State of South African Hospitality 2023

Happy Tourism Month from Sunny South Africa! Every year, SA celebrates Tourism Month to encourage local tourism and create excitement around travel culture in the country. International Tourism Day on the 27th of September marks the perfect time for us to reflect on the state of Hospitality. Here’s a word from Niels Verspui, the Market Head for Southern Africa,

“As one of the top travel destinations, there is ample opportunity for South African hoteliers to succeed, and adopting technology can help improve operations. From automated housekeeping to revenue management, hotel software helps do the heavy lifting.”

We will discuss insights from our South African Mid-year Hospitality report and new trend developments. Keep your eye out for our “top tips” on leveraging emerging hospitality trends. Our SA properties shined when we analysed the mid-year data of RoomRacccoon users, but what did we uncover? Let’s delve into the details together.

More Online Check-ins 

In a post-pandemic world, people have become accustomed to online services as the norm, and online check-in is no exception. Online check-in allows guests to check in at their leisure after their journey. Travelling can be tiring even at the best of times – online check-in helps reduce your guest’s check-in friction. 

In fact, Cape Vue in Franschhoek reports that approximately 50% of guests use online check-in from our case study. This saves time for the property’s staff and helps to keep weary travellers happy. Online check-in is a standard feature with the RoomRaccoon PMS, making all the difference to guest experience! Remember, guest check-in is their first impression of their stay with your property – make it exceptional.

Top Tip: Personalise your hotel’s communications for an all-encompassing guest experience. From your booking engine to pre-stay documents, ensure your property branding is consistent and engaging. This helps create a seamless guest experience and builds trust within your online channels. These factors can help increase your online check-ins, saving your hotel time and alleviating stress!

Add-ons Boosting ROI Significantly 

While room rates are the base of your revenue, add-ons elevate your total revenue per available room (TrevPAR). You can offer personalised add-ons and upgrades to guests, ensuring extra income and enhanced guest experiences. RoomRaccoon offers customisable, automated and smart upselling options. This results in happier guests and fuller pockets for hoteliers.

In winter 2022, SA RoomRaccoon users generated an additional average of R16,389 by upselling room upgrades. All that extra cash brought home was created by hoteliers setting up their add-ons. Your upselling strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. Simply include add-ons that are relevant to your property and will improve your guest’s stay. Need somewhere to start? We have a comprehensive blog on how to master hotel upselling! 

Top Tip: When guests are checking in ahead of time, the chances are they’re pretty excited about their impending vacation. So, that’s the best time to offer them fabulous add-ons and upgrades to elevate their stay. With RaccoonUpsell, 82% of hotels using our PMS increase their RevPAR by 15%, showing the potential of this tool.

Events Influence on Occupancy

South Africans love an excuse to celebrate (who doesn’t?), especially when it involves travel. This trend was made abundantly clear when we explored the link between Cape Town’s occupancy with events and holidays. As one would expect, there was also a correlation between RevPAR and occupancy on these days. So why does this matter? This data reveals an opportunity for dynamic pricing during holiday periods and local events.

Here are some of the most notable data spikes and their respective reasons.

Top Tip: To capitalise on periods where occupancy spikes, you should make use of dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing tools automatically adjust your daily rate depending on demand – ensuring that every room you sell brings the best return on investment. By utilising a revenue management tool, you remove the need for any tedious manual price adjustments. Automation saves you time while keeping you in complete control of your room rates and their price adjustments.

Focus on Boosting Direct Bookings

Bookings are integral to a hotel’s success, and direct bookings help take hotel revenue to the next level. Direct bookings provide hoteliers with commission-free bookings, raking in more revenue with less cost. The most efficient way to boost these direct bookings is by creating a frictionless and functional website experience with an optimised booking engine. With RoomRaccoon, you can build your hotel’s website with no coding required quickly and easily!

Since May 2021, direct bookings have increased by 114.25%, showing the rise of guests wanting direct contact with properties. Our South African properties raked in 21,513 direct bookings in the past year from May 2022 to May 2023. That is over twenty thousand transactions for hoteliers with 0% commission paid to external booking channels. 

Top Tip: Create an engaging and user-friendly website for potential guests. A great booking engine goes hand in hand with a great website. Your website should have up-to-date details and photographs. Users should be able to navigate your website with ease. In this way, they’re more inclined to book directly. Also, a website optimised for search engines will attract more visitors to your site – at no advertising cost!

Bleisure Travel & Aparthotel stays

Bleisure travel is the combination of business and leisure travel. This type of travel has become increasingly popular post-pandemic, as working styles became less rigid and allowed remote working. “Bleisure” travel is usually the result of business travellers extending their stay for leisure while on a working trip.

It can be argued that Bleisure travel drives the demand for Aparthotels in South Africa. Another new word, an aparthotel, is a hotel apartment. What sets it apart from a hotel room? Aparthotels offer the privacy and comfort of apartment living while providing the convenience of hotel-like services. You can read all about what serviced apartments are in our aparthotel blog. The tourism update also has a comprehensive article on the rise of aparthotels in South Africa, with some interesting statistics. 

Top Tip: Remember to offer packages that cater to business travellers; this could include a “relax and unwind” offer for post-business. Also, include handy add-ons to enhance their experience, such as high-speed Wi-Fi, extra adapters or an array of charging implements for devices. You can also ensure their room is spick and span with an automated housekeeping tool. This extra thought keeps their workspace stress-free and keeps your property organised.

Future Hospitality Trends

Since the unprecedented global shutdowns due to the pandemic, hospitality trends have changed drastically. The hospitality industry has never been more exciting with new patterns emerging and technological advancements. We’ve identified 5 of the most prominent future trends we foresee for property owners.

1. Guest Expectations Grow – guests expect an increasingly personalised experience in this era.
2. Contactless Payments Take Centre Stage – consumers in any industry want to spend their money quickly, easily, and painlessly.
3. Manage Mundane Tasks with Automation – save time and resources by automating your repetitive tasks.
4. Online Tools for Efficiency – investing in an all-in-one tech solution to streamline daily operations.
5. Virtual Property Tours – relatively new to the game, virtual tours are an effective marketing tool in the digital age. 

If you’d like to learn more about these future trends, please head to our full blog: The evolving landscape of hotel reservation and point-of-sale systems.

Join the Hoteliers leading the African hospitality industry

There’s never been a more opportune time to invest in a fully integrated property management system. “South Africa, like any other country, has its challenges to face. But I am positive that the hospitality industry will prosper. Hoteliers in SA are eager to invest in the right hotel management software and integrations,” comments Niels Verspui, the Market Head for Southern Africa.

Book a demo today to learn more about how we can help take your hotel’s performance to the next level with RoomRacccoon. Our friendly South African team would love to say howzit and see how we can assist.

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