Families can be highly lucrative guests for your resort because there are more people in the party and they are more likely to remain on the property because of the convenience factor. However, unless you’re strictly a family resort, it can be challenging to market yourself as family-friendly without lowering your appeal to business travelers and weekend-getaway guests. From how you list your room rates to how your position amenities like shade cabana rentals, here are five ways to market to families without pigeon-holing yourself as solely family-oriented.
1. Make the Most of Your Website
By incorporating images of families among those of couples and business travelers, you’ll immediately show the best of both worlds that you have to offer. Many successful resorts create different pages on their site to highlight certain amenities to specific audiences – for business travelers, for vacationers, and for families. Be sure to maintain brand consistency if you take this approach, so you don’t lose the trust of your potential guests.
2. Leverage Your Social Media
Your social media channels give you the opportunity to reach a wide range of audiences. Images speak volumes, and the more authentic those photos are, the more convincing they’ll be. Choose a neutral voice for your messaging and a similar style for images (regardless of whether they’re showing a couple walking the beach or a family enjoying their shade cabana) to keep your brand consistent. This will allow you to display how dynamic your property can be without losing your authenticity. From targeted social ads to online networking with family-oriented groups, you’ll be able to show off your family-friendly side.
3. Offer Higher Occupancy Rates
Your business travelers and leisure guests are interested in your single- and double-occupancy rates, but your family guests need to know about higher-occupancy rooms. Whether it’s listing suites as family rooms or adding verbiage to say that children under a certain age are included in the double-occupancy rate, addressing parents’ questions as they shop makes it more likely that they’ll click the “book now” button.
4. Create Family-Friendly Itineraries & Packages
Parents who are planning a family vacation are concerned with keeping everyone happy and entertained during their stay. Keep them on your website longer by building potential itineraries to peruse and highlighting local activities that would interest the kids. Be sure to balance on-property activities with off-property ones to help maximize your profit opportunities.
5. Highlight Your Family-Friendly Amenities
Marketing yourself as family-friendly doesn’t mean changing your entire business model. Highlight the amenities you already offer in a way that appeals to parents. That warm cookie you may provide at check-in isn’t just appreciated by the adults. Your shade cabana rentals may be the perfect place for leisure travelers to order a cocktail, but it also offers a comfortable place for the kids to nap after playing in the pool all morning. From family movies in the room to kid’s menus in the restaurant, there are many amenities you likely already have. It’s all about positioning them for your family guests to see.
Looking for other marketing ideas? Check out our post: Marketing Ideas to Maximize Your Private Cabana Investment.
Explore Your Options the Perfect Shade Cabana Design
At Resort Cabanas (a division of Eide Industries, Inc.), we specialize in designing, manufacturing, and engineering custom commercial cabanas and pre-engineered options. With almost 80 years of extensive design, construction, metal fabrication, industrial sewing, and installation experience, we are proud to offer the highest quality products possible, made right here in the U.S.