoption to improve, you need to tell your guests about it, and the booking confirmation email is the ideal place.
How to create an effective hotel booking confirmation email?
Email marketing is a powerful tool for generating extra revenue for upselling – but that doesn’t mean you should bombard your guests with every product or service you offer. People spend about 14 seconds reading a confirmation email, and at this first point of contact, you should focus on the essentials. The most important information should always be ‘above the fold’. Translation: it should be visible without needing to scroll down to read.
Optimize for mobile:
This may or may not shock you, depending on your own age and habits, but the majority of people use their phones to read emails. In travel and hospitality, 55.6% read emails on mobile, compared to 28% on webmail and just 16.4% on desktop clients. Your email may look smart on your work laptop, but have you checked how it will open on your phone? Hospitality emails have a 12% higher open rate on mobiles than desktops, and better click-to-open rates too. You shouldn’t need any more convincing by now that it’s time to work on optimizing your emails for mobile.
Mention the COVID-19 Safety measures in the room:
People are fed up with the virus and many will be booking holidays to give themselves a few blissful days where they can forget about everything. On the other hand, most people will want to know that they’ll be safe during their stay. A good compromise is a simple line of copy, something along the lines of ‘How we’re keeping you safe during your stay with a link to a page on your website where guests can find more details if they want to. For example, something like this, as a clickable image, is a good solution:
