Solonis Hospitality Blog

4 Ways a Resort Management System Increases Group Travel Bookings

Written by Adelle Rodriguez | Mar 7, 2023 4:10:40 PM

Group travel has been a popular trend and doesn’t seem to be slowing down soon. In fact, group travel has been a common trend for many years now, especially for European travelers.

Adapting your property for groups is more important than ever if you want to maximize your operational efficiency, occupancy rate, revenue, and guest experience. Here are the top ways you can use the right resort management system to improve each of these areas at your resort for group travel.

 

4 Ways To Boost Group Travel Bookings with a Resort Management System

 

1. Offer Incentives and Discounts for Group Bookings

With the increase in bleisure traveling, many guests, especially those traveling with colleagues or working remotely on vacation with their family, now expect a blend of activities and amenities for when they aren’t working. The right resort management system can bridge the gap between business and leisure for your group-travel guests.

If your reservation management software allows for personalized messaging in your communication, you can tweak your offers with your group guests to appeal to their wants. For example, you can offer:

  • Package deals such as combining a conference room reservation with individual room blocks
  • Offers for larger parties, such as group activities
  • Group discounts and promotions

 

2. Maximize Your Group Bookings with a Channel Manager

With a built-in channel manager, reservation management software can connect you to hundreds of online travel agents (OTAs) to maximize both individual and group bookings. With the right resort management system, your channel manager will have data synced in real time and have access to robust reports detailing revenue earned from each channel, giving you actionable insight into how to allocate your OTA advertising.

Your channel manager can also be customized to meet your business goals and allow you to optimize your rates and parameters to focus on group bookings. Instant updates and adjustments prevent errors, such as double bookings, and give you visibility of your rooms in real-time.

 

3. Use the Guest Portal To Communicate with Your Visitors

Resort management systems that have a guest portal built-in enable you to communicate directly with your visitors for quick and easy support. With a guest portal, your guests can manage their reservations, payments, and contact information, or create new reservations. This is vital for group bookings, which require more collaboration due to the amount of information and number of reservations.

Furthermore, you can make arrivals and departures a simple and seamless process by allowing groups to remotely check in and check out through the guest portal. During their visit, any queries or concerns guests may have can be handled with the right settings and support tools, such as chatbots. Chatbots can provide 24/7/365 incident responses for maximum customer support and satisfaction. This also frees up your staff to focus on providing group amenities and activities for your guests.

With your resort management system’s guest portal, ensure you’re also informing your group travelers about:

  • Leaving feedback and reviews of each aspect of your resort
  • Offers and add-ons or upgrades to make their stay more enjoyable
  • Any on-site activities that groups can partake in

 

4. Take Your SEO Game to the Next Level

One of the most important features of any business is an online presence that makes transactions easy and enjoyable. Not only does a user-friendly website please your visitors, but it also helps with SEO metrics, allowing you to rank higher and get seen more often.

Some of the key components of a great website are:

  • Mobile-focused design
  • Site speed optimization
  • Content marketing, such as a property blog

By focusing on group-centric information on your site, you can utilize the power of search engines to expand your reach to guests looking for accommodations focused on group travel. 

 

Unlock Your Revenue Potential Using Resort Management Software

With group travel becoming more popular, it’s vital that you adjust your resort to meet group demands and expectations. The right resort management system can modernize your property for group bookings as well as transform your business operations for a more streamlined, successful resort for years to come.

Learn how you can lead your property to operational excellence today.