What Is Upselling? Hotel Upgrades and Extras Explained

Upselling means offering guests a better room or an extra. When guests welcome it and what makes it work.

By Michael Külbel 2 min read

Graphic: four moments for upselling: at booking, before arrival, at check-in and during the stay
When hotels can offer upgrades and extras, simplified. Graphic: eingecheckt.de · Background photo: Quant, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Key points
  • Upselling means offering a guest who has already booked a higher-value option, such as a larger room or a suite. Cross-selling refers to additional services such as breakfast, spa or parking.
  • Offers can be made at booking, before arrival, at check-in and during the stay.
  • Upselling increases revenue per guest without having to win new guests, and fills higher room categories that would otherwise stay empty or be given away.
  • Good offers suit the guest and come at the right moment.

A guest has booked a standard room. The suite with a lake view is free that weekend. For a moderate supplement, the guest would get a special stay and the hotel more revenue. That is what upselling is about.

What upselling means

With upselling, a hotel offers a guest who has already booked a higher-value option: a larger room, a better location, a suite. Basak Denizci Guillet of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University describes the benefit: hotels can sell higher room categories that would otherwise remain empty or be handed out as free upgrades. Instead of winning new guests, revenue per booking goes up.¹

Closely related is cross-selling. Here the aim is not a better room but additional services such as breakfast, half board, spa treatments, parking or late check-out.

The right moments

According to Denizci Guillet, upselling is possible at every stage of the guest journey: at booking, before arrival, at check-in and during the stay. For a long time, it mainly happened at reception. Today, many hotel groups use software that sends offers automatically by email, sometimes letting guests place their own bid for an upgrade.¹

What makes good upselling

Good upselling feels like service to the guest, not like a sales pitch. It works when the offer suits the occasion: couples celebrating an anniversary appreciate a room with a view, families a connecting room, business travellers a late check-out. Guest data from the PMS and CRM helps choose the right offer. Denizci Guillet recommends coordinating offers across all channels so that guests receive the same information by email, on the website and at reception.¹

What hoteliers should look for

Checklist: introducing upselling
  1. Review availability: Which room categories and services are often free or rarely booked?
  2. Keep offers focused: A few clear offers with a picture and price rather than a long list.
  3. Choose the timing: Send offers a few days before arrival and follow up at reception.
  4. Involve the team: Train the reception team and make results visible.
  5. Keep it measured: Make each guest no more than one or two suitable offers.

More in the magazine

Why Hotel Laurin near Merano does not have to offer everything itself and relies on experiences from the region is shown in our article "Why Hotel Laurin near Merano doesn’t have to offer everything itself". How hotels use guest data for suitable offers is explained in the glossary entry on CRM.

Sources

This glossary entry is based on the following source:

  1. Basak Denizci Guillet (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) (2019)
    Online upselling: Moving beyond offline upselling in the hotel industry
    Journal article, International Journal of Hospitality Management (accepted manuscript). Upselling along the guest journey, online upselling, bids for higher room categories, consistent communication across channels.
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