Is your hotel, restaurant, or attraction truly group-ready? Here are the 5 things every travel supplier needs to satisfy today’s tour buyers.
Today’s tour & travel segment is not your grandparents’ group tour anymore. Sure, there are still a significant number of traditional tours being taken today. However, like any industry, change is inevitable. It just makes sense that grizzled veterans and newbie suppliers regularly review their policies and procedures to keep in step with the needs of the professional packaged travel buyer.
Before you hang out the “Groups Welcome” shingle, ensure the 5 needs of the tour & travel buyer are met.
1. Study for the Group-Friendly Test
For hoteliers, you need a minimum of 25 double-double beds with in-room coffee. Well-lighted public space, elevators and indoor corridors are must-haves. An on-site or adjacent restaurant is certainly a plus, especially for breakfast, as tour planners (and their customers) have grown accustomed to an included breakfast in their packages. All inclusive pricing including accommodations (single, double, quad) + baggage handling + breakfast + tax needs to be ready to quote.
Restaurants should have a reliable, knowledgeable reservation system along with all-inclusive pricing (food + tax + gratuity). The group menu needs to offer at least five choices and include a healthy offering and be able to address dietary issues.
Dessert specials and salads are always appreciated, but never on the table together. The ability to seat groups near each other and adequate restrooms are a must. Finally, remember to take care of the tour manager and the driver as they can make or break the tour. If they are happy, so are their passengers. It’s how you get repeat customers.
Attractions and, in fact, all suppliers need a clear group policy. Along with lenient deposit/cancellation policies and procedures, a written confirmation system is mandatory. Easy bus loading and unloading zones and fair inclusive pricing are absolute musts.
2. Informed and Reliable Sales and Service Personnel
It is imperative that staff be prepared to answer questions. What time does that museum open? Do you know what time the local transit stops here? How long will it take my coach to get to the theater? Can I walk to the nearest drug store? In a perfect world your entire staff would be able to enthusiastically answer these questions. In reality if the staff is simply aware that the sales department, hostesses, and front desk have the answers, that’s certainly acceptable.
It should go without saying that the sales staff must visit other group-friendly businesses in your area. There’s a good chance that the tour planner has never visited your destination and may have only limited familiarity. Your insight and local knowledge will often make the difference between a sale and a “thanks for your time.” You can certainly help yourself by helping the buyer.
3. Flexibility Above All Else: What Tour Buyers Expect
We are not proposing that you hire a yoga instructor or start offering stretching exercises in the pool area for groups. In the “group-friendly dictionary” flexibility means policies and procedures in place that help, not hinder tour business.
Most tours are planned on spec, meaning the operator thinks they will have a desirable turnout for the trip. Until they get it to market nobody truly knows. Knowing how the tour goes to market is important. A retail tour being sold seat-by-seat via promotion may be difficult to fill regardless of how good the tour sounds. A preformed tour that’s been designed specifically for a particular group(s) has a better chance for success. Know the difference and stay in contact with the operator, especially hotels. As you get closer and closer to final cancellation, your flexibility may just save a little business.
Operators work on tight margins and can’t be shipping non-refundable deposits or agree to harsh attrition clauses that put them on the hook for a tour that doesn’t sell.
Policies are needed, of course, but be prepared to make last-minute decisions that vary from your standard rule(s) of operation. An extra comp at an area attraction may be needed for the local step-on guide. Will you honor the group rate if only 18 rooms are sold? Will you provide the comp dinner with only 19 paid when the policy states 20?
It is important to remember the tour buyer has invested time and money in promoting your destination. Even when a package is not as successful as hoped, there is a positive side to being flexible. You’re building a new customer relationship or strengthening an established one. The ownership and management of your business must empower you to make the decisions that are beneficial to the long-term growth of your business, not just short-term financial gain.
4. Tiered Pricing for Group Travel Buyers
One of the major reasons why people take a tour is value. To some, that value is a low price. To others, value may be doing something that would not be available if they traveled by themselves. Regardless how the tour customer sees value, the reality is the professional tour operator is in business to make money. Therefore, they need a price that can be marked up to cover their marketing and operational expenses and allow for some profit.
This price should be less than your standard group rate. The reasoning is straightforward — volume. Volume is one of the determining factors that defines the difference between a professional tour buyer and a group leader buyer. A professional buyer has the propensity to bring multiple groups year-in and year-out, versus a group leader who may bring you a single group in their lifetime.
Your best price is granted to the wholesalers and receptive operators. These are your best volume possibilities. A slightly higher rate is provided to professional tour operators — again, a rate based on volume. Groups booking directly get the next level rate, or group rate. Of course, your top tier price is rack rate, or retail. Not following tiered pricing can leave money on the table when you give a group leader and professional tour operator the same rate. Worse, by having a “group rate” for any group, you’ll never excel in the group travel market.
5. Don’t Ignore the Niches
One of the emerging changes in the tour & travel segment is the growth of niche and affinity markets. In many cases these interest-based groups are smaller than the traditional tour — and that’s by design. If you’re serious about the group business, be prepared to look at your group policies in response to this shifting effect in the market.
Is it important that the “Kayak Club From Someplace Else” arrives at your hotel at the same time for check-in? Are you going to hold them to the group minimum of 20 tickets when they only have 18 in their entire club? Do they need to come to your restaurant for single seating? Is there an attraction in your destination that can provide a “for their group only” experience?
If you’re worried about the impact of smaller group sizes, ask yourself, would you rather have 8 rooms or 0, 15 admission tickets or 0? Today’s travel landscape presents many choices, and if yours is not perceived as inviting and accommodating, you’re merely a speed bump in the parking lot.
Up Next: Learn how to build the perfect group sales profile sheet >>
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