The ARC of Success

Using Availability, Responsiveness & Communication to maximise your guest engagement and increase revenue!
 

Availability

With interest in UK staycations at an all-time high for this time of year we can't stress enough how important it is to make sure you have all your 2022 available hire periods entered in to the availability system.

We understand some owners may wish to wait until the holiday parks re-open so you can carry out refurbishments, take new photos etc, but you will almost certainly be losing out on potential bookings by waiting until Spring to add your availability. Our data pretty much confirms this. 

If you have work you would like to do on the holiday home, before lettings commence, we recommend outlining any work in the description of your listing so guests are aware of any upcoming changes from what they can see in the current photographs.

Another benefit of adding your availability early is you can try different pricing points to see which works best for you. There is no one size fits all when it comes to price as all holiday homes are different in what they can offer guests. 

For example, perhaps you have a large decking area with wonderful views, or you include extras in the price of the holiday, or your holiday home is situated in a prime spot on the holiday park. Don't be afraid of trying different price points to see which generates the most interest and/or revenue.
 

Responsiveness

Let's face it, nobody likes to wait. One of the main reasons we receive any negative feedback at all, is due to owners not responding to enquiries. 

If someone enquires about a hire period that is no longer available, please send them a courtesy email to let them know. It only takes a minute and can make a real difference to the experience of people who use ukcaravans4hire to look for holiday accommodation.

Don’t worry. Responsiveness doesn’t mean you have to be available 24/7. Most guests understand that you may have a job, or other commitments, so a good benchmark for responsiveness is to reply within 24 hours. If you’re unable to do so, a short acknowledgement message will suffice with a time when you are able to get back to them. But don’t forget!
 

Communication

You may be surprised to know that some very popular periods are beginning to get booked up. This is great to see, however it does bring with it some challenges, not least many enquiries which are a drain on your time. To help with this, we recommend the following steps:

• Update Available hire periods to ‘Booked’ immediately when a booking is confirmed
• Enter ‘Unavailable’ hire periods in the system for dates you do not wish to let out
• Do not leave any dates in the system as Unknown
• Enable the 'Restrict Enquiries Feature' (see below)

Equally, after a guest has booked with you, they will likely have several follow up questions as they excitedly plan their holiday. These subsequent interactions are every bit as important, and guests can become nervous if they don’t get a reply.

Remember, these interactions are all part of the guest’s experience, so this is your opportunity to show you care, by adopting a human, personal touch. After all, in many cases, this is why guests choose privately owned caravans over park operated stock.

Restrict Enquiries
This is an option you will find at the bottom of the page on the ‘Customise Enquiry Form’ section within the owner area. It allows you to restrict the dates that visitors can send enquiries for to just available hire periods only.

This may reduce the number of enquiries you receive, however the enquiries you do receive are more likely to convert in to bookings.

Very Important - If you enable this option you must have available hire periods in the availability system or you will not receive any enquiries whatsoever!

Published on January 26th, 2022

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