Technology is an ever-growing part of 21^st century life. And the hotel industry is no exception to this rule.

With the COVID-19 pandemic helping to speed up the adoption of new technologies, many hotel brands are making big changes to their guest offering.

Contactless check-in, in particular, is proving popular.

Guests who stay at a digitized hotel no longer wait in the lobby when they arrive. Instead, with the help of hotel software, they can head straight up to their room, using their smartphone as a key.

While this makes a guest’s hotel experience more convenient (and COVID-19 secure), it leaves hotels with a problem:

How do you provide a memorable, personalized service when face-to-face interaction between guests and hotel staff is reduced?

It’s all down to your guest messaging—and it starts with a perfectly crafted welcome message for your hotel guests.

What is a welcome message?

A welcome message forms part of your guest messaging strategy. It’s the message you send to guests either before or right after they check-in at your hotel.

While hotel staff have traditionally been the ones to welcome arriving guests, contactless check-in requires an alternative approach.

This is where a welcome message—sent over SMS, WhatsApp, email or via your hotel app—becomes an essential part of guest messaging and the guest experience.

Why are welcome messages for hotel guests important?

A welcome message performs a number of really important functions:

• As you’d expect, it helps your guests to feel welcome—a good welcome message conveys all of the hospitality you’d get from a face-to-face check-in.
  
• It gives a good first impression with timely, personalized communication.
  
• It gives you the opportunity to share useful information with guests – this helps them to maximize their time at your hotel and saves you the job of replying to the same questions over and over. 
  
• It helps you show appreciation for your guests and garner their loyalty in the process.
  
• It helps you to upsell your services—by providing information about everything your hotel has to offer, you encourage the take-up of extras like the spa treatments and local tours you may provide.

How to write a welcome message

So how do you go about writing a welcome message for your hotel guests? Here are a few key rules you should stick to.

Adopt a friendly tone

You may already have a clear idea of your brand tone of voice. But if not, it’s best to aim for friendly, authentic, human communication.

While professionalism is important, you don’t make guests feel at home by being formal and business-like.

So try to adopt a conversational tone in your welcome message. Don’t use too many long words and try to keep sentences short and sweet.

Make it polite and welcoming

Start out by literally welcoming your guests. Think about what you’d expect your staff on reception to say to a new arrival.

Thank them for choosing your hotel. Wish them a pleasant and relaxing stay. Let them know you’re happy and available to help at any point during their stay.

Personalize your message

A welcome message helps to establish a personal connection between you, your hotel and each new guest. By making your message as personalized as possible, you make guests feel special and valued.  

Ensure that every welcome message you send starts by addressing each guest by name. This simple strategy instantly makes communication feel more personal.

If you have the data available, adapt your message depending on whether you’re welcoming a new guest or someone who has stayed with you before.

Also, sign off each message with the name of your hotel manager. Again, this helps your welcome message to feel more personal and less like standardized communication.  

Provide useful hotel information

Your welcome letter for hotel guests should include hotel and local area information – anything that a guest will find useful.

Think about the most frequently asked guest questions. That might be the Wi-Fi code, hotel amenities, your restaurant opening times or where guests can find the nearest mini market.

Offer information on those exciting little extras too. These are the things that make your hotel stand out from the rest.

Give info on COVID-19 procedures

Understandably, a worldwide pandemic has moved health and hygiene further up a hotel guest’s list of priorities.

Give details on what COVID-19 safety procedures you currently have in place. This will help to reassure your guests and inform them of any facilities that are currently off limits.  

Make it easy for guests to reach out

Guest messaging should never be a one way street. Provide contact details so guests know where to turn if they have any additional queries or requests.

Your welcome message is also the perfect opportunity to request guest feedback. Provide links to your preferred review platforms.

Make the most of the digital format

A welcome message should be as short and sweet as possible—you don’t want to overwhelm your guests with information before they’ve even had a chance to unpack.

If you have a ton of useful information for your guests, link out to it from your primary welcome message. For example, you can provide links to your hotel restaurant menu or a map of the local area.

Looking for an easy guest messaging solution?

Now you’ve put your welcome message together, it’s time to get it out to your guests. To do this, you’ll need the help of guest messaging software.

The right software makes it easy for you to create, schedule and send timely communication to guests, improving their experience of your hotel and helping you to maximize customer value.

Here at HelloShift we provide all of this—and so much more.

We’re helping our hotel partners to digitize their operations and their guest offering, saving on manpower and improving their customer service in the process.  

From housekeeping management to staff collaboration to website chat, our easy-to-use software solution helps you to do it all.

Request a free demo to see how HelloShift could benefit your team and your hotel.