Marketing For Repeat Bookings for Holiday Cottage Owners is the key to success, it is cheaper to retain customers and gain new ones. Of course you’ll always want new guests so a combination is ideal.

To begin with, create a plan! People will return to your property for all sorts of reasons; there’s no single tactic that will cover them all. Decide what incentives you’d like or can afford to offer – and who they should be aimed at.

Here’s a list of 10 ways to motivate your guests to return and when best to use them. By the way, make sure that all offers contain the phrase ‘subject to availability’!

1.The Earlybird Incentive.
When to use: For guests who you think may want to return at the same time next year. It’s particularly beneficial if used to encourage regular guests during harder to fill periods such as the shoulder seasons.

The offer: An attractive discount (say 10%) if a guest rebooks your cottage again next year provided they make the booking within a specified time, say within the next 4 weeks. The discount can be on this year’s prices, possibly making it even more attractive, or (if they are published) next year’s prices.

Inform guests of the offer at a suitable time while they are with you, or in a nicely worded letter or e-mail sent a few days after they have returned home, thanking them for staying and also inviting a testimonial.

Alternatively, offer them the property next year at this year’s prices, but again with the proviso that they book before a specified date.

2. The Open Discount.
When to use: For guests you think may want to return at the same time next year, but may not be in a position to take advantage of your Earlybird offer.

The Offer: A smaller discount than the Earlybird, e.g. 5%. Inform guests of the offer in the same way as recommended above. You can offer this jointly with the Earlybird, but it’s worth following up at a suitable juncture, say with a Christmas card, or on the anniversary of the day they made their last booking.

If you are attracting lots of happy smiling returning guests it’s a good idea to incentivise them to book early. That way, if you arrive in January with much fewer repeat bookings than anticipated, it’s not too late to invest in some additional advertising. So what early booking incentives are there?

3. The Shortbreak Offer.
When to use: For guests who have stayed with you for their main holiday but who may be the kind of people that like to go to somewhere new every year.

The Offer: A discount on a short break away from the main holiday period, e.g. spring, autumn, or to celebrate a birthday or anniversary so they can still have next year’s holiday elsewhere and return to you for a few days as well. The discount can be a percentage cut of a saving per night booked, e.g. £20 off per night.

4. The Viral Offer
When to use: For those with an online booking facility. If you offer an online booking facility, ensure you’re using software that will allow you to include a discount code. The idea is that in offering a guest a discount obtainable when booking online, is that they may well share the code – either with friends, or on Facebook or Twitter etc. Don’t specifically ask people to share it as this devalues the offer. We usually use this with guests we can see are active on social media.

The offer: Any offer. Just make sure it’s an offer that if widely taken up means you look at the extra bookings as a bonus

5. The Transferable Offer.
When to use: When looking to attract new visitors without having to spend a fortune on advertising.

The offer: If you’ve offered a repeat booking discount to a guest and they don’t take it up, this is a way to get further life from the offer. Let them know that the offer is transferable, so that if they wish to pass it to a friend or colleague, they’ll get the discount instead. That way you’re encouraging guests to be advocates for your property, and giving them the ability to tell their friends that they are also able to get them a discount.

6. The Welcome Friend Incentive
When to use: When looking to attract new visitors. How much would you pay to attract a new booking? £10? £20? £50? Why not offer this as an incentive to guests you know are sworn advocates of your cottage.

The offer: Let guests know that if they introduce a friend who makes a booking, you’ll give that guest a discount the next time they book. For example, if someone sends you 3 bookings, you’ll reduce their next booking by 3 x £20.

Best used with regular guests, especially those that may feel it’s about time they really went somewhere else. The benefit of this offer is that you only spend the money when you get the booking – much better than an advert.

7. The Meal Deal.
When to Use: When there are places that you know your guests would just love to return to – a local restaurant or family attraction.

The offer: A discount voucher. Arrange a discount deal with the place on the basis that you’ll be promoting them and delivering customers. Offer this to returning guests. For example a £20 voucher for their favourite restaurant or free entry for children at a theme park.

8. The Welcome Hamper Temptation.
When to use: When you want to make returning guests feel very special guests indeed on their return.

The offer: Rather than knock £50 off the price, spend a similar amount on creating a seriously impressive welcome hamper – champagne, chocolates, a ham or selection of local produce, nestling in tissue paper and beautifully presented in a basket. Having a photo showing the hamper in all its glory will enhance this offer.

9. Cultivation
When to use: this is not a discount – just an approach in which you develop a good relationship with previous guests to the extent that they look forward to returning

The offer: Invite guests to join your ‘Facebook family’. Regularly post updates and photos of local news, stories and events as they occur, along with news about improvements to your property. Provide information you know they’ll enjoy reading and, ideally, will respond to. Invite guests to upload photos of their stay or places they’d discovered and would recommend to other guests.  Avoid like the plague uploading a diet or special offers and late availability information, as this won’t encourage people to visit your page. Appeal to their sense of nostalgia and a yearning to return instead!  And, while you’re at it, send personal Christmas, and even birthday greetings!

10. The Exchange
When to use: For guests you’d be happy to recommend to other holiday cottage owners, but who you may not be able to persuade to return (either because they’re not the returning type, or because they’ve finally decided they need to go elsewhere).

The offer: Recommend another cottage of similar standards and visual appeal to yours in a different part of the country, for which you can also secure them a discount if they quote you when they book. This works if you set up a reciprocal arrangement with the other property. You could even create a small consortium. So, while you won’t get the benefit of a repeat booking, you’ll be picking up new bookings from others.