Blackout dates: Hotel revenue and loyalty opportunities

What are blackout dates?

Blackout dates are specific dates that accommodation providers either don’t accept bookings for, or where discounts and promotions are restricted due to high demand.

What do ‘blackout dates’ mean? That’s a question with two answers.

For Airbnbs, holiday homes and vacation rentals, blackout dates allow owners, friends or family members to stay at the property, or grant an opportunity for deep cleaning, repairs or renovations.

For hotels, blackout dates are more often used to maximise revenue, by ensuring the property is filled with full-paying guests during the most popular (and highest earning) periods of the year, such as over Christmas or the summer holidays.

In this guide we’ll explore blackout dates to understand everything that small, independent, hoteliers or hosts need to know about this strategy.

Why do blackout dates matter for hotels?

Blackout dates are strategic tools for hotels. Use them wisely and they can seriously boost your revenue, by ensuring that you gain maximum value from every guest during your most popular times of year.

Blackout dates can also form handy signposts of upcoming peak periods. They can serve as a reminder that you need to step up your marketing, hire or schedule more staff, order more inventory, and complete any important upgrades and maintenance before the blackout dates arrive.

But blackout dates can also represent a significant risk. Guests in your loyalty program are, by definition, your most loyal customers. If you remove rewards like promotions, discounts and coupons during key times of the year, you risk annoying, and potentially losing, these valuable customers.

The same can be said for Airbnb hosts who use blackout dates to enjoy or upgrade their property. If loyal guests stay with you over the same period every year, then you make that period unavailable, you risk losing this valuable return business.

How to make blackout dates guest-friendly

With these risks in mind, is there a way to make blackout dates a positive in the eyes of your guests? In short, yes.

Position blackout dates as value opportunities

Blackout dates don’t have to be a limitation – they can also be an opportunity to enhance guest satisfaction and loyalty. If you are restricting your guests’ access to promotions and loyalty discounts, consider justifying your full rate by offering added value in other areas, like welcome baskets, invitations to exclusive events, or access to premium services.

Offer flexible solutions

While a guest might not be able to use their loyalty points and discounts during blackout periods, consider allowing them to accumulate more rewards for their booking than they otherwise would, which they can then use at non-blackout times of the year. You might even consider offering partial point redemptions, based on levels of demand during different blackout periods.

Foster repeat bookings

Take the opportunity to deepen guest relationships during blackout dates. Craft personalised (and ideally handwritten) messages to loyal guests who book with you, thanking them for both their business and their understanding regarding the blackout period. This can help ease the pain of paying full price and encourage guests to book again.

If you’re the owner of a holiday home or vacation rental, do your best to avoid dates that your loyal guests tend to book. Schedule blackout periods relating to deep cleans, maintenance and renovations at quieter times of the year.

Examples of how to manage blackout dates effectively

How can you effectively balance the need to make money with the need to keep guests happy? Let’s look at a few blackout date example strategies to find out.

Identify blackout dates early

Create a dedicated blackout calendar. Begin with booking data from previous years, to understand your high-demand periods throughout the year. Check when variable events like Easter and school holidays will fall in the year to come, and consult local event calendars to identify new potential peaks. Data from tools like Little Hotelier and Airbnb can also help you to identify potential blackout dates nice and early.

Set clear policies

Create clear blackout date policies. Outline exactly what guests can and can’t do in terms of promotions, discounts and loyalty points. Consider offering the value adds described in the previous section to ease the annoyance. Include this information in listing descriptions and guest communications.

Adjust pricing strategically

During blackout dates, implement dynamic pricing strategies to capitalise on increased demand. For instance, if there’s a local music festival, consider raising rates slightly – but not price-gougingly – while potentially offering added value like late check-outs.

Communicate with guests

Communication is key. Notify loyalty members and return guests about upcoming blackout dates. Emphasise any added value you plan to offer over the period. This can also be a great time to highlight the value of booking the off-peak dates that surround the blackout period, e.g. “Save 40% when you book a stay in the new year!”

Leverage loyalty programs

While your guests may be unable to spend their loyalty rewards during blackout periods, you can make that an easier pill to swallow by allowing them to accumulate plenty of points or rewards during their full-price stay, which they can then spend during off-peak periods (when those rewards will generally go further anyway – a point that you’d be wise to make).

“My only regret about Little Hotelier is that I didn’t use it sooner. It blows my mind how powerful it is, it makes my life so much easier. Little Hotelier frees up my time so I actually can grow my business.”

Sean O’Neill,

Owner

Devereux Residences

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How blackout dates impact hotel loyalty programs

If you aren’t careful with how you implement them, blackout dates have the potential to negatively affect your business, particularly in terms of your most loyal and valuable customers. You need to tread carefully.

The restrictions that accompany your blackout dates in regards to promotions and discounts can make your loyalty program less enticing. As mentioned above, it’s wise to offer value-adding rewards over these periods to make up for the fact that your guests will be paying full price. Examples include:

• The ability to earn more rewards (points, coupons, free nights) for use outside blackout dates.
• Access to premium events, services and experiences.
• Gifts like welcome hampers, restaurant vouchers and drinks on arrival.
• Early check-in/late check-out

Communication is key to managing guest expectations during blackout periods. If your loyalty program restricts the use of points, discounts or coupons during blackout dates, you need to be upfront about that. It should be made clear during sign-up, and reiterated whenever a guest looks to book a stay during blackout dates, or in general comms in the lead-up to these dates.

From guest communication to tweaking rates and availability across all your listings, managing blackout dates is made so much easier when you have access to the right tools.

And for small, independent hotels, Little Hotelier forms the ultimate all-in-one property management solution.