Spring break is one of the most popular travel times of the year. Depending on the location of your hotel, you might expect a huge surge in traffic during late March and early May, which can be intimidating. You might worry that your staff isn’t prepared for the extra demands, or that your hotel isn’t a good fit for spring breakers and that you’re missing out on business. So what can you do?
People don’t travel to the beach or the mountains for spring break to enjoy the free HBO that your hotel offers — they travel to enjoy the beach or the mountains. Your job is to make sure that they can do that.
Talk to local vendors that offer ski rentals, mountain bike rentals, surfing lessons, or other activities that guests want to partake in. Partner with local restaurants so you can offer your guests discounts on happy hour drinks or coffee and bagels in the morning. Print up guides to local hikes, landmarks, or other hotspots that your guests might enjoy. Your hotel doesn’t have to be the center of attention — it just has to be a home base that will help your guests have a great time.
There’s a good chance that your spring break customer looks different from your everyday customer. You’re not likely to get a lot of business travel during that time, and your audience might skew more toward younger people than families — or vice versa!
Take a hard look at the sorts of people that have frequented your property in spring breaks past and see what patterns you notice. Are there certain types of activities they tend to do more? Do they use the pool or the gym more than your normal guests? Do they tend to come back to the hotel later? Do they take advantage of happy hour drinks? By looking for trends, you can better anticipate your guests’ needs.
The right hotel communications technology can be a huge boon to your staff’s ability to keep up with an increase in traffic. The last thing you want is to keep people waiting. If your front desk staff are on the phones, they can’t answer questions from guests arriving in person. If they’re talking to guests in person, they can’t answer phones. If they’re walking a guest to their room or showing them around the hotel, they’re not manning the desk.
A digital VoIP PBX system like Phonesuite can solve a lot of those problems. With automatic call forwarding, you can forward phone calls to a third-party answering system at the push of a button if the front desk gets too busy. You can send calls through a phone tree that answers basic questions like how late the restaurant is open or the hotel’s street address, all without occupying your staff’s time. You can even forward calls to the cell phone of the manager on duty or other staff, so they can roam the hotel helping guests without missing a call.
Digitizing your hotel with Phonesuite can also help you turn over rooms faster. If your housekeeping or maintenance staff are simply walking up and down hallways knocking on doors, they’ll be wasting a lot of time. You can even allow guests to set a “do not disturb” status online, saving your staff from checking on rooms only to be turned away.
If you can keep your hotel up to date, you can provide your guests with the best possible experience, even without expanding your staff to accommodate the increased numbers.
For more information on how to bring your hotel’s communication technology into the 21st century, talk to Phonesuite! We can give you a comprehensive estimate on installing a new, customizable, future-proof PBX in your hotel. Get in touch!