8 Hotel marketing trends for the upcoming 'holiday' season - Part 2
Continued from last week
This is something that many hotels are guilty of juggling around. The ‘on-off’ courtship with Staycations is somewhat disconcerting. Sri Lankan hoteliers may well remember that during / in the aftermath of the past market meltdowns, (30 year civil war and the Easter day attacks in 2019), it was the locals who provided ‘heads on beds’ when international arrivals were almost zero. And yes, this extends to pricing to elbow them off the grid after recovery.
Granted, there have been instances where boisterous groups of locals have been present at nice hotels, behaving in a somewhat rowdy fashion, and souring the experience for everyone else. However, these are more the exception than the rule, and you shouldn’t try to exclude locals from your property, directly or indirectly.
Another way hotels are maximising the staycation demand is to provide alternative choices to give local guests a reason to stay. And that is to offer co-working spaces. With work from home policies been implemented by many organisations, utilising empty meeting rooms, excess lobby space or even guest rooms is a post-COVID hybrid of hospitality that enables individuals to work in locations other than at home.
With an aging baby boomer population, there are many travellers who are in their golden years. Senior citizens are actually considered one of the fastest-growing segments in today’s tourism market. The over-60s have been cooped up indoors for months, having to be fearful of catching the virus have now been vaccinated and are itching to travel. The boldest will embark on international travel.
Ensure that you are ready for them – they will need extra assurance that they’re safe. Try and create a non-obtrusive but meaningful ‘safety barrier’ for them. Offer Healthy menus in noise-free surroundings, for example, a dedicated section in the restaurant away from the larger groups and kids, Provide rooms with high quality mattresses and bedding. The furniture should be minimal and room should be spacious to move around and ensure that they do not stand in long queues (check-in and check-out). Make them feel that you are granting them special attention to keep them truly safe.
Promoting attractively priced staycations for local Golden oldies can also boost occupancy on low-activity days when occupancy targets are not met; any opportunity to increase the paid for bed count must be exploited.
This one might be a little more taxing in terms of effort but adds an extra marketing dimension. Offer potential guests a ‘virtual tour’ of your property. This could cover the major areas such as reception, restaurant and guest rooms, where guests can dynamically explore these areas from the comfort of their computer screen. Think like Google Street View in a way. Even a decent mobile phone can shoot 360-degree photos, for example, and engaging the services of a professional can be even better. This is a longer-term endeavour as it will effectively be valid for as long as the areas photographed and videoed haven’t been extensively changed or refurbished, possibly several years.
Isn’t it annoying when you have to reach customer service, but just cannot speak to a human being? Granted, the pandemic has stretched staffing levels and call centres with ten, five or even two individuals are no longer an option for many companies. But try and always keep at least one and grant your callers an option to speak to a real, live human being. There’s only so much problem solving and damage control that a chatbot can do after all.
Ashraaq Wahab -Technical and Marketing Director - Hospitality Sri Lanka, Automotive Journalist, Marketer and Writer, who enjoys penning his thoughts, insights and ideas on a variety of topics.
|
|
|
|
