Why WhatsApp could revolutionize your guest communication

The hospitality industry faces challenges as travelers become more accustomed to modern communication technologies. The classic email communication appears slow in its execution and, therefore, gets replaced by modern messaging services.
Many young travelers use messaging services outside of email as their main mode of communication, and WhatsApp leads the market as the predominant messaging service worldwide. This awareness should be applied to communication between hotels and their guests. By simply displaying the WhatsApp logo on the website homepage alongside a mobile number, any hotel guest or potential hotel guest can quickly access the information and begin communicating with the hotel directly.

Advantages:

• WhatsApp allows the hotel to quickly respond to any inquiry
• Pre-screen content and filter it into specific folders (i.e. holiday packages, special events, etc.) to use for later marketing campaigns
• Free messaging worldwide
• Easy-to-use, no extended staff training required
• The contact import is simple to use, you will find notifications who else uses WhatsApp
• Another plus, is the possibility to create groups with certain interests and needs that can be handled individually ( Packages, Weekend offers)

Outcome:

Using WhatsApp is to everyone’s advantage as it is a quick and easy to set up communication tool. An added benefit: send links to your direct booking engine via WhatsApp for fast, convenient, commission-free direct bookings.
Younger generations ( “Millennials“, Generation “Y“) are used to modern technologies. They expect quick results, and through WhatsApp the Front Desk meets this expectation and reacts in no time. It will lead to a “mobile-relationship“ with guests.
The hotel can use WhatsApp to share text messages, videos, podcasts, promotions, and, of course, booking links. It’s not meant to substitute previous or other communication channels, it’s more an addition to enhance your current marketing strategy.
WhatsApp has the potential to update people on a highly personalised level and it can increase dramatically your guest satisfaction.

Other messaging apps

Of course there are other messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Viber, Google Allo, but we focus on WhatApp within this article because it’s the most popular worldwide. If you would like to read more about other apps, please let us know! We will be pleased to research and write more about them to empower your hotel marketing strategy.

In the meantime, talk to one of our consultants. We will be very happy to help you find what works for YOUR business.

References:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/using-whatsapp-hotel-guests-communication-mihaela-lica-butler