I’ve been hearing from some vacation rental management folks in summer markets that the season is off to a slow start. The reason for the lower occupancy is probably attributed to the fact that so many school systems on the East Coast had to add days to the school year to make up for the MANY MANY MANY snow days (can you tell I am Mom of kids who were out of school 21 snow days this year?).
With the uncertainty of when school would be out, families with kids had to wait later to figure out when to book. This may be an opportunity for you if you have visitor markets that include Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and others. How can you entice these families to book those early weeks in June?
Now is the time to leverage dynamic pricing or coupon codes or both in the Barefoot system.
Dynamic pricing uses a variety of different mechanisms to create rules that will allow you to lower rates either globally or at the property level. These prices are reflected on your website when they are put into place.
The coupon code functionality can also be a powerful marketing tool. You can use this tool to lower pricing, like a 10% off coupon. More adventurous options include a free gift basket, free linens, etc. There is a lot of functionality in this tool. If you’ve got an idea and want to see if you can use this tool, please don’t hesitate to ask. As you know, in Barefoot, there is always a way to do something that is important for your business. Mine your database for lists of folks that booked with you last year but have not this year… send a coupon to get their attention and off you go.
If you have questions about these tools we are here for you, as always. If you do use these tools to boost early summer bookings… let me know what you did and how it turned out. We love to hear about your successes!
Claiborne
Business Development Manager