As we saw in the previous chapter, items and packages can be "upsold" to your guests.
Increase revenue with Upsells
Offer guests the ability to enhance their stay with curated items, packages, and services. The two main benefits to having upsell options:
Enables guests to personalize their stay and book the perfect getaway
Guests that enjoy your packages and services have a better experience overall.
You have more control over the items and services guests get through you, as opposed to them seeking them out on their own.
Increases your revenue
How to offer upsells to your guests
Upselling to your guests can be done by your staff, by the online booking engine when they book, by the upsell portal after they book, or by the digital registration before they arrive. Let's look at the different ways that you can offer these to your guests.
Upsellable Items
"Items" in ThinkReservations refer to any individual product, service, or fee that may be added to a bill or reservation. Items that are upsold to guests are offered after a room has been selected on the booking engine, through the upsell portal, and through digital registration.
Navigate to Settings > Items in your account. Take a look at the column labeled "UPSELLABLE?". If you see a "Yes" in this column, it means that this particular item can be purchased by the guests booking online on their own.
Click on one of the items that says "Yes". All upsellable items should have:
A name for the item that makes sense to the guest.
An attractive, enticing description for the item, so the guest knows what the item represents.
An upsellable policy that makes sense for the item. For example, if you have a service to stock the refrigerator in the guest's unit, ensure that you only apply that item to units that feature a refrigerator.
Upsellable Packages
In ThinkReservations, a "Package" is simply a collection or grouping of "Items." This is beneficial because:
When selecting a package, guests make one buying decision.
Taxes can be calculated accurately according to the items included in the Package.
Revenue accounts are calculated by the item like taxes.
The guest doesn't see the itemized breakdown of costs, which means Packages can include service fees and gratuities not displayed to the customer.
Bundled items in a Package increase perceived value and increase revenue.
Just like upsellable items, packages that are upsold also should be reviewed to have an appropriate name, description, and policy.
Rate Type Packages
A "Room Package," or "Rate Type Package," is when items are bundled in with the room rate. When you create a Rate Type Package or "Room Package," you are enabling your customers to truly make one buying decision. When they choose the rate type, they are choosing not only the room, but also anything that goes with that room package. This makes it easier for your guests to say "yes".
We recommend you take your top two or three packages, and consider creating a room package.
To create a room package, you start with a rate type, and add items to it as appropriate. See the below example image for a visual aid:
