3 Sure Fire Techniques to Improve Occupancy

The accommodation industry has a problem, and it’s not from a lack of guests or from bad reviews online. The problem our industry has is selling itself, especially when it comes to taking leads that come into your business and turning them into sales. I see it so often in businesses, that I felt compelled to come up with three techniques that can help turn those leads into bookings with next to no outlay in funds.

Reception Conversions

In accommodation businesses, a prospective client’s first interaction is with the person you have working on reception. This section of your business is a gold mine of untapped lead potential. There are frequent phone calls that come in asking questions about your facilities, cost of stay, availability over certain time periods, or about the local area. Training your reception staff to obtain information from callers – like email addresses, for example – can ensure these potential clients end up in your systems for you to engage them with special offers or entice them to stay at another time of the year.

Asking for a Review

I am still amazed at how many accommodation businesses don’t ask for reviews for their business. This is one of the easiest and simplest ways to drive more business to your doors, and the best part is your clients will want to do this for you.  Asking at the end of someone’s stay that you want them to review your business can drive new leads to your business. It also helps you with local search engine results, which means you are found more often when people search for you online.

Create a Mailing List

Every accommodation business these days has a database of potential leads that they are probably not doing anything with – their past bookings. This database is a gold mine of clients who have already stayed with you before, and are therefore aware of what you offer. Creating a mail out, either via post or electronically using email addresses, can get you a spike in occupancy without doing much at all. Don’t be afraid to engage with these clients and give them news about your local area, there may be a special event on that they might find interesting. You could also let them know when you made a change at your business that has improved your facilities since they were there last. Or you can create a campaign around a special offer to really get the attention of these potential repeat clients.

 

By looking at where your clients interact with your business and making some small changes to leverage a sale from that area, you can dramatically improve your occupancy rates. Every interaction your business has is a potential sale, the only thing stopping you from turning it into a guaranteed sale is a little planning and implementation.