Goa hotels: planning for a December that is full and a July that is empty

A Goa hotel cannot make December bigger, and it cannot make July sunny. It can use one to fix the other. In the full weeks around Christmas and New Year, stop paying to advertise and start asking each departing guest for permission to write to them. In the empty months of the monsoon, sell to that list: a rainy-season stay to the guests who can drive in, and first pick of next December to the ones who loved it. Most of this work happens at the front desk on the morning of 27 December.

December's job is collecting, not advertising

Most Goa bookings are made on phones for October to March, and the monsoon empties much of the coast from June to September. A hotel's year is made in about six months.

When every room for Christmas week is sold, ad money spent on those dates buys guests you would have had anyway. It also buys them in the weeks when every hotel on the coast bids for the same searches. A simple rule settles it. A sold-out week gets no ad money. A week that is still half empty a month before arrival gets the budget. The shoulder-week ads stay on: seasonal advertising moves into early October, the weeks after New Year and the monsoon, where guests are still choosing.

The peak still has a job, and it is at the desk. A guest who booked through an app arrives as a booking reference and a name. Check-out is the one moment you can turn that guest into your own.

The check-out question

Ask it once, in person, while the bill is being settled:

"We open next Christmas to past guests before the dates go on the apps. Can we send you the dates on WhatsApp?"

It works only if it is true. Do not offer first pick of dates you will put on the apps the next morning, because past guests compare. Write the answer down then and there. The register needs eight columns: name, number, said yes or no, dates stayed, who came (couple, family, friends), where from, how they came (flight, train, car), and anything they asked for.

The "how they came" column matters more than it looks. A family who drove down from Pune, Belagavi or Kolhapur can come back in the rains on a long weekend. A couple who flew in from Delhi for New Year will not, but may well want next December.

The year on one page

• October to mid-December: advertise the shoulder weeks. Refresh photographs before the season, not during it.
• Christmas to New Year: ads off for sold-out dates. The check-out question at every departure, and the register filled the same day.
• January to March: keep asking. Foreign and longer-stay guests come through the winter, and a guest who stayed three weeks has the most to say about next year.
• April and May: sort the list into drove-in and flew-in. Write the monsoon page and the two messages below.
• June to September: send the yes-list two messages and no more unless they reply. The monsoon stay goes to the drive-in guests. First pick of next December, held with a deposit, goes to everyone.

Two messages, each with a reason, beat a broadcast every fortnight.

Who to sell July to

Not to the guests who came for the beach parties. Sell the monsoon to people who can reach Goa without a flight, and who want what the rains give: green hills, empty roads, the hinterland, the food, a verandah and a book. Be plain about what is shut: beach shacks are generally taken down before the rains and water sports stop, so the page should say what is open on your stretch, such as your own kitchen and the nearby market. Pune, Kolhapur, Belagavi and Hubballi are a drive away, and Mumbai and Bengaluru are for guests who do not mind a long one.

The second group is people who work from a laptop and want a week somewhere else. Show them what they need to see: the desk, the power backup, a screenshot of your connection speed taken during a downpour. A long-stay rate for seven nights or more suits them better than a discount on two.

A short page about staying with you in the rains, of the kind described in what guests ask a homestay before they book, gives both groups something to read before they reply.

Imagine a twelve-room guesthouse in Candolim

Imagine a twelve-room guesthouse in Candolim. Every December it fills through two booking apps and a few walk-ins. The owner kept Instagram ads running through Christmas week anyway. In July, with three rooms occupied, the owner sent a deep monsoon discount to every number in the check-in register. Several guests blocked the number. Two wrote back asking how the owner had got it. A handful booked, at a rate that barely covered the staff.

The next season began at the desk instead. Ads stopped for the sold-out dates. The front desk asked every departing guest the check-out question and filled the register that evening. In June, the drive-in guests got one message about monsoon weekends, with photographs of the garden in the rain. Everyone on the list got one message offering first pick of next Christmas week at the full rate, held with a deposit. Nobody was messaged who had not said yes, and nobody got a third message without replying. With illustrative figures: of about 300 departing guests, 110 said yes, the June message filled four weekends in July, and the December offer brought back 22 bookings. Eight of the 110 never replied to either message, and the list was no help for the weeks before Diwali.

When this plan does not fit

If your place shuts for the rains, July is for selling December, not for filling rooms. Send only the second message.

If you or your staff go away in the rains, either send the monsoon message before you leave, with a named person for replies, or skip it this year. A guest who answers an offer and hears nothing for a week remembers it next December. A WhatsApp setup can hold the rates in a saved reply, but someone still has to confirm the room.

Count the guests you may write to today

Open last December's register and count the departing guests you could message today with their permission. Close to none? Then do not buy a list or message the check-in numbers. Start at the desk on the next 27 December, with one question. For a Goa hotel, turning those yeses into monsoon stays is customer reactivation; to have the question and the two messages written for your property, tell us what you need.