Hotel email personalisation doesn’t just mean writing a different message for every guest. Here's how you use your data to deliver smarter campaigns!
Hotel email personalisation doesn't mean writing a unique email for every guest. In practice, it means taking the campaigns you’re already planning to send (pre-arrival, seasonal, post-stay, re-engagement) and asking one question before you hit send:
Does everyone need the same version of this email?
The answer is probably no, but that doesn’t mean creating dozens of new campaigns. Start by adapting the campaigns you already send for two or more valuable guest groups. You can have similar campaign goals, but with tweaked content and messaging to make the most out of your campaign sends.
However, there are many opportunities to engage with your guests outside of their stay, to send them information, promote ancillary spend, and build long-term loyalty. You need communications that run in the background, targeting specific guest segments with offers and content that is valuable to them! If the job gets done right, your guests will already feel like they're being well taken care of before they even arrive at your property.
In this guide, we’ve covered five common campaigns along the guest journey and how you can practically segment them to better connect with your guests and drive conversion rates!
Seasonal campaigns let hotels capitalise on key dates, holidays, and local events by reaching guests with timely, relevant offers. They drive bookings during predictable demand windows and keep your brand top-of-mind throughout the year.
Segment by Interests: Preference centres are one of the simplest ways to make sure you're marketing to guests the things they want to hear about. For this campaign, we'll use the example of Family Holidays and Romantic Escapes. For-Sight also gives you the option to segment out guests who've booked with or without children.
A summer or half-term campaign is one of the most common sends in hotel marketing, but your guests are booking for different reasons. A family-facing offer that leads with the kids’ activity programme and early dinner sitting is irrelevant to the couple who’ve always booked a room for two. A couples-focused package built around the spa and tasting menu doesn’t land for the family who needs to know about highchairs and pool access.
The offer can be identical: same dates, same rate, same property. What changes is the angle, and the angle is everything.
Looking to take your seasonal campaigns another step further? Take a look at our guide to creating seasonal marketing campaigns! Along with creating more personalised campaigns, we've got some tips to make creating and repurposing your campaigns even easier.
Pre-arrival emails build anticipation and set the tone for the guest experience before they even check in. They're a crucial touchpoint for reducing friction, sharing essential information, and beginning the upsell journey early.
Segment by Number of Stays: Your guest segmentation work will have already surfaced this group: one-time visitors on one side, returning guests on the other. The pre-arrival campaign is where that distinction has the most immediate, practical impact.
A first-time guest needs more information. Where to park, what to expect at check-in, what’s included, what’s nearby. An email that answers those questions before they’ve had to ask them builds confidence before the stay has even started. It sets the tone for their experience!
A returning guest already knows all of that. Sending them the same information email signals that the hotel doesn’t remember them. What this guest needs is recognition! This could be a reference to their previous visit, a mention of something new at the property, a small but deliberate signal that says we know you’ve been before.
The two emails can share the same template and the same subject line structure. Just by changing the messaging tone and positioning, you're welcoming your guests in a way that feels personal to them.
Pre-stay upsell campaigns are targeted offers sent in the window between booking confirmation and arrival, designed to increase revenue per guest. Done well, they feel like helpful suggestions rather than sales pitches, improving both spend and satisfaction.
Segment by Spend History: You have two types of returning guests visiting your property. On their last stay, one visited the spa, and ate in the restaurant twice. The other used the room. A post-stay email to both of them that says “we hope you enjoyed everything the property has to offer” works for neither.
For the ancillary spender, this is an opportunity to reference what they actually did - or the category of experience they engaged with - and make the next visit feel like a continuation. “Loved having you for dinner - our autumn menu is now live.” It doesn’t require knowing their exact order. It just requires knowing that they spent in F&B.
For the room-only guest, this is the best moment to introduce them to a part of the property they didn’t use last time. Not a hard sell, just a curious prompt.
Post-stay campaigns close the loop on the guest journey by gathering feedback, expressing gratitude, and planting the seed for a return visit. They're essential for reputation management, loyalty building, and understanding what actually drove satisfaction.
Segment by Booking Source: Booking source is a standard PMS field. It feeds into For-Sight’s guest profiles automatically, making this one of the simplest filters to apply and one of the most commercially meaningful, given the OTA commission it helps avoid on future bookings.
A guest who booked directly already has a relationship with your hotel. They’ve chosen to engage without an intermediary. A post-stay or re-engagement email to this guest should reinforce what they already know: they get the best rate, the best service, and first access to offers by booking direct. If you have a loyalty programme, that would be the next natural step in growing your guest relationship.
Meanwhile, a guest who booked through an OTA has their stay on record but no direct relationship with your hotel. You've already paid a commission to get that booking, and you'll pay even more if that guest leaves with a masked OTA email address still in your records. The post-stay email to this guest isn’t about loyalty yet - it’s about beginning to build a direct connection. What would they have got if they’d booked direct? A better rate? An early check-in?
Re-engagement campaigns target guests who haven't returned or interacted in a defined period, giving you a structured way to win back lapsed relationships. They're one of the highest-ROI campaign types since you're marketing to people who've already chosen you once.
Segment by RFM and/or Loyalty Programme Status: RFM scoring is generated automatically within For-Sight from PMS data. Loyalty enrolment status feeds in from the Guest Loyalty module. The segment updates itself as guest behaviour changes - a guest who books again drops out of the lapsed window without anyone adjusting anything manually.
Re-engagement campaigns are where RFM earns its place most clearly: it decides who receives the campaign, so the effort goes where it’s most likely to return something. Within that high-value lapsed group, loyalty status creates a second split that completely changes the message.
A lapsed guest who is a loyalty member has something specific to come back for, such as points accumulated, a status they’ve earned, or a tier they’re close to reaching. The re-engagement email for this guest can reference all of that directly. It’s not a generic offer. It’s a personalised reminder of what they have already built with your hotel and what they’re leaving on the table.
Personalisation at this level doesn’t require a larger team or a bigger budget. It simply means using what you already know about your guests to shape what you say to them.
Every example above follows the same logic: one campaign, one meaningful split, and two versions that are more relevant than a single send could ever be. The data to build these variations already exists in your CRM and flows into For-Sight’s unified guest profiles automatically. Once you’ve created your segments, they’ll continue to update as guest behaviour changes.
Start with one campaign. Choose a valuable segment. Create two versions. Measure the difference, then build from there.
Customers - We can walk you through which of these segments your guest data currently supports - and help you build the first campaign! Just reach out to your Customer Success Champion.
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