By increasing your family bookings you can boost average spend per stay and generate consistent repeat business.

Most families are looking for a hotel that offers security, fun and value - and you should not underestimate the importance of security in appealing to families.

Create an environment that offers total peace of mind to parents. Train your staff to keep a watch on stray children and to smile often. Introduce child/balcony locks and put up signs to make guests aware of this. And make rooms and amenities fully child-proof.

Strategy one. Appeal to the kids directly. Kids can do a lot of emotional prompting of their parents if you can offer the following:
- Gifts, such as welcome packs.
- Appealing menu and food promotions.
- Special activities. Boredom is the enemy.
- A kids' loyalty club.

Strategy two. Provide a wide range of added-value amenities and services, such as:
-Nanny/baby-sitting services.
- Biscuits and milk, even storytelling, at bedtime.
- Internet access with filters to screen out unsuitable content.
- Luxury family suites.
- Keep a selection of confectionery and add this to room service.

Strategy three. Offer imaginative tailored family packages:
- Packages for parents to reward their children for specific achievements, such as passing an exam.
- Romantic weekends with the kids, providing married couples with freedom and romance while the children are kept amused.
- Healthy family breaks, with good food and treatments.
- "Kids welcome" activity weekends.

The biggest incentive you can provide to families to return is to make them feel especially welcome. If your staff can engender a relaxed family feeling in the way they relate to each other, this will be sensed and enjoyed most by your youngest guests.

info@elitehotelier.com

by Rajul Chande, director of hotels consultancy the Elite Hotelier