Resorts and homestays · 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 homestay whose number showed on Google Maps.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Resort and homestay sales and marketing means getting travellers to find a property 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 and the past-guest list that fill weekdays and the off-season.
The owner is out on the estate with no signal. By morning the family has booked the place that answered on WhatsApp.
Most resorts and homestays 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 6 Oct 2026.
How buyers decide
How resorts and homestays 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 and homestays.
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 in 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.
What we do
What we do for resorts and homestays.
Everything included for resorts and homestays, and the result each part is there to produce.
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.
Result: A guest arrives at the place they expected.
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.
Result: A returning guest has a way to book without an app.
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 host is away.
Result: An enquiry gets a full answer while the guest is still deciding.
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.
Result: Quiet dates have something to sell.
Offsite and group sales kit
A page and a quote sheet for HR and admin teams: rooms on sharing, the hall or lawn, food, activities, transport and GST invoicing.
Result: A company planning an outing gets a quote it can approve.
Guest register with consent
Each stay recorded with the occasion, the room, the booking source and permission to contact, so past guests can be invited back directly.
Result: Next season starts with a list of people who already like the place.
How the result is measured
- Bookings by source: app, direct, agent and repeat guest
- Weekday and off-season occupancy
- WhatsApp and phone enquiries, and how many became bookings
- Reply time to enquiries
- Repeat guests as a share of stays
- 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 and homestays
Each has its own page: what it involves for resorts and homestays, what you get, and what it is measured on.
- SEOBe the homestay that shows up when someone searches for a plantation stay that takes dogs.
- PPCSpend on the quiet dates, not on the long weekend that fills itself.
- Social media marketingThe reel that gets saved shows the morning mist and the breakfast, not the logo.
- Influencer marketingA free stay for a creator is a booking you gave away, so decide what it should bring first.
- Reputation managementOne review about leeches and a muddy path decides the next family's booking.
- Email marketingWrite to last year's guests before they plan this year's trip, with their consent on file.
- WhatsApp marketingThe guest asks about the road, the dog and the food before the rate, so answer all of it.
- Website developmentYour own website is where a guest books without the app's fee, so make it bookable.
- Content marketingAnswer the doubts a guest has about a place they have never seen.
- Customer retentionThe family that came last December is your easiest booking this December, if someone asks.
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
Priority campaigns
Campaigns for what resorts and homestays 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.
Result: Past guests hear about the long weekend from you before they open the apps.
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.
Result: The rainy season earns something instead of closing the gate.
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.
Result: Monday to Thursday rooms have a buyer.
Team outing campaign for HR teams
A page, a sample day plan and outreach to HR and admin contacts before they plan the year-end and new-year outings.
Result: Offsite organisers have your quote before they shortlist.
Return-guest invitation
A personal note from the host to past guests who agreed to hear from you, ahead of the season they last came in.
Result: Repeat stays come back as direct bookings.
Beyond search
Where we reach buyers of resorts and homestays, 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.
Wedding and event planners
A short pack on lawns, rooms and food for planners who arrange small functions and destination weddings outside the city.
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 and homestays.
- Coffee and tea estate homestays
- Jungle lodges near tiger reserves and national parks
- Hill-station resorts and cottages
- Beach cottages and villas in Goa, Gokarna and the Konkan coast
- Heritage havelis and farm stays
- Private villas rented as a whole
- Backwater and lakeside stays
- Wellness and ayurveda retreats
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
From your first message to the first report.
No open-ended retainer. Every step gives you something in writing.
First
Your brief
You tell us what you need in a few short steps: your business, what you want, where enquiries come from and how they are handled.
After the brief
A conversation and a written scope
We read it, then talk with whoever handles your enquiries. If you want our help, the scope, the fee and the reporting come in writing, and nothing starts before you have read them.
Before work starts
Baseline recorded
Enquiries by source, reply time, conversion and cost per order, written down so every later report has an honest comparison.
After the baseline
The first fix goes live
The fix we agreed to start with is put in place and measured against the baseline, whether that is reply time, a follow-up sequence, the page buyers land on or the handover between marketing and sales.
As agreed
Report against the baseline
What moved, what did not, and what changes next, in plain words. How often you get it is set in writing before work starts.
At renewal
Renew on the numbers
The term ends and you decide whether to continue from the results. The length is agreed in writing before anything starts.
How the work runs for resorts and homestays
- 1
Read the bookings
We look at your booking calendar, app listings, reviews, WhatsApp chats and guest register, to see which dates sit empty and where bookings come from.
- 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
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
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.
- 5
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.
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%
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
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every later report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No guarantees we cannot keep
The term is agreed in writing and never a default twelve months. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Engagement options
Ways to work with us.
Pick the size of commitment that fits. Every option starts with your brief and a conversation.
Option 1
The conversation on its own
A call after you send your brief. It says honestly whether you need outside help, and many fixes are ones your own team can make.
Option 2
One fix, scoped
Start with the fix that matters most, such as reply time or follow-up. The fee is in writing before anything starts.
Option 3
An ongoing programme
We run the work, report against the baseline, and you renew on the numbers. The term and the reporting are agreed in writing first.
Option 4
Guidance for your own team or agency
We plan, brief and check the work of your in-house team or current agency, instead of replacing them.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
FAQ
Questions resorts and homestays ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Ours is a family homestay, not a resort. Is this worth it for us?
Should we come off Airbnb and Booking.com?
Do you work with properties outside Karnataka?
Does homestay registration matter for marketing?
Can you get our property to the top of the apps?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
Notes for owners
Read more about resorts and homestays.
- What guests ask a homestay before they bookGuests ask about the road, the network, the food and the monsoon before they book a homestay. Answer those questions in advance and enquiries, reviews and direct bookings improve.
- What buyers check before they book a stay or a catererGuests, tenants and event families judge hotels, homestays, PGs, serviced apartments and caterers on the same four checks. Here is what each check looks like and how to pass it.
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.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.