A couple of days ago, I was trying to book a hotel for my relatives (I know that’s odd). They had specifically asked for a half board meal plan, i.e. with breakfast and dinner. 

However, when I started searching for properties, most of them had either Continental or European plans only. And after applying multiple filters, I was left with only a handful of choices that were quite expensive.

After some hustle, I somehow managed to book a hotel for my guests. But out of curiosity, I again started checking random properties across the world, and to my surprise, most of them had the same issue. 

That’s why I thought why not give my readers a guide on creating hotel packages. 

So, read this blog ahead to find more about them along with some useful tips that could help you in creating the best hotel packages for maximising your booking ratio.

Factors to be kept in mind while creating hotel packages

Creating hotel packages is no rocket science, but you need to do it strategically. You need to consider certain factors while crafting offers and packages for guests without jeopardising your hotel’s revenue.

Let’s take a look at them.

1. Annual revenue

At the start of the financial year, every hotel defines their targeted annual revenue based on the forecasts and projections. To achieve it, hoteliers implant various strategies, such as online promotions, offline marketing, and whatnot. And creating hotel packages is among one of them.

However, to attract more guests and increase the bookings, many property owners tend to give off exclusive deals, which at times results in revenue loss. In fact, during the off-season, I’ve seen hotels selling packages at meagre prices just to avoid loss of room nights.

 If you are making this mistake, I would ask you to stop right there. Before you roll out any deal or package, I’d suggest you consider its impact on your projected annual revenue. 

Try creating packages that showcase attractive deals and at the same time increase your profits along with the hotel’s occupancy rate. 

2. Festive season 

The global traveler community is active during holidays, festivals, and long weekends. As a hotelier, these days are the best opportunity to generate maximum business. 

In fact, increasing room tariff is one of the common traits noticed in the hospitality industry. That’s why guests often look for festival centric hotel packages. 

Hence, while crafting deals and packages for your property, these dates should be given special attention. 

3. Compset analysis

Creating hotel packages requires strategic planning. Doing it randomly would be like shooting arrows in the dark. So, it’s better to go for compset analysis. 

Find out the deals they are offering, along with the rates and inclusions. Once done, try figuring out ways of creating better packages than your competitors. For example, with competitive pricing and amazing inclusions that could give you an edge over your competitors. 

4. Guest segment

It’s obvious that one kind of package cannot cater to all your guest segments. For example, your hotel’s meeting special offer is beneficial to business and corporate travelers. But it would be futile to pitch them to a group of family or friends. 

Hence, draft deals or packages for each and every type of guests that your hotel caters to. And for doing that, you need to have a thorough understanding of your audience.

All you need to do is analyse the history of your guests, which would include their purpose of travel, frequency of booking, services requested by them, and other such information. 

Once you have the data, you can identify which kind of travelers book your property. Accordingly, you can build a variety of packages catering to every guest segment. 

5. Occupancy ratio

The occupancy ratio plays an important role while creating a package. See, the reason why hoteliers promote deals is to maximise their room bookings. 

Now, depending on your current occupancy ratio, you can modify rates and discounts for better benefits. Let me explain this with the help of a situation. 

Suppose your hotel has an occupancy rate of 65% for tomorrow. Obviously you’d work on selling the rest 35% before the day ends.

So, you’ll roll out a last-minute booking offer for your guests. That would include a discount on F&B services or maybe give a certain amount off for the day. 

Similarly, if you are working on 95% occupancy, you’d try selling the last rooms at a higher tariff. What I mean is that it would be an opportunity where you can focus on increasing revenue through upselling without worrying about the loss of a room night. 

Therefore, do consider your property’s occupancy rate before you implement a package. 

6. Guest demands

I know understanding guests’ demands is a bit tough. Sometimes they are quite absurd and vague. But you can still go with the ones that are feasible. 

Like I said in the incident earlier, guests do look for packages with various meal plans like half board and full board. You can find such trends by analysing historical data and market research.

Based on the results, you can devise deals that would cater to your guests’ demands.

Tips for creating effective hotel packages for guests

There are different types of packages which hoteliers can promote across their audience. So, as you consider the above-mentioned factors, here are some ideas for hotel packages which you can implement to get better results.

1. Devise packages for each room category

Let’s start with listing out room categories of your hotel. Many hotels have two basic types of rooms – standard and deluxe. Depending upon the kind of property, there would be other categories such as super deluxe, executive, and suite. 

So, you need to design hotel packages for each room category. Although it is a time-consuming task, it is important. Moreover, list out all the room types on every available booking platform.

2. Create packages with every meal plan

There are four basic meal plans that you should be aware of:

1. EP/RO – European Plan / Room Only
2. CP/BB – Continental Plan / Bed and Breakfast
3. MAP/HB – Modified American Plan / Half Board (Bed, breakfast and lunch/dinner)
4. AP/FB – American Plan / Full Board (Bed, breakfast, lunch, and dinner)

You should make these plans for every room category. Further, you can use them with other F&B services to form some exclusive packages for your guests. 

Here are some of the trending ones across the globe:

1. AI – All Inclusive (Bed, breakfast, lunch, dinner, welcome drinks, and taxes)
2. UAI – Updated All Inclusive (Bed, breakfast, lunch, dinner, complimentary alcoholic drinks, and taxes)
3. EHB – Enhanced Half Board (Bed, breakfast, lunch/dinner, complimentary or discounted alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages)
4. EFB – Enhanced Full Board (Bed, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, complimentary or discounted alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages)

Ensure that you keep a record of which plan is most opted by guests and try to promote those on every booking portal.

3. Club room plans with services

As I mentioned above, you can tweak meal plans as per your convenience and develop some exciting packages for your guests. Moreover, you can club those meal plans with other services of your hotel too.

Let me give you an example. One of the prime problems that guests face is washing and ironing their clothes, especially for the ones with long stays or workation. 

You can solve their issue just by giving them a discount on laundry services like 10-20% off. Or you can offer 2-3 pairs of clothes washed and ironed complementary during the entire stay duration.

Apart from this, you can combine room meal plans with facilities like airport pick and drop, spa therapy, car rentals, or any other ancillary services offered at your hotel.

4. Partner with local activity planners

It’s no secret that leisure travelers look for local experiences. Be it trying regional cuisines, opting for adventurous activities, or exploring the city and visiting famous landmarks.

That’s where you can grab the opportunity by being a one-stop solution for such travelers. Partner with activity providers, tour guides, and local tour operators. 

They can help you with B2B rates for the services they offer, such as adventure sports, sightseeing, local skill development classes (like learning bakery in France, woodworking in Florida, fly-fishing in Wyoming, Kalaripayattu in Kerala). 

You can club them with your regular room packages and market it to the right audience. This will boost your domestic as well as international bookings.

5. Put exclusive deals for loyalty program members

If I were a loyal guest of your hotel, I would definitely expect something special every time I would book a room with you. It could be either a special discount or something out of the box that would flatter me.

This is the psychology of almost every person that is a part of a hotel’s loyalty membership program or is a regular guest at that property. Well, you can address these expectations just by creating a special package for them.

It could be either an all-inclusive package at a discounted tariff, a complimentary room upgrade on selected categories, or a flat discount on F&B services. These kinds of deals can help you in improving your guests’ loyalty and improving your property’s retention rate.

6. Curate packages in cohesion with OTAs

Online booking platforms already have a lot of discount offers going on throughout the year. In fact, most of them have tie-ups with airlines too. Hence, they promote ‘flight + hotel’ packages to travelers. 

So, you can connect with your property’s account manager and curate such packages, which are inclusive of flights. Moreover, you can offer exclusive packages like honeymoon special, long weekend bonanza, or one specifically for large groups.

7. Develop Mobile-only packages

Booking hotels through smartphones is quite a common thing these days. And if you have an app for your property, it’s like a cherry on the top. 

Promote the website packages on mobile too, but try offering something exclusive to intrigue guests. It could be an app-only offer, a discount on using a certain payment method, or maybe an option to add extra services at nominal charges. 

8. Don’t forget last-minute booking packages

Last-minute bookings have become a trend, thanks to the ease of hotel booking through smartphones. In fact, it is the reason why travelers across the world opt for spontaneous travel plans mostly for weekend getaways.

As a hotelier, you can leverage this situation for maximising your booking ratio. You need to create last-minute packages, of course, with discounted rates and a certain cut-off period. 

But let me warn you, this technique should be used only if you are facing a low occupancy, or else it may land you in a sold-out situation.

9. Collaborate with offline travel agents too

Finally, how can we forget offline travel agents? They are one of the best sources to facilitate group bookings. 

It’s important that you have special group packages and B2B rates for offline travel agents. The reason being they operate on net mark-up commissions rather than inclusive ones. 

That’s why they deal majorly in group bookings, thereby giving hotels a good amount of business in a single go.

FAQs

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