Schools out!!! Yay! But crickets… your winter destination hotel is not sold out? Why?
If I didn’t choose your resort, it’s because you didn’t convince me my kids would have enough fun there. What if it rains, I wonder? What if it’s too cold outside? To sell out winter breaks, you must have a full agenda of family activities.
Are you promoting what you already have in-house?
I recently stayed at a resort during President’s Week. They have an impressive recreation center, which, as a parent, I thought would be amazing for my kids However, the hotel had hardly any photos of the rec center. Another parent asked in the hot tub, “Do they have anything age-appropriate for a 5-year-old?” Yes, they did, but it wasn’t well-promoted. Ensure your website visually sells everything you can do at your resort!
What the resort did well:
- Signs in the lobby with all the activities listed for the week
- Handouts for the guests with all the activities
What they missed:
- This amazing agenda of fun was not promoted on social media or their website.
Maximize what you already have… Promote Winter Break with a Weekend Activity Fun Agenda and publish this on your website; add photos to your website:
- Turn Games into Game Night: Board games, giant Jenga, Corn Hole, or Ring Tosses. Make it more exciting by creating a game hour or game night and making your hotel a friend-making destination.
- Make your Indoor Swimming Pool a Destination: It’s time to hire an interior decorator to make that boring space into a destination; if you are busy, open a bar in your indoor pool area…
- Pool Olympics: Run a pool game hour with races and diving for toys.
- Saunas and Steam Rooms: The popularity of saunas and steam rooms is skyrocketing. Saunas’ health benefits are undeniable. Share the story and promote these amenities with their health benefits.
- Bonfires, S’mores, and Music: Of course, you promote this and probably sell it… but could you create a bonfire night, where it’s free for all guests to come and enjoy bonfires and free s’mores as a special occasion with a guitarist? Families are looking for friend-making opportunities on vacation for the kids and the parents…
- Ghost Storytime: Ghost stories, historically based stories? Is there a story you can tell about your region or hotel? Or keep it simple: grab a book from your gift shop and read away!
- Family Movie Nights: Do you have a meeting room that’s not in use? Turn it into a movie night destination with free popcorn!
- Twinkle Time or Star Search Star Gazing Party – Learn about the Start: Choose a night with a new moon, bring out the telescopes, check the stargazing apps, and instantly, you are a knowledgeable guide. Look up a few stories about those constellations, and you have a Learn about the Stars evening. Plan it for 2 hours after the sunsets and note that it is weather dependent.
- Guided Hikes: Google “hiking guide near me” and make a deal with that person to come for a killer rate to take your guests out on a winter hike or walk for a small fee or free (you pay the guide).
- Yoga: Search for “yoga instructors near me” and make a deal with that person to come for a killer rate to take classes daily during President’s Week for a small fee or free (you pay them).
- Scavenger Hunts: Buy something cheap with your hotel name on it, such as magnets, balls, keychains, Stickers (super popular right now), or something cheaper like wrapped candy, and create a scavenger hunt. If it’s nice, it can be outdoors—getting kids outdoors is key to a memorable experience. If the weather is nasty, you can bring it indoors.
- History Story Time: I recently visited a hotel in Cooperstown where the front desk clerk doubled as a storyteller. At 11 a.m., after check-in was done, she met us in the lobby and shared all sorts of interesting stories about the hotel, the owners, and the area. This made us into ambassadors, telling all our friends the fun stories we learned about their eccentric owners and interesting hotel history. It was a great way to build word-of-mouth marketing.
- Ghost Stories: Every town has ghost stories. Learn yours. If your hotel has a friendly ghost, even better. Alternate your history storytime with your hotel or area’s ghost stories or combine them into one fun tour.
Snow and Ice dependent ideas for booking out your hotel during the kid’s winter break
- Snowshoeing: Snowshoeing is something most people can do with little training. Buy snowshoes and have them as an amenity
- Sledding: Do you have a hill? Create a safe snow tubing and sledding hill. You can buy tubes for $10 on Amazon and offer them to guests (ensure you are insured). Or promote the nearby popular sledding destinations.
- Ice skating: It doesn’t have to be cold for long to create an ice skating rink – if you have the space – add a few domed garden tents with electric heaters and some bean bags, and you have a destination!
Lastly, get involved with your chamber, CVB and County tourism department to bring a major attraction and event to the region to draw more visitors overall. It’s not enough to say you have snow sports like ae snowmobiling, skiing etc, shopping and great dining… every other town offers this as well.
Weather Proof Your Destination
After a killer year with Ice Castles, the next year was a bust… why – it was too warm for Ice Castles. So, in Lake George, we created a coalition to work on more weather-resistant off-season events. We worked with Moment Factory in Montreal to produce Winter’s Dream. We then had the worst winter year possible, the winter of 2024 with very little snow and lots of rain. The lake, which typically freezes by the end of January, never froze. All of our winter activities were non-existent. Yet, hotels saw an increase in occupancy of 9% and vacation rentals 25%. This was due to a bold move by the supervisors to invest in an event that went viral with marketing and PR. The advertising value of the marketing and PR was over 3 million dollars – not bad for a $500k investment in marketing. Though ticket sales due to the weather for this outside event did not meet expectations, the concept of multimedia experiences to drive traffic in the off-season has significant value.