Sloooooooooooow July & Summer

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Samster

Well-known member
Joined
May 30, 2008
Messages
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Location
South Carolina
Boo hoo...after a full house over the 4th of July weekend, we are dead. No guests until one room next weekend.
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Then, nada, zip, zilch until one room at the end of July and then a long term booking in the Fall.
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This week is working on getting listed on the B&B directories and seeing if that will help. The C&VB is supposed to put me on their site...whenever that happens!! I will be blogging more to hopefully have that help us with searches, too. Thanks to Google & Yahoo business, we are right there when you do a search.
It doesn't bother me right now as we're dealing with all this stuff from the lightning strike and I have a mountain of ironing, but it would be nice to get some rooms booked.
This is the slow season here...the dead of Summer. Totally different than folks in the colder climes.
 
OK, now's the time to brainstorm...if guests ony have time for a quick run out and back for a weekend, why would they come to you? Why would I make that 2 hour drive from Hotlanta right now? Especially as Tybee Island is 2 hours in the other direction and is on the ocean.
That's how you'll get bookings this summer...drag them in because someone they really want to see is at the theater up the street. Because there's something happening on the river. Because your town is a slower pace from where they are. A chance to see the 'real GA'.
Pix on the website of cool drinks on the porch. All that stuff. Drag 'em in!
 
Put together some day-trip routings of things to see and do in your area. My Bike N Winery and the Covered Bridges and Glass bring guests. So does the day trip routings for motorcycles. The motorcycle route goes more than 60 miles from the house but not by much. Everything else is 60 or (mostly) less. Do a history route, an antique shop crawl, a scenic route, etc Are there any State Parks near you? Do a hiking package.
We are dead in winter but these packages bring people - even in winter.
 
OK, now's the time to brainstorm...if guests ony have time for a quick run out and back for a weekend, why would they come to you? Why would I make that 2 hour drive from Hotlanta right now? Especially as Tybee Island is 2 hours in the other direction and is on the ocean.
That's how you'll get bookings this summer...drag them in because someone they really want to see is at the theater up the street. Because there's something happening on the river. Because your town is a slower pace from where they are. A chance to see the 'real GA'.
Pix on the website of cool drinks on the porch. All that stuff. Drag 'em in!.
That IS the problem. There is NOTHING at the theater, the performing arts center, the civic center, etc.
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This town CLOSES in July. People are beaching it & going where there is WATER!! The only thing that is still happening is our military connection & that's where I'm getting my few reservations. No packages to be had. There is a dearth of events. I was just discussing this with the innkeepers of the other inn. Corporate travel is down. This is the month where local people leave for vacation. We will probably take one ourselves :)
 
Put together some day-trip routings of things to see and do in your area. My Bike N Winery and the Covered Bridges and Glass bring guests. So does the day trip routings for motorcycles. The motorcycle route goes more than 60 miles from the house but not by much. Everything else is 60 or (mostly) less. Do a history route, an antique shop crawl, a scenic route, etc Are there any State Parks near you? Do a hiking package.
We are dead in winter but these packages bring people - even in winter..
Good for you :) People don't want to hike here when it's 100F with 100% humidity. Just had a friend get back from camping & they were miserable...time of year to sit by a pool and veg!
 
Put together some day-trip routings of things to see and do in your area. My Bike N Winery and the Covered Bridges and Glass bring guests. So does the day trip routings for motorcycles. The motorcycle route goes more than 60 miles from the house but not by much. Everything else is 60 or (mostly) less. Do a history route, an antique shop crawl, a scenic route, etc Are there any State Parks near you? Do a hiking package.
We are dead in winter but these packages bring people - even in winter..
Good for you :) People don't want to hike here when it's 100F with 100% humidity. Just had a friend get back from camping & they were miserable...time of year to sit by a pool and veg!
.
Ahhh, yes! Your July is my January.
 
Put together some day-trip routings of things to see and do in your area. My Bike N Winery and the Covered Bridges and Glass bring guests. So does the day trip routings for motorcycles. The motorcycle route goes more than 60 miles from the house but not by much. Everything else is 60 or (mostly) less. Do a history route, an antique shop crawl, a scenic route, etc Are there any State Parks near you? Do a hiking package.
We are dead in winter but these packages bring people - even in winter..
Good for you :) People don't want to hike here when it's 100F with 100% humidity. Just had a friend get back from camping & they were miserable...time of year to sit by a pool and veg!
.
Ahhh, yes! Your July is my January.
.
Exactly! Nothing happening here really....
 
OK, now's the time to brainstorm...if guests ony have time for a quick run out and back for a weekend, why would they come to you? Why would I make that 2 hour drive from Hotlanta right now? Especially as Tybee Island is 2 hours in the other direction and is on the ocean.
That's how you'll get bookings this summer...drag them in because someone they really want to see is at the theater up the street. Because there's something happening on the river. Because your town is a slower pace from where they are. A chance to see the 'real GA'.
Pix on the website of cool drinks on the porch. All that stuff. Drag 'em in!.
That IS the problem. There is NOTHING at the theater, the performing arts center, the civic center, etc.
sad_smile.gif
This town CLOSES in July. People are beaching it & going where there is WATER!! The only thing that is still happening is our military connection & that's where I'm getting my few reservations. No packages to be had. There is a dearth of events. I was just discussing this with the innkeepers of the other inn. Corporate travel is down. This is the month where local people leave for vacation. We will probably take one ourselves :)
.
Ah, didn't realize the town closed down...well, treat it like I do January- take off, do some things for yourself. Yes, I realize you just HAD to take time off when you were sick, but plan on this for next year.
 
Put together some day-trip routings of things to see and do in your area. My Bike N Winery and the Covered Bridges and Glass bring guests. So does the day trip routings for motorcycles. The motorcycle route goes more than 60 miles from the house but not by much. Everything else is 60 or (mostly) less. Do a history route, an antique shop crawl, a scenic route, etc Are there any State Parks near you? Do a hiking package.
We are dead in winter but these packages bring people - even in winter..
Good for you :) People don't want to hike here when it's 100F with 100% humidity. Just had a friend get back from camping & they were miserable...time of year to sit by a pool and veg!
.
Samster said:
Good for you :) People don't want to hike here when it's 100F with 100% humidity. Just had a friend get back from camping & they were miserable...time of year to sit by a pool and veg!
You will have to do what our innkeeper in FLA does, in the heat of summer she heads north and in winter heads south. You mentioned you would probably have more year-round or opposite seasonal guests to us. Come on up...your room is always reserved.
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Like the others said, your July is my late January/early February... dead, dead, dead.
Now... swamped, swamped, swamped! YAY!! (But I am very behind in reading posts...)
=)
Kk.
 
Put together some day-trip routings of things to see and do in your area. My Bike N Winery and the Covered Bridges and Glass bring guests. So does the day trip routings for motorcycles. The motorcycle route goes more than 60 miles from the house but not by much. Everything else is 60 or (mostly) less. Do a history route, an antique shop crawl, a scenic route, etc Are there any State Parks near you? Do a hiking package.
We are dead in winter but these packages bring people - even in winter..
Good for you :) People don't want to hike here when it's 100F with 100% humidity. Just had a friend get back from camping & they were miserable...time of year to sit by a pool and veg!
.
Samster said:
Good for you :) People don't want to hike here when it's 100F with 100% humidity. Just had a friend get back from camping & they were miserable...time of year to sit by a pool and veg!
You will have to do what our innkeeper in FLA does, in the heat of summer she heads north and in winter heads south. You mentioned you would probably have more year-round or opposite seasonal guests to us. Come on up...your room is always reserved.
regular_smile.gif

.
This is why I posted this because slow times can really be different from location to location. (Well, I wanted a little sympathy, too. haha) August will be slow probably until the end of the month.
We're talking about taking a vacation in the next week or so. Still dealing with everything that got zapped on Sunday.
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Sprinkler system guy tomorrow. Hopefully, the part will be in for the downstairs A/C tomorrow. Friday is the range repair guy. Ka -ching!
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