Attempt Rate: Accelerator of Any Upgrade Program

Girl Scout Cookie season is soon upon us here in the United States. As I watch the Girl Scouts go door to door or work the front door of the local grocery store, I can’t help but think of the parallels between what they are doing and hotel upgrades.  In fact, the same way that I usually end up with a box of Thin Mints is the same way many guests end up in premium rooms: someone asked them. In this article, I am going to analyse the most important metric that will determine the success of many of our LuxSell hotel upgrade clients: the attempt rate.  
 
The attempt rate is simply a percentage that takes the number of times we ask for the upgrade and divides it by the number of opportunities to ask. In our experience, this metric is the most important determination of whether a property upgrade program thrives or doesn’t. While likely unmeasured in their context, I guarantee you that the attempt rate also makes or breaks Girl Scout cookie sales. Just like I don’t go to the grocery store seeking to meet the Girl Scout at the front door and buy a box of cookies, likewise very few guests walk up to the front desk thinking to purchase a more premium room than they originally booked. We have to offer the opportunity and the decision is theirs. 

While it makes sense that the attempt rate is one of the most important tools to guarantee the success of our upgrade program, we’d like to share today some of the three most important practices to lead your team to attempt rate success. 

Practice One: Monitor & Measure 

There is a common phrase in business that many of you might be familiar with that says, “What gets measured, gets done.” While the exact attribution is unclear, it is sometimes attributed to Peter Drucker. No matter its origin, there is no doubt that the success of any upgrade program will hinge on measuring the attempt rate. In our LuxSell program, monitoring the attempt rate is easy so that operators can follow up and support agents struggling to ask guests if they want to upgrade.  
 
While there are situations where it doesn’t make sense to ask a guest to upgrade, those exceptions should be rare; therefore, we recommend that properties review their market mix and determine what makes sense. A heavy leisure resort property with ample upgrade opportunities might set a target of a 90% or higher attempt rate. Once you set the attempt rate, the next important step is to monitor the agents’ performance against that goal. It is indeed just like the adage says, “What gets measured, gets done.” In our experience, in measuring the attempt rate, the number of agents asking will increase, hence the number of upgrades will also increase. 

Practice Two: Coaching and Support 

While just monitoring and measuring will get some performance improvement, the second practice of coaching and support is also very important. In our experience, the vast majority of agents want to do the right thing and want to do well but may need some additional support to get there. They need to role-play how to ask guests so they develop ease in describing the premium room types. This is exactly why every time we launch a new property with LuxSell, we go onsite and train every front desk agent and work shoulder to shoulder with them during launch.  
 
The launch support is important, but just as important is the continuous coaching and support to agents so they have what is needed to feel confident attempting the upgrade with every guest who checks in every time. 

Practice Three: Reward & Accountability 

Bob Proctor said, “Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to the result.” It is important in your workaround attempt rate to connect the result to our shared commitment to ask for the upgrade every time. Thus, the final practice that helps your attempt rate is accountability.   In other words, once we’ve provided an agent with coaching, clear training, and guidelines, rewarding great performance, by commissions or financial recognition, and addressing ongoing poor attempt rate performers is important. This will tackle the poor performers and keep those performing well on a streak. 

Conclusion 

I’ll close with a challenge to every hotelier reading this and who desires their upgrade program to succeed: I challenge you to lean into leveraging your attempt rate by measuring and monitoring it; then I challenge you to coach and train those who are struggling; and finally, to tie the commitment to ask to results the agents achieve. In our experience, doing these three practices around the attempt rate will have an excessive impact on the health and success of your upgrade program.