Upselling enabled: How Iberostar Hotels & Resorts integrated ancillary sales into the pre-arrival stage with Oaky

Iberostar Hotels & Resorts is a leading hotel chain that’s committed to developing a responsible tourism model, focused on caring for both guests and the environment. With over 100 four- and five-star hotels, they cater to mid- to high-end leisure travelers who value sustainability and look for a high level of service and exclusive experiences. Most of their properties are located in coastal, resort-style destinations across Europe, Africa, and Americas, reinforcing their focus on leisure travel.

With a wide variety of exclusive amenities and facilities, the Iberostar team realized they were missing out on ancillary sales at the pre-arrival stage. As such, guests had little to no opportunity to enrich their stay. Integrating ancillary sales into pre-arrival operations became a key goal for the Iberostar team.

We sat down with Pere Estela Pujals, Global Ancillary Director at the Iberostar Group, and Juan Serna, Global Online Sales, Head of Digital Ancillary, to hear firsthand how Oaky has enabled ancillary sales at the pre-arrival stage of the guest journey.

To date, they’ve rolled out Oaky at 51 hotels worldwide for pre-arrival upselling. They began with pilot programs at the end of 2023 and, after seeing strong results, expanded Oaky’s implementation to more properties. Here’s how the hotels leverage Oaky today to communicate ancillaries in a personalized and seamless way.

Challenges: The lack of upselling technology to enhance the guest experience and increase hotel revenue during the pre-arrival stage

1. The lack of technology to communicate hotel offerings at the right time pre-arrival

As Pere and Juan point out, “Our existing systems didn’t allow us to sell the right products to the right guests. For hotels, sorting guest requests for services and upgrades from regular inquiries and processing these deals was both challenging and time-consuming. Plus, we were not able to communicate everything our hotels had to offer.”

As Iberostar didn’t have any upselling tech in place, their guests were unaware of what else in addition to a room they could get to enrich their guest experience. On top of that, there was no centralized system in place to ensure that these were presented to guests at the right time pre-arrival. As such, they struggled to give the different hotels in their chain more control over what they offer to guests before they arrive.

2. Lost and missed ancillary revenue opportunities

The inability to proactively sell ancillaries led to underutilized room upgrades and services. Relying solely on front desk upselling wasn’t enough to drive profitability. As Pere and Juan highlight, “Not everything could be upsold at the front desk due to time constraints and the wide variety of deals we wanted to offer.”

As they mentioned, while they could have tasked their in-house IT team with building a custom solution, it would have been both time-consuming and costly, ultimately resulting in even more missed revenue opportunities.

3. Differentiate the direct channel from OTAs (reduce dependency on OTAs) through ancillaries

Ancillary services are one of Iberostar’s unique selling points. It sets their direct channel apart as you can’t book these deals through any other channel, helping to reduce dependency on third-party channels. To do this, they needed a tool to not only enhance guest engagement but also generate more revenue from their own channel, minimizing dependency on third-party distribution channels (OTAs).

Overcoming team resistance and establishing an upselling strategy across multiple properties after successful pilot results

Iberostar successfully rolled out Oaky across multiple properties, with active involvement from Iberostar HQ to ensure all teams were onboard. To do this, they collaborated closely with the regional coordinators and organized meetings according to destination. Iberostar HQ remained involved during this rollout process to ensure that teams had the proper information and support.

Pere highlights that when implementing a new software solution, gaining buy-in from each hotel manager is crucial. This, though, can be challenging (especially among hotel chains) as teams are often skeptical when new software is introduced by headquarters.

However, these challenges were quickly overcome thanks to HQ’s active involvement and the rapid, effective results demonstrated by Oaky at pilot hotels.

Additionally, teams realized that Oaky not only helps communicate offerings to guests but also improves efficiency and saves time. Previously, they had to search through their inboxes to find and review guest requests. With Oaky, they can now approve or decline requests with just one click, simplifying their job significantly.

In fact, they found that the rollout experience was easier at hotels with more activity. Aside from the fact that they were required to get involved with the platform from the get-go, results were also visible sooner helping them to view Oaky as a solution to their pain points.

Pere explains:

"The technology is there, but we need to encourage hotel teams to understand that this is a tool for their own benefit. They’ll reduce email clutter, and generate revenue with no effort. However, they still need to stay engaged and respond to requests on time. The key is to instill the right mindset in the team, so they start using the platform consistently every day."

Iberostar’s upsell results: From no pre-arrival upsell strategy to an automated and consistent process

1. The ability to communicate offerings pre-arrival keeps guest engagement high and differentiates Iberostar’s direct channel

With Oaky, Iberostar hotels established a process of selling ancillaries pre-arrival. Having a centralized system enabled the teams across multiple Iberostar properties to set up engaging deals and upgrades to be upsold to the right guests and at the right moments of the guest journey.

Across properties, no matter the location, email open rates are about 88% on average.

Some of the best-performing hotels are:

• Joia Paraiso by Iberostar - with an open rate of 90%

• Iberostar Selection Jardin del Sol Suites - with an open rate of 89.61%

• Iberostar Waves Alcudia Park - with an open rate of 88.17%

2. Ramped up ancillary revenue results thanks to guests being informed about offerings before they check in

Oaky made a big difference in terms of communicating offers to guests. Earlier, guests would only find out about upgrades and service options at check-in. As mentioned earlier, it didn’t yield great results and limited the options that could be upsold due to time constraints.

Presenting personalized and engaging upsells in the pre-arrival stage has turned out to be beneficial for revenue results. The average conversion rate across properties is up to 8%.

Some of the best performers are:

• Iberostar Selection Jardin del Sol Suites

ROI of 39.3 on average between January 1, 2024, and September 30, 2024 (with the highest ROI of 57 and 61 measured in July and August respectively)

• Iberostar Waves Alcudia Park

ROI of 22.4 on average

• Iberostar Selection Albufera Park

ROI of 20 on average.

Juan adds:

3. Infinite upsell options: transforming the guest experience from every angle

In the past, Iberostar hotels faced upsell constraints as the front desk teams didn’t have enough time at check-in to explain all their deals. Now, with Oaky, it’s like having an extra set of hands, giving hotels the resources they need to upsell practically anything—not just select deals.

For example, thanks to Oaky, Iberostar properties in Mexico and the Dominican Republic are now able to capitalize effectively on sun beds—something they couldn’t sell as effectively before implementing Oaky. Juan mentions, “Guests are excited to book them pre-arrival. In fact, sun beds have become one of the top sellers at certain properties. My recommendation for these hotels next year would be to consider increasing the price because of their popularity.”

On top of that, Oaky allows the hotels to be creative and captivate their guests with unique experiences. Take their Star Prestige Experience (one of the best-performing deals), for example. With this deal, guests are treated as VIPs and can access exclusive areas like exclusive lounges, pool or check-in areas. It allows Iberostar to cater to luxury travelers who look for exclusivity and out-of-the-box experiences enabled now thanks to automated and personalized upselling with Oaky.

Final thoughts

For Iberostar Hotels & Resorts, Oaky has become an essential part of the pre-arrival stage of the guest journey, providing hotels with a system to offer a variety of room upgrades and services to arriving guests. The Oaky solution has been instrumental in raising awareness of available offers while also driving guest engagement and profitability. It has opened up new upselling opportunities, empowering hotels to get creative and capture revenue that would previously have been missed without an automated solution in place.