Apr
28
Discounting, like commission, is now a fact of life for hoteliers who want to sell rooms. There are a few occasions when neither cost applies to your bookings but those occasions are few and far between.
But discounting is different from commission in one critical way:
Your customers can see discounts. They can't see commission.
Everybody is doing discounts. It's almost the default behaviour for hotel managers who aren't very good at marketing. Discounting has become one of the primary levers you can pull in order to try to make bookings happen.
Your problem is, everybody is doing it and this is becoming very boring from a customers' point of view.
So how do you make discounting fun?
But discounting is different from commission in one critical way:
Your customers can see discounts. They can't see commission.
Everybody is doing discounts. It's almost the default behaviour for hotel managers who aren't very good at marketing. Discounting has become one of the primary levers you can pull in order to try to make bookings happen.
Your problem is, everybody is doing it and this is becoming very boring from a customers' point of view.
So how do you make discounting fun?
You want discounting to be fun for:
a) The prospective customer (if it's fun, they might make a booking)
b) You (if it's fun, you might still make a profit out of that booking)
Half price; buy one get one free; two for the price of one; 50% off - all been done before. Discounts of this nature are both boring and unprofitable.
Put a bit of thought into it. What sort of behaviour do you want to encourage in the people who are hovering about your website?
You get the behaviour you reward. So reward the behaviour you want. Let me show you one example:
Do you want people to book well in advance?
Do you want to look a bit different from other hotels with their desperate cut price rates around their ankles?
Do you want people to pay in advance?
Right then. Try this:
Place all your inventory for sale at full price, then offer to discount it by a certain amount for every day or week or month in advance the buyer books. So, if you sell a weekend package for £399 full price and you've been trying half price offers, you've got about £199 to play with. How about offering a £1 off for each day in advance of arrival the booking is made? You can start the offer six months before arrival and you'll look much cooler than your opposition.
The offer encourages the booking behaviour you want, from the customers you want.
Make it fun.
a) The prospective customer (if it's fun, they might make a booking)
b) You (if it's fun, you might still make a profit out of that booking)
Half price; buy one get one free; two for the price of one; 50% off - all been done before. Discounts of this nature are both boring and unprofitable.
Put a bit of thought into it. What sort of behaviour do you want to encourage in the people who are hovering about your website?
You get the behaviour you reward. So reward the behaviour you want. Let me show you one example:
Do you want people to book well in advance?
Do you want to look a bit different from other hotels with their desperate cut price rates around their ankles?
Do you want people to pay in advance?
Right then. Try this:
Place all your inventory for sale at full price, then offer to discount it by a certain amount for every day or week or month in advance the buyer books. So, if you sell a weekend package for £399 full price and you've been trying half price offers, you've got about £199 to play with. How about offering a £1 off for each day in advance of arrival the booking is made? You can start the offer six months before arrival and you'll look much cooler than your opposition.
The offer encourages the booking behaviour you want, from the customers you want.
Make it fun.
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