Discover how measuring campaign success allows hotel marketing teams to confidently demonstrate impact using clear data and explore what to track.
Email remains one of the most effective communication channels available to hotels today. Industry research shows that email marketing delivers an average return of $36–$42 for every $1 spent (Litmus), consistently outperforming paid social and paid search.
Despite this, many hotel teams send email campaigns without clearly defining what success looks like — or how it should be measured. Whether you’re sending marketing promotions or essential transactional messages, performance should always be tied back to clear, measurable outcomes.
Without clear goals and metrics, it’s difficult to understand which campaigns drive real engagement or revenue — and which simply fill inboxes.
Across hospitality and tourism, marketing emails typically see open rates between 17–28% and click‑through rates of 3.5–4%, depending on relevance and segmentation (Gourmet Marketing). These benchmarks offer useful context, but true success should always be measured based on what the campaign was designed to achieve. Your campaign goals will look different if you're aiming to generate revenue versus encourage loyalty programme signups, or collect feedback.
Pretend you're an athlete competing in a variety of events: Think about the difference between high jump, long jump, and the 100 meter dash. Doing a high jump requires different skills and tactics than if you're aiming to travel low, but far. In the last case, you don't want to jump at all; just get from start to finish as fast as possible. You might require similar tactics to improve in each sport, but execution will look different for each event!
Measuring campaign success allows marketing teams to confidently demonstrate impact to general managers, owners, and revenue teams — using clear data rather than assumptions.
Once you've got a handle on your campaign goals, you can use reporting to see what’s working, what’s not, and where future effort should be focused.
For email campaigns to be effective, goals need to be clearly defined and measurable. That’s where SMART goals come in! Each campaign should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time‑bound so success can be accurately evaluated. Before you even start designing your email, ask: what action do you want your guests to take when receiving this email? Is it to book a stay, join your loyalty programme, or update their preferences?
For example, instead of aiming to “get more bookings”, a SMART goal would be to increase October room bookings by 10% within four weeks. When goals tick every SMART box, performance becomes easier to track—and improve.
Having these questions answered upfront makes it far easier to analyse performance after the campaign has been sent. We've broken down some of the top desired actions for hotel email campaigns, and what you should be looking to track below.
Better guest data can help support more relevant future communications and personalisation has a direct impact on guest behaviour. According to a study by Medallia, 61% of consumers are more likely to spend more with brands that offer personalised experiences, yet only around 25% of hotel guests feel their stay is highly personalised.
What's more, guest satisfaction is closely linked to how personalised their experience feels. Research showed that guests who perceive higher personalisation report significantly higher overall satisfaction scores In the era of AI, where engines are directing guest attention more and more towards OTAs like Booking.com and Expedia, it's more important than ever to put focus on owning your contact lists and data.
While the ultimate goal will be to find out your guests preferences on a personal level, the real value will come from seeing the insights across all of your contacts and finding the patterns of what your guests like!
Knowing guest preferences helps you send better messaging to your guests and make them less likely to unsubscribe. Therefore, we recommend reaching out as early as possible, preferably right when they make a booking or subscribe to a newsletter.
Need more info about preference centres? Explore our best practice guide for creating preference centres and what information you should be asking for!
💡Tip: if you have a high click-through rate but low rates of survey completion, you may need to take a look at your survey and make it easier for your guests to complete.
Guest feedback helps hotels learn and build reputation, so it’s important to follow up with guests to understand the good (and bad) about their experiences. Review scores are also an important piece to knowing your guests and give you additional data that you can use to send targeted campaigns!
You want to send these campaigns while the guest still has the experience fresh in their mind! Aim to send these campaigns shortly after a stay or experience.
💡Tip: If they’re clicking on a survey, but not completing it, maybe you need to consider adjusting your survey length!
The Feedback & Reputation Module, supported by GuestRevu, makes the process of collecting and monitoring feedback easier than ever. Explore the Feedback and Reputation Module here.
While your onsite team should be there to answer any questions once your guests check in, pre-arrival campaigns act as an important extra layer to keep your guests informed about crucial details for their stay. These emails can help them pack (What amenities are available in the rooms?), prepare (What time is check in?), and feel confident in their stay. A simple "We're looking forward to seeing you soon!" can go a long way to building the excitement for your guests' visit.
Important details should be sent right after booking, whereas reminders can be sent from one week to a few days before arrival.
While you might have links in your email that guests can click on for additional information, your primary goal is to inform. Therefore, you should be looking at open rate as your key driver for campaign success.
💡Tip: It's not just about numbers! Consider your most common enquiries and complaints you receive from guests. If you can set expectations and answer questions before guests ask, then you're relieving pressure on your team and improving guest sentiment.
Maybe you want to encourage first-time stayers to opt in to your loyalty programme or opt into marketing communications. You can also capture data from your OTA bookings that will help you send future campaigns to turn them into direct bookers.
Loyalty programme members are up to 5x more likely to book again and typically spend around 23% more per stay than non‑members. World Metrics
Is your hotel integrating loyalty into your revenue strategy? We've answered your most burning questions about loyalty programmes and whether they're right for your hotel in this blog.
It's all about hitting guests at the right moment with the right incentive to sign up! A time-based offer can incentivise them to sign up and start earning points before arrival. Exclusive discounts and perks for newsletter subscribers can also motivate guests to sign up for marketing communications. Keep the request timely and relevant for your guests.
This goal is always top of mind for businesses – you want people to spend! But it’s not always in the way you think. When creating a campaign to drive revenue, don't just be looking for guests to book new stays. Think about ancillary uplift: room upgrades, extra nights, room service, and spa bookings.
If you have a fully booked hotel of 30 rooms booked for one night at £200 per night, that’s £6,000 in revenue gained. However, if you can entice half those guests to spend an average of £100 extra, whether that’s a spa booking, champagne on arrival, or a breakfast voucher, you’re driving up your overnight revenue to £7,500. That’s an extra £1,500 in your pocket in one night!
💡Tip: We’ve built revenue tracking into For-Sight CRM's campaign performance. Simply select an attribution period and you can track guest spend directly back to your campaigns!
Every email should be aligned to a single, primary outcome — whether that’s educating the guest, collecting feedback, or driving a transaction.
When campaign goals are clear, your messaging will become clearer too. You'll feel confident that you're sending campaigns that will support your hotel's goals. By measuring both marketing and transactional campaigns, hotels can gain a clearer understanding of what’s resonating with guests and where future opportunities lie. For-Sight CRM's campaign performance and dashboard reports make it easier than ever for hotel marketers to connect success to their campaign activities.
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