Mass discounts no longer work
Travelers value experience, personalization, and recognition more than a 10% coupon. How to identify your highest-value guests and build more profitable relationships.
I have a question for you: when was the last time a 10% discount made you loyal to a brand?
Probably never. Or if it did, it was because the discount arrived at the exact moment you were going to look for a cheaper alternative anyway.
Why mass discounts no longer work
The mass discount has a fundamental problem: it attracts the wrong guest and trains the right one to always wait for the discount.
What today's travelers truly value —according to every study on travel consumer behavior— is:
- Experience: how did that hotel make me feel?
- Personalization: did they feel spoken to directly, or did they get the same generic message as everyone else?
- Recognition: did the hotel remember they had stayed before? Their preferences?
A guest who felt recognized returns without needing a discount. A guest who was only attracted by price leaves for the competitor when it offers 5% less.
How to identify your highest-value guests
- How many times did they stay in the past year?
- What is their average spend (room + additional purchases)?
- How many positive reviews did they generate?
- Did they refer other guests?
With that data you can build a loyalty strategy that doesn't depend on discounts but on specific experiences for the specific people who generate the most value for your hotel.
Changes in WhatsApp
WhatsApp updated its policies for marketing messages. If you use the API to send campaigns, check that you're within the new parameters. Spam doesn't work on any channel, and WhatsApp tolerates it less and less.
— Gonzalo Rioja
