Tough Times for Innkeepers

Over the last few months we have talked to many, many Innkeepers around the country to see what is happening out there. We have heard a lot about the wars around the Globe, the weather, the high gas prices, and the poor economy. The hopes of the Early Spring and the nice advanced bookings for the Summer Season seemed to fade out with the rain, heat, and humidity of late. The so-called real estate boom seems to have burst with the Federal Reserve continually raising interest rates, and everyone is hoping for a soft landing for the economy in general. Yet, despite the doom and gloom, many Inns are having an upturn in business, and are reporting record results. What is this all about? Why is it happening or not happening for you?

Marketing, marketing, marketing. We used to look at location as the bottom line of the Inn business. While the new focus of the Internet is clearly on destination locations in the search engines, the smart Innkeepers who are not blessed with a historical destination location are remaking their Inns into “virtual destinations” on the web. This is a combination of creating interesting packages and exciting itineraries to attract new guests to their area. In essence, these Innkeepers are letting the traveling public know what there is to do and see in their location, and putting together great packages, full of adventures, that will help people make the decision to come to stay with them. This niche marketing is then distributed over their web sites and through electronic marketing (email marketing) to help create the buzz and the overall demand for the Inn. The bottom line is that it works.

In addition, the remarkable ability to portray your image on the web to prospective guests depends totally on creating an interesting, easy to navigate web site with great pictures. At the last PAII Conference in Phoenix, this last point was driven home by a demonstration of before and after web photography. The difference between the sites with great digital photography and just home grown attempts was dramatic. We cannot more strongly recommend professional photography for web sites. It is the essence of success.

Finally, repeat rates seem to be falling off across the board as guests seem to be seeking new experiences for their vacations. It is a whole lot more effective, and less expensive, to coax guests to return to the Inn, as opposed to finding new guests to fill the rooms. That requires not only great service while the guest is staying at the Inn, but “constant contact” once you have wowed them with what you have to offer. That means special programs for returning guests to make them seem even more special. The basic rule on email marketing is to hit the list at least once a quarter with some news about what is happening, great new specials and packages available, and a real and meaningful call to action to make them move the mouse to your reservation page.

So don’t just sit there bemoaning the weather, let’s start to get this all done. For those of you who just don’t think you have the energy or the ability to do this, then find someone who can help or call us and we will help you get it done. This gentle reminder is really an essential component of your success as Innkeepers. No matter how great your Inn is or how incredible your service to the guests, if you can’t differentiate yourself from the rest of your competition, you will have trouble keeping up with those that can. Enough said?

Article written by Howard Levitan, Oates & Bredfeldt, LLC