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4 Ways to Stay Booked When Summer is Over

The summer holidays generally belong to families. The children are off school and days have to be filled. The car is loaded up and properties are booked, ideally as close to a beach or as many attractions as possible. People expecting peace and quiet in popular destinations know to avoid July and August. For vacation rental managers, family holidays mean full calendars and a handful of extremely busy months. However, we’re now getting to that time when children are being ushered back towards the school gates.  

But this doesn’t just mean that you can have time in your properties during the last waves of summer, there are some real advantages to the end of the summer and the gradual descent towards autumn. Destinations are less busy. Flights are cheaper. There is no choice to be made between a lazy afternoon in a chair, doing nothing and having to herd a pack of wild infants through a cartoon-themed wonderland. The end of the summer is not the end of vacation rental season. The transition towards autumn provides ample opportunity to reach a different clientele and keep your property calendars full.

City Breaks
With the weather cooling across the Northern hemisphere, it’s the perfect time to promote your properties in cities. August and July seem too stifling to be wandering the streets of European capitals, dipping into museums and shops. But Autumn is now the perfect time to attract cultural tourists. Focus on the areas surrounding your properties, find interesting blogs and promote them via email marketing and your social media. Sell the destination as well as the property.  

Promote the Peace
The space and privacy of vacation rentals is one of their major selling points. You can cut yourself off from the world and the end of summer means this is possible without the interruption of hordes of other people looking to do the same thing. For some, the end of the summer holidays is the perfect time to take a vacation. Having some properties that are marketed as less family orientated and more aimed at travellers looking to relax in sophisticated cities and properties will help you get bookings from this sizeable market.

Business Travellers
Business travel is not as seasonal as holiday travel. These trips need to be taken a moment’s notice throughout the year and vacation rentals are beginning to establish themselves as a legitimate option for business accommodation. However, perception is important. If your site and marketing are still geared toward summer holiday travellers and families you will reduce your appeal to business travellers. Few workers are going to want to present their expenses for an apartment that looks as though it is designed for a holiday rather than a serious business trip.

Having a dedicated site or page for your most suitable business accommodation will allow you to show your properties in two different modes. Having images with workspaces, links to conference centres and travel networks will all help to show your property is a quiet and relaxing space in which to work and even host clients or meetings. Two sets of photos and the appropriate changes to the property at the end of summer are all you need.

As the holidays are over, a promotion to encourage people to stay an extra day over the weekend will help to keep your calendars full. If you offer 4 nights for the price of 3 you will get far more bookings for more days. A problem with the end of the summer is that weekends get booked up, leaving the undesirable mid week hanging empty as people return to work. By doing what you can to encourage longer stays like this, Mondays, Fridays and Thursdays will begin to be booked up and it makes so much more sense to stay for the promotion.

These tips can ensure that your calendars stay full long after the heady days of summer are over. A shift in approach, marketing and your property listings can make all the difference when trying to connect with a different type of guest.

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