In a recent Blockbuster Articles feature, we asked a deceptively simple question:
Hotels have thousands of past guests. Why do so few keep talking to them?
Hotels spend heavily attracting travellers. They advertise, pay commissions, compete on booking platforms, invest in websites and social media, employ sales teams and participate in loyalty programmes.
Then the guest arrives.
They stay.
They experience the property and destination.
They check out.
And too often, the relationship becomes remarkably quiet.
But identifying that missed opportunity is the easy part.
The more useful question is:
What should hotels actually do about it?
The answer may begin by changing the way they think about their customer database.
Instead of seeing it simply as a list of people to whom another promotion can be sent, hotels could begin treating past guests as something much more valuable:
an audience.
First, Stop Trying to Sell Something Every Time
This may be the hardest adjustment.
Hotel marketing naturally revolves around transactions.
Book now.
Stay three nights and get the fourth free.
Save 20%.
Upgrade your room.
Return this summer.
Those messages have a place. But if every communication asks the recipient to spend money, eventually there is very little reason to open an email unless that person happens to be planning a trip.
Editorial communication works differently.
It gives somebody a reason to open the email even when they are not currently looking for a hotel.
That distinction is enormously important.
The immediate objective isn't necessarily to generate a booking.
Sometimes the objective is simply to make somebody think about the destination again.
Give Them Stories Worth Opening
Hotels are surrounded by stories.
The extraordinary thing is how few of those stories ever reach former guests.
Consider what exists within a few kilometres of almost any resort or city hotel.
There may be fascinating history.
A remarkable restaurant.
An upcoming festival.
A little-known beach.
A famous former resident.
A changing neighbourhood.
An unusual local tradition.
A spectacular seasonal event.
A new museum.
A wildlife migration.
A musician attracting international attention.
A historical building everybody photographs but few people understand.
These are not advertisements.
They are reasons to remain interested in a place.
And that is precisely what a hotel needs from somebody who isn't ready to book another room today.
Build Four Simple Content Pillars
A hotel doesn't need to become a newspaper.
It simply needs enough variety to prevent every communication from feeling like another sales message.
A useful editorial programme can be built around four broad areas.
1. Destination Stories
Tell people something fascinating about the place they visited.
A Seychelles hotel might explore the islands' extraordinary natural history.
A Cape Town property could tell the story behind one of the city's neighborhoods.
A Cape Verde resort could introduce former guests to the music, food or volcanic landscapes of another island.
These stories remind people why they travelled there in the first place.
2. Local Discovery
Give former guests reasons to feel that there is still more to experience.
A new restaurant.
A hidden walking route.
A market worth discovering.
A festival approaching next month.
A nearby island they may have missed.
A seasonal experience that didn't exist during their previous stay.
The underlying message becomes:
You may have visited—but you haven't seen everything yet.
3. Stories From the Hotel
Hotels themselves can be fascinating.
Perhaps a famous person once stayed there.
Maybe the building has an unusual history.
A chef may have an extraordinary background.
A long-serving employee might have witnessed decades of change.
The architecture may tell a story.
The gardens may contain plants with surprising origins.
Even a signature cocktail can have a history.
The important thing is to tell these stories as stories, rather than turning every one into a brochure.
4. The Occasional Offer
Yes—sell something.
Just not every time.
When a hotel has spent months providing interesting communication, a genuine return offer can feel very different.
The recipient has not heard from the property only when somebody wants their credit card.
There has been a continuing relationship.
And now there is a commercial reason to act.
A Hotel Editorial Calendar Can Be Remarkably Simple
This doesn't need to become another enormous responsibility for the marketing department.
Imagine a hotel communicating twice a month.
The calendar might look something like this:
Week 1:
The Extraordinary History of the Island You Visited
Week 3:
Five Places Near the Hotel You May Have Missed
The following month:
Week 1:
Why This Local Festival Has Been Celebrated for More Than 100 Years
Week 3:
An Invitation to Return — Preferred Rate for Previous Guests
That's three pieces of useful or entertaining editorial communication for every direct commercial message.
The precise ratio isn't important.
The principle is.
Earn attention before asking for action.
Write Subject Lines for Humans
Hotels can learn something here from publishers.
A publisher doesn't normally headline a story:
OUR LATEST DESTINATION INFORMATION
Nobody is desperate to click that.
Instead:
Why This Tiny Island Has More Giant Tortoises Than People
Or:
The Strange Story Behind Cape Town's Most Colourful Neighbourhood
Or:
What Happens in Mauritius When the Tourists Go Home?
Curiosity matters.
The email subject line has one job:
Make somebody want to know what comes next.
It doesn't have to shout.
It doesn't need seventeen exclamation marks.
And it certainly doesn't always need the words SPECIAL OFFER.
Make the Destination the Hero
Hotels understandably spend a great deal of time talking about themselves.
Our rooms.
Our restaurant.
Our spa.
Our awards.
Our pool.
Our service.
But former guests already know the hotel.
What may need refreshing is their emotional connection with the destination.
Show them the ocean again.
Show them the mountain.
Remind them of the food.
Tell them something about the culture they didn't know.
Introduce them to somewhere they didn't manage to visit.
Make them remember how it felt to wake up somewhere completely different from home.
Because often the desire to return to a hotel begins with something larger:
the desire to return to the place.
Don't Send Everybody the Same Thing
A guest who visited with children may respond to different stories from somebody who travelled on honeymoon.
A business traveller may have different interests from a leisure guest.
Someone who stayed three months ago is in a different relationship with the property from someone who last visited five years ago.
Hotels with sufficiently good customer data can use simple segmentation to make editorial communication more relevant.
But sophistication shouldn't become an excuse for doing nothing.
Even a well-written destination story sent to an appropriately permissioned past-guest audience is a considerable improvement on communicating only when there is something to sell.
Respect the Inbox
None of this works if communication becomes intrusive.
Hotels must comply with applicable privacy, consent and electronic-marketing requirements in the markets where their guests live.
People should know why they are receiving communications.
They should be able to unsubscribe easily.
And frequency matters.
The objective isn't to occupy somebody's inbox.
It is to earn permission to appear there occasionally.
There is a considerable difference.
You Don't Have to Produce Everything Yourself
This is another misconception that can stop the idea before it begins.
A hotel doesn't necessarily need an internal editorial department.
Useful material may come from tourism organizations, local cultural institutions, photographers, historians, destination specialists, freelance writers, publishers, and other editorial partners.
Hotels can also commission original stories around their destination and property.
The essential requirement is that appropriate permissions and usage rights are in place—and that the resulting material is genuinely worth the guest's attention.
Because poor content sent regularly is not a relationship strategy.
It's simply more email.
Measure Attention Before Measuring Revenue
A common mistake would be to launch this programme and immediately ask:
How many bookings did Article Number One generate?
That's not necessarily the first measure that matters.
Are people opening the emails?
Are they clicking through?
Which subjects attract attention?
Which destination stories perform best?
Do former guests begin engaging more frequently?
Are they forwarding content?
Are people returning to the hotel's website even when they aren't booking right away?
Over time, those patterns become extremely useful.
The hotel begins learning what its audience actually cares about.
And when commercial messages are eventually introduced, you can measure their performance against a relationship that has already been nurtured.
The Objective Is Not More Email
This point matters.
The answer to weak guest communication is not to bombard people more frequently.
The objective is better communication.
One genuinely interesting email every few weeks may be worth considerably more than a constant stream of forgettable promotions.
Hotels don't need to become media companies.
But they can borrow one important lesson from good publishers:
If you want people to keep opening what you send, give them something worth opening.
The Guest Has Already Given You the Hardest Thing to Win
Their trust.
They chose your property from hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of alternatives.
They travelled there.
They stayed.
They experienced your hospitality.
If that experience was good, the hotel doesn't need to reintroduce itself.
It simply needs to avoid disappearing.
So tell them something.
Show them something.
Teach them something about the place they visited.
Occasionally make them smile.
Sometimes make them curious.
And every now and then, give them a compelling reason to return.
Because the most valuable hotel email database may not be the one with the largest number of addresses.
It may be the one containing the largest number of people who still want to hear from you.
— Blockbuster Articles
Recommended next read: Hotels Have Thousands of Past Guests. Why Do So Few Keep Talking to Them?
