Do you know what’s worse than not doing email marketing for your hotel? Doing it poorly.

Many hoteliers think running an email campaign is simple: just write a text, select the contact list in the database, and click “send.” But this approach comes with risks that go far beyond low open rates or emails that don’t convert. Have you ever heard of an email domain being blocked for spam?

Today, providers like Google and Yahoo have set the spam threshold at 0.3%. Translated: if just 3 out of 1,000 recipients mark your email as spam, your future messages may not be delivered, and your email domain could be blocked, seriously compromising your entire property’s operations.

Yet, when done right, email marketing remains one of the most profitable tools for hospitality businesses. According to a Statista study, every dollar spent on email marketing can generate an average return of $33.

So, how can you avoid the risks and turn email marketing into a tool for loyalty and revenue? Simple: by following a few best practices to protect your domain, segment your email recipients, and personalize your messages.

How to protect your hotel’s email domain

When it comes to email marketing for hotels, the difference between success and failure isn’t just about the message content but also how and to whom you send it. In other words, the effectiveness of your campaigns depends on two key factors:

• Quantity: How many emails you send and how you manage sending volume.
• Quality: Who your contacts are and how updated and interested they are.

Let's take a closer look at how to manage these two factors!

Pay attention to quantity: how to manage email volume

Sending too many emails in a short time is one of the most common and damaging mistakes, triggering a chain reaction: you annoy your contacts, they report you, and the provider takes action to limit your activity.

As we mentioned earlier, the recommended spam threshold set by providers is 0.1%, never exceeding 0.3%. To avoid this risk, there is a strategy called “warm-up.” This means launching your campaigns gradually, increasing the sending volume in a controlled manner, especially if:

• You are using a new domain.
• You have never done email marketing before.
• Your domain has been inactive for a long time.

How to do an effective warm-up:

1. Start with small audiences: Select a maximum of 200–500 contacts.
2. Gradually increase the volume: Add new contacts each week, but avoid doubling the volume overnight.
3. Monitor metrics: Here are the three key indicators to keep an eye on:

• Open rate: Shows how many recipients opened your email. A value above 30% is considered positive, indicating that your domain is perceived as trustworthy.
• Click rate: Measures how many users actually clicked on the links in the email. A good click rate should be above 3%, proving your message is relevant to recipients.
• Bounce rate: Indicates how many emails were not delivered. To maintain a good reputation, this value should be below 1%.

If any of these values drop below the recommended threshold, stop and analyze the causes: it could be due to the email content, the quality of the recipient list, or a technical sending issue.

Attention to quality: how to maintain a “clean” database

Imagine having 10,000 contacts in your database, but you don't know who opened your last emails or how many of them didn't even receive them.

An outdated database doesn't just reduce your chances of conversion; it also makes you appear unreliable to providers who evaluate your reputation based on user interactions with your emails. If you send messages to inactive or nonexistent contacts, your open rate drops, your bounce rate increases, and your reputation suffers.

How to maintain high database quality

1. Remove inactive contacts:

If a contact hasn't opened your emails for more than 2-3 months, consider removing them or placing them in a re-engagement campaign (a series of emails to reactivate them). A smaller but active list is better than a large, inactive one.

2. Regularly clean up bounces:
"Bounces" are emails that are not delivered. They can be:

• Soft bounces: Temporary issues (mailbox full, server unreachable).
• Hard bounces: Permanent issues (nonexistent address, nonexistent domain).

The first step: segment you database

So far, we've discussed how to protect your email domain from a technical perspective: managing the volume of sends and maintaining a clean database are essential steps.

But if you want to protect your reputation and, at the same time, achieve conversions from your email campaigns, the first thing you need to do is segment your database and send personalized messages to each segment.

What does segmentation mean? Segmentation means dividing your database into homogeneous groups (also known as "audiences") based on specific characteristics such as demographic data (age, location, language, etc.), booking behavior (last-minute bookers, short stays, high spenders, etc.) and more.

Segmentation means ensuring you only reach contacts who are genuinely interested in each type of offer or communication. The benefits are clear:

• Higher open rates: Only interested contacts receive the email, so they are more likely to open it.
• Higher click rates: The messages are relevant and targeted, generating more interactions.
• Fewer spam reports: Recipients receive relevant offers and are less likely to mark them as spam.
• Higher conversion rates: Sending personalized offers to the right contacts means a higher chance of sales

If you think manually segmenting your database is a long and tedious task, you're right. That's why we created Smartconnect, the Smartness software that automates email marketing and guest communication.

Automated segmentation with Smartconnect

With Smartconnect, you can easily manage the entire process: The system automatically imports your contacts from your property management system (PMS), your contacts are divided into different target groups (audiences), and the software suggests personalized emails for each audience to promote the right offer to each type of guest.

And that's not all: you can also create a specific audience manually at any time with just a few clicks. Here’s an example.

Flash offer for unsold suites

Scenario: It's Monday, and some of your high-end rooms (suites or deluxe with a view) are still available for the weekend.

Objective: You want to generate bookings without immediately resorting to a discount on the selling price.

Action: You decide to create a flash offer targeted only at your high-spending contacts who travel as a couple. To increase the perceived value of the stay, the offer includes a massage at no extra cost.

Go to the Audience section of the platform, click on "Create Audience," and use the filters to select only the contacts you are interested in. In this example, you choose contacts who travel as a couple and have spent over €2,000 at your property.

Once you have created the audience, go to the Newsletter section and click "Create Newsletter."

In this step, you'll fill out the predefined fields (visible on the left side of the screenshot), entering the campaign name, audience, and subject line of your email. On the right side, by clicking on "Edit layout," you can add the email text and, if desired, enhance it with a photo of your suite.

Important: Always remember to include a call-to-action button at the end. In this example, the button "Book your relaxing weekend now" will lead directly to your booking engine page where guests can book the offer.

What if you have unsold standard rooms instead of suites? In this case, you could still promote a last-minute offer for the weekend but create an audience composed of:

• Clients who made last-minute bookings in the last 12 months
• Clients who booked short stays (1–2 nights)

These are just two examples of the campaigns you can create with Smartconnect—in just a few minutes, with complete security for your domain, and with the confidence that your emails will reach the right recipients at the right time.

If you want to leverage the full potential of email marketing to increase your revenue without risks and without extra work, Smartconnect is the platform for you.

But that's not all: by using all the software solutions included in the Smartness platform, you can implement an integrated strategy with just a few clicks.

From dynamic pricing to marketing, upselling, cross-selling, and guest communication, Smartness helps you achieve all your growth goals with ease.

Want to see how it works?