Seasonality is unavoidable and affects the travel and tourism industry more than it does any other economic sector. Irrespective of the size or the location, the most common problem that all hoteliers face is optimizing the occupancy in hotels during the low season.
Usually, there are two approaches that a hotelier would take to increase hotel occupancy rates:
- Make a trend analysis of the booking patterns of the previous years and create marketing and sales strategies.
- Identify audiences and make targeted marketing campaigns for your most sought-after market segments.
While these approaches are extremely efficient, they have become difficult to apply and predict as a result of the unprecedented global pandemic. Ongoing travel restrictions, occupancy restrictions, lockdowns and more make it difficult to apply marketing ideas used by hotels to increase the occupancy rate. To make things worse, travel demand has decreased dramatically making it a chaotic and uncertain time for the industry.
Hotels now compete over a small pool of potential guests. Hoteliers need to work harder to up their game and the occupancy in hotels. Let’s look at a few tips to learn how to improve occupancy in hotels:
Dynamic Pricing To Maximize Revenue
Using historical data and trends to predict occupancy in hotels is a thing of the past. So, how do you make decisions about pricing and revenue in today’s world? Competitor analysis and market demand can be measured using a full-stack PMS with a sophisticated, demand centric revenue management system. Inbuilt with a reporting system that can collect and analyse real-time occupancy in hotels. The Hotelogix PMS not only helps hoteliers accurately price their rooms during the covid pandemic but also automates this process.
Through Hotelogix’s unique dynamic pricing functionality, hoteliers can now change room pricing automatically according to occupancy in hotels. When the demand is high and supply is limited, room rates rise, and vice versa.
Manage Your Online Reputation
While analyzing trends and historical data, one important factor that hoteliers tend to overlook is the reason that guests are picking their hotel- their ratings online, reviews from previous guests, and overall reputation score.
Online reviews play a crucial role in driving occupancy in hotels. Positive reviews are a result of excellent service delivery. Hotels need to prioritize guest experience above all else. Excellent cleanliness, comfort, location, facilities, staff, connectivity and ensuring value for money are a few sure-fire ways to delight guests and boost hotel occupancy rates.
Even though your hotel may be functioning with lower staff and operational capacity, a great way to ensure efficiency and productivity is through AI and automation. Hotelogix’s PMS offers reputation management from a single dashboard with TripAdvisor integration. Automate the review generation process, and engage with more guests online.
Boost Brand Loyalty
Did you know that is more expensive to reach new guests than it is to retain your existing guests? Your guests are what make your hotel succeed, so you want to keep them coming back to your hotel.
The best time to invest in loyal guests is during your peak season when occupancy in hotels is the highest. Convince your guests that your hotel is the best place for them by delivering excellent service. Promote loyalty programs to encourage them to return to your hotel during the off-season. These programs help you increase the hotel occupancy rate while creating stronger customer relationships.
Hotelogix PMS helps you personalize the entire guest stay experience. From checking in through their own login accounts on our customizable web booking channels to remembering guest details and preferences for the next time they visit. Automate processes like emails, discounts, offers and rewards, to ensure that they receive the best possible treatment.
Hotelogix not only maintains a secure and accurate guest database but also generates detailed reports on guest transactions and can be integrated with 3rd party loyalty management software such as CapillaryTech.
Promote Events and Programmes
Find areas within your hotel that can be used to enhance your hotel’s offerings- especially during the off-season. For example, you could use your garden area or halls for weddings, parties, conferences, or other events. This strategy works two-fold firstly by increasing visibility for your hotel, and secondly, through excellent service delivery, the delegates who attend these events could become your future guests too!
Another great strategy is by using local events and festivals to drive revenue for hotels. Events like this give you a chance to upsell hotel services as well. If possible, try to tie up with the organizers to provide a special offer for guests from your hotel.
Curate Special Packages and Offers
Curate special holiday packages and special-day offers to lure guests during the low season. Create value-added packages and upsell other services within your hotel and encourage longer stays.
Discounts work especially well during the off-season. The temptation of a good deal will help increase occupancy in hotels. Make sure you target your marketing efforts with these deals to the right market segments- budget travellers and last-minute travellers.
Offer group packages or discount promotions like- book two nights and get one free.
Conclusion
To be successful with any venture you need to plan and prepare in advance. The above tips not only have immediate results but also give you numerous long term benefits.
Plan for your off-season and prepare a list of what features and services you want to promote. It’s time to strategize to not just improve your hotel occupancy rate but also thrive in the future.
Hotelogix Editorial Desk
Hotelogix’s team of researchers and writers are constantly innovating to share the latest trends from the travel and hospitality space. Got suggestions? Write to us on editorial@hotelogix.com.
