The recession has seen hospitality operators turning to increasingly innovative ways to both cut their costs and to add value for the customer in a cost-effective way.
What have you been doing to address costs and attract customers? And what are the best examples of this you have come across in the industry?
One of the great things about the recession/downturn is we have seen hoteliers getting a lot more thoughtful with their propositions. The most successful ones have been:
1 - encouraging longer stays, in the hope of securing incremental revenue. This has been in the form of offers like "stay 2 nights get 10% off" or "3 for 2" both of which are really easy to implement in most online channels
2 - Beginning to follow budget airline-style pricing strategies with cheaper rates with restrictions, early booker discounts
3 - upselling well. We're seeing more sensible gaps between offer and room types, hoteliers more open to trying to sell their top room styles through online channels, and why not, we're successful at it
4 - adding value. proprieters have been finding some very interesting ways of adding value, securing deals with local restaurants, attractions, parking and making them available to stayers who meet certain criteria - eg stay 2 nights
The most important thing for me, is by all means lower your prices (and this works for restaurants too), but don't have the cheap option as the only way to sell your business. We have plenty of hotels who have a low rate offer, maybe an advance purchase, but the users are still booking the value added.
This is very interesting to do...if like me you are a bit of a stats junky!
go to www.google.co.uk/trends/hottrends and type in 'restaurant vouchers' into the search bar. The results are quite staggering!
You might also try 'tripadvisor'
Have fun!
I've heard more and more about cafes etc doing online promotions via Twitter. They announce quick promos via the free social meda platform to increase customers during quiet periods, making their premises look busier, pleasing their exisiting customers and attracting new ones. I think this has a lot of potential, especially as the Social media is trending highly at the moment. Free promotion!