Most hotels treat the pre-arrival period as dead time — the guest has booked, the reservation is confirmed, and nothing happens until they appear at reception. This is one of the most significant missed opportunities in hospitality marketing.
Pre-arrival emails consistently outperform every other type of hotel communication. Open rates sit between 55 and 70 percent, compared to an industry average of 21 percent for standard marketing emails. Click-through rates reach 8 to 12 percent. Upsell conversion rates for room upgrades, dining reservations, and spa treatments range from 3 to 8 percent — generating an average of €15 to €45 in incremental revenue per stay.
The reason is simple: guests are in an active planning mindset. They have already committed to their visit. They are thinking about what to pack, what to do, and how to make the trip memorable. A well-timed, well-crafted pre-arrival email meets them exactly where they are and makes it effortless to say yes to additional experiences.
This guide walks you through the complete pre-arrival email sequence — three emails, each with a specific role, sent at precisely the right moment to maximise engagement and revenue without feeling pushy or transactional.
A high-performing pre-arrival sequence consists of three emails sent at three distinct moments:
Each email has a distinct purpose and tone. Together they build anticipation, reduce pre-travel anxiety, and create multiple natural opportunities to generate incremental revenue — without any single email feeling like a sales pitch.
This email does two things: it makes the guest feel genuinely looked forward to, and it plants the first seeds for upsell opportunities. At seven days out, guests are in planning mode. They are researching restaurants, checking the weather, and thinking about what they want their stay to feel like. Your first email should match that energy.
Open with a warm, personal greeting that acknowledges the specific stay — dates, room type, any celebration or occasion you know about. Avoid generic language. “We’re looking forward to welcoming you on Friday 14 June” is far more engaging than “Thank you for your reservation.”
Follow with two or three curated local recommendations — not a generic tourist list, but a short, opinionated selection that signals your team genuinely knows the area. A specific restaurant, a neighbourhood worth exploring, an event happening during their stay. This positions your hotel as a trusted local guide rather than just a place to sleep.
Introduce one or two upsell options naturally. Frame them as enhancements rather than add-ons: “If you’d like to start your stay with a glass of champagne in your room, we can arrange that” or “Our spa suite has availability on the morning of your check-in — the perfect way to arrive relaxed.” Include a single clear call-to-action button, not multiple competing links.
Keep this email conversational and warm. Aim for 200 to 300 words in the body. This is not the place for long lists or complex information — it is a welcome message designed to make the guest smile and click.
Two days before arrival, the guest is thinking practically. They want to know: What time can I check in? Where do I park? What should I bring? This email answers those questions proactively — reducing reception enquiries, improving arrival experience, and demonstrating operational professionalism.
It also serves as your most effective upsell moment. Research consistently shows that 48 hours out is when guests are most likely to act on upgrade offers, because the stay feels imminent and real. They can picture themselves in the room.
Lead with the practical essentials: check-in time, check-out time, address with a Google Maps link, parking instructions, and any access codes or digital key information if applicable. Present this as a service — “We want arrival to be seamless” — not as an administrative necessity.
If you have an online check-in option, introduce it here with a direct link. Hotels that offer pre-check-in typically see 15 to 25 percent adoption rates, which reduces lobby queues and improves guest satisfaction scores.
Return to the upsell, but with more urgency: “We still have availability for room upgrades and spa treatments — these tend to fill up quickly.” Specificity works well here: “Your original room is a Superior Double. For an additional €45 per night, we can upgrade you to our Deluxe King with harbour views and a private terrace.” Concrete, visual, value-anchored.
Close with a direct contact method — a WhatsApp number, email address, or name of a specific team member who is handling their stay. This creates a sense of personal service before the guest has even arrived.
This email can be slightly longer than Email 1 — 300 to 400 words — because it carries more practical information. Keep paragraphs short and scannable. Use a clear hierarchy: practical information first, upsell second, personal touch last.
The final pre-arrival email is sent the evening before check-in. It is the last communication before the guest arrives and sets the emotional tone for the stay. This email should be short, warm, and focused entirely on making the guest feel genuinely welcomed.
Confirm the check-in time and any requests or upgrades that have been arranged. If the guest added a special decoration or champagne, mention it explicitly: “Your room is being prepared with the birthday decorations you requested — we hope it’s a wonderful surprise.” This shows attentiveness and builds anticipation.
Include a brief, friendly weather note if relevant, and remind them of the best way to reach the property. If your hotel has a signature welcome drink or experience, mention it: “We’ll greet you with our house welcome cocktail as soon as you arrive.”
Close with something that expresses genuine enthusiasm — not a corporate formula, but a human sentence. “We’re really looking forward to meeting you” goes further than “We value your custom.”
This email should not include upsell offers. The moment for that has passed. The focus is entirely on arrival experience.
Short and warm. Under 150 words. This email should feel like a personal note from your front desk team, not a marketing communication.
Pre-arrival upselling works best when offers feel curated rather than commercial. The framing matters as much as the offer itself.
| Upsell Category | Average Uptake Rate | Avg. Revenue Per Converted Guest | Best Email to Introduce |
|---|---|---|---|
| Room upgrade | 5–8% | €45–€120 per stay | Email 1 and Email 2 |
| Early check-in | 8–12% | €25–€50 | Email 2 |
| Late check-out | 10–15% | €20–€40 | Email 2 |
| Breakfast package | 12–18% | €18–€35 per person | Email 1 and Email 2 |
| Spa treatment | 4–7% | €60–€150 | Email 1 |
| Welcome amenities (flowers, champagne, gifts) | 6–10% | €30–€80 | Email 1 |
| Dining reservation | 8–14% | €40–€100 per table | Email 1 |
| Airport transfer | 5–9% | €35–€80 | Email 1 and Email 2 |
When presenting any upsell, follow three principles. First, make it specific — name the room, describe the view, specify the treatment. Abstract offers convert poorly. Second, anchor the value — if you are offering an upgrade for €45, mention what the guest would normally pay for that room category. Third, limit choice — present one or two options per email, never more. More options creates decision paralysis and reduces conversion.
The effectiveness of pre-arrival emails depends heavily on what you know about the guest. Generic emails — sent identically to every arrival — underperform substantially compared to personalised versions. Even basic personalisation (first name, room type, arrival date) improves open rates by 20 to 30 percent. Behavioural personalisation (special occasion, dietary requirements, previous stay history) can double conversion rates on upsell offers.
Many hotels send a short pre-arrival form — a one-page survey or email with three to five questions — sent shortly after booking. This is an excellent tool for collecting information that improves the stay and gives your email automation more to work with. Questions might include:
Keep the form short. Four to six questions maximum. Every additional question reduces completion rates.
A pre-arrival email sequence only works consistently if it is automated. Manual sending is unreliable, time-consuming, and impossible to scale.
To run an automated pre-arrival sequence, you need three components working together: your property management system (PMS), an email marketing platform, and a triggering mechanism that connects the two.
Most modern PMS platforms — including Opera, Mews, Cloudbeds, Roomkey, and Apaleo — support direct integration with email platforms like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or ActiveCampaign, or with specialist hospitality platforms like Revinate, Cendyn, or TrustYou. When a reservation is confirmed, the integration pushes the booking data (guest name, arrival date, room type, stay duration) to the email platform, which triggers the sequence automatically.
Suppress all pre-arrival emails for same-day and next-day bookings — the sequence cadence does not apply, and sending a “7 days to go” email the day before arrival is confusing. For short-lead bookings (2–6 days), compress the sequence: send Email 2 content immediately and Email 3 content the evening before.
Track these metrics monthly to understand performance and identify where to improve:
| Metric | How to Measure | Benchmark | Action If Below Benchmark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open rate (Email 1) | Email platform analytics | 55–70% | Test subject lines; check deliverability |
| Open rate (Email 2) | Email platform analytics | 50–65% | Review send timing; personalise subject line |
| Open rate (Email 3) | Email platform analytics | 60–75% | Shorten subject line; increase urgency |
| Upsell click-through rate | UTM tracking in email links | 6–12% | Simplify CTA; reduce number of offers |
| Upsell conversion rate | PMS + email attribution | 3–8% | Improve offer framing; test pricing |
| Revenue per email sent | Upsell revenue ÷ emails sent | €3–€8 | Review offer selection and timing |
| Online check-in adoption | PMS check-in data | 15–25% | Make link more prominent in Email 2 |
| Unsubscribe rate | Email platform analytics | <0.3% | Review frequency; improve content relevance |
Review these metrics quarterly rather than week by week. Pre-arrival sequences need time to accumulate meaningful data across different guest segments and seasons. When testing changes (subject lines, upsell offers, send timing), change one variable at a time and run the test for at least four to six weeks before drawing conclusions.
The most common failure in pre-arrival email sequences is treating them as a sales channel rather than a service touchpoint. If your emails read like a catalogue of add-ons, guests will tune out or unsubscribe. Every email should lead with value — genuine information, local knowledge, personalised attention — and make any commercial offer feel like a natural extension of that service.
Sending too many emails is the second most common mistake. Three pre-arrival emails is the right number. Four or more creates fatigue. If guests are unsubscribing or complaining, length and frequency are usually the problem.
Neglecting mobile optimisation is the third. Over 60 percent of hotel guests open pre-arrival emails on mobile devices. If your template requires horizontal scrolling, uses small text, or has buttons too small to tap, performance will suffer regardless of how good the copy is.
Finally, failing to suppress recently-booked guests leads to timing absurdities — a “7 days to go” email that arrives the day before check-in. Build suppression rules into your automation from the start.
A well-built pre-arrival email sequence is one of the highest-ROI investments a hotel can make in its marketing and guest experience infrastructure. The technical setup takes time, but once it is running, it operates automatically — generating incremental revenue, reducing check-in friction, and setting the emotional tone for every stay.
Start with the 48-hour email if you are building from scratch. It is the easiest to write, the most reliably opened, and the highest-converting for upsell offers. Add the 7-day email next, then the evening-before confirmation. Refine each one based on your own data over the first three to six months.
The hotels that do this well do not feel like they are selling. They feel like they are looking after you — and that distinction is everything in hospitality.
The Lobby designs and implements full email automation for hotels — from strategy and copywriting to PMS integration and performance tracking.
