The most underused marketing channel in your building.

You are spending money on Google Ads, OTA commissions, email campaigns and social media. And every single day, every single guest walks past a member of your team who could change their booking behaviour permanently and nobody says a word.

Your front desk team speaks to one hundred percent of your guests. They are free, they are already there, and almost nobody is using them.

What to say at check-in.

Check-in is when a guest is most emotionally open, excited and ready to be looked after. This is the moment to plant a seed. Something natural, not scripted: 'We always try to do a little extra for guests who book direct with us next time you come, book through the website and we will look after you differently.'

Thirty seconds. No hard sell. An honest invitation that sits with them for the rest of the stay.

What to say at check-out.

Check-out is the highest-intent moment in the guest journey. They have had the experience. If it was good, they are already thinking about coming back. That is the moment to ask.

'It has been wonderful having you. Book direct next time and ask for me and I will make sure we look after you personally.' Warm, genuine, not transactional. And far more effective than any retargeting ad you will ever run.

This does not require a training programme.

Most front desk teams are not doing this because nobody has asked them to. It is not a skills gap — it is a culture gap. You do not need a script or a workshop. You need a clear principle, communicated well and rewarded consistently.

Make it part of how the team talks about the job and it will happen naturally. Turn it into a checklist item and it will be ignored within a week.

The maths of one conversation.

A guest who books through an OTA and returns through the OTA again has cost you commission twice. A guest who is personally invited to book direct and does — every future stay arrives commission-free, with a stronger relationship attached.

Over the lifetime of a loyal guest, one check-out conversation is worth thousands of pounds in recaptured margin. It just does not look like that in the moment.