Tips for Handling Large Group Bookings and Reservations

Whether guests are celebrating a birthday bash, a corporate team building event, or a family reunion, large group bookings and reservations provide you with ample benefits.

Advantages of group reservations include a wider audience who in turn can promote and attract new customers and offer you greater financial gain to reinvest back into your tour and activity business. 

On the other hand, larger bookings can be more stressful to manage, with bills, addresses and phone numbers for each guest. There also may be select individuals in the group looking for customisable offerings to add on as part of their booking experience.

Understanding how to effectively manage and attract groups in the hospitality and tourism industry can be a game-changer for your company, especially with comprehensive tour booking software as part of your toolkit.

What is a Group Booking or Reservation?

While the name might be fairly self-explanatory, we’ll explore a bit more about what exactly a group booking or reservation entails. These types of bookings are typically quite large in size, from 20 guests to much larger groups. 

Guests may decide to book with your tourism company for any number of reasons: in instances where they’re wanting to travel and sightsee with their entourage, such as a corporate event or conference, a birthday celebration, or a wedding.

Value of Large Group Bookings for Operators

Large group bookings for tour operators provide added value in the form of increased revenue and occupancy rates for your company. By securing big groups, you avoid the dreaded last-minute cancellation, meaning less empty seats that could have otherwise been filled by tour-goers.

But how do you attract and accommodate groups as part of your hospitality business? By creating and selling tour packages that address the needs of your travelers, using  comprehensive yet seamless tour booking software. 

Larger groups are seeking the convenience, cost-savings and security of a tour company that offers group reservations. By providing them tour offerings that cater to these wants and needs, you increase your chances of attracting them and turning them into repeat customers who refer others in search of a tour company that offers large reservations.

Managing Large Group Reservations

Coordinating group bookings might seem like a daunting task, but the following tips will help you perfect your larger reservations. From ensuring clear messaging on your website that you accept group bookings to offering customisable options suited to the wants and needs of even the most particular tour-goer; you’ll be efficiently managing large group bookings in no time.

Make It Clear You Welcome Group Bookings

Ensuring your website’s messaging is crystal clear that you provide group online bookings, helps to set the record straight with inquiring guests. Note your flexibility with customized rates and special discounts to win large groups over, and consider offering transparency regarding the cost per tour-goer, minimum number of guests alongside important safety protocols. 

Group tour bookings can prove to be costly for your guests on top of their travel, accommodation and meal expenses. Depending on the type of tour you provide, offering group rates or tiered group pricing is one strategy that lets you cater your discounts to group sizes without compromising on profitability. 

While a standard individual ticket might cost $100, the larger the group booking, the greater the discount you can offer on each individual ticket price. Better yet, you can automate this process using a booking software management platform to create rules that automatically apply discounts for larger groups.

Customize for Large Group Reservations

Large groups in particular need the most assistance when it comes to coordinating tour logistics, while still enjoying an outing with their posse. This is especially important for corporate groups where team building is a crucial outcome of the day. They also might want the option to add or customize elements to their tour that cater to their group’s specific interests, whether it be extra items or sightseeing.

Below we’ve outlined a few ways to cater to your group bookings and ensure ample customization for your guests.

Offer Experience-Enhancing Add-Ons

One easy yet efficient way to create a fun and memorable experience for large group bookings while also boosting your revenue is to offer experience-enhancing add-ons. Collecting information from your reservation using your booking software can provide valuable insight into the purpose of your guests’ trip, allowing you to tailor suggested add-ons to meet their excursion needs. Booking fields can make this process a breeze, by asking each individual guest to provide basic and additional details.

Add-ons are particularly valuable if groups are joining you as part of a special occasion. 

Items like a bottle of champagne for those groups celebrating an anniversary or wedding are the perfect choice. These are a great feature to list as an add-on as part of a specific tour (perhaps a food tour) or can be listed as merchandise as part of your booking software’s point of sale system on your website. For corporate groups, add-ons like bus transfers or optional transport features once again take the guesswork out of logistics.

Add an Extra Guide

With larger groups comes the need to manage more people. While there’s a certain level of expectation that guests will abide by your guidelines and safety rules, adding an extra guide not only helps to keep your guests engaged, but also minimizes risks.

Choose a tour booking software whose features include resource management for your company, allowing you to easily keep track of guide availability and roster extra guides as needed.

Prepare Ahead of Time

We touched on booking fields earlier in terms of their ability to upsell your guests with experience-enhancing add-ons. They also give tour operators the advantage of preparing for guests ahead of time.

Often, large group reservations can take extra time and effort. However, the right booking software can make this process much more straightforward. We see the importance of booking fields and preparing ahead of time especially for catering to dietary restrictions as well as other special requests within a group. 

Collecting guest information ahead of time not only provides your tour-goers with a unique experience, but also ensures your guests’ wants and needs are met and their safety is front of mind.

Collecting and Managing Payment Information

The greater the number of guests, the greater the importance of secure credit card handling, especially for group reservations. When dealing with addresses and credit cards, it’s imperative your booking software protects your tour-goers’ personal information.

Your tour booking platform can make it easy to take secure payments from multiple guests. Rezgo allows you to send payment requests to guests by email or SMS, allowing guests to make payments through your secure payment processor. You can even tailor email templates to your company, reassuring guests that the payment requests come from a trustworthy source. 

Can Group Bookings benefit your Tour Business?

For hospitality professionals in the tour business looking to enhance their group booking strategy, these provided tips will help you handle group reservations like a pro.

Featuring customized booking fields, point of sales offerings and secure payment options, Rezgo’s tour booking software enhances your group booking strategy, leading to exciting times for your guests and increased growth for your company.

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