Ask a Host: How to increase your bike rental sales
Every month we answer your questions. This time: how to boost your bike rental service.

Ask a Host is our monthly column where we answer frequently asked questions from hoteliers and property managers with practical advice and actionable solutions. Got a challenge or a question of your own? Write to us at hello@smartness.com and you might be featured in the next edition!
Today’s question is:
How can I increase bike rental sales in my property this summer?
Response
Thanks for your question! It’s the perfect chance to talk about a common challenge for many hoteliers: what can you do when you invest in an extra service—like bike rental—but it doesn’t deliver the revenue you hoped for?
To turn things around, you need two key ingredients: visibility and communication.
Visibility means actual, physical visibility. Even the best service can go unnoticed if it isn’t well displayed or promoted. A great example? Visual merchandising in supermarkets. How often do you buy something that wasn’t on your shopping list, just because it caught your eye with an attractive sign or clever placement?
The same applies to your service: if the bikes are hidden in a corner, garage, or tucked away in a bike room, they’re unlikely to catch a guest’s attention.
So make sure your setup is visually appealing and easy to notice—put the bikes in a clean, prominent spot, ideally near the entrance or along key walkways.
When it comes to communication, you can act on two levels: guests who are already staying at your property, and guests who will be arriving in the next few days or weeks. Let’s start with the first group.
Guests currently staying at your property
If you want to increase bike rentals among current guests, you can’t wait for them to ask. You need to present the offer in a way that’s:
- pleasant to explore
- prompts immediate action
If until now you’ve only relied on brochures in the room or handed out at reception, consider expanding your touchpoints—that is, the moments when guests interact with your services.
For example, you could create a Daily News: a one-page printout you update every day with useful info like the weather forecast, local events, planned excursions, and, of course, a reminder about bike rentals or any other extra service you want to promote.
The Daily News works best when placed in high-traffic spots: in the elevator, at the breakfast table, or on a notice board near reception. That way, your guests “bump into it” several times throughout the day, and the message sticks.
To simplify the booking process, make it easy for guests to book a bike online—any time, without needing to go through reception.
All you need is a simple showcase-style booking page, like the Marketplace included with your Smartconnect subscription (see screenshot below).
Here, you can showcase not only your internal services (laundry, airport transfers, dog sitter, etc.) but also tours and experiences offered by third-party providers.
Once your Marketplace is ready, you can share the link with guests in different ways: print a QR code on your brochure, your Daily News, or a small display card in the room.
But that’s not all: you can also include the Marketplace link in your automated emails and WhatsApp messages, setting up when each offer should be sent after check-in.
In the example below, we’ve set up a message for couples only, scheduled to go out one day after check-in, with a personalized image and text for the individual guest.
Guests arriving in the next few weeks
With future guests, you have more time and space to work. The keyword here is personalization—presenting your service in a way that feels relevant and attractive to each type of guest.
For example, you might decide to target couples and families.
- For couples, focus on shared experiences: a scenic sunset ride, a suggested itinerary with the most romantic spots in town, and so on.
- For families, highlight comfort and convenience: child seats included, routes suitable for all ages, etc.
To do this effectively, you first need to segment your database, in other words, divide your contacts into groups based on shared characteristics (guest type, language, booking channel, etc.).
If you’ve never done this before and your PMS is full of contacts that would take hours to sort manually, don’t worry: a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool like Smartconnect can do it for you automatically in just a few minutes.
It connects directly to your PMS, imports your contacts, and automatically segments them, so you can create personalized newsletters in just a few clicks, just like in the example for current guests.
One more tip? Use psychology!
As we explained in our article on using psychology to increase sales, there are several techniques you can apply.
In your case, you could use the scarcity effect, a psychological trigger that pushes people to act faster when they feel something might run out.
For example, explain that in summer, bikes are in high demand, and booking early is the best way to make sure they’ll be available.
Phrases like “Last bikes available for the weekend” or “Book now so you don’t miss out” work well because they create urgency without pressure.
Smartconnect is designed to help you sell your extra services more effectively without adding to your workload or turning you into a marketing expert.
The Marketplace comes already customized with your property's logo. You just add the photos and descriptions of the services you want to promote, and the software will take care of segmenting your contacts and suggesting the best message to send, to the right audience.
And that’s not all: with Smartconnect, you can also automate post-stay communication to stay connected with your guests and encourage them to return, for example, by sending discount codes for future direct bookings.
Want to see how it works?
Request a personalized demo
Talk to a Smartness expert and discover how to automate upselling and guest communication at every stage of the stay to boost revenue and guest loyalty. Free, no obligation.
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