[Q] Beach Resort (My Mom Owns a Beach Resort)

Mesina,
If your mother has the contact details of past customers (mail or email) I'd run a customer loyalty campaign. Offer past customers a discounted holiday during your off peak season. Make it a timed offer saying they must book within a month or by such and such date to get this past customer special deal.

You said that during your peek months you are fully booked. Can you elaborate more on where your bookings are coming from? Local/International or a mix of both?

Being that your industry is seasonal I'd look for ways to leverage the property for something local. Perhaps a locally sponsored party with ticket sales?

List on booking.com, priceline.com, hotels.com, expedia.com and travelocity.com Perhaps VRBO. You only pay commission if you get a stay. Limit your inventory available to the online travel agencies during peak times so you get people to book direct with you and you maximize revenues.

You can also check out and list on other online travel agencies (OTA). Most should be free to list and then you only pay commission for each reservation that actually stays.


Also, be sure you are listed on tripadvisor.com (I don't use the paid business listing on tripadvisor.com - not worth it for us)

Within the past few years, many people have become conditioned to use the online travel agencies.
Some out of habit and some because of the rewards systems. For example, Hotels.com customers get something like a free night for every ten reservations.

We had a lady, during spring break, make four separate reservations for her kids so she could get her hotels.com rewards. The reservations came to us in four different rooms and different names - even though they only needed two rooms for three nights.

Last night, we had someone book a room online while they were in our parking lot.

Building on what Rus said, consider creating bundled packages that appeal to locals and include services with other companies/services in the area. More than likely the other services are slow as well and will welcome ideas.

Wedding package - include flower shops, jewelry stores, caterers.

Romantic Getaway package - includes flower shops, jewelry stores, lingerie shops, local restaurants, local romantic tours, local tourist attractions, Viagra (Ok, you can leave out the Viagra).

Business/convention package - includes specials with business centers, convention facilities, copy centers, tourist attactions (get your business done and then relax in your own beach house). Contact upcoming conventions, trade shows and local meetings.

Event packages - tie in with rock concerts, sporting events, big holidays. Don't have to drive home, stay with us and keep the party going. Get close to event and conference planners in the area--offer them vouchers that are only good for the low season.

Sport package- tie in with popular local sports like fishing or surfing. Offer learn to surf lessons, fishing specials, all handled by local sport shops. Could be hunting, golf, scuba, any sport that is big in the area.

You could even create websites/social media channels just for the package: BeachHouseBusiness.com, RomanticBeachHouseGetaway.com, etc. It will be another incentive for the other local services to get on board.

- Joe

PS. Get in touch with popular local bloggers and offer free vouchers.

PPS. For 2014 start way, way earlier. Many conventions plan 8-18 months in advance. Get in touch with those planners now and build a relationship.

More ideas here:

http://blog.swipely.com/marketing/ho...the-off-season

http://travelonlinepartners.com/off-...rism-marketing

http://ajdassoc.com/seasonal-summer-...winter-blues-2

Unlike other posts here, I would target international travelers.

The cost of living being lower in the Philippines than in NA / Europe, you can charge "high" Filipino prices that in fact are pocket change for any serious NA / Europe traveler.

I would create packages directly targeting these international travelers, showing them that traveling to the Philippines is not only beautiful, fun and exciting but also cheaper than going to, say, Mexican resorts or Hawaii.

Here's a concrete example of what I'm saying. In the US, a very average motel will usually charge $50-150 a night depending on the location. When you look at other countries like going to China, the "Western" hotels also charge $100-250 a night.. so Westerners EXPECT to pay that much.

When you look closely at actual travel websites, you find out good Chinese hotels that aren't Western can be found for $30-50.. so it looks really appealing for regular travelers like me that don't have 10k to spend on every trip. Correct me if I'm wrong but I assume it would be the same in the Philippines.

That's what I'd do with your resort. I would position it as a great quality-at-Filipino-prices place to stay for international travelers, and then I'd advertise the different packages. ie Beach package, wedding package, etc like the previous posters mentioned.

Robert makes a good point. Global travel is expected to double from the current percentage of all travel through 2020. There are some things you can do to get more international business.

-- make sure your website can be translated into other languages. You can use Google translate or pay for a service to do it.

-- promote local attractions and events. If you are near famous destinations or popular festivals, say so.

-- be aware that the popular social networking sites vary by country. You may need to join several.

-- check that your site is optimized for the phrases most likely used by foreign travelers. You may even want to have sites with different country extensions.

-- check to see if there are already social networking comments about your business online. Former visitors may be talking about you right now around the world. See what they are saying and use the info to build a global reputation management strategy.

The online travel agencies will help you reach the international market for sure.
And they publish all their different versions in the native languages.

Booking.com and Priceline are the same company. They are headquartered in Amsterdam and Booking.com is especially helpful to us when it comes to European based credit card processing. Some of our European customers cannot book through our website because their credit cards won't process, so we send them through Booking.com.

As Joe said, your own website should be published in at least a few languages. I'm not so fond of Google translate as it does not get words and sentence structure correct- unless they've improved within the last six months. (I had to re-send an email in English that I sent to my Korean boss in Korean with Google translate.)

I am no expert compared to others on this forum, but wouldn't seo for key words such as " hotel Fillapenes" or whatever you think be a good option? Can anyone with seo experience add to this? Wouldn't say having a blog on his website and posting about accommodation in phillapenes and submitting articles and createing solid back links be the way to go? And of course capturing emails from online and at the checkin desk?

Can somone elaborate?

I agree on having packages like for the more expensive rooms, offer them free breakfast for two. This is very common in Philippine beach resorts. If you want to advertise online, Facebook is a good choice. You can also advertise in Filipino forums such as sulit.com.ph as I see many people advertise there. Share to your friends about promotions and hopefully words will spread out fast. It is totally understandable though that you will have decline in sales since it's the end of the summer season already.

Can you give us a rundown of how your mother makes
her profits?

Where do the biggest net profits come from?

For example is she booking tours from her resort?

Are there any kinds of add on sales?


Where are her guests coming from now (from in the
country or out of the country?)

Are any particular type of guests more profitable than
others? Where are those guests coming from?


Do you have an email follow up system and
referral system in place?

eg. Take photos of guests at the resort and offer
to email them the photos when they're uploaded.

And make it really easy for them to share the links
of the photos with their friends.

On the page with the photos have various promotions
for your resort.


The more you can target exactly the kinds of guests
you want (those who make you the greatest net
profits) the more you can refine down to the type of
marketing that's likely to be effective.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

HI mesina, have pm'ed you on certain message and some preposition. Do let me know if you manage to look through it. Thanks.