Every year, the same question arises for every professional who wants to increase hotel revenue – how to get more bookings during the off-season?
Everything is perky during peak season. Hotel occupancy rates are high. When the slow season comes around, hotel revenue starts to be low.
Most general managers in the hospitality industry know what hotel seasonality means and why it is so important to know more about it, so let’s define it.
Let’s dive right in.
Why Is Seasonality Important For Hotels?
The basic definition of seasonality is variation in demand for hotel services at different times of the year. Hotel demand changes cyclically and since it follows the same patterns, it can be predicted.
The demand equals revenue. The more guest visits a hotel, the higher its revenue. So, the occupancy rate is directly connected to hotel income, and that is the answer to why it is so important.
The only real result of working in any business is good income. The situation is not different for the hotel business – when you have a full hotel every time of the year, we are sure you are doing well.
But when a good discount for guests is not enough to increase profits, you need new strategies.
In seasonality, you can distinguish three periods important for revenue management:
- Peak season
- Shoulder season between the periods when prices are relatively moderate
- Off-season
What Is Off-season And What Does It Mean For Hotel Occupancy?
Low or off-season, is a time of the year when the demand for accommodation is low, and prices need to be even lower if you want to fill your rooms. This period can be challenging for those in the hotel business.
The off-season depends on the specific location of the hotel, the target audience, and other characteristics connected to the hotel. Every hotel is different so the ways to boost hotel occupancy during the low season also are.
For the seaside hotels, the typical busy season is summer. The sunny days, warm weather, and often activities near the sea invite tourists to come to the location.
For ski resorts situation is the same during the winter, snowboarding and skiing are tourist’s favorite activities.
But, when different weather comes, certain activities are no longer present. Tourists simply do not show interest during that period. When this time rolls around, you need to rethink strategies to increase hotel occupancy and make your hotel active again.
As we said, the reasons why a period like that is called low variates from hotel to hotel. There are ways to boost hotel occupancy and hotel revenue during the low season. You just need to analyze the situation with patience.
How To Determine Low Season For Your Hotel?
The first answer you need to find out is when is the start of low season for your hotel – at what period the booking rate goes down.
The second goal is defining everything that affects your hotel in a certain period. Is that weather, a holiday, or some kind of event?
The next step is to determine the most common factor that affects the low period for your hotel. There may be more than one factor. We will help by listing potential factors that affect the low season.
What Are The Most Common Factors That Affect The Low Season?
We already know the core information – every hotel is different and low season often depends on things we can’t control, like the weather. But there are other things we can control to improve the hotel’s business.
These are the most common challenges that we can overcome with a careful marketing strategy. Let’s find ways how to increase demand and revenue during the low season.
1. The Weather
The weather brings a lot of challenges during the off-season.
This is the most common factor because it affects the needs and wishes of the guests. This often means the absence of some activity under seasonal weather conditions.
If your hotel ski-in ski-out, you already notice changes when there isn’t much snow around. The same goes for the hotels on beach-side destinations.
But what about the city hotels? Are changes in high and low season the same? The answer is yes, but you can’t see drastic changes like in specific destination hotels.
So what should you do? What is the right way to increase hotel revenue?
Try to think about other activities for guests, so they will have a reason to stay at your hotel.
2. The Holidays
During the festive season, hotel rooms can be full and income high. But immediately, when it comes to the end of that period income goes down for plenty of hotels.
There are different types of holidays that affect your hotel’s occupancy.
🎉School Holidays
If your hotel is located in a destination popular for families, school holidays can potentially have a big impact because families are more likely to take their children on holiday.
Accommodate these guests by having family-friendly spaces ready for them. Playgrounds for children as well as educational workshops made for them are a great way to go about this.
Want to see them come back outside of these holidays? Use automatic mailing options on your property management system to offer them a special discount on family or even adult-only visits. Parents deserve a getaway as well!
Consider sending them a coupon as low season approaches and see these families become loyal guests!
💡Shining The Spotlight
We’re shining the spotlight on OTA Sync’s property management system that allows you to send out automatic emails to guests. It can be coupons, birthday greetings, you name it!
🎉Local Holidays
Similar to school holidays, local holidays have a big impact on the hotel.
If you know the main local holidays you can control hotel revenue during the off-season and build your plan perfectly. For example, a lot of people will stay at home to celebrate holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. On the other side, New Year or Labor Day are famous times for trips.
On the other hand, small local holidays can be something that can boost your hotel’s occupancy. Is there a lesser-known tradition or carnival going on locally? Promote it and attract tourists to come and experience the authentic atmosphere of your culture.
Additionally, include locally sourced ingredients in your menu. Travelers love unique and authentic experiences.
🎉International Holidays
It is important to plan for all types of holidays. If some holidays are not generally known to you, it does not necessarily mean that you will not have guests from the area that celebrate that type of major holiday.
Research and try to attract new guests by promoting special deals for international holidays. Don’t stop there.
Create partnerships with other local businesses like car rentals, to ensure these international travelers have everything they need in your hotel. What a package you are offering now!
Low season? Never heard of it.
3. The Economy
Economic factors shape guests’ willingness to spend money, and as a result, they tend to choose not to visit certain places or not to travel at all.
The first problem with the economic trend is that is not a season, so it’s not easily predictable. High interest rates, inflation, and large-scale layoffs have a big impact on hotel occupancy.
This is important for the both, leisure and business sectors, guest experience is the same.
These situations give you an excellent opportunity to express sympathy. Creating special deals and talking about these conditions in your campaigns can give your hotel a good rep.
How To Overcome The Low Season?
Every hotel, from the biggest to the smallest experienced this kind of problem. For each problem, there is an effective solution, you just need to get creative to choose the best ways to increase income.
The main step you need to take to maximize revenue and increase bookings is to build an effective marketing plan. Every time of the year can be good as high season if you carefully build your marketing strategies.
Here are some ideas on how to increase demand and boost hotel occupancy levels by paying attention to certain things.
1. Pay Attention To Hotel Guests
Does a good experience in your hotel, guarantee a return guest?
The critical part of growing a successful business is to build strong and trustful relationships with your customers. In any hospitality business, you need to build a good strategy to keep guests, the same as gaining new ones.
It’s important to ensure the best experience for guests, but first start by analyzing your target audience – who are they?
Once you have figured out your target audience make sure to offer them additional interactions that will have them feeling like they are right at home.
The first data you need to analyze when it comes to your target group is basic: age, gender, occupation, interests, and general lifestyle of guests who frequently visit your hotel. Then it will be clear to you what exactly you need to pay attention to, to offer guests what they want.
Business travelers? Quiet spaces and good internet. Families? Entertainers for kids that give the parents some time off. Couples? Candle-lit dinners are a spark of romance.
Details go a long way.
💡 Shining The Spotlight
Don’t worry if your target groups are confusing you! Our software will help you improve your guest experience.
OTA Sync automatizes all tedious tasks in your hotel, giving your staff the time to dedicate to your guests.
There is no better achievement than a happy guest who will promote your hotel after having the best experience. Once you know who your customers are, you will know what services they will be most satisfied with.
2. Loyalty Programs
If you’re not sure why it’s important to keep guest information after they leave, we are about to give you some fresh insights.
Email and other contact information are just some of the details you need to ensure your guests return in the right way.
Loyalty programs will ensure that your relationship with your hotel guests is much stronger. So make sure the hotel stays in touch with them. Don’t forget to sort their email addresses where you can send them discounts, offers, and similar benefits to ensure their loyalty and return next time.
If you want to retain guests who are traveling for business, you can remind them of previous events they attended at the hotel.
3. Online Presence
Online presence plays a very important role in today’s era.
Today, the vast majority of travelers and potential guests book accommodation online. For those who know how to properly utilize the online world, it can bring a lot of profit to their business.
So hurry up and start to find ways to promote your hotel online, the outcome will be more reservations.
4. Accessibility And Visibility
It is very important to have a well-developed website where guests can see all the important information they need.
A presence on platforms like Booking.com and Airbnb.com is essential as it is one of the most common ways for guests to find accommodation in today’s era.
5. Reviews
Don’t forget to ask your guests to leave you a review, especially on popular review sites like TripAdvisor.com, Yelp.com, or Google Reviews.
6. Marketing And Promotions
Email marketing and social media can be great contributors when it comes to maintaining a brand’s online presence and digital transformation.
7. Easier reservations
An online booking system, like Booking, is important because it makes the reservation process easier, especially for the younger generation.
A suggestion that can make a significant difference in your hotel’s occupancy is to create an option on your website to make direct reservations. OTA Sync Booking Engine can help you with this, handling every booking on your website with ease!
8. New Hotel Spaces
Creating new spaces within the hotel itself can contribute to higher revenue.
As long as the hotel is in the mountains, during the summer days you can create a space with a spa center, or swimming pools to attract guests with such amenities. The same thing applies to hotels in summer destinations in the winter.
There are many ideas for new spaces, from a coworking zone, and a wellness center to a business meeting room. It’s up to you to decide and beat the competition next season.
You just need to be a little creative and the revenue will come. Good luck!
🤓 If you are interested in hearing more about the topic, hotel business tips, and the way to increase hotel revenue, you can find out on our OTA Sync Blog.
How OTA Sync Can Help
The solution to save time and increase income is here! With our software comes a reduction in time spent on tedious tasks that would otherwise be done manually, and with that comes an increase in revenue.
Our 2,000 satisfied users in 17 different countries speak for us. If you manage medium and small hotels, boutique hotels, hostels, guesthouses, and apartments, OTA Sync is the ideal solution.
See what we can do with simple use but effective software:
✔️ The Property Management System
📲 The mobile app is now available, significantly increasing the time-saving potential.
All of this is aimed at ensuring that guests leave happy and return with the best experience at your hotel.
