I would like to harvest all of the names, phone numbers and email addresses from all prior reservations to send special offers and marketing by text and email. Does anyone have any ideas to do that? Thank you very much.
Answered
Marketing to Past Guests
Best answer by Jason
It’s generally not ok (and in some places illegal) to send unsolicited email or texts. It’s frustrating to realize that, yes, you are probably sitting on hundreds of phone numbers of past guests, but without their prior consent it’s just not ok to market to them.
We ran into this same conundrum last year and took steps like
- Yes, set up Stayfi to start capturing phone and email from all guests
- Make a newsletter at Mailchimp or Email Octopus and provided in-room ways for guests to join it (a printed material with a QR code on it works well)
- After-checkout, you can send a link to your signup form to the guest on VRBO, Booking, and of course Direct… but not via Airbnb (you will be penalized here). And, for Booking, make sure you whitelist the signup url via the Extranet or they will filter it out.
To answer your question about downloading data: you can make customized guest data exports from the Metrics screen in Hospitable. Click on the Details tab near the bottom of the screen… and use the Filters and Columns buttons to customize the data….. Just don’t go spamming people!
Depending on where your booking came from, you may not have their real email. Airbnb & Booking.com mask the guest email. Direct and VRBO provide the real email, but I don’t know of a way to download all your past guest’s contact info. Other than to go reservation by reservation. If you use other software to collect their info, like Stayfi or Happy Guest, you can get it from them.
+1It’s generally not ok (and in some places illegal) to send unsolicited email or texts. It’s frustrating to realize that, yes, you are probably sitting on hundreds of phone numbers of past guests, but without their prior consent it’s just not ok to market to them.
We ran into this same conundrum last year and took steps like
- Yes, set up Stayfi to start capturing phone and email from all guests
- Make a newsletter at Mailchimp or Email Octopus and provided in-room ways for guests to join it (a printed material with a QR code on it works well)
- After-checkout, you can send a link to your signup form to the guest on VRBO, Booking, and of course Direct… but not via Airbnb (you will be penalized here). And, for Booking, make sure you whitelist the signup url via the Extranet or they will filter it out.
To answer your question about downloading data: you can make customized guest data exports from the Metrics screen in Hospitable. Click on the Details tab near the bottom of the screen… and use the Filters and Columns buttons to customize the data….. Just don’t go spamming people!
I just started using Stayfi, which provides a ‘splash page’ for guests to log into your wifi, and allows them to opt in or opt out of future marketing offers. They have a pretty cool integration with Viator, which allows guests to book excursions, restaurants, etc. directly through their Stayfi integration. Viator offers an 8% commission for all bookings that come through your Stayfi integration.
I’ve just started using Stayfi in the past few weeks, so no definitive results yet, but the concept is very cool, and basically gives the ‘ok’ to market back to previous guests who have opted in to email marketing.
+1I can share our StayFi numbers. Since enabling it, just over half of all guests who used the wifi consented to our marketing. Those numbers are pretty good.
- Hospitable Team Member
We have
- Hospitable Partner
Hi everyone – love seeing all the great feedback on StayFi!
As Jason mentioned, StayFi makes it easy to collect both contact info and marketing consent from all guests when they connect to WiFi. On average, properties collect data from about 80% of guests this way, and since guests explicitly opt in, you’re set up to follow up via email and SMS compliantly.
If you're looking for a hardware-free alternative, we also offer a Pre-Arrival data collection option. This works by sharing a StayFi Homepage link (with info about the property, local recs, etc.) in your pre-arrival messages. You can require guests to enter their email to unlock it. This method typically captures around 10% of guest data, and works well as a lightweight option to start building your list.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions—or if you'd like to schedule a quick, no-pressure demo with our team to see how it works in more detail you can do so here!
I was wanting to do the same thing. It realize I can only connect with current guests as their contant info disappears. I was able to use Zapier to connect with sheets to download any guests info that receives a positive review from us and them for us. At which point they get an automated text with our direct booking link for next time. Tells them to save my contact info. ℹ️
+1If you’ve gotten their consent to market, there are CRM platforms tailored specifically to STR like MarketMySTR where you can do email/text marketing, set up funnels, landing pages, etc all from one place. They integrate with Hospitable as well.
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Like many, we too use StayFi. You can get 50% the first 3 months with our link https://stayfi.apluswprojects.com/
Beyond StayFi, i’m looking forward to when Hospitable will allow and build exporting from the rental agreement. They already provide a check box for guests to opt in to marketing, which would be the permission you need to use their email and or phone number.
- Hospitable Team Member
Beyond StayFi, i’m looking forward to when Hospitable will allow and build exporting from the rental agreement. They already provide a check box for guests to opt in to marketing, which would be the permission you need to use their email and or phone number.
Hey
Here is your workaround: you can market to guests that you have already booked on the VRBO platform. Once they have booked on the platform they are all yours going forward. You can get easily pull email addresses. Airbnb is a big no no. They will yank you from the platform fast. What I did is pulled all of my VRBO 5 star guests addresses and will give them the opportunity to now direct book with me via an email that I can send to them directly through hospitable. That is the best way I can come up with to avoid having to spend any more money.
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+4It’s generally not ok (and in some places illegal) to send unsolicited email or texts. It’s frustrating to realize that, yes, you are probably sitting on hundreds of phone numbers of past guests, but without their prior consent it’s just not ok to market to them.
This is definitely true. SMS compliance is even more hardcore than email compliance.
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CAN-SPAM is a Federal law. So is TCPA which regulates SMS marketing. Some states such as California have stricter laws or enforcement.
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