Make Hay While The Sun Shines (or not)

We’ve all had periods of ‘feast’ when the phone doesn’t stop ringing, piles of email requests are coming in to make a holiday booking for the peak times of the year. We can’t imagine the quiet times, but they come and when they do it seems endless.

How can we move towards a more steady stream of bookings rather than these peaks and troughs? Is there a way of managing the flow a little which enables us to feel confident out of season (rather than panic)?

If you’re not doing it already, your answer may lie in information management. Or – in simpler terms – just building up a master contact list of holiday booking enquirers and what they want. Then, even if you have had to turn them down, you have captured their details to contact; a) if you have a cancellation b) in your quiet time to gently remind them about your property. Treat enquiries like gold dust, that person has picked out your property above others and has probably imagined themselves in the beds – treat them as ‘potential guests’, guests who have effectively ‘liked’ you and may be interested in hearing from you in the future.

Take care to ensure potential guests know what you are doing, so ask all the time if you can take their details, ask if you can contact them again at the beginning of the new holiday booking season or for special offers. You always need to give enquirers an opt out of receiving information and respect their privacy. Don’t for example, send a mass email showing all your other contact’s details (put them in the blind copy box if you do this and send to yourself). If you’re sending a newsletter style format, you should have a clear ‘unsubscribe’ option.

You will be building up your own list of ‘fans’, what could be more ideal than people who have actively enquired and shown an interest? So always try to get an email address or some form of contact details – so you can nurture that contact. These contacts may be interested in following you on social media too. Who knows, they could be your perfect off-peak guests and enable you to enjoy the quieter times of year in peace.

If you’d like some more information or help with marketing your holiday property, then please contact Rental Tonic who work with holiday properties in the UK and Europe. We hope you found this helpful, please do leave any comments below.