Make your Low Season Bring in High Revenue By RezStream’s Marketing Team FALL 2015 California Hotel & Lodging Association 21 AS yOu BEGIN TO PREPARE for the holiday season you’re probably anticipating your low season and like other innkeepers, wondering how you can incentivize travelers to stay and continue to see revenue through slower periods. First, you have to identify your low season— which on the surface may seem like a no-brainer. To make sure you understand your true low season it’s best to look at your occupancy percentages over the past two to three years. This way, you’ll have a more accurate picture of your occupancy and can identify trends and spot any months that may have been unusual. Once you know when you need your guests then you can create promotions to entice those guests! Packages are a great way to sell an experience to your guest where you can tie together their accommodations with a regional event, such as a football game or holiday celebration, or you can partner with a local vendor and offer tickets or discounts for skiing or wine tastings. We know discounts can be difficult to offer at your property, especially when you know occupancy is already lower than usual, but discounts can be a great way to get new guests or room nights if demand in your area is low. Many innkeepers will offer mid-week discounts to get stays on not as popular nights. We’ve also been watching the trend of hoteliers taking advantage of Cyber Monday. In fact, Google found that 40% of Cyber Monday shoppers are looking for travel deals, and searches for travel on this day have grown 18% year-overyear. A general rule of thumb is to offer at least 30–40% off to remain competitive. Another way to incorporate discounts into your low season strategy is to offer compounding discounts. For example, you have your guest book two nights and get 10% off, book three nights and get 20% off, book four nights and get 30% off, etc. use whatever discount makes you comfortable but many innkeepers will see guests extend their stay to enjoy a larger discount. if you’re not quite ready for discounts, gift certificates are a wonderful alternative and you’re guaranteed the revenue immediately. Your booking engine provider should be able to set up gift certificates easily and this can be an easy promotional item when you send out a holiday email marketing campaign. using a loyalty program (or creating one) is another easy revenue driver and a great way to increase brand loyalty with your guests. Reach out to your previous guests that have stayed during your low season, and if they’ve stayed more than three years in a row, they can receive 15% off nightly rates just for being such a loyal customer. Finally, a different way to capitalize on your low season is to focus on your other business segments. Increase your business through weddings by offering mid-week weddings, hosting pre-wedding activities such as bachelor or bachelorette getaways, or create an elopement package. If your property accommodates business travelers or has a conference room setup, offer meeting space or host special events. now that you have some ideas on promotions to run at your property you need to know how to market them! you’ll want information on your offerings on your website, in your payper click advertising, and sent through targeted email campaigns. We recommend investing in remarketing during your low season as remarketing brings back website visitors that have already shown an interest in your brand, but have not taken a desired action like making an online reservation. With remarketing you can create ads to encourage them to book or upsell visitors that have already booked. You can create these different types of audiences you want to target through Google Analytics and Google AdWords. An example of a targeting campaign you can run is remarketing to East Coast website visitors with ads promoting the awesome California weather who may need a vacation somewhere warmer. For a real world example of remarketing, we had a client looking to fill availability in a low season month and promoted a “stay two nights and get the third night free” campaign. Targeting visitors who did not covert and spending $255.69, the property acquired $6,164.22 in online reservations. Try implementing some or all of these strategies and be sure to track the results. This way you’ll know what works, and be better prepared for your low seasons year after year. RezStream provides creative hospitality solutions. RezStream specializes in reservation software and online reservation booking engine services for the hospitality industry. We work with independent hotels, resorts, bed & breakfasts, and inns. We also offer artistic website designs and comprehensive digital marketing services for all types of businesses.
CH LA Lodging News Fall 2015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above