It’s very important for hoteliers to offer various activities at their properties in order to create a memorable experience for guests. Both on- and off-site hotel activities, such as sightseeing attractions, spa days, bike rentals, movie nights and event passes, provide guests with the opportunity to enhance their in-stay experience, explore their surroundings and experience the local culture. These types of guest experiences can create lasting memories and turn first-time visitors into return visitors.
Additionally, offering fun hotel activities to guests can help directly increase a property’s bottom line — no matter the type of hotel.
Let’s now take a look at the top activities to offer at any hotel and the most effective way to present them to guests
How To Offer Hotel Activities as Upsells to Guests
Some activities you may want to offer free of charge at your property and generate revenue as a secondary priority. For example, a movie night in the lobby improves the guest experience, but still offers the chance to sell premium snacks and beverages to guests.
Other hotel activities should be sold as upsells in advance or offered to guests as upgrade opportunities throughout their stay.
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9 Guest Activities Every Hotel Should Offer
From limited-service to luxury, let’s now take an in-depth look at a hotel activities list featuring the top ten things properties can offer that improve the in-stay experience and increase revenue.
1. Yoga Classes
Yoga studios and teachers can be found in nearly every corner of the world today and it shouldn’t be hard for most hotel operators to find one to come engage with guests. Hoteliers can offer daily yoga or meditation classes in their hotels to encourage relaxation and improve the overall in-stay experience. This can be a great way to increase revenue as the classes can be offered on a pay-per-class basis or as part of a package.
2. Spa Services
Spa services are a great way to provide a luxurious experience to guests while they are staying at a hotel property. Whether you have spa amenities on-site or not doesn’t really matter — any hotel can partner with local spa services and masseurs to provide special rates and discounts to their guests. These are the ideal types of services to include as upsells in a hotel’s mobile check-in process.
3. Movie Nights
Movie nights provide hoteliers with a dual opportunity to boost their bottom lines by offering premium snacks and beverages, and improve the overall guest experience at the same time.
Any hotel with a lobby has the ability to hold a movie night activity — if you have a conference center, all the better — that attracts all kinds of travelers. After all, everybody likes popcorn and a good film.
4. Local Tours
Creating activity packages that include local tour experiences can be a win-win situation for both local tour guides and the hotels that provide them.
The offering of tour packages and discounts is certain to attract guests that are looking to get out and about during their stay and help any type of hotel fill their rooms to capacity.
5. Bike Rentals
Especially if you’re in an urban or suburban area, low-cost bike rentals are a low-lift way for any hotel to impress guests and drive a little extra revenue.
Depending on the environment surrounding the hotel, you may even want to consider offering multiple types of bikes — mountain, beach cruisers, BMX, electric — that will ensure guests have the best experience imaginable.
6. Live Music
Hoteliers may want to consider inviting a musician to play music at an open mic night in their lobby as a way to provide entertainment to guests at the property, as well as to draw in new customers. A musician in the lobby can create a more lively and inviting atmosphere, and can help to build a hotel's reputation as a place to go for exciting and unique experiences. Additionally, it can be a great way to attract people to the property that actually aren’t staying as guests, but still may spend money on food or beverages.
7. Game Nights for Kids
Kid friendly hotels with activities can provide a great way to keep both parents and kids happy when traveling. Much like movie nights, hotel game nights for kids can be put on at any hotel that has a lobby with relatively little effort from hotel staff. It chiefly involves putting out a variety of board and/or card games that can be enjoyed by kids and parents alike, and monitoring the event to ensure all goes well. Upsell opportunities include providing food and snacks to guests or hosting game tournaments with a low entry costs.
8. Discounted Shopping Trips
Partnering with local businesses to offer discounted shopping opportunities can be beneficial for hoteliers for a few reasons. First, it gives hotel guests access to discounts that are not available anywhere else, thus providing an extra incentive for them to stay at the hotel. Second, it provides the hotel with an additional source of revenue and increases the overall value of the hotel. Finally, it helps to build relationships with local businesses and strengthens the hotel's presence in the local community.
There are very few businesses that would turn down the opportunity to work directly with a hotel that can promote its services to new visitors. Therefore, this is one of the easiest activities for any hotel operator to implement.
9. Wine or Local Food Tasting
Some guests would prefer to explore the local area without ever leaving the grounds of a hotel. Local wine or food tastings organized on-property present a fantastic opportunity for hoteliers to engage their guests in a manner that’s most convenient to them.
In this scenario, hoteliers may consider charging guests a small fee to attend the event and vendors a slightly larger fee to gain exclusive, up-close access to guests.
Conclusion
Offering a variety of activities at your hotel is a great way to make sure that your guests have an enjoyable and memorable stay. From providing board games and cards to renting out bikes, there are plenty of options to choose from to make your hotel stand out from the rest. By offering these activities, you can provide your guests with an experience that is much more likely to return them into repeat guests.