There’s a boom happening.
Staycation, holiday at home, let’s go ‘out out’, the great British getaway.
Whatever you want to call it – it is happening.
There are record sales for domestic holidays. And with them… record prices.
200-500% increases in some cases!
Many coastal and country hotels are fully booked for months.
And the idea of booking a country cottage… forget it.
It’s a bonanza.
Or is it?
The problem this summer isn’t selling beds or booking tables.
Desperate holiday-makers, buoyed up by scarcity, will trade the Costa del Sol and pay over the odds for a week in Western-super-Mare…
But only once.
The bigger challenge is why should they come back next year?
There’s never been a better opportunity for hospitality in the UK…
Not to triple prices but to acquire lifetime customers.
When I run my 5 Star Service workshops I talk a lot about the lifetime value of a customer.
How do you do it?
Put enough deposits in the emotional bank account of your customers and you can have a lifetime of withdrawals from their financial bank account.
But only if you make the deposits first.
And that (with my Customer Service hat on) is the danger.
Will local hospitality get greedy and blow it?
Please UK hotels, bars, restaurants, shops… prove me wrong. Here are five 5 Star Service ideas to help:
Michael Heppell
PS. THERE’S MORE. If you’d like to know how 2021 could be the BEST year for hospitality I’ve shared five more ideas on how to create amazing 5 Star Service that will help you to gain lifetime customers.
You can read them here
and please leave your comments below.
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Michael,
As a guesthouse provider I found your comments worthwhile. However, a note of caution when relying on the press for information. Booking are up very slightly on previous years. However, most of these are people who have deferred from last year and, in many cases, had already paid. Overall, bookings are probably down at the moment. as will be takings. I also spent four days away last week in a holiday cottage booked through a well known firm. £269 for those four nights for a two bed property, well positioned and very well appointed. As far as I can see this is not much of an increase on the previous year. Newspaper headlines sell papers and it is (probably) certainly true that some have hiked prices, but outside the six weeks of school holiday things are pretty much the same as ever.
Have you sent your message to the relevant government/ tourist people? It’s such a great message.