Recent research indicates that today’s consumer wants everything right now. If you hear a song you like – download it; read a paper – get it on your smartphone; take a photo – see it, send it, print it, straight away; watch a funny video clip – share it with your Facebook friends immediately; miss your favourite TV show – watch it On Demand. We’re an impatient lot! This behaviour has seemingly spread to all areas of our lives, including booking our holidays. UK market trends indicate that last minute bookings are increasing, because we want everything NOW!
But that’s not necessarily true about the customers of SuperControl clients. [For Sample details see footnote]. Whilst our figures show that there is an increase in last minute bookings for the peak season (July and August), there has also been an increase in bookings taken for the same period overall. So, the increase in last minute bookings is relative to total growth.
Our own research indicates that we are bucking the trend …
SuperControl Insights
We identified our top 5 clients with multiple properties, who had the highest occupancy levels in 2012. Interestingly, not only do they all boast above 73% occupancy levels (overall average of 52% across all SuperControl clients including owner operators and agencies), they had also received less than 15% last minute bookings during the same period. What a winning combination! So, we took a closer look to see if there were any apparent best practice commonalities that we could highlight to encourage maximised performance across the board.
What discount structures do the top 5 have in place? Are they actively keeping in touch with existing customers? What options do they offer? Are these standard and built into the price, or are they paid-for? How do their websites satisfy niche demands and needs? What, if anything, do they all have in common?
Encouraging Customer Loyalty
The key tool used in their pricing structure is a loyalty or returning visitor discount. Three out of the five offer a discount to loyal customers who book return visits; not only offering a discount to regular guests, but an additional incentive for those who book more than two breaks a year. 92% of global consumers say they trust word of mouth and recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising; and what better recommendation is there than people who return time and time again? It not only demonstrates that you are providing the holiday experience which ticks all their boxes and is perfect for them, but also shows on your availability calendar with bookings being made well in advance indicating popular accommodation that is in demand.
Customer Profiling
Customer service has always been an important element of any business model, but where customer expectations have changed in the last year or so is that they no longer just want to be part of a market segment – one of many in the ‘baby & toddler’ or ‘family’ or ‘dog-friendly’ category. With evolving and sophisticated CRM systems used by many organisations now, customers have come to expect not only great customer service, but great customer service that is personal just to them. They have it in other areas of their consumer life – using a superstore loyalty card enables the store to send vouchers for money off items that they know that individual buys; shopping online for books, games, music and films results in recommendations being made just for you; online-shopping for make-up or skincare items often leads to ‘people who bought this also bought…’ suggestions. This personal approach could also be used by accommodation suppliers – especially if it is a return visit. You probably have data that is very specific to that individual, so use it when you correspond or if and when they book a return visit. Even down to noting what they wrote in the visitor book – where did they visit, what are their interests? Keep in touch via social media or a newsletter, or even scheduled emails (MailChimp is a great marketing tool); let previous visitors know what is happening, any developments or changes to your holiday home or the local area, any special offers or events and celebrations that you know they are interested in.
Value for Money
Another area to consider during competitive times is how to handle options and extras. In the luxury holiday home market, often price is not the deal maker or breaker. A higher price is often associated with higher quality, and as long as your home meets expectations, the perception of value for money is achieved. But, what you can do is to be seen to provide the best added value to the customer. If a customer books your cottage during the cold winter months, why not include the price of coal and logs in the booking fee rather than list it as an extra; if you are by the sea and a booking is for the summer months include the cost of extra laundry for beach towels into the booking price instead of pricing it as an extra.
Customers booking online will have likely already carried out some research, they are probably armed with information about the local area, what your holiday home has to offer and how that compares to others they have looked at. If you can help them in ways they didn’t think of, that could be the deciding factor in their purchase choice, and ultimately lead to the start of many years of repeat visits. This means listening to feedback and acting on it; and then communicating that to everyone that action will appeal to.
Niche Marketing
4 out of the 5 websites we looked at provide a link from the homepage to varied niche holidays – from ‘baby & toddler’ to ‘weddings’ or ‘romantic breaks’ through to ‘cycling’, ‘fishing’ and ‘dog-friendly’. It is important to make sure that your customer service evolves with technology & CRM developments, rather than changes to accommodate it. Customers looking to book a holiday online still want the ease of visiting a website that has a section tailored to their needs (e.g. ‘family’, or ‘dog-friendly’); it’s just that now they expect that little bit more as well.
Key points to take away from the best–practice insights of the 5 SuperControl self-caterers with the highest occupancy: encourage customer loyalty; profile your customers; ensure perceived value for money; do niche marketing.
Sample: we identified the top 20 SuperControl clients by occupancy level (all clients, including owner operated and agency), then took the top 5 as a sample (with multiple properties only) to look at commonalities and best-practice.
