The Value of Vouchers and How To Capatalise On It

Vouchers: How to add value and capitalise on it

Everyone loves a good deal and smart hoteliers should see this as an opportunity. Finding ways to bolster your bottom line outside of the peak seasons can be tough but there is one surefire way to increase your hotel’s revenue. Offering vouchers is not only a great way to attract new, direct booking guests but it’s also a fantastic way to strategically generate revenue.

Aneli Gerber, Regional Customer Success Manager for Africa at award-winning booking platform Profitroom says, “Hoteliers often underestimate the value of vouchers as a sales and marketing tool. This may be due to concerns about potential profitability or the perceived value of their brand. 

Vouchers are generally underrated by hoteliers because many may not effectively leverage them as part of their sales and marketing strategy. Additionally, there may be concerns about the potential impact on profitability or the perceived value of the brand. However, when used strategically, vouchers can be a powerful tool for driving sales, customer engagement, and brand loyalty”

Here is how hotels can make vouchers work wonders for their balance sheets:

Buy Now, Redeem Later:

When customers purchase gift vouchers, a certain percentage of them (usually around 10-15%) are never redeemed. This means that some of the revenue generated from these vouchers goes unclaimed. From a business standpoint, this can be beneficial as they get to keep the revenue from the unredeemed vouchers without incurring the costs associated with providing goods or services.

Use Vouchers as Pre-paid Tickets:

Leverage vouchers as prepaid tickets to hotel events for special occasions. Getting creative in how you use and leverage your voucher platform is key when wanting to increase the return on investment (ROI) on your software. Hoteliers can pre-sell, for example, a romantic Valentine's Dinner for two with some bells and whistles. This will secure prepaid bookings for the event on an automated pre-payment platform, reduce possible revenue loss due to no-shows and create an opportunity to start a sales communication journey with a future client opening up new sales funnels and demographics for your establishment. 

Crowd Fund Special Celebrations:

Help friends and family pay for celebrations by way of monetary vouchers that can be redeemed offline against the final invoice for their event. With increasing pressure on disposable income and the  increased cost of living stimulate demand for your empty event spaces by helping friends and family celebrate special events.

Offering attending guests the opportunity to purchase an automated, pre-paid voucher that will for example help a young bridal couple pay for their wedding celebration or an extended family contributes towards their grandparents` golden wedding anniversary. Not only is the process completely automated but it could also increase the total on-site spend as well as generate possible future event business.

Boost Off Season Spend:

Identify and target specific customer segments that are more likely to be interested in off-peak offers, such as families, couples, or business travellers, through tailored marketing campaigns. Then enhance the attractiveness of vouchers offered to them by including value-added benefits, or low production cost incentives such as exclusive access to certain areas, discounted meals, kids activities, or room upgrades.

Gerber says, “Profitroom’s voucher model allows you to restrict when a voucher is redeemable. For example, you could have a package with added value inclusions that is redeemable only Sunday-Thursday from January to March. Alternatively you could also limit the amount of vouchers that are sold per offer if you wish  to offer limited or exclusive deals.”

Customer Acquisition and Retention:

Vouchers can attract new customers who may not have otherwise considered the business, as well as encourage repeat business from existing customers who purchase vouchers as gifts or for future use.

Upselling Opportunities:

Vouchers can be used to upsell additional products or services, increasing the average transaction value and overall revenue

Make redemptions a song:

Vouchers can be designed with flexible redemption options, allowing customers to use them for a variety of products or services, which can increase their appeal and value. To streamline the redemption process, hotels need a good payment gateway that can ensure immediate payment and eliminate the need to wait for voucher redemptions. 

Gerber advises, “Choose a good payment partner that provides a high success rate on transactions and offers a variety of payment options to your client.”

Be seen and heard:

Effectively marketing vouchers contributes substantially to modern day success. By displaying vouchers prominently on websites through i.e. Profitroom’s booking engine, hoteliers can create unique landing pages for specific campaigns, and use pop-ups to encourage immediate interaction with website visitors.

Vouchers offers a range of benefits for both businesses and customers. The biggest plus is definitely the monetary value of vouchers not only for the consumer but also for the hotelier trying to get through seasonal lows.

All you need to do is make sure you have a world class technology platform that can help you get the most out of them.