How Can Hotels Leverage the Concept of Gift of Travel

Gifts are special. They help us to establish and define our relationships.

Also, they say, when you give someone a gift, you don’t expect something in return. The reason is that, one way or the other, it’s often the one giving the gift who gets the biggest benefit.

But are gifts limited to individuals? What if hotel businesses want to use it? Can they also make the most out of it while not expecting anything in return?

The answer is an absolute YES.

While every type of gift is special, today, I am shedding light on a specific one — gift of travel. This is not just a gift to make guests feel special, but also a strategy to build a brand that everyone loves and eventually increase sales.

What is a Gift of Travel?

A gift of travel in the hotel industry is nothing but offering people free trips.

However, this concept of gifting free travel to people (mostly guests or potential guests) doesn’t always include each and every aspect.

Now, the idea behind the gift of travel is mostly to bring people to stay at your hotel or to avail some sort of service. Also, at times, it’s not the guest that becomes your source of revenue but other businesses as well.

I will explain everything going forward in this blog.

The Rise of Gift of Travel

The gift of travel concept isn’t something new; it’s been around for years. However, not many hospitality establishments were making the best out of it. And the prime reason was lack of knowledge.

Hotels didn’t know the right things to offer, the right investment, and also, didn’t have an effective approach.

Moreover, it’s not just the knowledge aspect of the hoteliers, but also the market condition. This concept wasn’t much popular back in the day.

But things have changed significantly in the past couple of years. Millennials and Gen Z are two of the generations that are driven towards ideas like a gift of travel and then don’t hesitate in participating in events that could win them a free trip.

So, if you see, today, hotels are going all out on investing, making this concept work. Because they now know the returns are worth all the efforts.

How Can Hotels Use the Gift of Travel Concept?

I am sure you must be finding the gift of travel concept intriguing. But how are you going to offer it? 

Don’t fret! I will help you with just that in this section.

1. Host a giveaway on social media

Why would a hotel offer a free trip? Wouldn’t that be a lot of investment?

First, hotels do that to boost their sales and branding efforts. Now, when I am saying giveaway on social media, it is mostly to increase engagement.

Let me explain how this works with an example.

Hotel Spring Ville has a total of 15K followers on Instagram. Lately, they decided to boost their followers as well as engagement. This is when they came up with a giveaway contest where they chose to promote the gift of travel concept.

To be eligible for the giveaway, people were required to do the following things:

• Follow Hotel Spring Ville on Instagram
• Share the most recent post on their stories
• Like, comment and tag 3 friends

Thousands of people participated and at last one person won the free trip. And the hotel gained extra 10K followers and skyrocketing engagement.

Not just that. Their property also became popular as more and more people started looking at them on Instagram. It had literally opened a whole new avenue to portray their might.

2. Use print media marketing

Print media is one of the fantastic ways to market your hotel or any campaign you’re running. Just like the social media giveaway strategy, you can gift a stay by using print media i.e. some sort of popular magazine.

Talking about the contest, this is how you can curate it.

Book a stay with us between this particular date to that particular date and stand a chance to win a 2D 3N trip to Bangkok.

Just make sure, the magazine you’re advertising with has got a good readership.

Of course, there’s a fee involved for advertisement but if the campaign is pulled off correctly, it is going to be worth it.

3. Make use of partnership marketing

Partnership marketing in the hotel industry is basically a model where multiple brands pool their resources to carry out a campaign to boost sales and market share.

Now, you must be wondering how this works for free travel campaigns.

A hotel and an airline might decide to work together. Meaning, if someone books a flight from that particular airline, s/he might stand a chance to win a stay at the partnered hotel or vice versa.

When you collaborate with other companies, you open doors that can help in generating more leads, building stronger relationships with customers, and enhancing your brand visibility.

We have done an in-depth blog on this partnership marketing.

Do give it a read as it contains information as valuable as gold.

Partnership Marketing for Hotels

4. Host lucky draw for in-house guests

This is one of my favourite strategies when it comes to offering something to our guests.

Again, here comes the example.

A hotel can let its in-house guests know that it is hosting a lucky draw and the prize is a free 2D 3N stay, sightseeing, and trekking in a nearby destination. Guests who are going to book another stay are going to be eligible to participate in this.

If the prize is intriguing, you are definitely going to witness upfront bookings and a boost in revenue.

Note: You have to ensure that the amount you’re investing in the prize is not exceeding the profit you’re expecting.

5. Tie up with corporates

Corporates are like gold mines. If your hotel has great services and delivers a commendable experience, they won’t hesitate in paying.

Now you can offer 1 or 2 free travel packages to companies who choose to pick your hotel as their go-to event or stay venue. It’s upon the companies to who they give those packages.

It is a great way to boost your hotel bottom line. The only catch here is that you have to be aggressive in your sales efforts while dealing with corporates.

Brownie Tips to Make Your Gift of Travel Intriguing

Offering a gift of travel is one thing, you also have to be very creative while creating them. Here are some things to consider while doing so.

1. Make it much more than just flight tickets

Most of the time, these gifts of travel only include flight tickets. And that’s actually legitimate. Air travel has always been expensive and back in the day, people used to love free flights.

However, gone are those days. People today expect more.

Therefore, if budget and profit margin permits, hotels must change their strategy and offer a little more than just flight tickets. Maybe include a stay, meal, sightseeing, or some sort of experience. Just make sure, you’re doing things differently.

2. Do not plan the entire trip

This is a red flag.

NEVER plan an entire trip for ANYONE.

The preferences of travellers have changed over time. If you plan an entire trip for someone, s/he might not like it, and this wouldn’t make a good impact. Rather, give some room to play around and plan their itinerary.

3. Pick an Instagram-worthy destination

This goes without saying. If they are going on a trip, they are going to click photos and put them on Instagram. So, why not pick a picturesque destination.

Better the destination, more the uploads on Instagram and more tags for your hotel.

Note: Make sure you pick a destination that includes experiences. Do not always seek luxury, people are into offbeat stuff more than ever. Experiences over goods and luxury are going to take you places.

4. Keep a surprise for the end of the trip

Imagine checking out of a hotel and the manager walks to you and gives you a gift hamper. Wouldn’t that bring a smile to your face? Of course, YES.

It is always a good practice to surprise your guests at unexpected times. So, you can also do the same at your hotel.

Word to the Wise

Giving the gift of travel is an expensive marketing strategy. Also, it is something that cannot be executed often.

Just because I am writing this blog doesn’t mean I am urging every hotel to tap into this segment and drain their budget.

Even if it’s bitter, the reality is that not every hotel can afford to carry out this strategy.

Therefore, get your hands into this only if you have the capability to pull it off without any repercussions.

If you don’t have the budget or manpower to work on these kinds of offers, what you can do is create discounted packages or offer gift cards for hotel stays. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a trip; you can always explore various gifting options.