Optimise rate setup
Optimise your rooms and rates set up by creating pricing configurations that will attract various types of guests, and that are easy to manage.
Think about:
Creating a range of rate plans to cater for different guests — for example, standard flexible rate plans, as well as discounted rate plans with minimum length of stay restrictions, early-bird discounts, or non-refundable rate plans.
Consider using derived rates — easily manage multiple rate plans by deriving a rate from another rate. When the main rate changes, all rates that are derived from it will change automatically by adding or subtracting an amount or percentage. Using derived rates can create significant efficiencies if you have multiple room types and rate plans, and for price changes across different seasons. Derived rates can be set up in your PMS or SiteMinder platform.
Using dynamic pricing — adjust room rates based on real-time demand, such as setting different prices or restrictions for peak seasons or high-demand events.
Manage seasonality
Create the right rate plans ahead of time to attract guests throughout the year.
You can create rate plans and deals based on the following:
Number of nights per stay — for example, create weekday, midweek, or weekend deals. With these types of deals, we recommend applying minimum stay (or similar restrictions) which filter out and restrict shorter stays in favour of longer stays when there is excess demand.
How far a reservation will be booked in advance — for example, create early bird or last-minute deals. You could use a release period (advance booking restriction) or maximum advance booking dates.
Holidays — deals or packages for special holidays such as Christmas, Valentines Day, and Mother’s Day. You can manage these rate plans by making the offer available only for specific dates, and place it on stop sell for the rest of the year.
Demand-driving events — look at pricing and deals for dates with scheduled nearby events such as concerts, music festivals, sporting events.
Nearby tourist attractions — consider partnering with nearby businesses to attract tourists with enticing extras.
Help attract bookings during low seasons
Use SiteMinder’s Insights reports to help you gain valuable data that can be used to help increase bookings, especially important during low seasons.
The reports can help you analyse specific periods during the year when sales either underperformed or overperformed, enabling you to make informed adjustments and identify problems affecting your revenue.
For example:
If you received too many short stays — consider creating a ‘long stay deal’ with a minimum stay period to encourage longer stays.
If you are only getting weekend reservations — you could create a ‘weekday deal’ and select restrictions that prevent guests booking the deal on weekends (stop sell, CTA, CTD).
If your prices are too high compared to your competitors — you could look at dropping the prices to make them more competitive.
If most reservations are coming from a small number of channels — think about using yield rules to trigger stop sells, or simply limit their availability.
To help attract more reservations during low seasons, also consider the following:
Create attractive deals — add deals with inclusions and/or extras, such as rates that include breakfast, or a deal with an enticing extra — a “Spa package”, for example.
Connect to more channels — connect to a wide range of channels to help diversify your offers and reach a wide range of guests.