Managing Seasonal Market Changes to Ensure your Hotel Stays on Top – Part 3

Part 3 of 4

In Part 1 & Part 2 of the blog series, we discussed Distribution by Season and Tracking Demand per Room Type and Pricing the Room type Supplements Based on the Demand. In this week’s blog series, we will have a look at the Power of Value Adds to Increase Bookings.

Hoteliers, when considering using value adds to attract guests you need to revert back to the data that you have compiled in Part 1 of the series to determine the appropriate strategy for each season to see what kinds of guests are staying with you. Perhaps you are looking to attract more long stay, leisure guests during the traditional business travel period or drive more corporate business during slower months. Make sure you understand what guests are looking for and make the offer attractive enough to entice new guests.

Lastly, be creative! Having a good ORM (Online Reputation Management Tool) can also provide you with insights on what guests are saying about your hotel and provide you with some tips on where you can use value adds to attract guests further.

Here are a list of a few value adds you can consider including in your offers:

• Free Breakfast
• Free Parking
• Free Laundry Service
• Free upgrade
• Kids stay for Free
• Special amenity targeted for families with children
• Free access to the nearby Gym
• Public Transportation tickets
• Bottle of Wine or Champagne on arrival
• Bottled Water in the Room
• Newspaper Service
• Rose petals for romantic stays
• Airport transfers
• Visa Gift cards
• Resort/Hotel Credit
• Discounted spa treatments

Consider combining these offers and also working with local restaurants and attractions to see if you can secure any kind of exclusive discounts for your guests. The more you can offer, the more attractive the offer will be.

Remember as always when putting these offers in place be sure to launch them in time to impact the desired stay dates. Another thing to keep in mind is that most hotels go aggressive with these kinds of offers in the low period, so be sure to stay ahead of the game and launch these offers before other hotels in the market, this can help to give you some advantage and gain more bookings well in advance.

Keep a close watch on this space for the fourth part of this series, in which we will be discussing- Targeted email marketing to drive more business during lower seasons.