How to capture your guests’ attention and increase bookings this autumn

At Revinate, we love digging into the numbers, especially when we are able to share actionable insights with hoteliers. This week, we’re looking at what types of autumn marketing campaigns captured guests’ imaginations and encouraging hotel bookings. We analyzed a total of 2,441 campaigns from last autumn.

First, we’ll look at the number of properties that are sending campaigns during the autumn season, with a breakdown by month.

Here’s a look at the average number of hotels sending campaigns by month during the autumn season. You can see a steady rise leading to November which coincides with Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Significantly, only a relative few are sending campaigns in September, which may suggest an opportunity to get in before the ground gets too crowded.

Next, we looked at the average number of campaigns sent per property. Not surprisingly, it correlates reasonably well with the above graph. Note that both September and December see relatively few campaigns being sent.

Here is where it gets interesting. When we look at the results of those campaigns, we see that (with the exception of December) they are fairly well distributed from month to month. While fewer hotels are sending promotions in September, the data shows that they drive the same number of reservations as October campaigns.

We can also see by the sharp decline in December’s numbers that holiday season reservations are planned and made before December. Be aware of this trend and plan accordingly.

Finally, we looked at the number of reservations compared to the number of campaigns sent. We grouped hotels into four categories: those who sent one campaign, those who sent two to five campaigns, those who sent six to twelve campaigns, and finally those who sent thirteen or more campaigns. Unsurprisingly, those hotels who sent more campaigns saw decidedly more reservations as a result. And this was true at any level.

For a hotel that sent only one campaign last year, just by sending one or two additional autumn campaigns, they can expect a significant increase in the number of autumn reservations this year. For those that sent around a dozen campaigns last year, sending more lead again to an uptick in hotel bookings made.

A few things are clear from the data. First, hoteliers should invest more in September promotions. Currently, they see the same return as October campaigns and fewer hotels are sending campaigns in that time. Second, more campaigns tends to equal more money. No matter how you slice the data, those who used Revinate Marketing more made more.

And if you aren’t currently on the Revinate Platform and want to see results like these, set up a demo today.