Black Friday: get 15 times more direct reservations
Reading Time: 3 minutesDon’t miss out on the biggest shopping day in the year
At GuestCentric, we’ve been analyzing the booking pace around the famous Black Friday, the biggest shopping day in the year. It is clear that hotels that take this opportunity do very well: some of our clients saw increases upwards of 15x on its direct reservations, from an average 10 new direct bookings/day to a staggering 175 bookings/day! All with a simple, well-planned promotion and communication plan.
You can also get a piece of the enormous pie that is Black Friday. Plan ahead, following our tips:
- Start early. Don’t wait for November 23. Now it’s the time: plan your promotions ahead of time and start teasing the deals on your website and social media channels about two weeks before the big day.
- Let the word out. Black Friday is a great time to do email marketing: put all those past guests info to good use and target them with a great deal! Also, use a sizeable portion of your online advertising budget on social media and PPC campaigns for this period, as the returns can be significant.
- Target your low season. Design promotions specially targeted at your low season. Use this opportunity to improve your occupancy when most needed.
- Highlight your gift voucher options. Black Friday kicks off the Christmas shopping season, so many consumers are looking for great gift ideas. Target those shoppers as well.
- Your website is your booking engine. As a GuestCentric client, take advantage of your integrated website and booking engine and social marketing tools: it easy to create and publish your special deals on your website, booking engine and social media channels, all in one click.
Learn more
- How do I create a promotion?
- How can I create gift vouchers?
- How can I share my offers within blogs, newsletters and Twitter?
- How can I share my promotions to Facebook/Twitter?
- How can I link promotions to be sold on my other OTA channels?
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is the day after the US holiday of Thanksgiving and it is regarded as the first day of the Christmas shopping season, a day when retailers offer major deals on both brick and mortar and online stores. It now extends over the weekend into Cyber Monday, especially targeted at online shopping, and Travel Deal Tuesday, when airlines put forward big discounts on flight fares.
In 2017, in the USA alone, consumers spent more than $40 billion in that five-day period, $14.5 billion of which in online transactions. Mobile devices accounted for 47.7% of all online shopping, and for about a third of the revenue.
Initially a US phenomenon, Black Friday is now a worldwide shopping frenzy: the UK leads the way with about £7.78 billion (£3.1 billion online) in sales, followed by Germany (£5.74 billion), France (£4.7 billion), Italy (£2.66 billion) and Spain (£1.7 billion).
Consumers used to mostly buy electronics and clothing on Black Friday, but recently other sectors are getting in on the deal: last year, among the top discounted categories was Travel, with up to 60% off. Big hotel chains are no stranger to Black Friday: Marriot, Choice Hotels and Accor Hotels are some of the brands capitalizing on this season’s consumer frenzy.
Further reading
What is Black Friday? Sales and Trends
Kimberly Amadeo, The Balance
Black Friday in numbers
John McKenna, World Economic Forum
Black Friday comes to the tourism sector
Ashley Nault, Tourism Review
Hospitality is Capitalising on Black Friday: Here’s how
Kim West, Alpha Graphics
“Travel Deal Tuesday” is like Black Friday for Flights
Katherine LaGrave, Condé Nast Traveler
