Black Friday and the Hospitality Industry

Each year there is an increase in how much is spent over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. Black Friday started out in retail, but now the hospitality industry is getting involved. But what is the best way for the hospitality industry to partake? Is it good to compete with others? Is the hospitality industry losing out by taking part in the Black Friday trend, or is the trend helping them out?

Why not make the aim of Black Friday to target a new audience. To do this vouchers would be a great idea as then these are bought for others who wouldn’t necessarily think to spend a night away, you will of course get some people who will be self-gifting, but with the increase in new business this should bring in, the odd ones won’t make a difference, and hopefully this will increase your occupancy. With Black Friday now becoming more popular in the hospitality industry, people are holding out before booking their rooms for the new year, so do you compete with everyone else, participate slightly, or just miss out Black Friday altogether?

Big room booking platforms such as expedia, booking.com, lastminute.com are all getting involved in the Black Friday trend also. Booking.com last year had a 40% discount on Black Friday for hotels to opt into if they wished, remember, joining in on this you are offering 40% plus paying commission. Giving booking.com this offer means you are helping them gain the majority of our market to book direct with them. There are also smaller channels such as. Pets Pyjamas that are letting you choose what you want to offer to their platform. If Pets Pyjamas don’t provide that many reservations to your property and your occupancy is generally low, it may be worth offering something to them to drive a new market into the business and use this as a visibility piece.

However, with these discounts, why not just do a Black Friday offering to direct customers, driving in direct business and you can offer better deals as you don’t have the commission involved. Email and social media is a great way to market your Black Friday. How many people step foot into your business each day? Maybe collateral such as table tops would be a good visual for people dining who wouldn’t have thought of an idea of getting someone a room voucher as a gift, opening options for a new market into the business to not dilute the revenue.

Think of the offering - is it going to be a set discount? A set price? A complimentary drink on all bookings? Vouchers? What dates are going to be considered? Maybe it’s best to choose a quieter time of the year such as January to the end of March. If you go down the voucher route, due to the impact of Black Friday messaging, this also creates awareness about gifting, making guests aware that you have vouchers available throughout the year.

A good thing to consider would be to start your Black Friday or Cyber Monday earlier, or maybe extend it past the date slightly. It can be hard to stand out over this time, especially if using email marketing, everyone’s inbox gets flooded with Black Friday emails, the majority of which probably don’t get read. Also, it may need time for discussions between couples and friends before actually being able to purchase. Some advice when sending out mailers, subject lines should be bold and to the point. Ensure that the offering, whether it’s a percentage off or an added value item is mentioned early on, before the first image.

Think about rewarding your loyal customers and targeting them before others through email marketing, or giving them an added value such as a glass of bubbles on arrival, when doing this ensure that they feel like VIPs and that they know they are appreciated.

Social Media Advertising is a great way to get the message across. You can put money behind posts and target certain areas such as different age groups or locations. You could use this to find a new market, for example, if you know all your guests are elderly, target a younger generation to bring in new customers to increase your occupancy (if your product is suited to these type of guests).. Maybe include a competition? Get people sharing and liking your posts to reach a larger audience and add in follow to create new followers for future posts.

It is also worth knowing that a large proportion of Black Friday sales take place on mobile devices, so it is good practice to ensure that everything you do works well on a mobile device, looks great, there is a clear call to action and it is straight to the point.

What are your views on Black Friday and the hospitality industry?