Like it or not, product quality alone doesn't deliver repeat customers. Cash is king in today's marketplace, so your marketing plan needs to focus on value messages.

Loss Leaders

The majority of accommodation reservations businesses understand that more customers will walk through the door if a few products are priced at less than full retail value. Although you may lose money on one product, you can make up for it buy selling a higher volume of other products. A classic mistake of loss leader marketing is to create pricing without researching the competition. In a worse case scenario, you could be counting on pricing that is higher than your competitors. For the majority of accommodation reservations businesses, the real benefits of loss leaders emerge through the careful marketing of other products, usually offered at a much higher margin. Whenever possible, piggyback a loss leader approach with the purchase of bulk merchandise that can be bought at a discount.

Industry Resources

Lone rangers don't survive long in an accommodation reservations business. Most leaders are oblivious to the fact that the marketplace shows no favoritism - for every marketing challenge your business faces, there are hundreds of other businesses and leaders struggling to solve the same problem. Even though trade journals have value, we've found that the best insights are often gained through face-to-face contact with industry insiders.

Improving Customer Loyalty

Savvy entrepreneurs target customer loyalty as a cornerstone of strategic planning. In accommodation reservations businesses, sorted and updated mailing lists obtained from top-tier providers are effective tools for customer acquisition. To encourage customer loyalty, you'll need to tap into deliberate mechanisms that incentivize customers to reward your brand with repeat business. In many cases, online channels can be leveraged to create innovative customer loyalty programs.