Ignoring Not Booked Is Not Right
July 22nd, 2011Most of our resort lodging clients start out with an inbound reservation conversion rate of about 25%. As they engage the technologies and processes of The NAVIS Way, that conversion climbs rapidly. It’s not unusual to see it hit 50% and higher, which is certainly an achievement to celebrate.
But wait, that means the “not-booked” represents 50% to 75% of the inbound calls. If you’re looking at roughly 10,000 bookable calls a year, that’s 5,000 to 7,500 not booked calls. What are you doing with those? Unfortunately, way too many lodging providers ignore them and go buy a list from somewhere else when they want to do some direct marketing. When you have a large group of qualified potential guests who have taken the time to contact you, why would you use a list of unknown names?
If you could convert just 5% of those not-booked leads through direct marketing, you’re looking at roughly $600K in additional revenue (assuming $1,600 stay value). Add an outbound sales strategy and you’ll convert even more.
Don’t forget about those not booked calls.
Bill Schlosser
Vice President – Marketing
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