Boosting your bookings on Christmas
Christmas is a family time and has been typically considered as low season. But traditions are changing and a lot of families prefer to spend the festive season outside of home. There are 2 types of Christmas travelers: “Explorers” who want to discover new countries or cities, and “Relax-Seekers” travelling to cosy and calm locations and booking their stays for seven days or more.
Most Christmas bookings are usually made in advance, on average around 2 months before the selected dates. However, as always, there is a significant number of last minute reservations.
To take the most of this situation we brought you the following tips:
Holiday Email Marketing Campaign
Emailing campaigns have always worked well for vacation rental companies but it could be particularly beneficial during holiday seasons. Increasing the frequency of emailing during the month before will increase the chance of attracting more Bookers. This is the time when last-minute travellers usually make their decision on where to stay. Make sure you catch their attention on time, use beautiful pictures and festive promotions with direct link to your booking engine. Make it an easy choice for them!
Be Christmas-friendly on the Social Media
Social media plays the key part in your vacation rental business especially when there is a good occasion to be active and post. The ideal strategy during pre-Christmas period would be to increase the posting rate. It is recommended to keep the post Christmas related content, using a merry and festive tone in all of your social media posts. Be sure to emphasize that your property is a perfect location to spend a quality time for families – this is most likely going to be your key booking audience.
Don’t forget to use the Christmas related hashtags which will help increase traffic to your social media accounts! A good way to convert lookers into bookers is to include an easy booking widget on your facebook (check out Nuevah booking system).
Christmas Events
A good way of increasing the number of guests in your vacation rental is to provide guest with extra reasons to book apart from the rental itself. Including in your online marketing data regarding Christmas events in the area always increases the value of the rental and will boost your bookings. If your property is in a city be sure to include useful information about Christmas events, for example a list of Christmas markets, concerts and nativity plays. If you are in a rural area you can advertise all the fun activities that can be done in your location, sledding, country walks etc.
Christmas is a very special traveling season. To make the most out of it we recommend to boost your online marketing effort. In summary to attract the attention of potential bookers:
- Increase the e-mail marketing rate as well as the social media posting rate
- Include a lot of Christmas related posts
- Offer special rates and Christmas promotions
- Give recommendations on Christmas events in the area
Good luck and Merry Christmas to all Property Owners and Managers out there!
