You can take advantage of natural disasters and be embraced as a wonderful servant of those evacuees who have been displaced and those in the Disaster Relief!
This creates a wonderful public relations momentum for your business and your brand!
Good example would be the recent hurricane Harvey and hit the gulf coast. As it bore in on the Texas coast and moved upward into Louisiana, you could anticipate there would be a lot of evacuees.
If your Hotel/motel were in the cities of San Antonio, Austin, Waco, Dallas/Fort Worth, or smaller cities in between, you could anticipate evacuees would be headed your direction.
You could then establish a very compelling message! Do not be tempted to raise your rates through the roof. If you insist, you may set them at the maximum allowable by your state but I would suggest you keep them in the range of your usual pricing.
“Why,” you may ask.”I can raise them and make more money during this disaster,” you may argue.
You send an email everyone who has ever been a guest in your Hotel!
Your hotel management software should have this readily available. However, you will need to send it through an email delivery service, such as MailChimp.com.
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When you create an account with MailChimp, you’ll automatically start on our no-cost Forever Free Plan. It’s ideal for beginners who want to grow their lists and create campaigns while testing out MailChimp’s powerful, built-in tools and features. You can send up to 12,000 emails per month and have up to 2,000 total subscribers.
Here is what you say:
We at <your hotel> in <your location> are very concerned about the people who will be adversely affected in the coming days! We want to reach out to make their problems less agonizing for them!
We want to help!
If you, your family, or friends are in the affected area please get this message to them!
Not only are we not raising our prices, we are offering package discounts and special amenities for evacuees. All they have to do is identify themselves as evacuate fleeing the <storm/FIRE/flood>.
We also extend this offer to anyone going to the disaster area for Disaster Relief.
All they have to do is identify themselves as Disaster Relief workers.
Spread the word to anyone you know who I would like to take advantage of this special offer.
You should send this message out several times during the development of the storm. Then, send it out a few times afterwards saying how much you enjoyed helping theevacuees and Disaster Relief workers.
This will gain you immeasurable public relations benefit in your community and among all of your previous guests.
For all who take advantage of this program you want to thank him for availing themselves of it and encouraging them as they rebuild their lives.
Again, you want to take for social marketing advantage of this in your social media, as well.
See the next article on how to manage your hotel in the recovery area.
Here is how you can help if you are in the central area of the disaster.
Here is to your facility being the dominant, most successful, hotel business in your marketplace!
May you have a wonderfully profitable business!
Your Hotel Marketing Dominator Team
Robbie Meek and Paul Elliott
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