75% of voucher sales occur in the 12 day run up to Christmas
The countdown to Christmas is officially on! What’s on your wish list? For us, we’re wishing all our hotel clients a string of successful voucher sales. To help make those holiday dreams come true, we took a look back at last year’s voucher sales.
We wanted to figure out when you should start to see your coffers fill, which offers are likely to be successful, and help you ensure you’re taking the right approach to promoting your vouchers.
When do hotels really start to see momentum on voucher sales in the countdown to Christmas, and how can your hotel make the most of the holiday season? Let’s break it down.
When are Vouchers Strongest?
Voucher sales are strong throughout December, but they really start picking up momentum from the 13th on, with nearly 75% of sales in the 12 day run up to Christmas across all our clients.
Last year, voucher sales peaked on, perhaps unsurprisingly, the 24th of December. Almost 9% of vouchers sold in December were sold on the 24th alone. A hotel voucher, as it turns out, makes a great last minute Christmas gift for those of us who may have forgotten to take care of their shopping earlier.
Perhaps predictably, most of us tend to leave our holiday shopping to the last moment. However, that doesn’t mean your property should do the same. When should you have vouchers loaded from?
Taking Advantage of Voucher Season
Starting from November, your vouchers should be live and ready to go. Voucher performance tends to begin picking up from November 20th, although you should have them live a few weeks earlier to start building momentum. Expect to see a larger uptake from December 12th or 13th right up through the 24th.
Ideally, hotels should ramp up their general activity in September/October to increase their remarketing and email lists before November. The bigger your audience, the better your reach.
Creating Amazing Vouchers
First things first: Keep Santa under wraps until the time is right! Start with more generic gift voucher messaging and going into Christmas from the 20th of November onwards. Any earlier and you might fatigue users by the time the holiday season arrives in full.
Be sure to stick to emotive imagery for your ads. Emotive hotel images far outperform designed, “ad-like” images on Facebook – people simply see too many of these for most to be effective. Instead, start with a beautiful wintery picture of your property and work from there.
For the offer, we’ve found that early purchase incentives tend to work well. For example, you might offer €10 for every €100 of voucher purchases in November. When you hit December, make sure your offers are competitive.
What kind of campaigns should you run for your vouchers for the best return on your investment? The two big ones are remarketing – both through AdWords and social channels like Facebook – and email. You want to communicate to users who are already familiar with your hotel and your brand.
For your remarketing ad types, we’ve found that carousel ads are performing well this year. They let guests see 3 or 4 different images, and typically get strong engagement.
You should make certain to have email vouchers available, especially in the last few days leading up to Christmas. Our clients received a full third of their overall voucher sales last year from December 21st to the 24th.
Conclusion
Tis the season! Your vouchers are running, your hotels are decorated with tinsel and holly, and your future guests are flocking to buy up vouchers.
Let us know how your Christmas voucher sales go this year, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team. We’re the experts.
Words by Tayor Smariga
