• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, July 17, 2019

North American hotels are the best email marketers in that field worldwide. Right? 

Not quite true. They do okay, but not as well as properties overseas, according to the 2019 Hotel Email Marketing Benchmark Report, a study by Revinate. 

For example, the U.S. and Canada pull an average open rate of 17.07% and CTR of 2.38%. 

Who can possibly be doing better than that?

Latin Europe, for one: It  has the highest open rate: 35.95%. And the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) enjoys an average open rate of 31.46% and the top CTR of all: 5.78.%

Moreover, the U.S. and Canada have a conversion range of 0.08% to 0.35%, whereas DACH hits 0.15%-59%, Also, Latin Europe hits 0.09%-0.47% and Latin America  0.13%-0.47%. 

Revinate analyzed almost 226 million emails sent by hotels of all sizes cross all regions. 

It also found that as in other industries, response to one-time promotional emails is dwarfed by the response achieved by automated trigger emails. 

Automated booking modifications and confirmation emails are getting 72.11% open rates and 25.75% CTR, globally.

Welcome emails, which also allow hotels to allow hotels to promote restaurants and other services, draw a 50.11% open rate and a 15.79% OTR worldwide. Pre-arrival mails do even better, pulling a 60.52% open rate and 30.26% CTR.

In addition, pre-arrival emails with an upsell offer draw a 70.98% open rate in Scandinavia and 29..29 CTR. In contrast, the U.S. and Canada see a 61.30% open rate and 34.50% CTR

Granted, these metrics do not reflect ROI or email’s place in the attribution process: They are a regional benchmark. But they reflect growing engagement, the report states. 

How are hotels doing all that?

Let’s start with the obvious: Database size.

Globally, 70% of properties have more than 25,000 profiles with email addresses. And 52% have over 50,000 contacts.

Scandinavian hotels are most likely to top 50,000 — 60% have databases of that size. The U.S. and Canada come close with 56%.

DACH is the lowest, with 39%,  perhaps because of super-strict adherence to GDPR. 

Cultural norms and email reading habits differ by region. Globally, the best day to send emails is Wednesday — they pull an open rate of 19% and a conversion rate of 0.29%. This is also the best-performing day for Scandinavia and Latin Europe.

Monday is optimal for the U.S.  and Canada, pulling an open rate o 17.5% and conversion of 027%. It is also best for the Mideast and Africa. In APAC, Sunday is the best day, generating a 21.64% open rate and a 1.04% conversion rate.

Worldwide, 4 p.m. is the best times to send, drawing a 18.68% open rate and a 0.33% conversion rate. For the U.S. and Canada, 6 p.m. works well, as it does or several other regions.

The exceptions are Scandinavia — where it is optimal to send at 9 p.m. In Benelux, they get up early-- 6 a.m. pulls the most. Residents of Latin Europe respond at noon, and the Mideast and Africa respond at 11 p.m.

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind.

First, millennials are now one third of all hotel guests — and the percentage is growing. Hostelries have to cater to their taste.

Second, 40.9% of hotel emails are now read on phones, so they must be designed for those devices. Another 20.6% are seen in webmail, 17.7% on desktop, 11.1% on tablets and 9.6% via other clients.