Welp, we made it. The past 365 days have been difficult to say the least, and the gaming industry was hit in an unprecedented way. With a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a vaccine, now is a good time to reflect on a few lessons learned from our old friend 2020.
If we’ve absorbed one thing in this ‘new normal,’ it’s that understanding your hotel’s demand is critical. A lot of properties look at bookings for this, but to truly understand demand, you need to know who is not booking. You need to see the whole picture and be able to action against it. If not, you’re selling your property short.
Stop the deep cuts on guests you should own
A lot of money is spent driving guests to your website to gain that elusive direct booking. The fact is that most hotel-casinos see over an 80% abandonment rate on their website, which means most of these guests are booking through a 3rd party. So, you’ve spent all this money to drive traffic to your site, and now are spending more money in commission for a guest you should already have. Not the best model. The good news is there’s a better way.
Focus on capturing unbooked leads
A Shopping Cart Abandonment (SCA) tool is absolutely critical right now for understanding and converting demand. Think of it as a marketer’s dream – the right message at the right time. If the guest doesn’t pull the trigger to book, that doesn’t mean the journey is over. You now have a lead that you can nurture with personalized, automated emails. This allows you to grow your database and cut down on commissions for guests that should be your own.
SCA is simple to use and does all the work for you. After a grueling 2020 that should be music to your ears. It works behind the scenes, capturing stay and contact details entered by guests as they search and explore options on your booking engine. SCA synchs with your PMS, so it always has the current guest information, avoiding dupes and the retargeting of booked guests.
Start increasing conversions – now.
Budgets are tighter than ever this year, so what’s the best way to try out SCA – make it free. NAVIS offers a 90-day free trial of our SCA tool, so you can jump start 2021 by increasing conversion. Brighter days are ahead in the gaming industry, but there’s no reason why right now can’t be better.