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August 5, 2024
Elizabeth Pun
Turn slower seasons into prime opportunities to boost reservations with these creative strategies.
Your campground’s revenue-generating power doesn’t have to be limited to peak season. With the right tools and strategy, you can turn shoulder or off-seasons into prime opportunities to boost reservations. Use the creative ideas below to increase occupancy during shoulder seasons or slower months, and grow your business all year long.
One major way to increase occupancy during shoulder season is to host campground events. An event-driven strategy can generate interest and excitement, attracting visitors with entertainment or other value in addition to a camping stay.
Consider what types of events would resonate with your target audiences and capitalize on the amenities you have available on your grounds. Ideas include:
Remember to explore potential partnerships with local vendors and sponsors. Local food and wine sellers, artists, and instructors can bring value to the experience, while also spreading the word about your event.
Astrotourism, or the travel for and viewing of celestial objects and phenomena, is the perfect business opportunity that can naturally boost activity and occupancy for your campground in the shoulder and off-seasons.
Take advantage of the lower light pollution (and better stargazing potential) in your area by creating an astrotourism program around notable celestial events, including several that take place in your slower seasons. These events can include solar eclipses, meteor showers, lunar eclipses, super moons, and more. Generate ancillary income by selling or renting stargazing gear, such as binoculars, tablets with preloaded constellation apps, and telescope kits, just to name a few.
For more tips on how to build your astrotourism program—including how to to turn celestial events into big celebrations, a sample event-planning time, and more—download our free guide.
Free Download: Guide to Astrotourism, Dark Skies, and Campground Revenue
If you’re playing Tetris with your reservation grid, then you’re leaving money on the table—especially during shoulder seasons, when you’re aiming to increase as much occupancy as possible.
Campspot is the only reservation software on the market with grid optimization that updates in real time as guests search for availability. While other software providers would show zero availability for a search of the same dates, Campspot intelligently identifies and shuffles reservations to create openings for new bookings, reduce gaps on the grid, and prioritize revenue over rules—all on its own, as the search occurs.
This game-changing functionality allows your campground to drive revenue at all times and welcome as many campers as possible, as they’ll be able to see your full availability on the calendar, no matter the season.
Read Next: What Is Grid Optimization?
Another smart way to increase occupancy during shoulder season is to apply some marketing force behind accommodation types that could use the love. Perhaps guests consistently book your cabins, but some focused, seasonal promotions around your tent or RV sites could drive up reservations, too.
The first step is to identify which site types could use the extra marketing attention. Campspot’s powerful analytics and reporting empowers you to monitor and evaluate criteria like this with ease for data-driven decision-making. The Park Overview dashboard, for instance, quickly shows you net reservations booked by source and by category, net reservations by campsite type, reservation value by booking window, and overall net charges.
Easily identify which site types have fewer reservations, and start advertising how campers can enjoy the specific amenities and experiences of that accommodation option. Consider throwing in a promo to incentivize bookings for that site type.
Read Next: 8 Reports to Check Now and Monitor Throughout the Season
In addition to ideas on how to market your current site types and amenities, the right software and reports can reveal new marketing opportunities altogether for shoulder season or downtimes. This can include new types of guests to target, such as extended stay versus transient guests.
This is exactly the opportunity that one multi-park operator discovered with Campspot’s Business Mix Analysis report. The report, which outlines the different proportions of a park’s guest makeup at any time (such as extended stay versus transient campers), guided CRR Hospitality to focus on that new market of guests.
Mike Harrison, COO of CRR Hospitality, says,
“Having an instant pulse on our business mix through this report showed us that we can no longer rely on nightlies and weeklies. When in the past we would have never considered advertising to traveling nurses and other niche extended-stayers, we now know to look at them as a viable market.”
Consider marketing to long-term guests like traveling professionals and remote workers to fill up occupancy during shoulder seasons, and use insights from Campspot’s reliable reports to further inform amenity ideas, rate adjustments, and more based on your target audience.
Read Next: Campspot Analytics—Validating Business Decisions and Delivering Peace of Mind
Dynamic pricing refers to the strategy of adjusting your pricing based on factors like current market demand and time. A common business practice is to increase prices during high-demand times and lower prices during slower times.
With Campspot, you can rest easy knowing the dynamic pricing engine will adjust your pricing at the right rate at the right time, based on factors like real-time occupancy and how far in advance the reservation is being made. Just like a real reservationist, the algorithm also knows when to make rule exceptions in order to prioritize revenue and reduce gaps in your reservation grid.
For shoulder and off-seasons, you can leverage dynamic pricing to lower your rates automatically right before open dates to encourage some extra bookings.
Read Next: What Is Dynamic Pricing?
Knowing your campers deeply—especially where they come from—will help you enhance your marketing to increase bookings during shoulder season. Find out where your guests are traveling from, and execute targeted marketing strategies in those hot spots.
The Guest Driving Distance dashboard in Campspot Analytics provides these insights right at your fingertips, so you can shape your marketing accordingly. You can see:
Boost bookings during shoulder season and off-seasons with the right tools and strategize with confidence. Check out Campspot’s full suite of reporting and analytics, and chat with us to learn more about our powerful, revenue-generating capabilities.
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Elizabeth Pun writes for ecommerce and SaaS businesses. A former content marketing manager, she has over a decade of experience helping brands grow through compelling content. She loves scouring for vintage finds, exploring the outdoors, and getting her glamp on.
Image Credit: Adobe Stock user – Mario
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