End of Season Strategies for Tour and Activity Operators

The end of a season presents a unique opportunity to gain customer insights, so you can make informed decisions for future seasons. With a wealth of customer data at your fingertips, your Rezgo account is a great place to start.

Our Customer Success team has put together these end of season strategies for tour and activity operators that include steps you can take in your Rezgo account to successfully wrap up your season, ensuring you’ve prepared for success next season, too. 

Download the checklist here!

Adjust Your Operating Hours & Availability at the End of the Season

The first and most important action to take during your end-of-season wrap-up is to adjust your operating hours and availability. You want customers and suppliers to quickly grasp that you’re currently closed and when you’ll reopen.

Your operating hours should be prominently displayed on your website’s Contact Us page. You can also adjust your hours across other platforms such as Google My Business, Facebook and Tripadvisor to ensure your company information is accurate across the web. 

This is a good time to ensure any resellers you work with are aware of your operational changes. If your website has a news or a blog page, consider writing a post announcing your off-season, including details of when you will reopen. 

And finally–and most importantly–double check that your online availability in your Rezgo account reflects your seasonal closure. If you’d like to keep your inventory active for next season, learn how to set blackout dates here.

Getting the Most Out of Reports

Your end of season is the perfect time to analyze the customer data in your Rezgo account in order to improve your customer experience. Thankfully, your customers provide a lot of data with each and every booking made. Rezgo’s reporting feature is robust and can be a great tool to help you plan for next season. Let’s explore three reports that can help with your end of season wrap up:

1. Reviews Report. Rezgo’s in-house review platform is a simple way to collect more customer reviews. The review report lets you see your top performing tours at a glance. It also shows you if any of your inventory is providing a less than 5 star experience. Not using Rezgo’s Verified Reviews yet? Learn how to turn them on in your account here.

2. Booking Report. Rezgo’s built-in booking reports display a breakdown of your front-end vs back-end bookings. Booking reports also provide revenue data, customer demographic data and so much more. You can compare bookings year over year, examine customer demographics, and learn about your customer booking window. Analyzing your booking report from last season can go a long way in planning for subsequent seasons. 

3. Promo Code Report . Rezgo’s promo codes are a powerful way to track ad campaigns and other promotions. From this Rezgo report, you can see which promo codes were most frequently redeemed. 

All Rezgo reports can be scheduled in advance, pinned to your dashboard, printed and exported.

Beyond your Rezgo dashboard, data consoles across other platforms can also provide a wealth of information. Platforms such as Facebook Ads, Google Analytics and Google Business Profile can all provide you with a wealth of data. It’s always a good idea to review these dashboards for post-season insights. 

Prepare For Next Season

All of these end of season strategies for tour and activity operators will help you prepare for next season’s visitors.

Automate Notifications: Your seasonal tourism business can demand more time than you have. For example, perhaps you were unable to follow up with customers after their trip. If that is the case, setting up pre- and post-trip automated email notifications in your Rezgo account can ensure communication gets out no matter how busy you are. Learn how to set up Rezgo notifications here.

Update Price Sheets: Keeping track of multiple commission rates for multiple resellers? Get the jump on next season by putting some time into reviewing and updating your pricing. Rezgo’s price sheets are a simple way to update your rates for different resellers. You can also use price sheets to override retail prices for users, desks, locations or security groups.  Lastly, if you work with OTA’s, many require your pricing 12-18 months in advance, so you need to prepare for future price changes as early as possible.

Upload Merchandise: Adding the merchandise you sell on site to your Rezgo account can help you better track and manage your merchandise for next season. Merchandise can be set up and sold to your customers directly from within your Rezgo account via the point of sale. 

Load Rates: Many travelers like to plan and book their tours well in advance. You can generate off-season revenue for your business by ensuring your rates are loaded for the next 12-24 months. 

Prepare Promo Codes: Preseason sales are a great way to generate revenue and help financially fuel the next season. As you wrap up your season, consider setting up an early bird booking promo code sooner rather than later. Using Rezgo’s rules, setting up your early season incentive is easy. Pair with Rezgo’s strikethrough feature and a strong preseason call to action on your website and you’re well on your way to capturing those early bird bookings. 

Use Selectable Start Times: Are you running rentals or events that require additional flexibility for customer departures next season? If so, you might want to take advantage of Rezgo’s new selectable start times, which you can learn more about here. Ensuring accurate departure times are in place now will save you extra work next season.

Customize Gift Cards: Gift cards are a fantastic low-season cash injection for your business. If you haven’t already, now is a great time to customize your gift cards in Rezgo and get ready for Christmas sales. Did you know that with Rezgo, you can customize your gift cards and send them electronically? Learn more about setting up your Rezgo gift cards here 

Set Up Desks for Resellers: Have you forged recent reseller relationships over this past season or are looking to expand the resellers you work with? If you currently don’t work with resellers or would like to work with more, the off-season is a great time to do so. Rezgo connects with many OTAs (online travel agencies) automatically, but for non-OTA resellers such as concierge desks, consider setting up desks in your Rezgo account so they can continue booking your tours for next season. Desks are a great way to securely have resellers sell on your behalf. Learn how to set up desks here. 

There are a couple other housekeeping steps you can take in your Rezgo account at the end of the season.  You can automatically archive your bookings to save time and start with a clean slate next season. You should also delete users that no longer work for you, such as summer students. Leaving former employees with access to your Rezgo account puts your business and your customer data at risk.

Your off-season presents a unique opportunity to gain clarity and insight into your customers and their experiences. It also provides an opportunity to lay the groundwork for the future success of your business. Rezgo makes this easy with a wealth of customer data at your fingertips.

Need more inspiration after these end of season strategies for tour and activity operators? Check out our low season strategies ebook here. And as always, our customer support and customer success teams are here to help.

Book a Demo   Sign Up For Free