Sectors · Hospitality
Hospitality, from marketing to software for the people who host
Hotels, B&Bs, farm stays, historic residences, scattered hotels (alberghi diffusi), holiday homes and restaurants. Of 70 clients, 45 do this for a living. This page covers what a property’s calendar imposes, which levers move it, and in what order.
A night you didn’t sell never comes back
The five problems people tell us about first
The number of rooms changes, and so does the region. The list does not.
A few weeks decide the year
Most of the takings arrive in a few weeks, and the rest of the year is spent protecting them. The work that shifts anything happens before the season. Calling in July, with the calendar already thin, is asking for a remedy, not a plan.
The commission that never shows up on an invoice
A commission never arrives as an expense you approve, because it is already deducted by the time the money lands, so it never crosses the desk of whoever sets the budget. Once a year, it is worth writing down how many euros went out that way, next to what it would cost to bring the same share of nights onto your own site. Until that comparison exists, habit decides.
The team is rebuilt every season
Whoever learned the system in June has gone by November, and the shortcuts nobody wrote down go with them. Systems and content have to be chosen so they survive the turnover, with a few procedures on paper and an admin panel anyone can use without training.
A review is the receipt for what you promised
The reviews that do the most damage rarely describe a failure of service. They describe expectations set badly. A room shot on a wide-angle lens, a facility advertised on the site and suspended two seasons ago. Those get fixed upstream, not by replying better afterwards.
The site gets visits, not bookings
The most common case is not a site with no traffic. It is a site that walks people up to the booking and loses them there, over an old photo or a form with one field too many. Before buying new traffic, look at where the traffic you have stops.
The order to put the levers in
These are not five projects to start at once, and the order matters more than the choice. What follows is only the order, with the reason each step comes before the next.
- 01
First, what the guest sees
The comparison is not with the hotel next door. It is with your own listing on the portal, because almost everyone who reaches your site has already seen it. If the photographs there are newer and the information clearer, the guest goes back and books from there. Put the two screens side by side before deciding anything else.
- 02
Then the ability to close
The booking has to be closeable on your own domain, not on a link that sends people somewhere else. This is where you decide whether the work of the earlier steps stays yours or goes back into commission. How the booking engine, the management system and availability get wired together is covered on the software pages.
- 03
Getting found by the people already looking
Your name first, then the area, generic searches last. It is an order of cost, because someone searching for you by name is one decision away from booking, while a whole category has to be fought for and costs far more. What each level takes is set out on the SEO page.
- 04
Buying visibility, with measurement already switched on
A campaign for a property is judged on nights booked, not on clicks. If the previous step is not in place, the number you read means nothing. And it goes live with the lead time people actually book with, which for summer means months ahead, not in June.
- 05
Keeping hold of people who have already stayed
Addresses are not collected by marketing; they are collected by whoever is at the desk, which is why the list is nearly always partial and consent is recorded nowhere. Hand that rule to reception with the other seasonal procedures, before anyone starts thinking about what to send.
Full months and empty months are two different jobs
The same property, six months later, needs the opposite things. Confusing them is the most common way to spend at the wrong moment.
| Aspect | In the full months | In the empty months |
|---|---|---|
| Objective | Get more out of what you would sell anyway, working on rate, length of stay and extras. | Find demand that does not reach you today, such as nearby markets, midweek nights and the off season. |
| The lever that counts | The direct channel, and whatever the guest buys once they are with you. | Being found and being remembered, through search, campaigns and past guests. |
| Where the work happens | On the process, because you find out fast whether the system holds up when you are full. | On content and channels, using time you won’t have in season. |
| What you measure | Share of direct bookings, and the average value of a stay. | Enquiries, cost per enquiry, dates that filled up. |
| The usual mistake | Putting everything off to September, then getting there with no data. | Dropping the rate for everyone instead of speaking to someone. |
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