The hospitality industry is constantly evolving, and building and maintaining a strong relationship with your customers through guest interaction has become even more crucial. Guest interaction involves staying in touch with your customers, creating genuine connections, crafting memorable moments, and turning an average stay into an exceptional journey. This may sound overwhelming but with the right strategies in place, it’s not only achievable but also profitable for your hotel business. Gamification has emerged as an effective strategy for hotels to stay in touch with their guests and increase guest engagement. In this post, we’ll explore actionable gamification strategies for hotel marketing and explore its potential as a viable strategy for lead generation and next-level guest interaction.
Understanding Guest Interaction
Staying in touch with your hotel guests should always result in a connection between the hotel and the client that builds brand loyalty. The interaction between a hotel and its guests should go beyond providing a place to sleep. It should also involve creating a curated experience that caters to the unique needs and preferences of each guest. Successful guest interaction means understanding the needs and preferences of your customers so well that your hotel can craft memorable experiences that resonate with them from the time they book their stay to the moment they leave, and beyond. Guest interaction is not a new concept in hotel management. However, increased competition and the role of innovative technology and social media in the modern landscape is a game-changer. Hotels must adapt to this new landscape by leveraging the opportunities it represents to stay in touch with hotel guests, provide tailored experiences, and retain a loyal customer base.
The Role of Gamification in Hotel Marketing
Gamification has emerged as a highly effective marketing tool for businesses across various industries, and the hotel industry is no exception. Incorporating game-like elements, such as rewards, challenges, and competitions into their services, hotels can keep their guests engaged and excited about their stay. This approach also gives hotels the added advantage of being able to tailor their guests’ experiences to their specific preferences and needs, thereby enhancing overall customer satisfaction. Whether it’s encouraging guests to share their experiences on social media or offering loyalty points for repeat visits, gamification has proven to be an innovative and effective way to improve brand engagement and loyalty in the hospitality industry.
Actionable Gamified Strategies to Stay in Touch with Hotel Guests
1. Make The Booking Experience Fun and Rewarding
The hospitality industry is highly competitive with many direct competitors in a specific region offering similar deals. Often, hotels are forced to compete on price alone, which can lead to a race to the bottom. As a result, many hoteliers seek better ways to increase direct bookings, and gamification is an excellent strategy for this. Hotels can gamify the direct booking process by integrating automated promotions into their websites. Consider secure solutions that are easily integrated into your existing systems like BeeLiked’s API. You can invite your website browsers to play a brief game, like a digital spin-the-wheel game, with the possibility of winning a discount on their reservation or a small gift. This incentivizes people to make a booking on your website while adding a fun element in the booking process that they’re likely to share with others.
2. Games at Check-In
Revamp the check-in process at your hotel with an exciting game of chance to kickstart your guests’ stay on a high note. While most hotels offer their guests a fresh fruit cocktail or a glass of sparkling wine, you can make your hotel stand out by adding the extra layer of playing a game while they wait. These can be mobile-friendly games that they can play on your app or website. A game like Unwrap-the-gift can be an exciting way for guests to pass time. All the games at BeeLiked are fully customizable and mobile responsive.
3. Make Their Inbox More Exciting
Gamification is a fantastic way to make emails more interactive. You can send gamified emails to lure clients back by offering discounts or bonuses. You can also send interactive emails to reward long-term customers for their loyalty. With BeeLiked, you can personalize the experience by encoding user data in the InviteLink. Adding a tailored touch makes emails stand out in a busy inbox and makes customers feel valued.
4. Weave Stories Into Your Communications
Incorporating storytelling elements into your communications is a unique way to stay in touch with hotel guests and establish an emotional connection. Stories help guests engage with a brand on a deeper level. With storytelling, hotels can create an immersive experience that makes guests feel like they are part of a larger narrative. Every brand has a unique story and this is an effective way for businesses to differentiate themselves from competitors. Tell the story of your hotel’s history, its staff, and its community. Use it as an opportunity to create a strong sense of identity and build trust with your guests. Storytelling elements can be used to gamify your hotel marketing strategy. You can have your guests pop a balloon to reveal a fun fact about your hotel.
You can also create unique characters and creative plotlines that resonate with your guests. With BeeLiked, you can collect valuable data that you can use to gain a better understanding of your audience’s behaviours, motivations, and needs. You can use this information to create a personalized narrative for each client.
5. Gamify the Itinerary List
One way to showcase your hotel’s amenities is by creating gamified travel itineraries that motivate guests to explore and experience a range of offerings. Offer incentives to guests who complete certain actions, such as trying out a new area of the hotel, ordering the daily special at your on-site restaurant, or scheduling a particular service at your spa. Encourage their adventurous spirit by rewarding them with a free spin that gives them the chance to win exciting prizes.
Use BeeLiked’s Integrated System to Stay In Touch with Your Hotel Guests
Did you know you can try out the BeeLiked API without creating an account? That’s right! All you need to do is connect to the API credentials of our Playground Account and try out the pre-configured promotions. Our platform offers gamified promotions that are already configured to engage your audience and obtain valuable insights. Thanks to our user-friendly interface and powerful features, marketers can easily customize and launch promotions according to their objectives. Our interactive promotions are excellent for lead generation and next-level guest interaction. Get started with BeeLiked today!
