How Successful Tour Businesses Prepare for Peak Season

If you’re feeling the pains of the low season, you’re not alone.

Seasonality is a big challenge for everyone in the tourism industry. As the temperature drops, profits and bookings follow.

While you might be tempted to take the winter off— laying on a beach with a piña colada in your hand— successful operators understand that the efforts in the low season determine success for the rest of the year.

5 ways successful tour businesses prepare for peak season

1. Start hiring and training

Without a doubt, the most important thing to focus on right now is building your team for the year. The best operators do things to keep seasonal employees happy so they come back. But it’s likely you’ll need to hire a few fresh faces. And everyone—even returning employees— will need to brush up on their training.

Hiring

If you’re looking for students, Facebook is the best recruiting tool. With new regulations restricting who you can target for hiring ads— you can’t specify age or gender— you can encourage post sharing instead.

Run a gift certificate contest asking people to share with, or tag, their friends. And don’t forget to highlight the perks of working as a guide. Say something like; tag someone who wants their summer job to be an adventure.

And if you’re after top guide talent and have money to spare, it’s smart to attend industry conferences. Many professional guides go looking to connect with new employers. Just prepare to pay them competitively.

Training

Now that you have started your staff search, it’s time to plan how you’ll get everyone up to speed. Though training doesn’t start until your seasonal staff begins, you can prepare and design your training materials now.

Get your processes and policies up to date. Decide what external programs your guides will need to enroll in and what you’ll do in-house. Or consider automating your training.

Create training videos that show your employees how to use your internal tools, like your booking system, and upload them to a private Youtube channel. This not only comes in handy at the start of the season but if you hire someone in the middle of peak season as well.

2. Get your equipment and property ready

Many operators sell their equipment at the end of the season and purchase new the following year. Since equipment depreciates, it’s not worth holding on to for long. Buying new cuts down maintenance costs and reduces the risk of something breaking down in the middle of a tour.

Whether you’re buying or repairing, do it now.

Same with your leases. Phones, vehicles, rental spaces— will all be up for renewal. And this upfront cost adds up quickly. So try to negotiate back-loaded payment plans that allow you to pay more at the end of the year when your business is cash positive.

Beyond your physical equipment, you also need to update and re-evaluate all your software. Think back to what worked the past year, and what caused headaches. If you’re tired of your clunky payment and POS system, you might want to try something like Square.

3. Call your lawyer

Regulations in the tourism industry can change drastically year to year — so check in with your lawyer. They’ll make sure your liability and insurance is up to date and tell you what licenses you need to renew. They can also review your waivers and documents to make sure they hold up.

4. Nail down your processes

Chances are you’re pretty attached to the way you do business, but it never hurts to improve productivity. Using technology, you can automate a lot of work, like receiving bookings, staff scheduling and sending customer notifications. Things that used to take 5 manual steps can now run seamlessly in the background.

If you have workflows in place, take some time to review and update them. If automation is completely new to you, get in touch with support for your software tools or take a look at their video documentation to find out what’s possible.

5. Get some pre-season sales

So far, everything on this list costs money. It can be stressful going into a new season with high out-of-pocket expenses. Give yourself some peace of mind by collecting pre-season sales.

The best way to do this is with your gift certificates. Send a promotional email out to your existing customer base offering 10% off gift cards. This is effective during holidays but also works year-round. While you won’t get any upfront bookings, you’ll earn some extra revenue.

Plus an extra: Enjoy your downtime

While you shouldn’t see your entire low season as a holiday, you should still take some time off to sit on a beach with a drink in your hand (or whatever you do to relax).  Enjoy the time you have to unwind now so you can focus all your energy on running your business come peak season.