The guest journey mapped: every contact point as a marketing opportunity

A guest has an average of 7 contact moments with your accommodation before booking and long after leaving. Each of those moments is a chance for a direct booking or a review. Most hoteliers capitalize on 2 of them.

The problem

Suppose you have 6 rooms and run 72 percent of your bookings through Booking.com. You probably think about your marketing in loose pieces: your site, your Google profile, a newsletter you once wanted to start. What you don't see is that a guest goes through all of that one after another as one continuous journey.

That journey is called the guest journey, in marketing terms the customer journey: all the steps a guest takes, from when they first search for an accommodation until long after their stay. For a small-scale accommodation that's about 7 phases.

The problem is this. On almost every one of those 7 moments, Booking.com sits between you and your guest. The guest searches, finds Booking, compares on Booking, books on Booking and gets the confirmation from Booking. You only show up at check-in. And after checkout the guest hears nothing from you, while Booking nicely asks them for a review.

Every moment when the platform takes your place costs you money. One fewer direct booking on a 100-euro night already saves you about 18 euros commission. At 200 nights per year through the platform that's thousands of euros. That's why mapping the guest journey pays off: you see exactly where you give up a moment that could have been yours.

Most hoteliers work on separate pieces without seeing the connection. You improve your photos on Booking but leave your own site alone. You spontaneously ask a loyal guest for a review but don't do it for the 40 before them. That's not laziness, it's just what a busy week looks like between cleaning, breakfast and booking questions. But the result is that your marketing isn't a chain, it's loose links. And a guest drops off at the weakest point.

The gain from mapping the guest journey isn't a new channel or expensive tool. It's seeing the order. Once you lay out the 7 phases side by side, it jumps out where your guest now slips through your fingers. For one accommodation that's the booking itself because there's no button on the site. For another it's the silence after the stay. That differs per business, which is why charting your own journey is the first step, not copying someone else's list.

Calculation example

Below are the 7 phases of the guest journey for an average B&B guest, with per phase the contact moment and the opportunity you're missing or can grab.

What this concretely brings you. Suppose through improving phase 2 and 3 you shift 1 booking per week from Booking to your own site. That's 52 bookings per year. With an average night of 100 euros and 18 percent commission you keep approximately 936 euros per year in your own pocket. Improve phase 7 on top and return bookings and reviews add to filling your occupancy in low season.

Pay attention to where the real leaks sit in that table. Phase 5, the stay itself, is usually your strongest phase. You're good at it because that's your job. The phases before and after are where it goes wrong. In phase 2 you lose the guest to a platform with more reviews and a trusted button. In phase 7 you lose a review and repeat booking to silence. It's tempting to invest in phase 5, a new mattress, better breakfast, because that feels tangible. But the gain lies in phases 2 and 7, exactly the phases that cost no money but attention.

Check it with your own numbers. Do you have 4 rooms and 60 percent occupancy, that's about 875 nights per year. 70 percent of those through Booking means you pay commission on 612 nights. At 100 euros per night and 18 percent that's just over 11,000 euros per year. You don't need to move a big share of those to feel the difference. Moving 10 percent of those bookings to your own site already saves more than 1,100 euros, and that's just phases 2 and 3.

Action plan

You don't need to tackle all 7 phases at once. That's the trap. Follow this order.

1. Map your own guest journey. Grab a piece of paper and write the 7 phases down. Note per phase what's happening now. For most accommodations phase 7 has: "nothing". That's already your first insight.

2. Mark the phases where Booking takes your place. Usually those are phase 1, 2, 3 and 7. Those are your biggest leaks because there you lose a direct booking or a review.

3. Pick 1 phase to improve this month. Start with the phase where you're losing the most. For most accommodations that's phase 3 (no working booking button) or phase 7 (no email after stay).

4. Finish that one improvement before moving on. A half booking button and a half review email deliver nothing. One finished phase does.

5. Measure the result after a month. How many direct bookings came in? How many reviews? Only then move to the next phase.

An example of how this works in practice. If you start with phase 7, your improvement this month is simple: after every checkout send an email that same day. Not a template from Booking, but a personal message asking if they enjoyed it and a link to your Google profile to leave a review. After a month count how many reviews came in. If it worked, automate that email so it always goes out. Then move to phase 4, the period before arrival, and build the same routine there. That way your guest journey grows one finished phase per month, and after six months 5 or 6 moments work instead of 1.

Common mistakes

• Wanting to tackle all phases at once. You start on your site, your Google profile, a newsletter and a review system in the same week. Three weeks later nothing's done. One phase per month, otherwise nothing happens.

• Skipping phases 4 through 6 because "the stay goes well anyway". Often true, but that's exactly where you build the loyalty that makes phase 7 work. A guest who felt welcome before arrival writes a review more easily. A good pre-arrival email starts that, and a smooth self-check-in or online check-in keeps satisfaction high without you opening the door at 10 p.m.

• Completely forgetting phase 7. This is the most expensive mistake. The guest just stayed with you, was happy, and you never hear from them again. Booking does: it emails them for a review and for their next booking. A personal post-stay email for reviews gets that moment back to you.

• Mapping the journey once and then forgetting about it. The journey changes when you improve something. Someone who just got their booking button working has a different leak than half a year later. Run through the 7 phases every quarter.

What you can do now

Start small and concrete. Map your guest journey today on one piece of paper with the 7 phases. Mark where Booking now takes your place. Pick the one phase where you're losing the most and finish it this month.

For most accommodations the fastest wins are in phases 3 and 7. Want to know what a missed direct booking really costs you, calculate it via the savings calculator. Want to tackle all 7 guest satisfaction phases during the stay, increasing guest satisfaction helps you further.

Don't want to map all 7 phases yourself but have it run smoothly? We do that together at marketing for hotels.