In this new world of expanding Electronic Marketing and Social Media for Inns, it is easy to overlook one goal that has not changed with time.  Good old fashioned hospitality and excellence of service combine to keep your guests happy, and most of all, to get them to come back for a repeat visit.  This aspect of guest retention is sometimes overlooked as Innkeepers struggle to improve their visibility on the Web through development of websites, professional photography, search engine optimization, pay-for-click, directories, blogs, and social media.  Yet for the most part, all of this electronic marketing is directed at helping new, prospective guests decide to come to your Inn for the first time.  What about the guests that have already been there and have experienced first hand your great hospitality and service?  This is what I want to focus on in this posting.

Let’s look at the facts.  First of all, we know from all of our consulting work with Inns across the country that really successful, mature Inn businesses have repeat and referral guests at least equal to or greater than 50% of their overall business.  In other words, people who have already been there or who come to the Inn based on direct word of mouth referral from a guest who has been to the Inn should constitute at least half of the overall guest visits to the Inn in a given year.   If you are not constantly tracking your sources of business in your PMS system (reservation software), then you will never be able to focus your attention on this extremely valuable part of your business.  We have previously talked about the importance of Metrics and Tracking in several prior postings (see our PAII presentation on Metrics).   The importance of repeats and referrals cannot be understated.  Simply put, it costs you very little in terms of marketing to bring these guests back to the Inn.  Saying it the other way, it costs you considerable sums to attract new guests to the Inn, and it is very hard to track what exactly caused these guests decide to book (i.e. a “conversion” or sale).  Try this easy test.  Determine for a given year the number of new guest that you had, and divide that number into all of your marketing costs aimed at new guests.  I can almost guaranty you that the result will astound you.  Yet, if you are spending the Industry Norm of about 4% of sales for marketing, this is likely to be one of your biggest expenses.  Why not focus some real attention on getting repeat guests to either come back or refer your Inn to their friends?

What are the best ways to develop this most important part of your business?  First of all, you need to make your repeat guests aware that you value their business.  Perhaps you need to treat them a bit differently that your newer guests; not in the sense of more hospitality, but with a bit more privileges or attention.  First of all, if possible every repeat guest should be greeted by first name when they come back to the Inn.  You may not remember them directly, but you just need to figure out how to recognize them.  It really does not hurt to say welcome back to a guest even if it is occasionally said to a new guest.  A lot of Innkeepers take pictures of each guest as they leave, and can easily recognize them when they return. Others just track things like make and model of cars or look at the license plate of a car as it comes into the parking lot.  Your PMS System can print the source of the guest on the Check-In list, to give you a heads up on this. 

Another easy way to make repeats feel special is to give them a small gift on their return to the Inn.  We used to have a special welcome note on the bed at Check-In along with a “gift of Godiva” ( a small box of chocolates) to recognize and thank them for coming back.  Other Inns bring a complementary glass of wine or an after dinner liqueur to the dinner table to recognize people that come back to the Inn.  The Captain Lord Mansion, in Kennebunkport, ME, owned and operated by really savvy marketers, has a path full of rock pavers winding through its gardens.  Each paving stone is engraved with the name a guest who has stayed at the Inn at least 10 times.  This simple recognition award for repeat guests works so well for the Inn that they ran out of space in the initial path and had to expand to a new one.  Can you imagine the success of repeat business that this path represents?

Another thought is to make sure that you reward your repeat guests who refer other guests to you.  Send them a thank you note or a small gift certificate or other prize for their efforts.  Send them a T-Shirt with the Inn’s logo or brand as a gift for their efforts.  You can use your imagination here, but do it, and I believe that your repeat business will continue to grow.

Email and print newsletters are all about repeat guests.  They constitute your mailing and email list.  This is a perfect way to make repeat guests feel special.  Create special packages that are only good for those guests who have already been to the Inn or people who are referred to the Inn by a repeat guest.  Make it an added value package that recognizes their loyalty.  And talking abut loyalty programs, it is clear that these work in the travel business.  Look at the success of the Select Registry Loyalty Program (www.selectregistry.com), and those of other group marketing like Distinctive Inns of New England (www.distinctiveinns.com).   While loyalty programs work better in a group context, they are easy ways to encourage your repeat guests to return.  Just remember that discounting for any guest, including repeats really does not work, and devalues your brand, making it difficult in the future to ever charge full price for your most treasured guests. 

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