12 methods to improve your turnover at the last minute

Or how to save furniture when necessary!

Imagine the situation: you look at your sales over the next two weeks, and identify an almost empty date . But before and after this date, your sales are doing perfectly well.

Obviously the “good” filling of previous and following dates is positive. But this has the effect of giving your off-peak date even less chance of filling up. In fact, you will have to sell stays of just one night on this difficult date: more chance of filling with long stays. So what to do?

You will be surprised: maybe you don't need to do anything! First, assess whether the demand you naturally have, or the market demand, will be able to fill this date (potentially at the last minute). To learn more about the analysis to be carried out on your activity, I invite you to read the case of Victor .

And in the event that natural demand is not going to help: what to do?

In this case, it may be relevant to launch the heavy artillery and use one or more of the solutions that I am about to present to you in this article.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of 12 possible solutions for last-minute clearance of empty nights in your apartment or rooms in your hotel/gîte or guest house.

1 – Check your settings

What do we mean by configuration? These are all the elements that determine the availability of your rooms. In other words the criteria that you place in your channel manager or on the Airbnb/Booking/Expedia sites . These criteria can be: imposing a minimum length of stay, imposing an arrival day, imposing a particular price.

In the context of last minute clearance, the first thing to do is to check that you have not left the system with a setting that is hindering your sales.

To give you every chance of destocking, it is crucial that the constraints linked to your inventories are lifted or reduced to allow last minute reservations.

For example: remove a minimum stay requirement of 3 nights (because you want to make sales lasting 1 night)

2 – Relaunch customers from last year who have not yet booked

You have the simple and inexpensive possibility of following up with your customers from last year on the same date to suggest they book new ones this year. It is not essential to have a commercial offer to propose, a simple reminder is enough, obviously recalling the strengths of your apartment/hotel.

This reminder can be digital or telephone . If you use an email, don’t forget to personalize your communication so that the customer feels recognized: “Sir…., you stayed with us from May 15 last year, etc.”

3 – Use your loyal customer base to make them a last minute VIP & flash offer

Creating and nurturing a loyal customer base remains an essential point of any commercial activity. It is typically this base that can save you in the event of last minute availability. For example, you can ask your customers to sign up for your “loyalty club” to receive your special VIP offers .

With this list of loyal customers, organize event sales:

• limited in time . The average duration to grant your customers for a flash sale is 4 days.
• with a unique advantage : promotion, gifts offered or advantages granted. For example, you can not lower your price but offer an activity for children.
• and maintaining the emphasis on your quality service .

Please note that in the context of this type of promotion, I recommend that you attach conditions to it (to avoid receiving unwanted requests):

• indicate dates of stay
• mention the limit of available stocks
• and/or indicate that reservations are non-cancellable and non-refundable .

4 – Relaunch client companies and offer an advantage to be reserved on off-peak dates

In the same way that you relaunch your individual customers, it is also entirely relevant to relaunch your professional customers. Carry out targeted emails and if necessary offer an advantage to reserve on the dates you wish to fill (see paragraph no. 3).

The important thing in this context is to have targeted the right person in advance. Sending this email to employees is not always the right solution.

Two situations are possible:

• employees travel frequently and are responsible for their travel: in these cases, write to them directly and send them an offer that interests them personally (not a price but rather a gift or an advantage such as a late departure for example)
• reservations are centralized by a person from the company for employees: this is the case in a training context for example. In this case, write directly to this person and offer them a price reduction (there is a good chance that they have a budget to respect).

5 – Work with a network of tourism professionals in your region

Another strategy relies on your network of tourism professionals . Leisure providers, traders, car or leisure equipment rental companies, tourist offices are all entities with which to collaborate throughout the year and more particularly in the event of a need to sell at the last minute .

You will be able to join an existing packaged offer : weekday getaway or visits/tastings. Or publish your offer on existing communication media.

Finally, these empty rooms can also be an opportunity to make your service known to professionals who will subsequently sell it . In tourism this is called eductour.

Travel experts carried out a survey among its travel agent members and here is the result. TheTravelExperts :

• 100% are interested in unsold stocks from travel producers
• 87% are ready to participate financially, within reasonable amounts
• as for the reasons that motivate the interest of travel agents: of course, knowing the products, testing them in real conditions; know the services of a company; know the destinations; meet partners, build original offers .

6 – Increase the commission you grant to Booking.com

Booking is an online sales site which offers a rather interesting functionality in a context of clearance: you have the possibility of increasing the commission that you grant to Booking for reservations made on the site .

Obviously increasing the commission granted to Booking ensures that you are ranked much better in the search results for your city. Which will therefore mechanically give you more chances of being booked , and of filling your off-peak periods.

This solution is relevant if: you usually have an average or rather low ranking, and if there is still a lot of availability among your competitors and you need to “emerge” among a large number of offers. Please note that this function will temporarily make you emerge globally, not just on the date concerned.

Another possibility is to negotiate with your Booking advisor to enter the “Preferred Partners” program. You must have a sufficient rating and obviously pay a higher commission. This will allow you to be ranked higher as well as receive a thumbs-up on your ad.

7 – Work with existing destockers (for hoteliers)

This solution is particularly aimed at hotels: there are many existing clearance companies on the market that can help you sell your rooms at the last minute . Please note, however, that these players have an affinity for the high end, so I recommend it from 4 stars onwards. These include: very chic, private travel, or groupon.

Another actor who may also want to help destock is hoteltonight. This application specializes in selling hotel rooms for the same day or the next day . Be careful though, this application clearly works in favor of the customer: hotels give their rooms for sale as well as the price and the best offers are presented on the application. It's the fight at the lowest price! But in the event of a large stock that needs to be sold quickly, why not…

There is also a possibility on Hotetonight that I found quite interesting: the secret offer. This offer is only revealed if the customer is registered on the site and only lasts 15 minutes. It is made at very very low prices (-70% for example) but I think that the “staging” and the short duration will clearly have the power to trigger the purchase.

8 – Make an offer to customers from the previous night or the following night

A solution can also be to directly offer:

• to customers staying the night before the trough: to stay longer (with an advantage in doing so)
• to customers staying the night following the trough: to come to your home earlier (with an advantage in doing so)

9 – Create an event on this date and communicate about it

Rather than immediately thinking about lowering the price, a more constructive approach is to think: improve the service. To attract customers, you can therefore create an event on an off-peak date to convince customers that coming on this date is essential. It is possible that some will postpone their stay to benefit from this newly created offer.

What type of events are we talking about?

• bring in a service provider who has a commercial interest in presenting himself : for example, organize a 1-hour presentation on what you need to know about the region and allow the tourist guide to present his guide service for the main monuments at the end.
• exchange goods with a professional : for example, offer a mini private concert and pay the musician staying with you (of an equivalent value) on usually off-peak dates. (rather interesting if the service benefits several rooms)
• finance an inexpensive service : for example paying a babysitter to host the children's evening during the parents' dinner in the next room. (rather interesting if the service benefits several rooms)

All of these ideas must be calculated according to the price of your rooms: they will only be financially profitable if the volume of sales obtained thanks to this event allows the cost of the operation to be absorbed.

Finally after creation, the quality of communication about the event will be a key element of its success.

10 – Create an attractive package and communicate about it

Creating an attractive package can obviously only be done in partnership with your professional tourism colleagues. The idea is also obviously to benefit from your mutual customers.

How to proceed?

• Target relevant tourism stakeholders : tourist sites, restaurants, taxis, tourist guides, aquatic/nautical activities, gastronomic activities, etc.
• Obviously firstly: agree together on the package to be established and ensure that the date you are interested in is also possible for the partner.
• Define attractive terms : there is no need to think about lowering prices immediately, you can offer an additional service on both sides, for example.
• Then communicate this package to each of your respective
• Communicate about the package with your reseller partners
• Finally communicate publicly about the package (or not if you wish to keep exclusivity for loyal customers and reseller partners)

Once again the quality of communication will be key to the success of the package.

11 – Target a niche and adapt the offer to this niche

Finally, to finalize the category: add service rather than lower your prices, I recommend an additional tip.

Think about the type of clientele you would like to attract or the type of clientele that has potential at this time.

So by targeting them more specifically you will be able to provide a service that will convince them to come to you.

Here are examples:

• Do you want to target golfers? offer them a taxi to the nearest golf course
• Do you want to target families? offer a special children's breakfast
• Do you want to target professionals? offer free wifi
  

Once again it is the quality of the communication that you carry out which will determine the success of your operation.

12 – Lower your public price

Finally, if you have tried everything and unfortunately you do not receive any additional reservations. I feel obliged to advise you to lower your public prices to try to fill. But be careful not to mess around!

• Evaluate the number of rooms you usually sell at the last minute and only lower the price of excess rooms.
• Keep in mind the risk of customer dissatisfaction. While surfing your page a customer who has already booked may realize that the current sale price is lower than what they paid. If necessary, do not hesitate to reimburse the difference to your customer to guarantee their satisfaction.

Why be more vigilant with the reduction in public prices (displayed to all customers) and be less vigilant with targeted price reduction offers (see point 7, 8 or 10 for example). Because by lowering prices in a more “hidden” way to very specific targets, we want to avoid breaking the trust that binds you to your customers.

Indeed, if they realize that your prices are dropping at the last minute, they might on the one hand no longer come or on the other hand be tempted to wait until the last minute to book. This is not desirable because it reduces your visibility on your future performance.