1. Introduction

Pre-arrival communication is crucial for creating a strong first impression and building a meaningful connection between the guest and the hotel. With open rates averaging around 60% and click-through rates exceeding 20%, it is one of the most engaging communication assets in the hospitality industry.

However, most hoteliers use pre-arrival emails only as a one-way channel to send information about the hotel to guests or to upsell a room-upgrade. This is a wasted opportunity.

98% of guests consider experiences very or extremely important when choosing a destination, and a main driver of satisfaction with their holiday. Smart hoteliers are using that to their advantage and are adjusting pre-arrival communication to focus on experiences, rather than rooms. This way they are their engaging guest in a more meaningful way on a topic that is the core reason for their travel - experiences.

Since COVID, there has been a big shift in guests booking experiences before they arrive to the destination, sometimes up to 12 months in advance. Those guests not only have 20% higher spend, but also 30% lower cancellation rate, 9% higher satisfaction score and are 33% more likely to re-book with your hotel in the future. A well-crafted, experience-focused pre-arrival email is your key tool to capture these guests.

In this guide we will outline how to craft personalised, experience-focused pre-arrival emails which will get guests to book experiences and stay at your property. We will explain which experiences to promote and when to send the pre-arrival emails. Finally, we will dive into how hotels can use the guest insight they already have and combine it with AI, to craft hyper-personalised emails.

2. Which experiences to promote in pre-arrival email?

Most pre-arrival emails sent by hotels are entirely focused on providing information about the property such as opening times, address, or check-in instructions. This information is undoubtedly important and should be sent to guests, but if it is the only pre-arrival communication that you send to guests, you are missing out on a big opportunity.

The research has shown that guests that engage in communication with the hotel before they arrive have a 30% lower cancellation rate. And what is the best way to engage your guests? With experiences!

We typically see 3 types of experiences that drive to most engagement pre-arrival:

Convenience

Airport transfers, Welcome packages

Basic services commonly expected to be provided by hotels. Offering digital booking for these services not only provides convenience but also reduces staff workload and improves guest satisfaction.

Guest favourites

Wine tasting, Local tours, Diving

Most popular activities among your guests and often the main reason they choose your destination. By recommending best local providers, hotels can increase guest spend and satisfaction.

Unique experiences

VIP Dinner, Wellness Package, Kid’s academy

Experiences that are unique to your hotel and serve as key differentiators. Guests won't be able to get the same experience if they change the hotel. It's important to promote such activities early on to reduce room cancellation rates.

3. When to send experience-focused pre-arrival emails?

For accommodation, a typical booking window is 30-60 days before arrival. For experiences, the window is much shorter - typically 10 days before arrival. However, guests start planning experiences right after booking accommodation, and sometimes even before they book the hotel room.

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Hence, the period after room booking and before arrival is critical for guest engagement, and experiences are the best tool for engaging guests. Typically, we see 3 best touch-points for sending emails about experiences to be:

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- Right after the room booking: Highlight unique experiences to ensure guests don’t change their room booking last minute for a better deal. Also, include convenience offerings like airport transfers or welcome packages.
- 7-10 days ahead of the stay: Include convenience experiences and your top-selling or full-day excursions. This period sees the highest engagement with experiences, making it ideal for capturing guest spend.
- Upon arrival: Focus on local tours or half-day excursions which typically fall into guest favourites or the unique experiences offered at your hotel.

A common misconception is that pre-arrival emails with experience recommendations can only be sent for direct bookings. You can send them for OTA bookings (e.g., Booking, Expedia) through your PMS, CRM or OTA’s extranet. Taking advantage of this opportunity helps reduce cancellation rates, which are typically 2-3 times higher for OTA bookings than direct bookings.

4. Personalising with AI

Generic experience recommendations and standard pre-arrival emails are no longer sufficient to stand out and provide truly exceptional service. Research indicates that 71% of consumers expect personalisation when interacting with a brand. Hotels that implement personalised recommendations can expect 81% higher click-through rates compared to generic recommendations and conversion rates exceeding 10%.

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With only 31% of marketers viewing the travel industry as effective at personalisation, hotels still have a significant opportunity to gain a competitive advantage in this area.

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There are three levels of personalisation:

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- Level 1: Experiences curated by the hotel
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  - Most hotels are hand-picking the best local providers and crafting experiences inside their hotel
  - The same recommendations are sent to all guests, regardless of their group composition. This limits their relevancy since a solo traveller and a family with kids will be interested in different types of activities

- Level 2: Segmentation by traveller group
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  - Some hotels took the next step and started to tailor recommendations for different segments of travellers
  - Recommendations are sent based on booking details, resulting in different recommendations for a solo traveller compared to a family with kids
  - Although increased use of CRM systems at hotels enables this level of personalisation, creating and maintaining separate emails for each segment requires a lot of manual effort. This approach also doesn't consider guests' previous purchases when tailoring recommendations

- Level 3: AI-powered personalisation
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  - Hotels that have implemented systems to collect experience booking data can now use AI to generate unique personalised recommendations for each guest
  - If a group of friends last year booked a fish picnic tour, rented a kayak and did a gastronomy dinner, AI can use this information when they book again. Their recommendations will be tailored to their interests with activity suggestions matching their group composition.

Turneo enables hotels to personalise their experience recommendations for all booking channels. Simply including booking details from the PMS in the custom link generates tailored recommendations for each guest.

5. Takeaways

Pre-arrival emails are often seen as "nice to have" and have been mostly used to speed up operational processes and upsell rooms. As they are one of the most engaging communication guest touchpoints, hotels are now realising their potential in driving experience bookings. Their full potential is unlocked when combined with AI personalisation, as each guest gets tailored recommendations of the best activities matching their interests.

Research shows that personalised recommendations boost loyalty and satisfaction, with 57% of guests feeling more loyal to brands offering personalised experiences and 78% preferring hotels that cater to their preferences. Personalisation also has the power to reduce cancellations while increasing repeat bookings - guests who book experiences are 33% more likely to return.

Effective implementation starts with using the right tools to gather insights into guests’ preferences. This empowers hotel marketing teams to automate and tailor future interactions. Turneo’s solution simplifies this process with an easy-to-set-up mechanism that seamlessly integrates booking details from the PMS into a custom link. This ensures each guest receives highly relevant recommendations aligned with their interests before they even arrive at the destination.

About Turneo:
Turneo's platform supports both in-house and external activities, including tours, spa&wellness, dining, event tickets, transfers and rentals. The booking engine is integrated as a white-label solution without any third-party branding. It acts as a single source of truth for experience management across all online channels and on-property bookings coming from the concierge, reception desk or other guest touchpoints within the hotel.

How to personalise
pre-arrival emails with experiences & AI

1. Introduction

2. Which experiences to promote in pre-arrival email?

Convenience

Guest favourites

Unique experiences

3. When to send experience-focused pre-arrival emails?

4. Personalising with AI

5. Takeaways

With Turneo, in less than a week you could be selling and managing all your experiences online.

Preview your experience store

How to personalise pre-arrival emails with experiences & AI

1. Introduction

2. Which experiences to promote in pre-arrival email?

Convenience

Guest favourites

Unique experiences

3. When to send experience-focused pre-arrival emails?

4. Personalising with AI

5. Takeaways

With Turneo, in less than a week you could be selling and managing all your experiences online.

How to personalise
pre-arrival emails with experiences & AI