Treat Every Guest Like a VIP: How to Optimize and Automate the Hotel Customer Journey with ActiveCampaign

Hospitality is personal. Understanding people, what they value, and what makes them feel at ease, is vital to building a great guest experience.

Today, that journey begins long before check-in and continues long after checkout. The digital experience is part of the stay itself. But behind the front desk, many hotels still depend on one-size-fits-all communications. The personal touch is easily lost.

This guide will walk through each touchpoint of the hotel customer journey, from dreaming to post-stay. We’ll give you practical tactics and strategies that make sure your guests feel recognized, not marketed to.

Every guest will start their experience with your brand long before they arrive on property, and those interactions continue well after they leave. To understand and, most importantly, improve this flow, it helps to break the hotel customer journey into five clear stages:

1. Dreaming: Guests explore destinations, browse amenities, and gather inspiration.
2. Booking: They compare offers, check availability, and decide where to stay.
3. Pre-stay: Plans take shape, preferences are shared, and interest in add-ons increases.
4. Stay: Real-time service, on-site experiences, and day-to-day interactions define the visit.
5. Post-stay & advocacy: Feedback is shared, loyalty is formed, and repeat business is won or lost.

Each stage gives hotels a chance to engage guests in unique and meaningful ways.

Once you understand the flow of the guest journey, the next step is putting it into action. In order to reach your guests, you need to make sure the underlying data is connected and accessible.

Integrating ActiveCampaign with your Property Management System (PMS), booking engine, website, and payment tools will allow you to create a single guest profile. A unified view enables precise segmentation by preferences, travel purpose, stay history, or booking channel.

These details will help you to personalize every interaction you make with a guest. With an automation-ready marketing platform, you’ll be able to trigger personalized sequences without intensive manual work.

Let’s explore some practical, high-impact opportunities to connect with travelers.

Goal: Inspire travelers and nurture early intent.

The dreaming stage is where curiosity sparks, and where you can start building a relationship long before someone is ready to book. With the right signals and automations in place, this early interest will become a steady pipeline of engaged, high-intent prospects.

Try using these tactics:

• Segment by behavior: Set up site-tracking to automatically tag visitors based on the pages or amenities they explore. These tags will become the foundation for targeted nurture paths.
• Build personalized content journeys: Create email or ad audiences for key interests (romance, family travel, wellness, etc.) and send content that reflects what each traveler is researching. This helps them imagine themselves at your property. For example:
  • If a visitor spends time on your spa or wellness pages, trigger a “Relax & Recharge” email featuring treatment highlights or midweek retreat packages.
  • If someone browses multi-room suites or kid-friendly amenities, enroll them in a “Family Getaway Ideas” series with itinerary suggestions and booking tips.
• Activate lead-capture automations: Add pop-up or embedded forms to highlight offers, guides, or newsletter perks. When someone opts in, start a welcome series that introduces your property’s signature experiences.
• Automate content to stay relevant: Configure emails to use dynamic content and switch imagery, recommendations, or promotions based on each contact’s browsing behavior.

All of this sets the tone early. Guests feel like the content they receive is actually meant for them, making your property the one they keep coming back to as their plans take shape.

Goal: Streamline the path to booking.

Once travelers are actively comparing options, even small obstacles can derail the decision. Thoughtful strategy helps remove those blockers and gives guests the clarity and encouragement they need to complete their reservation.

Here are a few ways to guide guests smoothly from consideration to confirmation:

• Recover abandoned bookings: Use site- and event-tracking to identify when a guest starts a reservation but doesn’t complete it. Trigger a reminder email with a friendly nudge or perk (like complimentary breakfast or flexible cancellation) to bring them back.
• Trigger behavioral nudges: If someone returns to your booking page multiple times, send a short “Ready to book?” message highlighting availability, a relevant offer, or what makes your property stand out.
• Segment by booking channel: Create different follow-up paths for direct bookers, OTA guests, and returning customers. Direct bookers might receive a thank-you plus upgrade options, while OTA guests can get messages that encourage them to book direct next time.
• Keep guest profiles up to date: Integrate ActiveCampaign with your PMS or booking engine so each reservation automatically updates the guest’s CRM record, including stay dates, room type, preferences, or special requests.

When this stage runs smoothly, travelers feel supported rather than sold to. Your hotel will be the easiest option to choose.

Goal: Set the tone for a memorable stay.

Once a guest has booked, the pre-arrival window is your opportunity to build anticipation. It also offers some of your highest-converting opportunities for upsells (as long as the timing feels thoughtful rather than promotional).

Make sure your PMS is connected to ActiveCampaign so automations can trigger based on check-in dates, stay length, room type, or booking source. With that data flowing in, you can set up a smooth, personalized pre-stay sequence that includes:

• The perfect confirmation cadence: Automate the essentials: booking confirmation, a clean stay summary, and timely reminders as the check-in date approaches. You could even use predictive sending to make sure emails arrive at the most convenient time for your guest, so you can be sure they have all the information they need.
• Send a personalized “Your Stay Is Coming Up!” series: Include helpful details like parking info, weather snapshots, local guides, or restaurant tips, along with optional upsells such as spa treatments, dining reservations, or room upgrades.
• Collect preferences early: Use forms or automated emails to gather arrival time, bed configuration, allergies, or special requests, and sync these details back to the guest profile.
• Tailor each message for relevance: Create conditional content based on guest type. For example, promote “romantic dinner” add-ons for couples or send information about executive lounges, quiet coworking areas, or express breakfast options to business travelers.
• Add a quick text reminder: A short SMS message the day before arrival with check-in details or a concierge contact helps guests feel taken care of before they even walk through the door.

Handled well, this stage will reassure guests that their stay is already in good hands and sets expectations for a smooth experience from the moment they arrive.

Goal: Enhance the guest experience during their stay.

Great hospitality is often defined by what happens in the moments guests don’t plan for: the quick answers, the small conveniences, the feeling that help is always close by.

Real-time communication makes that level of service possible at scale, and automation ensures it happens reliably without placing extra strain on your front-of-house teams.

Here are some ways you can provide premium, personalized customer service to guests on property, all via automations:

• Trigger check-in automations: As soon as the PMS confirms a check-in, launch an on-property journey. Include timely touchpoints such as breakfast bundles, spa openings, activity sign-ups, checkout reminders, and airport transfer booking offers that fit the guest’s profile or stay pattern.
• Lean on real-time messaging: Use SMS or email to send quick essentials like welcome notes, Wi-Fi details, or same-day offers (“Happy Hour Tonight!”). If you use a guest messaging or chat tool, integrate it with ActiveCampaign so service requests are routed to the right team immediately for fast recovery when needed.
• Capture feedback mid-stay: Send a short satisfaction check-in after the first night. Positive responses can lead to soft upsells; negative ones can be escalated instantly to the front desk or a manager for a quick resolution.
• Cross-promote with context: Highlight events and amenities based on who the guest is and how long they’re staying. For example, notify families about upcoming kids’ activities, or offer information about the chef’s tasting menu or wine pairing event to a guest in a premium suite.

These in-stay touchpoints feel like attentive service rather than marketing. They help guests feel supported and reach the resources they need through their visit.

Goal: Strengthen relationships, gather feedback, and inspire return visits.

A guest’s experience doesn’t end at checkout. The post-stay period is where loyalty and advocacy are earned. Thoughtful follow-ups can turn one-time visitors into not only repeat guests, but brand ambassadors.

To make the most of this stage, consider automating these post-stay touchpoints:

• Automated thank-you campaigns: Send personalized follow-ups within 24 hours of checkout, such as a warm note from the GM or a highlight of memorable moments from their stay.
• Review requests: Trigger emails asking for feedback and linking to TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, or other platforms where your brand is listed. Positive reviews can be amplified automatically, and constructive feedback can be flagged for rapid response. People are more likely to respond to quick requests on mobile devices, so consider using an SMS request for feedback.
• Loyalty nurturing: Enroll satisfied guests in automated loyalty programs, anniversary offers, or VIP perks to encourage repeat visits.
• Re-engagement automations: Reach out to guests who haven’t stayed in a while with friendly “We miss you” campaigns, personalized offers, or new experiences they might enjoy.
• Advocacy tracking: Tag guests who rebook, leave positive reviews, or make referrals, and include them in loyalty or ambassador programs. Word-of-mouth can be one of your most powerful marketing tools, where happy customers become active promoters.

Keep the connection alive after checkout to inspire return visits and enthusiastic recommendations.

Large hotel groups and multi-property resorts often struggle to deliver consistent, meaningful brand communications while keeping each property’s local personality intact. Relying on manual campaign management only slows teams down and creates room for errors and brand inconsistencies. This can make creating truly personalized guest experiences at scale feel nearly impossible.

ActiveCampaign HQ’s enterprise tools make it feasible to retain that personal touch across multiple locations. It offers a suite of franchise marketing automations that hotel groups can use to maintain that boutique-level attention to detail at every location, without extra manual work. This includes:

• Pushdown Automations: Create or update an automation at the head office level and instantly push it down to all locations. Every property automatically receives the latest workflows, campaigns, and sequences without manual duplication.
• Message Variables: Automate tailored content for each property, from names and contact details to local offers and amenities, so that every message feels authentic and locally relevant.

Using this approach, multi-location hotels don’t have to sacrifice personality for scale. Instead, head office can protect brand consistency while each property keeps its own local flavor. Guests receive messages that feel thoughtful and relevant, whether they’re interacting with the New York, Paris, or Tokyo location: a boutique-level experience delivered across a global footprint.

Automation can’t replace real, human-centered hospitality, but it’s a great tool to enhance the experience.

By letting ActiveCampaign handle repetitive workflows, your hotel team can focus on what matters most. Whether they’re serving guests face-to-face from a boutique hotel, or building campaigns for global franchises, they’ll be able to create memorable experiences for every guest and interact with them where it really matters.

Personalized emails, SMS reminders, and triggered campaigns free staff from key touchpoints and manual follow-ups while still ensuring every guest feels recognized and valued.

Turn every stay into an experience your guests can’t forget. Start automating the hotel customer journey with ActiveCampaign today. Sign up for a free trial.

Are you part of a global hotel team that’s ready to scale personalized communications? Request a demo for ActiveCampaign HQ.

What systems need to connect for an automated hotel customer journey to work well?

Typically, a PMS, booking engine, CRM, and website forms. When these systems share data, hotels can create a complete view of each guest and trigger smarter, more personalized interactions.

Is automation impersonal for hospitality?

Not at all. Automation handles routine tasks in the background so staff can spend more time engaging directly with guests. Data-driven personalization actually makes interactions feel more thoughtful.

How long does it take to set up automated guest journeys?

Once core systems are integrated, most hotels can launch essential journeys, like pre-stay, on-property, and post-stay sequences, very quickly. Many businesses find that getting set up with a marketing automation platform like ActiveCampaign can help them have core flows set up in days.