At the beginning of British Summer Time, Winter comes to an official end (if not the wintry weather) and its time to start thinking about the summer season ahead.
If you run a small B&B it’s a time to take stock, learn from the last season and put profit boosting tactics in place ready to make the most of the New Year.
Here are five great ideas on how you could potentially boost your B&B profits:
1. Learning from last year
Run through what happened last year. What were the highs and lows of your season? Did you get any complements? Any complaints?
You could use this customer feedback to help you do more of the things people liked about your service and hospitality and less of the things they don’t.
2. Making your business special
How is your business faring locally? Is your Bed and Breakfast different or special from other B&B’s in your area? It may be a good idea to think about what could you do to make your business more distinctive.
If you make any improvements or advertise your business you may then decide to include the improvements you make in your marketing, on your website or any leaflets you produce.
3. Building good relations
If you want referrals from your local tourist information then you could try investing in building a good relationship with the officers at your local tourist office and even your local community.
You could try sprucing up your B&B for a day and invite them over for your very special breakfast – you could give them a memorable start to their day, show them your rooms and treat them as you would a customer.
You may also want to give them all your details and make sure they know your room rates. They may very well remember you the next time someone asks them for accommodation like yours.
4. Invite past customers to come back
If you have built up a good relationship with some of your customers you may want to think about inviting them back. One idea may be to spend a morning composing a short newsletter including some local information on your town or village and any changes or events that have happened over the year.
There are a number of easy-to-use email marketing platforms that do not cost a lot of money to use. You might want to do some research and find the right one for you.
If you wish to, as part of the newsletter you could always offer an incentive for early bookings – either a discount, a treat, an extra night (three nights for the price of two?) – and then send your newsletter to all last year’s guests!
If you haven’t got a mailing list of your customers email addresses, then you may want to make sure this is the year you start to collect them.
5. Incentivise the quiet times
When are your quiet times? Take a look at last year and look for any dead weekends or quiet weeks over the summer. If you can think of the reason why business was slow, is there anything you can do to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen this year?
By preempting your quiet periods you may decide to try and boost business by putting a ‘mid-week’ package together for seniors, offering a romantic break for two with champagne and flowers, or even a special family long weekend with a free ticket to a local attraction.
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To find out more call 08081686868.
