Investor · Germantown, TN · Member since 2015 · 86 posts · 26 votes
How do you reach out to large groups such as church group, youth sports teams, family reunion groups, near a certain city? Is there some mailing list you can buy for direct mailing? Where do you find credible providers for such lists?
@Albert D. Actually I would probably start with Facebook Ads to target people I would like to attract. You can reach out to local churches...and let them know of your accommodations, many have bulletin boards and websites where they will post those types of things for their congregation to see.
I would also try perhaps wedding photographers if you are looking for groups of people and or family.
Think outside the box...who caters to large groups of people that will be traveling to your area?
I would need to know more about your property to give you additional ideas.
The property at issue is in in Smoky Mountain (Gatlinburg) - a large cabin geared to host big groups (30+ travelers). Currently listed on all major sites (VRBO, Airbnb, Flipkey). However, with the new fees and new ranking systems, you never know how your rentals may be impacted in the years to come. A wild idea of mine is to target the potential guest directly to compensate the bookings from major sites. But I wanted to do it in a less time consuming and relative inexpensive way. So call for dollar probably out of the question. :)
I was thinking direct mail. Buy lists of targeted groups and send postcards periodically. Question is where to buy the quality lists and where to design/print postcards. I'd appreciate it if anyone can share some info on this.
I also like the ideas a lot (recommended by you all) regarding facebook and Google scraping. Would you mind elaborating a bit on how these works? I'm totally new to the concepts. Any suggestions on basic processes, steps, matrix to watch would be very helpful.
Yes, I did a quick glance of the company you mentioned, Monica. Looks like a groupon idea for travelers. I like it. I'll share it with my property manager see how he likes it. If it works, it probably require more time/hassle from PM as he'll be dealing with four to five mini groups for one booking instead of one group. But better than vacancy. :)