A hotel’s revenue always fluctuates throughout the year. The hoteliering business, like any other business, is dictated by many external factors and can get unpredictable for some. A hotel’s room revenue may see highs during the peak seasons as well as extreme lows during off seasons. Hoteliers looking for ways to boost hotel occupancy often end up reducing room rates. This however, does not guarantee full occupancy or increased revenue.
Looking for hotel revenue generating ideas when occupancy level is low? We’ll discuss different ways that can add value to your business and increase room selling as well.
How to increase hotel revenue when occupancy is low?
Before we proceed, you need to understand your room occupancy rate.
a) Note down your total number of rooms
b) Write how many are occupied
c) Divide the number of booked rooms with your total number of room
Your hotel’s revenue dictated by occupancy rate is also dependent upon your hotel type, the location as well as the guest experience provided at your property.
5 tips to increase hotel room revenue during the lean phase
Consider the following strategies to increase hotel revenue:
You can turn a low occupancy period into your favour by analysing details that give you many answers to use different hotel room sales techniques.
1) Evaluate the peak and off seasons
Why is this important for a hotel’s revenue? A lot rides on your hotel type, location and what it has to offer. Is your hotel in close proximity of a popular beach? You would need to evaluate your peak periods – whether the peak periods are at weekends or during the summer season. In this case, you might see a drop in room occupancy during the monsoons. Understanding this data will help you proceed further and find ways to boost hotel occupancy as we’ll see further in this blog.
2) Dig into your guest data
Use your property management system (PMS) to understand your guest history. Did you have a large number of family bookings, corporate crowd, or backpackers? You must know your customer’s behaviour to make data-driven and informed decisions for your hotel business. Using your guest data history, you can identify trends as well as define marketing strategies to increase revenue. Understanding the details in the patterns only simplifies the process of building a robust revenue model.
3) Create exclusive packages and deals
Now that you’ve had a firm grip on the information about your peak and off seasons, use the data to create exclusive packages. The research will allow you to talk about the benefits instead of focusing on the features. You can add a spa coupon for a “Couple Package” or add local destinations to explore for an all-inclusive package for families. You can also offer an additional night as complementary during your off-season months. Partner with local events such as music concerts to target the right audience accordingly. Keep a close watch on what’s happening in the city and how it will appeal to your guests.
Regular visitors to your hotel can be upgraded to a suite to score those additional brownie points and win guests over! Instead of heavy discounts that may not add up to your hotel revenue, offer add-ons to tempt the guest into making the final booking.
It’s your data here which will guide you to create packages and upsell your services even during those low booking phases to the right target group.
4) Market it right
Now that your basics are in place, you need to market your offers on the right platforms. Your hotel branding, websites, social media platforms and more need to be in sync with your marketing goals. Use emotions to connect with audiences on social media. The art of storytelling via images and videos will keep online users engaged. For e.g.: add a video that targets the monsoon period and what it has to offer for the offbeat traveler.
Speed up your website and add the right CTAs (call-to-actions) on your landing pages, add a booking engine, and ensure relevancy in your emailers is maintained. This should translate into more bookings. Compelling copy that attracts attention and holds interest is a must to deliver your message across to get more bookings. Distribute your rooms effectively on various online travel agency (OTA) platforms.
Quick tip – A property management system integrated with a channel manager will be extremely useful for you. This will help you to distribute rooms evenly, and update rates and packages quickly.
5) An eye on the competition
A drop in demand of rooms can also happen when you cannot price your room rate appropriately. So, how do you decide your room rentals? Should it be reduced for a particular season? Well, it’s necessary to keep a close watch on your competition. Price differentiation sometimes becomes unavoidable. To understand this better, study the hotels that have a similar offering such as yours. Know when their room sells as a higher rate or for slashed rates. While studying each property is a daunting task, the use of a hotel property management system that is integrated with a BI tool will help you keep an eye on competitors, get real-time data on dynamic pricing and make informed decisions.
A property management system integrated with a revenue management system empowers you to make decisions in real-time across various channels. Use technology to develop an effective pricing strategy using a methodical approach for different seasons. The automated revenue management system decides the price and lets you manage operations and room distribution easily. Sell the right product to the right customer at the right time for the right price and via the right channel!
These were some effective hotel revenue generating ideas you can use to increase room selling during low occupancy periods. If you’ve found this post helpful, don’t forget to like, share and comment.
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