Hotel upselling is one of the most powerful yet underutilized levers in hospitality revenue management. When it’s done correctly, upselling is not about selling harder. Instead, it’s about creating personalized guest experiences that feel tailored, valuable, and worth paying more for.
Today’s most successful hotels understand that upselling isn’t just about offering room upgrades — it’s about much more. Upselling can happen across every guest touchpoint — from pre-arrival emails to front-desk interactions, spa bookings, and even post-stay communications. And when these moments align through data-driven personalization, they transform into meaningful revenue streams for properties.
In this article, we’re spotlighting four upselling hotel examples from Revinate customers that have turned their upsell programs into high-performing, guest-centric success stories. Keep reading to discover how each story showcases how modern hotels are blending automation, segmentation, and personalization to elevate both revenue and guest satisfaction.
Zoku turned guest engagement into year-round direct bookings
For Zoku — a hybrid hospitality brand known for its home-like environment for long-stays — guest engagement is more than a post-stay email. It’s a year-round commitment that nurtures loyalty and fuels upsell performance.
Zoku focuses on maintaining personalized communication throughout the entire guest lifecycle. By leveraging data from guest profiles and past interactions, Zoku builds microsegments that receive tailored offers based on behavior and preferences — from long-stay packages to workspace upgrades and event perks.
And the results speak for themselves. By continuously engaging guests with relevant offers, Zoku has seen consistent increases in direct bookings and a measurable boost in revenue per automated campaign. Their approach proves that hotel upselling works best when it’s backed by genuine, ongoing engagement — not one-off campaigns.
Zoku Hotels’ results:
- 300% growth in upsell revenue year-over-year
- Average revenue per one-time campaign: €7,595
- Average revenue per automated campaign: €11,500
Zoku showed how building long-term guest relationships turns personalization into predictable revenue, revealing that continuous engagement is the key to achieving sustainable upselling success.
Hotel Spero drove incremental ROI through upsell functionality
In the competitive San Francisco market, Hotel Spero demonstrates how upselling can deliver incremental ROI when automation meets personalization.
Having recently completed a renovation and repositioning of the hotel, Tomo Kakegawa, Senior Director of Revenue & Digital Marketing, focused on promoting upsells via his in-house email marketing platform to help generate incremental revenue. He set up early check-in and late check-out upsells to autosend to arriving and in-house guests, respectively — and he saw amazing results.
Using Revinate’s upsell functionality, Hotel Spero identified the perfect balance between digital efficiency and human touch. The hotel sent automated upgrade offers to guests prior to their arrival, making sure those offers were personalized with dynamic content that matched stay details and guest segments.
These offers encouraged guests to enhance their stays with room upgrades, late check-outs, and add-ons like premium amenities. Because each offer was aligned with guest intent and timing, conversion rates surged.
Hotel Spero’s results:
- Average incremental revenue of $3.5K each month
- Reduced manual workload
- Increasing ancillary revenue
As Hotel Spero has shown, smart automation paired with personalization can achieve what manual upselling can’t — scalable revenue growth without sacrificing the guest experience.
137 Pillars Hotels & Resorts personalized upsells for significant revenue
It’s well-known that luxury travelers expect personalization — and 137 Pillars Hotels & Resorts proves how upselling can deepen loyalty by differentiating the brand.
137 Pillars Hotels & Resorts operates boutique luxury properties across Thailand and focuses on segmenting guests. This allows the marketing team to create custom upsell campaigns that highlight unique luxury experiences that generate real revenue.
137 Pillars’ results:
- Lifetime revenue of THB 28,000,000+
- Average campaign open rate: 26%
- Average room nights booked per campaign sent: 4
The takeaway? Personalization isn’t a luxury — it’s the foundation of effective hotel upselling. When every offer feels meaningful, revenue follows naturally.
The MOA Group GmbH turned email into an upsell revenue powerhouse
For the MOA Group GmbH, upselling wasn’t just an add-on strategy — it became a real driver of direct revenue. The group, which manages multiple properties across Germany, turned its email communications into an ongoing profit center.
By designing upsell campaigns that make it easy for guests to add on services and amenities before they even check into one of their properties, MOA Group GmbH unlocked the full potential of their guest database. And automation ensured that messages were timely, while segmentation ensured they were relevant.
MOA Group’s results:
- €37K+ all-time upsell revenue
- Average campaign revenue: €3,500
- Average click-through rate: up to 13%
You can see how email remains one of the highest-performing upselling channels when powered by segmentation and automation. The MOA Group GmbH is proof that communication and revenue growth go hand in hand.
Lessons from the upsell masters
Across these upselling hotel examples, a few universal truths emerge:
- Personalization wins every time. Each hotel uses guest data to deliver offers that feel relevant and valuable.
- Automation amplifies human service. Whether through email or pre-arrival messages, automated workflows make it possible for teams to focus on what really matters: quality interactions.
- Upselling drives loyalty, not just revenue. Guests who feel seen, understood, and appreciated are more likely to book direct with you again.
- Measurement fuels improvement. Every featured hotel tracks conversion rates, attach rate, and incremental revenue to help them continuously refine their strategy.
Ultimately, these properties prove that hotel upselling isn’t a side tactic — it’s a long-term growth strategy. It’s where technology, timing, and human connection intersect and transform an average stay into a truly exceptional one.
When upselling becomes part of your brand’s DNA, every guest interaction turns into a meaningful revenue opportunity.
Take your upselling strategy to the next level
Inspired by these success stories? Learn how to implement the same strategies through Revinate’s Upsell & Cross-sell Optimization track — part of the Direct Booking Mastery Certification.
Explore more success stories and start your journey toward mastering upsells today.
About Revinate
Revinate is a direct booking platform that leads the hospitality industry in driving direct revenue and increased profitability.
Our products and our people combine to give hoteliers the superpowers they need to crush their goals. With Revinate, hoteliers shift share away from OTAs and drive tangible results across an individual property or a portfolio. Our industry-leading, AI-powered customer data platform collects, unifies, and synthesizes data to give hoteliers a foundational advantage.
Hoteliers gain critical intelligence — guest lifetime spend, stay preferences, ancillary revenue, and more. With Revinate’s Rich Guest Profiles™ data, hoteliers don’t need to guess who their most profitable guests are or struggle to drive conversions across email, voice, messaging, and digital channels.
Revinate’s direct booking platform and omnichannel communication technology powers 950+ million Rich Guest Profiles across 12,500+ hotels to drive over $17.2 billion in direct revenue.
Media Team
Media team | Revinate
+1 415 671 4703
