According to the road map the domestic travel will be resumed on 12 April. Many will use the chance to come down to London for a new haircut. Why don't they? The only option at the moment is to stay in a self-contained accommodation. If you always wanted to let your spare property for a staycation it's a perfect time to do so. As surely there will be a high demand these days.
Incoming tourism is on pause. Hopefully not for long. But until then every travel-related business has stopped, waiting for lift of travel ban.
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We all have been very patient this winter and eventually it has paid off. With international travel resuming not earlier than mid-May, everyone will be looking for a place to stay within UK. In fact, the demand for domestic holidays will be at its highest around July-August. Whether you plan to go on staycation or not. You can rent out your place whilst you are away and make some extra cash. Or why not play a long game and let your second home. We have short-listed few options for your to consider. Let's have a look at them.
You got it! The most obvious choice is to become a host on Airbnb. This is by far the most popular option, with number of UK hosts hitting 223,000 in pre-COVID era. This is also best option for those looking to rent out their place for a short term. You can either manage your listing independently or hire a management company. They will be happy to look after your property and will take all the hassle on. From taking bookings to meet and greet guests as well as arranging cleaning and maintenance. The good news is that Airbnb currently offers free webinars covering all the tips and advice for future hosts to make a quick start and let your property in no time. You will learn how to best market your place, how to set pricing and much more. If you prefer problem-free option simply let your cottage for staycation with one of the self-catered accommodation hire platforms like cottages.com. They are keen to take all the hard work on them. From marketing to bookings and payments. With literally an unlimited marketing budget they reach holidaymakers with ease. Here is the deal. They concentrate on the advertising, you look after your guests. Simple isn't it? If you are looking to make your property listing stand out from the crowd. Or if you plan to reach those who search for an accommodation on Google rather within a platform. Your choice is to create an independent landing page. I know it sounds more complicated than the first two options but it definitely worth it. With all the free web-page creation tools out there you will be able to design your own listing with ease. Take your own way and add as much information and colors as you wish! Once your web-page is ready all you need to do is plug-in a booking reservation calendar like BedBooking.com. Clients will be able to make bookings from your own website. The platform can be connected to your smartphone as well. So you will be receiving reservations anywhere you are. Managing your own webpage gives you unlimited ways to be discoverable by potential guests. You will be right there for any queries coming from the clients. Including connecting with them on social media platforms or a webchat service. Whilst many businesses are suffering due to a shortage of staff amid the current economy recession. Tourism industry is not an exception. Many line-managers these days are reorganising their departments to keep the workflow running. This usually leads to situation when workers must take on their plate new tasks and responsibilities. We have short-listed free online services for an efficient work distribution amongst departments and a productive project management. Using Trello online tool has turned around the communication between our Marketing and Product teams. The effective communication between Product and Marketing departments is a key for a successful Digital Marketing plan execution. Digital platforms constantly require new content based on the incentives for clients. Google always after related landing pages. All this is usually developed by a Product team. Trello helps to link departments and set up a clear communication throughout. Let's say you are looking to start a new Paid Search campaign. All you need to do in order to communicate this to your Product team is simply create a new board on Trello with the checklist of your requirements (e.g. 10 landing pages links with titles, special offer description and 3 unique selling points). Trello brings order in your daily work. I love Monday.com! This platform is super easy to use and I'm always on top of my projects. If you plan or already given a long-term task like Market Research or Competitor Analysis to one of your teams, Monday.com is a perfect online tool for tracking its progress. It produces a clear graphical overview of your team's work so you're always on top of it. We had a quick start with Asana thanks to the different project templates we could choose from at the beginning. Another collaborative work management solution which is worth mentioning is Asana. This service is free when you opt for a basic subscription. That will give you a galore of tools to manage your team's workflow, making sure they communicate proactively and most importantly hit the deadlines. With Asana it's easy to integrate other services like Google docs, Outlook and Zoom. Brilliant! Less Zoom calls, no Teams catch-ups. I'm always on the same page with my team. Being able to manage your team's workload and communicate efficiently has never been more crucial than today when most of us work remotely. Using task management online services helps to distribute work over multiple teams, supervise and adjust tasks in a fashion manner. Why not give it a go? In return your team will appreciate clear and achievable goals.
Running a tourism business has always been an intricate venture. Whether you're running a hotel or a travel agency your market is likely seasonal. Quieter times always follow the creaming periods and it takes ingenious efforts to keep your sales going. But what do you do during a complete halt of business activity like a national lock-down? Revise and build-up your online presence You never had time for anything else when you were making sales, did you? Take this period as an opportunity. Try to improve things and actually grow. Revise you online presence. There are couple of things you need to start with: Your website. You always thought it needs an improvement but you've never had a chance to get round to actually fix it. Put together your ideas and start with those tweaks you can perform yourself. Try your customers' shoes. It has to be easy to navigate as well as be mobile devices-friendly. SEO. It's a perfect time to invest your efforts and put together a SEO plan. Better ranking on Google generally helps to save money on your PPC campaigns. Your social media accounts. Put some effort and refresh your Facebook and Twitter pages. Add new headers, change pinned texts etc. If you haven't posted regularly it is worth to catch up and add some fresh related content. Remember it's all about engaging with your audience. Show your competence - write an e-book or a rough guide of your favourite destination You've been trading for a long time and likely travelled the globe a lot. Why not try and write an e-book stuffed with your best memories? You don't need to be a renowned novelist to produce a quality piece of travel notes. Tell a story. People love them. They can't go abroad these days, but they're eager to read about travelling. Your clients will appreciate a chance to get it for free on your website too. Team up with other travel gurus on social media or business boards Try to think outside the box. What other services you can offer? You have all the competence and skills to run a business. You can succeed in any adjacent business. It's about identifying new markets. Why not try and use your marketing or product development skills in other industry? You can also count on your skills dealing with vendors and negotiating commercial agreements. Team up with those businesses who are struggling in a current climate. They are willing to collaborate too. You might come up with a brilliant idea which will nourish both parties. Reach out to your clients. Think what value you can bring them. Your clients can't travel but they would love to hear from you. Don't stop yourself from sending anything other than a regular list of the special offers. Check what is trending at the moment. Whether this is watch party tips or your favourite recipes you always wanted to share. Whatever you're sending out try to keep it related to your database needs. This is a great opportunity to show your care and also remind about your business. Remember we are all in this together. There is no doubt Travel industry will be back eventually. Try to reshape your business until that moment. You have time.
Project Lift-off is a notion for a process of recovery of the travel industry to some sort of normality and also a solution for those eager to resume travelling. There were 5 key points in the prime minister's speech on Sunday we all could warmly greet, along with one many of us might find alarmous.
1. ‘You may now visit locations up to 60 miles away’ For most of population of UK this means being able to reach the seaside, which will certainly be a life saver for many beach resorts. Whereas ability to visit national parks will quench a hunger to travel for the time being. 2. ‘No restrictions on off-peak use of trains, trams and buses’ What was the advice before? “You should only be travelling if it is essential for you to do so or you are a key worker. You must always practise social distancing whilst on the go”. According to Project Lift-off this measure could be lifted. With most of us resuming commuting, the transport links will have to manage the increased number of passengers during amid restrictions. The good news is that allowing non-essential travelling will resume day tourism and nourish transport operators with so needed cash. |
LIFT-OFF TRAVEL SUPERMARKET BLOG |