Are you ready for your busy season?

Peak season is right around the corner and we know you’re getting ready to welcome your guests but before you roll out the welcome mat, make sure your property and your operations are ready for the influx of guests!

Here are 10 things you should review to make sure you’re ready for your busiest season!

• Capacity – Are your rooms ready and priced right? We’ve worked with a lot of property owners who are scared of raising their rates but if you’ve invested in updating your property or upgrading amenities, your price should reflect those improvements! Make sure you’ve done a thorough inspection of your rooms to make sure they’re in tip-top shape and have made the right adjustments to your rates.  
• Open inventory – With most modern PMS systems, you can close off inventory to OTAs and with the busy season coming up and multiple travelers using different sites to book, you may want to open up some more inventory to secure those reservations on those competitive sites.
• Promotions – Have you thought of special discounts or promos you can tie into holidays or the seasons to entice people who haven’t booked yet? Packages don’t always mean discounted rates! You could offer a summer hiking package that simply puts two bottles of water, two granola bars, and some trail mix in the guests’ room for an up-charged fee and it’s something easy you can buy in bulk and have on hand. Packages and promotions enhance the guests’ experience and can be very easy to put together and promote on your website.
• Website updates – Speaking of your website, have you updated your photos and verbiage? You don’t want to be talking about how your guests can cozy up near the fireplace if it’s going to be 80 degrees out! Nor do you want to showcase photos of snow covered trails when your guests will be wearing shorts when out and about. Make sure your website is updated to reflect the current season and make sure your blog posts are highlighting seasonal activities or helping them plan their vacation for the season we’re in.
• Email and social media – Stay active on social media with ideas of things to do or events in the area as well as some soft promotional posts reminding followers of special offers or even giving them exclusive offers just for following your page! Email is another great way to keep in touch with guests and encourage reservations they might not have made otherwise. 
• Address reviews – Have some TripAdvisor, Yelp, or Facebook reviews you haven’t responded to? It’s time to address those – both the good and bad – before potential guests are reading them prior to booking your property. Showing you’re active and engaged on these sites helps guests feel more comfortable with their booking and that you take your property and guest satisfaction seriously.
• Everyone’s on the same page – Make sure all of your staff is on the same page by having frequent meetings, emails, or utilizing software features, like RezStream’s shared notes, to share call only promos or updated Wi-Fi passwords. When you’ve got good, open communication internally, operations will run more smoothly when communicating externally.
• Ask for feedback – Ask your staff for ideas of how to be better prepared for this year’s peak season with ideas they had last year or improvements to internal operations or workflow they think would help. Not only can be it beneficial to hear from your staff that does this day-in-and-day-out, but allows them to feel more empowered and involved with the property.
• Take a break – Take a little break or some time off right before your season to mentally and physically prepare for your busy season. Be sure to schedule time during your busy season to take care of yourself so you don’t get burned out.
• Be positive – Having a positive attitude can make all the difference in challenging situations. Stay positive and use humor when you need to! We’ve found humor works really well in email campaigns and social media posts and helps keep the positive vibe going.