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Resorts · Hospitality

Fill the weekdays and the monsoon, not only the long weekends.

It is Tuesday night in Bengaluru, and a family is planning Coorg for the Dussehra long weekend. Someone shares three reels in the family group, someone else opens Airbnb, and the father calls the one resort whose number showed on Google Maps. The owner is out on the estate with no signal. By morning the family has booked the place that answered on WhatsApp.

Tell us what you needor call +91 80958 58589

Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.

A resort owner welcomes guests on a veranda

In one paragraph

Resort sales and marketing means getting families, friends and company organisers to find a resort in the hills, on a plantation, near a forest or by the coast, ask about dates and book, ideally direct rather than through a booking app. GullySales sets up the listings, the WhatsApp replies, the company-outing pipeline and the past-guest list that fill weekdays and the off-season.

Most resorts fill a long weekend whatever they do, and sit empty on a wet Tuesday in July whatever they do. The money is made in between: the mid-week team outing, the monsoon package, the guest from last December who would come back if someone asked. Booking apps take a commission on each of those, and the guest's contact details stay with the app.

Last updated 3 Nov 2026.

How buyers decide

How resorts are chosen.

The wish starts on Instagram or YouTube, with a reel of mist over a coffee estate or a vlog from a jungle lodge. The shortlist is made on Airbnb, Booking.com, MakeMyTrip and Google Maps, where recent photographs and the latest few reviews decide which properties get a closer look.

Before paying an advance, the guest asks on WhatsApp what no listing answers well. Can a sedan reach the gate? Is there network? Can the dog come, is the food spicy, are there steps for the grandparents? The property that answers all of it in one reply gets the booking.

Groups decide differently. An HR or admin person planning a team outing compares a handful of properties on rooms for sharing, a hall or lawn, food, activities and the bus from the city, and wants a quote with GST. A family planning a function at a resort visits before it pays.

The problem

What usually goes wrong for resorts.

What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.

  • “We are full on long weekends and empty on weekdays”

    Friday and Saturday sell out through the apps. Monday to Thursday sit empty, with no offer aimed at anyone who could come mid-week.

  • “Almost every booking pays an app commission”

    Guests find us on Airbnb or MakeMyTrip and book there, including guests who have stayed before and would happily have booked with us.

  • “Enquiries wait while I am out on the estate”

    The WhatsApp number is my personal phone. When I am on the plantation or driving to town, a guest's questions sit unread until evening.

  • “We write off the monsoon”

    We close or cut rates in the rains because nobody tells guests the place is open, reachable and lovely when wet.

  • “Reviews complain about things we could have warned guests about”

    The steep path, the leeches, the patchy network, the distance from town. Guests who were not told write about it, and the next family reads it.

  • “We have no usable list of past guests”

    Names and ID copies sit in the register, but nobody noted who came for an anniversary, who brought the dog, or whether they agreed to hear from us.

  • “Company and wedding enquiries get one reply and then go quiet”

    A planner asks for rates for forty people or a function date, we send a figure, and nobody follows up. The date goes to the property that called back and arranged a visit.

What we do

What we do for resorts.

Everything included for resorts.

  1. Listings that match the property

    Airbnb, Booking.com, MakeMyTrip and Google Business Profile listings with current photographs, the true drive time and the house rules, written the same way on each.

  2. A website guests can book from

    Rooms, meal plan, route, rules and an advance payment or WhatsApp booking path, built for a phone on a weak signal, with the booking button reachable in a tap or two and the form short enough to finish in the car.

  3. WhatsApp replies for the usual questions

    One business number with replies covering rates for the dates, the road, pets, food and check-in, and a named person covering the chat when the owner is away.

  4. Weekday and monsoon offers

    Packages for mid-week, workations and the rains, aimed at the cities guests drive from, with an honest picture of what the season is like.

  5. Corporate and group sales kit

    A rate card, a group proposal with rooms on sharing, the hall or lawn, food, activities, transport and GST invoicing, a site-visit plan, a quotation follow-up routine and a draft annual agreement for companies that return.

  6. Guest register with consent

    Each stay recorded with the occasion, the room, the booking source and permission to contact, so past guests get a thank-you note, a review request and an invitation back, and can pass your number to friends.

  7. Direct-booking set-up on Google

    Google Business Profile kept current, free booking links switched on where your booking engine supports them, and your property name searchable so a guest who types it lands on your site before an app. Repeat and referral offers are built around extras, such as a welcome meal or late checkout, so they sit comfortably with the rate-parity terms in your app agreements. Read those terms first.

  8. Enquiry handling from first message to confirmation

    A short script for the questions to ask on every enquiry, a quotation template, a follow-up rule for quotes left unanswered, and a payment and confirmation message sent the same way each time. Show-round slots for wedding and event families go in a shared calendar.

How the result is measured

  • Occupancy by weekday and by season, with ADR and RevPAR
  • Direct share of bookings against app share, and repeat-guest rate
  • Enquiry-to-booking conversion on call, WhatsApp, Instagram and the website
  • Cost per direct booking against the commission paid to apps
  • Corporate and event enquiries to bookings
  • Reply time to enquiries
  • Review score and replies by platform

Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.

Every service, written for resorts

Each has its own page: what it involves for resorts, what you get, and what it is measured on.

Worth a page and a campaign of their own

Mid-week packages · Monsoon and off-season stays · Corporate offsites and team outings · Family functions and small destination weddings · Whole-property group bookings · Repeat guests booking direct · Workations and long stays · Pet-friendly stays · Annual agreements with companies · Direct bookings from referrals

Priority campaigns

Campaigns for what resorts most want to sell.

Each one planned around when your buyers decide, and measured against the baseline.

  • Long-weekend early booking

    Messages to past guests who agreed, and posts to followers, as soon as a long weekend shows on the calendar.

  • Monsoon stay campaign

    Real rain photographs, a monsoon page and a package with indoor things to do, aimed at nearby cities whose people like the rains.

  • Mid-week workation offer

    A weekday package with work desks, honest Wi-Fi details and a longer-stay rate, aimed at remote workers from the nearest metro.

  • Corporate retreat pipeline

    A list of target companies within driving distance, the HR and admin people who plan outings, a rate card and sample day plan sent to them, a site visit offered, the quotation followed up, and an annual agreement proposed to those who book once.

  • Return-guest invitation

    A personal note from the owner or manager to past guests who agreed to hear from you, ahead of the season they last came in.

  • Wedding and event enquiries

    Show-round slots for families, partnerships with event planners and venue neighbours, a standard quotation and follow-up until the date is held or the family says no.

  • Direct booking against app commission

    A thank-you, review request and invitation to past guests who agreed, plus a referral note they can forward. Offers add something to the stay rather than cut the price shown on the apps.

Beyond search

Where we reach buyers of resorts, beyond Google.

Search matters, but it is rarely the only way this industry's buyers find a supplier.

  • Travel agents and tour operators

    Rate sheets and photographs for agents who build itineraries for the Kerala, Coorg or Rajasthan circuits and need a property they can rely on.

  • HR and admin teams in nearby cities

    Offsite material for companies within driving distance, sent to the people who plan team outings and family days and to the office managers who raise the purchase order.

  • Wedding and event planners, and nearby venues

    A short pack on lawns, rooms and food for planners who arrange small functions and destination weddings outside the city, and referral arrangements with photographers, caterers and decorators who work the same circuit.

  • Travel creators and local guides

    Creators whose followers live in your feeder cities, and trek and safari guides whom visitors ask where to stay.

  • Riders' clubs, cycling groups and trekking groups

    Groups that plan trips to the hills together and need parking, early breakfasts and somewhere safe for bikes.

Who it is for

This is written for these resorts.

  • Coffee and tea estate resorts and plantation bungalows
  • Jungle resorts near tiger reserves and national parks, with safaris booked through the forest department
  • Hill-station resorts and cottage clusters in Coorg, Munnar, Manali and Mussoorie
  • Beach cottages and villas in Goa, Gokarna and the Konkan coast
  • Heritage havelis, palace hotels and farm resorts
  • Villa clusters rented as a whole property
  • Backwater and lakeside stays
  • Compact owner-run resorts of ten to twenty rooms
  • Resorts with a lawn, hall or banquet space for functions
  • City-edge and highway resorts for day outings and short weekend breaks

Not for

It is not the right fit if.

  • You want a guaranteed Google ranking or a guaranteed number of leads. Nobody honest can promise either.
  • You need enquiries by next week and have nobody to answer them.
  • You want posts and reach reported, not enquiries and orders.

How it works

How the work runs for resorts

The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.

  1. 1

    Read the bookings

    We look at your booking calendar, app listings, reviews, WhatsApp chats, guest register and the booking engine or property management software you use, to see which dates sit empty, where bookings come from and where enquiries go cold.

  2. 2

    Fix what guests see first

    Listings, photographs, the route and the house rules brought in line across the apps, Google and your own website.

  3. 3

    Open the direct path

    A website a guest can book from, a business WhatsApp number with full replies, and consent to contact captured at check-in.

  4. 4

    Handle every enquiry to the end

    One named person owns each enquiry, whether it comes by call, WhatsApp, Instagram or the website. They ask for dates, guest count, rooms, occasion and budget, send the quote, follow up and take the advance. Where your booking engine or PMS allows, we work inside it; what can connect depends on the software.

  5. 5

    Fill the quiet dates

    Weekday, monsoon and offsite offers aimed at the cities and groups most likely to come, through search, social posts and past guests.

  6. 6

    Bring guests back

    Invitations to past guests and offsite organisers ahead of their season, and a habit of answering every review on every platform.

Proof

What happened when owners fixed this.

Real clients, the work we did, and the result as it was recorded. Where no number was recorded, none is claimed.

All case studies

  • Hotel Felicity Inn

    Situation
    A traveller compares three hotels on a phone and books one. The website was not built for that.
    What we did
    • The site rebuilt around booking
    • Photography and one look
    • Search work for destination searches
    • Content a traveller reads
    Result
    • Online bookings increased 35%
    • Organic traffic increased 50% within six months
    • Positive reviews on Google and TripAdvisor increased 30%
    Read the case study

Also worked with

Chord Road Hospital · Curtain Label · Difesa Security Services · Hands On CSR · Implevista · Kambar Group · Kalessi · Kerur Pain Clinic · LL Trust · Lucky Deals · Natural Gases · NavaShakthi Souhardha · NewCom Logistics · Proton Technical Services · SB Engineering · Shakthi Foundation · Shakthi Group · Urbanest · Insyde Studio · Venkateshwara Laser Tech · Vivara Studios

Where this fits

Three pieces of sales work, in this order.

GullySales builds every engagement from three pieces of sales work. This page is not one of them, but the same three steps apply to the business behind it.

  1. Step 1

    Sales audit

    Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.

    Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.

  2. Step 2

    Sales process design

    One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.

    Start here if every salesperson sells differently.

  3. Step 3

    Sales management

    A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.

    Start here if the team has targets and no routine.

Tell us what you need Your brief is read before we call. Scope, fee and term in writing.

FAQ

Questions resorts ask before they call.

Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.

Tell us what you need
Ours is a small owner-run resort of about ten rooms. Is this worth it for us?
Yes, if you want more direct bookings and fuller weekdays. A small resort needs fewer pieces: a clean listing, a proper WhatsApp reply, a rate card for groups and a past-guest list. We can show which of those is missing before you spend anything.
Should we come off Airbnb and Booking.com?
No. The apps bring guests who would never find you otherwise. The aim is that a guest who already knows you books direct the second time, and that the apps fill the dates you cannot fill yourself.
Do you work with properties outside Karnataka?
Yes. We work from Nagarbhavi in Bengaluru with properties across India by call, WhatsApp and shared documents, and travel for kick-off and review sessions when needed.
Does tourism registration matter for marketing?
Yes. Several states run registration or classification schemes through their tourism departments, and some agents, companies and platforms ask for it. Rules differ by state and change, so check with your state tourism office before you mention it in a listing.
Can you get our property to the top of the apps?
No one can promise a position on an app, which decides its own order. What lifts a listing is in your hands: current photographs, complete details, quick replies to guests and every review answered.
How do we depend less on booking apps?
By giving guests a reason and a way to book direct: a booking path that works on a phone, a Google profile that links to it, past guests who agreed to hear from you, and replies that arrive fast. The apps stay for the dates you cannot fill. Read your app agreements on rate parity before you publish a cheaper direct rate; extras and a personal invitation are usually safer than a lower public price.
Can you work with our booking engine or PMS?
Where it can be done. Many engines and property management systems let us read bookings, add a booking link to your Google profile or the website, or export guest details. What connects depends on what your software supports, so we check it first and tell you before we plan around it. If it supports little, a simple sheet covers the same ground.
Do you also handle corporate and wedding sales?
Yes. Company outings and functions are sold differently from family stays, with a rate card, a proposal, a site visit and a follow-up on the quote. We set that pipeline up and can run the follow-up. Scope, fee and term are agreed in writing after we read your brief.
How much does it cost?
There is no price list, because the work differs by business. The fee is scoped after we have read your brief and spoken to you, and put in writing before anything starts, split into our time, your media spend and production.
How long is the contract?
The term is agreed in writing after we have spoken, along with the fee and the reporting. It is never a default twelve months, and renewal is decided on the numbers against the baseline recorded at the start.

Notes for owners

Read more about resorts.

Part of Hospitality. See the other industries in the sector.

Your next practical step

Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.

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