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Filling an apartment or holiday house during July and August probably does not present a particular problem for anyone, but our goal is to operate for as long as possible and generate tourist traffic throughout the entire year. How can that be achieved?
Below we bring you tips on how to extend your business activity and ensure that your accommodation remains attractive to tourists even outside the main tourist season.
First step – analysing your advantages and possibilities
In order to define how we will attract tourists to our accommodation throughout the year, we first need to carefully analyse what we offer, what kind of guests come to us, what they actually need and what our advantages are compared to the competition. Based on that, we can then create our marketing, communication and advertising plan.
If our apartment is located in the city centre, we probably have guests who come for shorter stays, and their reason for coming is often events in the city, such as Advent, a book fair or a film festival, as well as business trips. Such guests usually spend very little time in the accommodation because the apartment mainly serves them as a place to sleep. But this can also be our advantage, because every additional detail we take care of can positively surprise guests and encourage them to book with us again next time.
For example, if during the analysis of your guests you notice that the most frequent visitors were young people coming to the city because of certain events, play a little with the apartment design and make it more playful and fun. Surprise them with a coffee and tea machine, offer interesting tea flavours, place eco-friendly cosmetics in the bathroom and make sure the internet is fast and stable.
On the other hand, if you own an apartment in a rural area of coastal Croatia and think it will be hard to attract guests during autumn and winter, think about the specifics of your destination. Perhaps hunting tourism is developing there more and more, so you can offer your apartment to hunters visiting from late November to late February. In that case, of course, it is necessary to provide specific conditions for such guests, such as a special cabinet for storing weapons or a kennel for hunting dogs.
Do you have a garden next to your house? Great. Plant a few more tomatoes and offer your guests the opportunity to use fruit and vegetables from your garden during their stay. Small things like that often leave a big impression.
Are you passionate about cycling? Show that through your apartment as well and invite other cyclists to come. Provide a safe place to store bicycles, an area with tools for minor repairs, a leaflet with information about services for cyclists and maps of cycling routes in the surrounding area, and start promoting yourself as bike-friendly accommodation. A guest coming for exactly that reason will very likely choose you over others who do not offer such additional services.
Hunting tourism and sports tourism are just two of many motives that can attract guests outside the summer months. Nowadays, there is also more and more talk about digital nomads who rent accommodation for a longer period, so consider that option as well.
The best way to adapt your accommodation is to build on something you personally love and know well.
If something is also your own passion, you will know best what is expected and what should be offered to guests who share similar interests.
At this stage, besides analysing your accommodation, also think about the destination itself – why guests come there, what attractions are nearby and what can become part of the offer outside the main season.
Offer your guests an experience, not just accommodation. A large number of guests with higher purchasing power would rather spend money on something that gives them a special and authentic experience than on an expensive hotel room.
How will you communicate that? Through high-quality photographs that tell a story. That brings us to the second step.
Second step – photographs that say “This is for me!”
All right, we have analysed our advantages and possibilities and realised that it would be excellent to highlight through our accommodation something that we ourselves love and can present to guests in a quality way. But how will a guest know that they can get this from us even before booking?
Of course, the first step in booking accommodation is searching online, and the goal is that when a potential guest clicks on our accommodation, they immediately receive a clear impression of all the benefits we offer compared to others. We will achieve that through high-quality photographs.
Once we have arranged the accommodation, given it a certain theme and enriched it with interesting details that make a difference, we need to make sure all of that is captured through photography. Those photographs are the main presentation of our accommodation and have a major influence on the guest’s decision on whether to book or not.
This step is extremely important, which means it is best entrusted to professionals. No matter how good your phone may be, mobile phone photos are usually still not the best solution. A professional photographer will notice a range of details and small things that can make a major difference in the final impression – proper lighting of the room, a basket of fresh fruit on the table that lifts the atmosphere of the living room, the best angle from which the room will look its best, and technical details such as making sure the photographer’s reflection is not visible in a mirror, vase or glass.
All of those are details we might not even think of, while for photographers they are routine. Keep in mind that quality accommodation photography today is not some extra bonus or competitive advantage – it is a necessity and a basic investment.
Third step – make your business conditions as flexible as possible
There was a time when it was common for reservations for the next season to arrive months in advance and for guests to pay deposits long before their arrival. Today this is becoming less and less common.
There are still guests who like to plan their holidays well in advance, but their habits have changed significantly in recent years. This was greatly influenced by the pandemic period, which taught us how uncertain long-term planning can be and how quickly circumstances can change.
Travel agencies have largely been replaced by booking portals, and the increasing supply of accommodation gives guests more choice and allows them to make booking decisions later. Although we would all like to enter the season knowing that everything is fully booked months in advance, reality is often different. Reservations are now often made at the last minute, and the possibility of cancelling free of charge or with minimal penalties has become almost a standard.
That is why, in line with your possibilities, you should try to offer as flexible business conditions as possible. This matters a lot to guests today, and even if they may prefer your apartment over your neighbour’s, if your neighbour offers free cancellation until three days before arrival and you do not, the guest will very likely choose the neighbour instead.
Fourth step – special offers and benefits
Of course, the price of accommodation outside the main season should not be the same as in peak season. If we want higher occupancy, it is a good idea to create special promotional packages and benefits that will show guests that they get more for their money and that they can also save.
This could, for example, be a Valentine’s weekend offer with more favourable accommodation and a welcome gift, a bottle of sparkling wine on the table and candles for a bit of romance. Or a special offer for the Easter week, when school holidays take place and parents might welcome a short break and rest in your apartment.
You can go one step further and create gift vouchers for your accommodation that someone can buy as a birthday or special-occasion present for a loved one.
There are many tools through which you can communicate special offers and benefits: newsletters, direct emails to former guests who have given consent for such communication, social media, cooperation with partners when creating promotional packages, such as a package that includes two overnight stays, a massage in a nearby wellness centre and a discount on dinner in a local restaurant, as well as joint advertising.
Fifth step – be as present as possible
Always and everywhere. The more often your apartment or holiday house is mentioned, the greater the visibility and, consequently, the greater the chance that your accommodation will be booked. Use all available channels. If you do not yet have your own website and social media profiles, definitely consider creating them. Also check with your local tourist board whether there is an option to present your accommodation on their official website.
Think broadly. It may not always be necessary to highlight only the name of your apartment, but the more people hear about your place and its specific features, the easier it will be for them to find information about your accommodation as well. If your town or municipality has interesting locations, cultural and religious heritage or is known for a traditional cake, use that in your promotion too.
Someone who finds that interesting may be inspired precisely by that to visit your place, and once they start looking for accommodation nearby, they can very easily come across your apartment as well. And then the booking follows.
