Hotel newsletter: Ultimate guide with examples

What is a hotel newsletter?

A hotel newsletter is a powerful marketing tool used by hotels to communicate directly with existing guests and potential customers. It typically contains updates, promotions, special offers, and personalised content aimed at engaging readers and driving direct bookings. By consistently delivering valuable content, hotels can foster stronger relationships with their audience, enhance brand loyalty, and boost revenue.

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How and why are newsletters important to a hotel?

You would struggle to find a major hotel brand that doesn’t have some form of newsletter. It’s a foundational marketing tactic that has a place in every strategy, and for good reason: it’s a simple, powerful way to stay top of mind with guests, ensure that they know your best offers, personalise their experience with your hotel, and, ultimately, secure more bookings.

Increased direct bookings: By highlighting special offers, packages, and exclusive deals, newsletters encourage recipients to book directly through the hotel’s website, bypassing third-party platforms and reducing commission costs.
Enhanced guest relationships: Regular communication helps build a rapport with guests, making them feel valued and informed about the latest developments and offerings at the hotel.
Brand loyalty: Consistently providing valuable and engaging content keeps the hotel top-of-mind for past and potential guests, fostering long-term loyalty.
Feedback and improvement: Newsletters can include surveys and feedback forms, allowing hotels to gather insights on guest preferences and experiences, which can be used to improve services and offerings.
Personalisation: Leveraging guest data, hotels can tailor newsletter content to individual preferences, increasing engagement and the likelihood of repeat visits.

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How do you create an effective hotel newsletter strategy?

Not all newsletters are made equal, nor are they all made in the same way. An effective newsletter is one part trial and error, and one part smart process. Here’s how to get started:

Segment your audience: Divide your email list into segments based on factors such as past stay history, preferences, and booking behaviour. This allows you to send more targeted and relevant content.
Create engaging content: Focus on delivering valuable content that resonates with your audience. This can include travel tips, local events, behind-the-scenes stories, and exclusive offers.
Design visually appealing newsletters: Use high-quality images, clear headlines, and a clean layout to make your newsletters visually appealing. Ensure they are mobile-friendly as many recipients will open emails on their smartphones.
Personalise your communication: Use data analytics to personalise your newsletters. Address recipients by their name, recommend personalised offers, and highlight relevant services based on their past interactions.
Include clear calls to action (CTAs): Ensure your newsletters have clear and compelling CTAs that guide recipients on what action to take next, whether it’s booking a room, signing up for an event, or leaving a review.
Track and optimise performance: Use email marketing tools to track open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. Analyse this data to understand what works and continuously refine your strategy.

How do I write a newsletter for my hotel?

Above are the basics, but what about more specific guidance? Here’s the secret sauce(s) on writing a more effective newsletter for your hotel:

Step 1: Analysing your audience

Who are you sending this newsletter to? This will define what your newsletter content will consist of.

Are they loyal guests, looking for an excuse to stay with you?
Are they new guests, sifting through their selections of hotel?
Are they young travellers, seeking excitement and adventure around your local area?
Are they families, trying to find somewhere that ticks all of their many boxes?
Are they travelling for business, or pleasure, or both?
Are they foodies?
Are they locals?
Do they speak your language?
Luxury, or budget?

This is just a few ways to analyse – and thus segment – your audience. Newsletters should never try and be everything to everyone; that’s a surefire way to create unengaging, uninspiring content. Rather, be focused and targeted with your newsletters and don’t be afraid to create more than one!

Step 2: Selecting a goal

Now that you know who your audience is, what do you want them to do?

The most straightforward goal for a newsletter is to encourage people to book with you, ideally through your booking engine and/or website. So you put a ‘book now’ button in.

However, that’s not the only goal for a newsletter. Not everyone is ready to book right then, right there, and nurturing your future guests by simply staying top of mind can be a powerful way to build bookings. Make sure to have other possible goals in your email marketing campaigns, such as clicking through to content, sharing a review, or another behaviour that shows they’re engaging with your brand and its newsletter.

Step 3: Find a reason to engage

Whether it’s a special offer, a new and exciting update, or just an entertaining piece of content, your newsletter must give your audience a reason to spend their time and attention engaging with you. You don’t just want people to click: you want people to take action (see “selecting a goal” for what that ‘action’ may be).

Whatever topic you settle on, always ask yourself: “Does my audience care about this? How will reading/watching/seeing this in my newsletter add value to their day?”

If you can’t think of anything – it might be better to pick a new reason to engage.

Step 4: Creating powerful content

Now we’re into brass tacks. You’ve got your audience, your goal, your value – now you need to communicate it. This means creating engaging copy with the right tone and voice, creating powerful visuals that appeal to your selected audience, and distilling down your entire newsletter into a single, clickable, attention-grabbing subject line.

There’s an entire industry built around email marketing so getting this right can take time, but there are a few shortcuts:

Keep it short and sweet

Focus on concise content that can be quickly consumed. Don’t overwhelm the reader with hundreds of words and dozens of links: one, powerful paragraph can work far better than an entire essay in an email.

Use powerful imagery

High quality images and short videos that showcase your property, amenities and local attractions are incredibly valuable, both as a way to engage your audience directly and as a way to illustrate your copy.

Get personal

Segmenting your audience means that you know enough about your guests to speak to them directly. Use their names wherever you can, address their specific wants and needs, and personalise your content to fit what they want to see in your newsletter – and it’ll be different for every audience.