Peak season in the hotel industry is the happiest time for any hotelier. Why? Because it’s the time to capture the biggest part of your revenue for the entire year, right?
Depending on the area, popularity, and other factors, peak season can vary for hotels at different locations. Still, everyone wants to make the most of the peak season in the hotel industry.
But in the race to boost revenues, there’s tremendous competition amongst all the hotels.
We are sure you are familiar with this stiff competition in a specific region during the peak season.
So, how to win over your competition and make the most of the peak season? How can you ensure that you have full bookings for the entire peak season? How to ensure you provide the best guest experience even at full occupancy?
Well, there might be many such queries in your mind, but before we jump into answering all of those, let’s discuss the causes of seasonality in the hotel industry.
Causes of Seasonality In Hotel Industry
Hotel seasonality depends upon the geographical location of your hotel, holidays, weather, and the popularity of the place. Hotels in Goa will have different peak seasons compared to hotels in Himachal.
The impacts of seasonality in tourism are immense. The Indian mountain regions are the best example of the impact of seasonality on the tourism industry. People prefer traveling to a cooler place in the summers, and because of the increased footfall, the development in the hilly areas is great.
If we talk about Leh Ladakh in the north, because of seasonality, the entire tourism sector earns a decent amount within a few months to cover all their expenses for an entire year.
But if you want to make the most of the peak season and stand out from the rest, then you need to follow some time-tested tips and tactics to help you achieve that.
So without further ado, let’s get started.
Tips To Make Most In The Peak Season In The Hotel Industry
Strengthen your online presence
The major way to make the most of the peak season is by strengthening your online presence. You don’t want to fall short with your online brand presence, which will result in vacant rooms even in a peak season.
It is no secret now that people are looking for online availability of hotels and decent staying locations while traveling in this digital era. Their entire trip/vacation starts by browsing different stay options on the internet.
Now, if you are not there when your target audience is looking for a hotel, you might be losing big time to your competitors as chances are they will get more business.
Use digital marketing strategies, create an omnichannel approach with your communication channels, and strengthen your brand presence to cater to your potential prospects in the peak season.
With a solid brand presence in the search and social landscape, you’ll be able to witness an increase in the number of people choosing you over others.
It will boost your revenues and profit numbers drastically.
Be clear with your pricing
Once you strengthen your online presence, don’t forget to quote a reasonable price for your hotel bookings. You don’t want your potential guests to reject your hospitality services just because you were too expensive in the first place.
Understand your target audience, check your competitors’ pricing, and different services that are unique to you, and then charge the best price based on the value package you are delivering.
You can even decide to increase your prices because of the increased footfall in the peak season, based on simple demand supply mechanism where during peak demand the market prices go high.
It all depends upon your decisions, but pricing is one of the vital elements you need to consider and decide carefully, as it influences purchase decision making.
Focus on direct bookings
One of the vital aspects to driving in more sales in a peak season or any season is direct sales. You can slack all the commissions and cuts involved in a guest’s journey to your hotel bookings through third-party websites if you can get a direct booking from a potential guest.
You can entice potential guests by providing something extra with direct bookings, such as discounts or offers on your various in-house services, such as food, beverages, spa, and future bookings, among others.
These additional bonuses will be unique, and your potential guests will not get them if they choose an OTA or your competitors for their hotel stay.
If you can package your offer with the right marketing strategy, you’ll be able to hit the bullseye, and it will boost your revenues in the peak season.
Manage your OTAs well
We kept the best for the last. No doubt, we sprinkled our concerns over direct bookings, but OTAs are getting more popular every day in the hospitality industry. And if you are not listed on some of the top OTAs, you are missing out on the opportunity to attract your potential guests.
You must contact multiple OTAs to list your hotel brand with the latest hotel pricing and room availability. Try to create the most enticing pages for your hotel on the OTAs, and don’t forget to manage them properly to ensure the best user experience.
But how can you manage all your OTA listings in real-time and in the most efficient manner?
A dedicated channel manager software can help you do just that. But don’t just use any random one. Instead, use the best-in-class channel manager software from the best service provider in the country to ensure smooth functioning.
It should provide you with the best management solutions for all your communication channels and have the simplest UI/UX.
You should have the option to add or remove your selected communication channels or OTAs within a few clicks, and there should be no lag in the data updates. It should be in real-time.
But where can you find a complete packaged channel manager?
AxisRooms Got You Covered
A channel manager is a powerful tool that can help you manage all the inventory, pricing, and other vital components across multiple OTAs simultaneously.
AxisRooms’ channel manager is the tool that can assist with all your channel manager troubles. With the powerful dashboard and agile updates within a few clicks, you’ll have the best management experience with all your OTA connections.
You’ll be provided with complete customer support and integration support from our expert team to escape all the technical hiccups during your hotel management.
With AxisRooms channel manager, no more issues with double bookings and overbooking. We provide the best user experience for your guests and potential guests.
To improve your business operations in the peak season, you’ll be provided with robust analytics reports about the performance of individual communication channels and OTAs to optimize your existing business operations.
You’ll be able to scale and grow your business with all the functionalities of our channel manager with finesse.
