Re-engaging guests
with hotel newsletters

Your hotel has countless stories to tell and updates to share, but how do you keep past guests engaged long after they’ve checked out?

A hotel newsletter is a fantastic way to nurture guest relationships. It can inspire and inform by showcasing your property and its latest updates, sharing local events, and featuring exclusive offers. 

Whether you’re highlighting seasonal packages or enhancing your brand presence, a newsletter is a cost-effective way to connect with your audience and elevate your brand.

This article explores the benefits of newsletter marketing for hotels, best practices, and actionable steps to launch your own. 

They can:

• Highlight upcoming activities and events.
• Showcase different properties for larger hotel groups.
• Present upsell opportunities.
• Direct guests to your hotel website.
• Share property updates or news.
• Support co-marketing efforts with local brands.

What sets hotel newsletters apart?

Newsletters serve educational and aspirational purposes for hoteliers (like sharing hotel news or industry news), while other email marketing campaigns supply promotional offers or booking confirmations. 

While both make use of stunning visuals and add to your hotel’s suite of marketing tools, newsletters add to the user experience, giving potential customers a first-hand glimpse into your property’s values and operations in an informal manner.

Hotel marketing communications are often more transactional in nature, while hotel newsletters can be personalized to target, inspire, and engage different guest segments, and are usually sent regularly (ie., weekly or monthly). 

Benefits of a hotel newsletter 

A newsletter offers many benefits for hotel businesses. Not only does it provide a cost-effective way to communicate with guests, but it also helps drive direct bookings and increases guest retention and loyalty. 

Keeps past and potential guests engaged 

A hotel newsletter keeps your guests engaged and invested in your property by highlighting events and updates between their visits. It lets guests know they are top of mind and keeps them in the loop. 

Depending on your database, you can use segmentation techniques to personalize your newsletter. For example, sending leads one version and guests another. The more personalized you can make your marketing materials, the more effective your results will be.

Drives direct bookings

Hotel newsletters drive direct bookings by showcasing your property, including mountain and ocean views and luxurious hotel suites.

They also help drive revenue to other areas of your property, including your amenities and tailored services. By highlighting your restaurant’s high-tea services or holiday spa packages, this encourages guests to take advantage of special offers and promotions.

Builds brand loyalty and awareness

Hotel newsletters advance relationships with existing and potential guests by enhancing brand loyalty and awareness. 

By creating a trustworthy, reputable brand, you not only invite guests to book directly with you; this also enables you to compete with larger hotel chains by building direct relationships with your target audience.

In turn, loyal guests become unofficial brand ambassadors for your property, sharing their experience with friends and family and leaving five-star Google reviews.

Serves as a cost-effective marketing channel 

Many digital marketing solutions feature basic low or no-cost subscription plans, reducing expenses to your hotel’s marketing budget. 

Most newsletter tools price subscriptions and packages using a tiered system. Entry-level tiers provide limited access to basic templates, solutions, and tools, with higher-tier plans offering advanced features at increased price points.

Showcases different locations

For hotel managers of larger hotel groups, hotel newsletters provide creative opportunities to highlight different properties throughout your chain. 

They optimize customer engagement and acquisition strategies across your entire property portfolio while catering to your diverse customer database.

Types of content to include 

Below, we’ve included a list of content suggestions to include when building out your first hotel newsletter.

Promotional offers. Highlight discounts and packages in your hotel newsletter, including seasonal promotions, flash sales, or special room offers.

Local events, attractions, and activities. Promote film festivals, craft beer markets, regional parks, and historical sites (with a discount or promotional code to use at your property while visiting). Including information about the local area can enhance engagement by attracting and retaining your audience’s attention.

Guest stories and reviews. Incorporate glowing guest reviews or unique stories – from a family getaway to a destination wedding hosted at your property.  These communicate the guest segments you cater to and showcase the groups you’ve hosted.

Updates. Highlight recently completed renovations or emerging partnerships with local businesses. This communicates to guests you take pride in community networking and expanding your property for pleasant stays.

On-site amenities. Promote your on-site amenities to entice guests (and locals) to visit. Share any spa specials or dining themes, and make it easy to book online.

Behind-the-scenes content. Spotlight your chef prepping for dinner service or your onsite fitness instructor leading a workout class. You can also ask your staff members to share their favorite restaurants, shops, or activities in the area.

Curated travel content. Inspire guests to return with curated itineraries for the area, packing tips, or local traditions. These can all be hosted on a blog on your website, where you can also drive traffic via SEO by targeting specific keywords (ie., 10 best things to do in New Orleans).

How a CRM simplifies newsletter marketing 

A customer relationship management (CRM) tool gathers and stores your guests’ data. Its centralized platform streamlines operational processes, organizes guest data, creates targeted audience segments, and builds and schedules guest communications.

A natural extension of your property management system (PMS), guest data enters the PMS and feeds into your CRM. This lets your staff track hotel data like guest preferences and purchase history, saving time, reducing errors, and automating marketing workflows. 

Many hotel CRMs offer pre-built template galleries, as well as the ability to customize your own newsletter templates, making it easy to create repeatable email templates.

Steps to launch your hotel newsletter 

Follow the below steps to get started creating and launching your first hotel newsletter. Customize each step to suit your marketing needs and tailor your guest experience.

1. Collect and organize email lists

Collect and manage emails of past guests and prospects to effectively segment your audiences. This not only contributes to a clean database but it helps to tailor your messaging depending on your target audience.

2. Define your goals 

Determine the goals of your hotel newsletter. These can depend on your audience segment’s position throughout the marketing funnel or which of your property’s amenities and features you aim to promote. These include:

• Promoting direct bookings.
• Building your hotel’s brand.
• Driving property revenue.

Define your newsletter’s targeted guest type. First-time guests, locals, business travelers, or long-time loyalty rewards members expect different messaging and can greatly impact your newsletter’s content creation. Focusing content specifically for target audiences is a surefire way to avoid unengaging newsletters.

3. Choose an email platform

There are many email marketing solutions to choose from depending on your goals. 

Manually launching and managing email newsletters involves a lot of labor for your marketing teams. Choose email platforms that provide automated tools to do the heavy lifting.

Consider an email marketing platform with automation services built right into your PMS. It should also offer integrations with CRM partners alongside robust data analytics tools to track your newsletter’s performance.

Ensure that your platform is compliant with data privacy regulations (like GDPR) and that your database has opted in to your emails (and can unsubscribe).  

4. Create a content calendar

Determine when you plan to send your newsletter. Usually, newsletters are sent on a consistent basis (either weekly, monthly, or quarterly). Plan this out in advance using a content calendar, so you’re not rushing last minute.  

A content calendar helps you:

• Schedule newsletter delivery frequency.
• Outline content for each edition.
• Set launch dates and times.

A content calendar also provides greater insight into how your content aligns with your hotel’s events, activities, and promotions. You can incorporate these elements as content and plan accordingly.

5. Analyze performance and refine your strategy 

Post-launch, track your newsletter’s performance metrics and report on your results. Analyzing metrics like open rates and click-through rates, provides greater insight into your audience preferences like content type, optimal viewing times, and content interaction.

Utilize A/B testing to determine which of your newsletters had higher conversion rates so you can refine your email marketing strategy by testing different formats over time.

Hotel newsletter example walkthrough

Imagine you’re the marketing manager of a hotel group sending a holiday newsletter to build brand loyalty and increase direct bookings. Here’s how it could unfold:

1. Collect and organize email lists

Start by tailoring specific guest segments. Use your CRM to group contacts based on:

• Past stays (e.g., loyal repeat guests or first-time visitors)
• Preferences (e.g., spa enthusiasts or business travelers).
• Geographic location (e.g., local residents vs. international travelers).

2. Define your goals 

Decide what you want to achieve with your newsletter. Are you looking to:

• Promote festive packages or special seasonal offers.
• Highlight events happening around your property.
• Showcase seasonal amenities.

For the holiday season, your goal might be to drive bookings for special holiday packages and highlight festive events at your hotel.

3. Choose a platform

Select an email marketing platform that integrates with your PMS and CRM to ensure seamless access to guest data and automation features.

4. Create a content calendar

For a holiday newsletter, an early November launch date allows ample time for guests to plan and book based on their booking preferences and behaviors.

For content, consider including the following:

• Header: A festive banner with snowflakes and the tagline “Make Your Holidays Magical at [Hotel Name]!”
• Promotions: Align with your previously defined goals. For example, “Book a holiday package and enjoy complimentary hot cocoa and cookies upon arrival!”
• Activities: Highlight tree-lighting ceremonies, carol performances, and local holiday markets in your city or region.
• Guest stories: Share guest testimonials about memorable holiday experiences at your hotel.
• Behind-the-scenes content: Feature your staff decorating the property or your chefs preparing seasonal dishes.

Include high-quality images of your decorated property, festive dining setups, or nearby winter attractions to get guests in the holiday spirit and envision themselves enjoying these experiences.

Finally, encourage your readers to take action by including prominent, easy-to-spot calls to action (CTAs) that link to your social media channels or relevant booking and landing pages. For example:

• “Discover Our Holiday Packages”; or
• “Reserve Your Festive Stay”.

5. Analyze performance and refine your strategy

Once you’ve launched your holiday newsletter, track key metrics such as:

• Open rate: Are your subject lines effective?
• Click-through rate (CTR): Are readers engaging with your content and CTAs?
• Conversion rate: Are you driving bookings?

Use A/B testing to experiment with subject lines, CTAs, or content to improve results over time.

By following these steps, you craft a professional and engaging hotel newsletter that re-engages guests and helps achieve your marketing goals.

Drive your guest experience with hotel newsletters

Newsletters are a cost-effective way to engage guests, boost direct bookings, and strengthen brand loyalty in the hotel industry. By sharing valuable content, leveraging CRM tools, and refining your strategy through analytics, you keep your property top of mind and build lasting relationships with your audience for long-term success.