UK membership organisations could generate sizeable revenues and provide a service their members value through partnerships with the hospitality industry. Hotels, when pushed, provide discounted rates for bulk buyers and pay commission to anyone that can drive accommodation sales.
After more than a year of lock down it’s almost guaranteed that your members want a to get away for a holiday or a long weekend. The Office of National Statistics has told us that over lockdowns the UK’s expendable household income has increased by £700. A lot of this will end up going to the travel and hospitality industry. If you, through your membership site or members communication, can facilitate your members buying hotel rooms, you could join major US associations in driving substantial revenue for your organisation. Plus you will keep your members happy by providing great hotels at cheaper rates. This makes right now the perfect time to form a partnership in this sector.
US membership organisations such as the Nascar Members Club, Entertainment.com and the massive 1,000,000 member Amway make a great deal of revenue by securing cheap rates and gently pushing the message that their members can access discounted rates to superb hotels. This is primarily done in the members only area of the site, on email communication and through any event communication where the attendees may need to stay overnight.
The key is to secure a partnership that can supply your members with real choice and value. Standalone hotel brands cannot do this. The fact is you will never be able to satisfy your members choice of accommodation with one hotel brand. Some people like Airbnb igloos, some people like the Ritz; to maximise membership happiness, and your revenues, you need everything!
Luckily there are organisations out there that have spent years building the technology and the relationships with the hotels to provide exactly this service. Normally via branded white label websites or API integrations. Critically hotels don’t want their group rates on the open market. They will only provide discounted rates to closed user groups (so a login part of your site or subscription emails). Crucially in these times of travel restrictions and cancelations you will also need to choose a partner that provides customer service to back up the service.
Effectively the membership organisation becomes an online travel agent but without doing any of the hard work.
Hundreds of thousands of weddings and sporting events were postponed last year. Millions of holidays were not taken. The hospitality industry that has survived is looking forward to a bumper year. If you have members and a website they engage with, then you can too.
Hotelplanner is a tech company that sells hotel rooms, not just in the UK but across the globe. In 2019 we drove over £2 billion worth of hotel rooms. I would be happy to jump on a quick call to take you through the process and predict how much revenue you could drive through a partnership with us. Drop me an email at [email protected] or call me on + 44 (0) 7815 814 314
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