Holiday Watersports – how to boost your bookings

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Introduction

Managing a watersports business based on tourists visiting or nice sunny weather can be challenging to increase your bookings. With summer just arriving, it’s the perfect time to market your business and boost your bookings for the summer. So, how do you sell such a business to tourists and locals? Read on to find out.

Collaborate to boost your bookings

Collaborations are essential for any business, but more so for service or experience businesses rather than selling a product. Because these types of businesses usually rely on word-of-mouth to grow their customer base or through reviews, it’s essential to establish good contacts and build relationships with them. 

These contacts could be other business owners, hotel representatives, or activity-based businesses. Either way, any company must have good connections as it can help to get more customers. The good thing is that it works both ways; if you recommend your customers to another business, they will most likely return the favour at some point, so why not help each other out.

Collaborate with nearby businesses or hotels

One way to boost your bookings as a water sports rental business is to collaborate with other companies or hotels. It could be a cafe or beach bar business, where you could have some leaflets on the counter. You could even take it a step further and make a deal with the company where if a customer rents a canoe for one hour, they could get one free coffee. Doing so will also help the cafe or beach bar get more customers as they will likely buy more than just a coffee.

Collaborating with a hotel could also benefit your business by giving a special deal if they book from the hotel. In hotel resorts, there is usually a person responsible for organising such things, so offering a special price is an excellent way to promote your business through the hotel. You could also leave a price list showing all available sports or equipment.

Collaborate with other activity-based businesses 

Another idea for collaborating, which can bring in bookings for you and another business, is by teaming up with another activity-based company. For example, a horse riding stable and your watersports business could combine offerings and make a deal which will benefit both parties. Such a partnership will help both companies as both sides will be promoting the collaboration, resulting in more bookings for both businesses. 

Of course, if you are going to do such a partnership, check the services personally before you recommend them to anyone. You should encourage the other party to do the same for your business. After all, getting another professional’s opinion is good, and you could get some great advice if there is anything you should improve.

Use SimplyBook.me as a booking system

Using the SimplyBook.me system can benefit your watersports business as it takes care of all your bookings in one place. Especially as a watersports business dealing with equipment rentals, you need to know how much of each type of equipment is available at all times. A booking system is also helpful if you offer lessons for watersports as it ensures there are no double bookings for the instructor. 

In the system, you can set up each service or product separately and add a short description with a price. As many payment processors are available, you can also receive payment for your services or a deposit through the booking system if you wish. The system also allows you to input the working days, times, and times when each service is available. All of these features are combined in one calendar, and you can even add your personal google calendar to ensure you don’t overbook any appointments. The list of custom features is endless, so check them out on the website.

Example of a watersports booking page

A great example of a watersports booking page using SimplyBook.me is Poseidonia Watersports, based in Limassol, Cyprus. They have all their available services on the booking page with the available time slots for each service. 

Poseidonia added different services such as beginner SUP, Advanced SUP, and Pro SUP, as well as group bookings on the booking page. Other watersport options include jetski, Kayaking, Pedalo rental, water ski lessons, wakeboarding lessons and more. You can also see the prices of each service and the duration of each. There is the option to book the service, and you can see all the available dates and times for each, so you can choose when it works best for both the clients and your schedule.

Offer deals and discounts

Using the booking system adds a lot of flexibility for you and your clients as there are many custom features to choose from to suit all business types. Perhaps this is slightly more obvious, but offering deals and discounts can help attract customers to your business. An example could be offering a deal for group bookings where they get a reduced price for however many people. This way, people will likely try to bring more people to get the lower price. You can also do this for less popular watersports. If you make a low price, it’s more likely to get booked, and these customers will spread the word.

Offer gift cards 

A gift card for watersports is a great gift idea and an excellent way for you to gain more clients. It’s essential to have a pleasant and professional-designed gift card that can be digital or printed. Offering gift cards is another excellent feature of the SimplyBook.me system. It keeps track of all the details, so you don’t have to worry about anything! 

Loyalty schemes

It is a good marketing idea for a watersports business to set up a loyalty scheme to reward its regular customers. An example of this could be if they book 10 SUP rentals, they get the 11th one for free. Another example could be if you book 5 SUP lessons, you get a free one-hour SUP rental. There are plenty of opportunities, and you can decide what the deal will be to entice customers to keep coming back.

Create packages

Creating packages of multiple services can help boost sales for your business. Combining services like SUP rental and Wake Boarding allows customers to try out two different watersports for a special price. Packages are an easy way to get customers to try various activities, and hopefully, they come back for more afterwards. 

The SimplyBook.me system allows you to add your packages on the booking page so that your customers can view all the available services and book them for a time convenient for both parties. You can decide which services to add to the packages, so you can even promote a popular service with a less popular one to get more people to try it out.

Get the locals involved

Although watersports is usually a tourist attraction running during the hot months, there is a way to attract the locals to it as well. Creating a local discount during less busy periods encourages them to try something new for a lower price. And who knows, once they try it, they might love it and become a regular customer. 

Advertise 

It doesn’t matter what deals you have or what booking system you use if you don’t advertise your offerings. It is one of the benefits of using a booking system because you get your own booking website containing the services, prices, times, duration and availability, which you can share the link with people. Social media is, of course, one of the best forms of advertising to potential customers. Especially for a watersports business, the platform TikTok would be great for advertising and reaching more people. 

Of course, there are also the usual flyers, posters, and business cards which you should also do so that you can hand out to nearby restaurants, businesses and hotels to help gather more clients. In any case, the most crucial part is to advertise your business. Give out flyers, and ask customers to leave reviews on Google, Facebook and trip advisor, for example. You can invite customers to tag you in any photos they post on social media from their experience. There are many ways to build your brand and boost your bookings, but it will take some time and a lot of work!