Winning the Holiday Rush: Last-Minute Moves That Convert

In this actionable webinar episode of Hotel Moment, Anisha Yadav, Vice President of Customer & Product Marketing at Revinate, and Melissa McMullen, Product Marketing Manager at Revinate, welcome Angela Berkley, Senior Director of Reservation Sales and CRM at CoralTree Hospitality, for a deep dive into strategies that convert during the competitive holiday booking season. Drawing from CoralTree's success across their portfolio, Angela shares specific campaigns, team motivation tactics, and segmentation approaches that drive measurable results.

What you'll learn:

Industry trends shaping holiday strategy: McKinsey data shows personalization is no longer optional, with hoteliers investing in technologies that activate guest data. Deloitte reports guests are taking longer trips focused on experiences rather than destinations, while CoStar reveals food and beverage revenue is growing 20% faster than rooms revenue, creating new opportunities for total revenue optimization.
Strategic repeat guest targeting: Rather than treating all guests equally during busy seasons, Angela advocates calling previous year's guests to offer courtesy booking before inventory sells out, creating recognition and preferred access that drives loyalty while filling peak periods at optimal rates.
High-value guest segmentation for cyber sales: The most successful approach treats top spenders differently through exclusive early access before public sales launch, personalized communication that acknowledges their value, and tailored packages that match their historical preferences and spend patterns.
Post-stay communication using NPS data: With Revinate's CDP integration, CoralTree now varies outreach based on satisfaction scores, potentially calling detractors personally while crafting different marketing messages for promoters, turning feedback into relationship-building opportunities.
Team incentive programs that work: Angela shares lessons learned about building profitable incentive programs with proper gatekeepers including inbound conversion goals and call result audits to prevent gaming, understanding what motivates different team members beyond money such as PTO days or schedule flexibility, and creating recognition approaches that match individual preferences for public versus private acknowledgment.
Gamification tactics: From front desk upsell bingo to reservation Monopoly boards to spinning wheels for gift cards, Angela provides creative examples of making outbound fun while maintaining accountability and driving consistent performance.
Attribute-based upselling tactics: Melissa outlines practical approaches including targeting families with interconnecting room offers, leveraging mountain or ocean view inventory for upgrade campaigns, offering early check-in to guests with early flights, and creating pet packages for guests booking pet-friendly rooms.
Experience-driven packages: Beyond rooms, properties should bundle spa treatments, golf course access, restaurant reservations, and adventure activities, creating compelling offers that drive total revenue per guest while enhancing the stay experience.
Real campaign success: Angela shares their current three-phase campaign where personalized postcards to loyal summer guests followed by agent phone calls, generated nearly six figures in phase one alone, demonstrating the power of combining traditional mail with personal outreach.

The webinar also provides preparation tactics, including giving reservation teams advance access to offer details for valuable feedback, creating campaign-specific phone numbers with URLs in Revinate's platform for seamless team access, and launching early access sales to stand out before Black Friday inbox clutter overwhelms guest attention.

Links mentioned in show:
● Black Friday/Cyber Monday Landing Page
● BFCM webinar series
● Attend NAVIGATE

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Connect with Melissa McMullin here:

Connect with Angela Berkley here:

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Episode Highlights:

[03:15] Experiential travel trend - Anisha shares critical market data: "Customers are taking longer trips, so guests are booking longer stays, and it's the experiences that are moving the needle. It's not so much about the destination, but that one coffee shop in Spain that was trending on TikTok, that's driving the demand to that city."

[12:25] Segmenting high-value guests - Angela explains CoralTree's cyber sales approach: "Are we segmenting out our highest value guests? And do we treat them differently? This can be a great opportunity to do an outbound initiative before a cyber sale goes public. How are we leaning into that highest value guest? That can be a good success strategy."

[14:00] Building effective incentives - Angela shares hard-won lessons: "Not everybody is a salesperson. Outbound sales just doesn't come naturally for a big percentage of humans. So really leaning into a profitable incentive program for our team is important. Making sure there's some gatekeepers in there, making sure we're auditing those, is really key here."

[18:00] Attribute-based upselling - Melissa provides practical tactics: "You've already got the reservation, so think through how you can maximize that revenue. Maybe you have some room types available for upgrade, or you have an open room with a mountainside view or oceanside view. These are great ways to upsell to current reservations through email or through your reservations team."

[26:40] Standing out from the crowd - Angela emphasizes timing: "We don't want to be another email on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. When you are segmenting, does your strategy look different for highest value guests? We've already launched many of our properties. We want to stand out from the crowd."

Chapters
00:00 - Intro
03:15 - Experiential travel and F&B revenue growth
06:17 - Everyday outbound fundamentals
09:34 - Targeting repeat guests strategically
12:13 - Segmenting high-value guests for cyber sales
14:00 - Building team incentive programs
18:00 - Attribute-based upselling tactics
20:13 - Experience-driven package creation
23:17 - Preparing teams for Black Friday
25:48 - Real campaign success story

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here.

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Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.

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