The hospitality industry faces a number of obstacles and opportunities in regard to marketing, with one of the greatest puzzles being email marketing.

email marketing for hotels represented by mail being transferred through a laptop and a hotel location pin

Email marketing for hotels is a unique challenge: there can be varying customer acquisition periods, low retention rates, and the difficulty of convincing someone to purchase a once-in-a-lifetime experience more than once.

From budget accommodations offering a port in a storm to luxury hotels offering bucket-list experiences, hotels have a lot to gain by leveraging email marketing successfully.

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As a digital nomad, I have a greater appreciation for quality hotel email marketing than the average person. As a marketer and a full-time traveler who lives out of hotels and Airbnbs around the world, I encounter these marketing techniques on a regular basis as I navigate my travels. Here’s how to get it right.

Table of Contents:

How Email Marketing Benefits Hotels

While most hotels send pre-arrival emails to hotel guests like a confirmation email and a reminder for an upcoming reservation, email marketing has powerful potential to engage potential customers.

While some travelers will book last minute, Think With Google reported a trend that consumers are researching and planning ahead more for their travels. For hotels, this means an extended nurture period where hotels have the opportunity to boost bookings through the use of email campaigns.

Challenges

Direct business-to-consumer (B2C) sales are difficult in the hospitality industry. Many consumers turn to websites like Booking.com, Tripadvisor, or Hotels.com to secure their hotel stays, which makes the top of the sales funnel extremely competitive.

When I searched for a hotel in Cusco, Peru, you can see that there are paid ads from Hotels.com, Expedia, Booking.com, and Priceline all vying for customers to purchase through their website instead of booking directly with the hotel itself.

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The nature of the travel industry also presents challenges to the…


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