What Are the Best Strategies for Shoulder Season Bookings?

Shoulder season is a time when hotel bookings are lower than peak season, but it doesn’t have to mean lost revenue. During this period, fewer guests are traveling, but the opportunity is there to attract those who are looking for deals or a quiet getaway.

With the right strategies, you can use this time to fill rooms, offer great deals, and increase your hotel’s revenue. Here’s how you can use your hotel management system, booking engine, and guest services to make the most of the shoulder season.

Why it matters: Shoulder season is a chance for you to adjust your pricing, offer promotions, and fill rooms while keeping your rates competitive. Understanding this season’s booking patterns helps you stay prepared and make better decisions for your hotel.

How Cloud-Based PMS Can Help With Pricing During Shoulder Season

A cloud-based Property Management System (PMS) makes it easy to manage pricing and room availability in real-time, so you can adjust your strategy as the shoulder season progresses.

• Adjust Prices Automatically: With a PMS, you can automatically adjust your room prices based on demand. For example, if bookings are low, the PMS can automatically apply discounts or lower rates to fill rooms.
• Consistency Across Channels: The PMS integrates with your booking engine and OTAs, ensuring that your pricing is consistent across all platforms, helping you avoid mistakes or confusion.
• Make Data-Driven Decisions: Use the data from your PMS to see which room types need to be filled. If certain rooms aren’t selling, you can offer special promotions to increase bookings.

How to Use Your Booking Engine to Attract Guests

Your booking engine can do more than just process reservations—it can help you fill rooms during shoulder season by offering special deals and promotions.

• Offer Discounts: Use your booking engine to offer discounts like “Book 3 Nights, Pay for 2” or “20% Off for Early Bookings.”
• Package Deals: Combine rooms with other services like meals or local tours. For example, offer a “Stay & Dine” deal where guests get meals included during their stay.
• Add Extra Value: Highlight free perks such as breakfast or early check-in to make your hotel more appealing than competitors.

Using your booking engine to offer these deals will encourage travelers to book directly with you, saving on OTA fees and filling your rooms faster.

Strategies for Filling Rooms During Shoulder Season

Shoulder season doesn’t have to be slow for your hotel. Here are a few ways you can attract more guests during this time:

• Target Specific Groups: Focus your marketing on guests who like to travel during off-peak times, such as business travelers, couples, or local visitors. Customize your offers to these groups, highlighting the benefits of a quieter, more affordable stay.
• Collaborate Locally: Partner with local events, attractions, or restaurants to create special deals. For example, if there’s a local food festival, create a package that includes tickets to the event with their room stay.
• Offer Flexible Booking Terms: Make it easy for people to book with flexible cancellation policies. This will make travelers feel more comfortable booking during uncertain times.

These simple strategies can help your hotel stay busy even when other hotels are sitting empty during shoulder season.

How to Price Rooms During Shoulder Season

Pricing during shoulder season is important because it helps attract guests while still maintaining revenue. Here’s how to adjust your pricing to make the most of the slower months:

• Discount for Early Bookings: Encourage guests to book ahead by offering early bird discounts. This works well for travelers who plan their trips in advance and like to save money.
• Offer Last-Minute Deals: If you have rooms left near the check-in date, offer discounts to encourage last-minute bookings. These deals can help fill rooms that would otherwise stay empty.
• Discount for Longer Stays: Offer discounts for guests who stay longer, like “Stay 4 Nights, Get 15% Off.” This can help increase the number of nights booked and make the most of each guest.

How to Enhance the Guest Experience During Shoulder Season

When there are fewer guests, you have the chance to offer more personalized experiences. Giving guests special treatment during shoulder season will make them more likely to return in the future.

• Use Guest Data to Personalize Stays: Use the information in your PMS to offer room upgrades, special greetings, or personalized activity suggestions.
• Reward Repeat Guests: If you have a loyalty program, offer extra points or rewards for guests who stay during shoulder season.
• Offer Exclusive Packages: Create unique offers for shoulder season guests, such as special tours or spa treatments. These extra perks will make guests feel valued and more likely to book with you again.

Enhancing the guest experience ensures your hotel stands out and builds customer loyalty, even when bookings are low.

How to Forecast Travel Demand

Knowing when demand will pick up or drop off is crucial for setting your prices and promotions. Here’s how to forecast demand during shoulder season:

• Analyze Historical Data: Use your PMS to look at past trends for shoulder season. This will give you an idea of when to expect demand to rise or fall.
• Look at Local Events: Local events and holidays can increase travel demand. Align your pricing and promotions with these events to make sure you’re ready when the demand spikes.
• Monitor Competitor Pricing: Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing. Adjust your prices based on what they’re offering to ensure your rates remain competitive.

Forecasting demand helps you stay ahead of changes, so you can adjust your pricing strategy accordingly.

Hospitality Seasonal Pricing Tools

Using pricing tools can help you automate and fine-tune your pricing during shoulder season.

• Automated Pricing Adjustments: Many PMS systems have built-in tools that automatically adjust room rates based on demand and competitor pricing.
• Custom Rules for Discounts: Set custom rules for offering discounts, early booking rates, or last-minute deals based on shoulder season demand.
• Track Pricing Performance: Use your PMS to track how well your pricing strategies are working and make adjustments as needed.

These tools help you price your rooms smartly, so you’re always charging the right amount for the right guests.

PMS-Based Pricing Strategy Table

Shoulder Season Promotional Checklist

Product Focus: How Hotelogix Supports Your Shoulder Season Strategy

Here’s how Hotelogix can enhance your shoulder season strategies:

• Automatic Price Adjustments: Hotelogix’s RMS automatically adjusts your room rates based on demand and occupancy, allowing you to offer the right pricing at the right time, whether it’s for early bookings or last-minute deals.
• Seamless Channel Integration: The system ensures consistent pricing across all platforms, including OTAs and your booking engine, eliminating pricing errors and confusion for potential guests.
• Data-Driven Insights: Use the data from your PMS to track booking patterns and identify which rooms need to be filled, enabling you to offer targeted promotions like stay-length discounts or early bird offers.

By leveraging these features, Hotelogix helps you optimize your pricing and availability, ensuring you can maximize bookings and revenue even during the quieter shoulder season.

Conclusion: Turning Shoulder Season into Opportunity

Shoulder season doesn’t have to be a slow time for your hotel. With the right pricing, promotions, and guest experience strategies, you can increase bookings and maximize your revenue. By using tools like a cloud-based PMS, offering tailored promotions, and enhancing the guest experience, you can ensure that shoulder season is a time of opportunity for your hotel.

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