Archives : 2009 : June
Surprising Your Vacation Rental Guests Can Have Surprising Results
June 23rd, 2009I read a very interesting New York Times article about how Hyatt Hotels is implementing “random acts of generosity” with their guests. The idea is to surprise guests by picking up the tab for their bar drinks, spa or other item. The guest will then reward that act with increased loyalty and is more apt to return.
I think there’s a lesson here that can be used in the vacation rental and resort markets. Surprise your guests. Champagne and 2 glasses for the romatic couple, 2 free tickets to a water park for a family, a special food bowl for the family dog with his name on it, a delivery of gourmet popcorn for a family movie night – the possibilities are unlimited.
As the article points out, the “psychology of gratitude” has been researched extensively and proves that “we feel pleasure from reciprocating out of gratitude, and guilt when we don’t.”
Give it a try. It just might be the best marketing dollars you’ve ever spent.
New Data For After-Hours Calls to Vacation Rental Managers
June 12th, 2009It’s been nearly 3 years since NAVIS last analyzed after-hours calls, so we recently took another look. We analyzed 2.7 million inbound calls to 217 of our clients across the United States from January 2008 to June 1, 2009. The results show that, on average, 23.5% of ALL calls come in outside of the hours of 9AM to 5PM (local time at that location). This is very significant and can add up to serious lost revenue if not dealt with.
Of course, NAVIS RezForce is your best solution. But if you don’t go with us, do something to stop the bleeding from missed after-hours calls.
I’ve heard some vacation rental managers say that callers will leave a message and call back the next day. Wrong! We have data that proves that 53% of after-hours callers do not call back, and 20% will call your competitor. Ouch!
Lost calls are lost revenue.
Sync Your Vacation Rental Marketing To Peak Call Days
June 4th, 2009We’ve noticed an interesting trend regarding call volume patterns during the week that should affect how you market. Using NAVIS Narrowcast, we’ve found that during the month of April, the peak call days were Wednesday and Thursday, followed by Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Saturday and Sunday call volume are always the lowest.
But during the month of May, the peak day has shifted to Friday, followed by Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (all tied), with Monday having the lowest weekday volume.
Just for laughs, we pulled data for last year and found a similar shift. Then, Tuesday and Wednesday were the peak days for April and Thursday and Friday were the peak days for May. This shows a definite trend of people waiting until later in the week to act.
This data is very interesting for a couple of reasons. For reservation managers, it can help you schedule your reservations staff. For marketers, it can dictate when you schedule your direct marketing. If you can syncronize your email campaigns, direct mail, and outbound calling so that you reach people mid week, it may improve your chances of catching them when they are interested in taking action.
Give it a try and let me know how it works.
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