camper van parked overlooking blue water

Data Collection For
Outdoor Hospitality

Understanding Your Guests

Buckle up, this is where it starts to get complicated. We’re about to dive deep into the world of data and analytics. A world where you understand who your guest is and focus on giving them exactly what they want so they like you better.

It means gathering every piece of data you can, then analyzing that data, then adjusting your advertising and marketing based on that data to increase your revenue. 

Sometimes that’s quick and can be proven with ROI, sometimes it requires patience and investing in things that don’t provide an immediate cash return.

Ultimately, the more you know about your guests and use that in an altruistic and helpful way, the more they will appreciate you and the more money you will make.

Google Analytics

You wouldn’t believe how many people we talk to that have no idea what this is or how many website designers don’t install this for their clients. It’s free, and it’s been around for a very long time. 

You should be getting regular reports from anyone who you pay to do any advertising or marketing, and the first step in that reporting is analyzing the data from Google Analytics.

Quite simply, it’s a tracking code that you install on your website. You can then understand where you website visitors are coming from, what they are doing on your website, how long they are staying, even some niche metrics like how old they are, what devices they are using, and where they are located.

But most importantly, you can capture the data from every single online reservation and understand which people are spending money with your business, how much they are spending, and how much they are worth. 

Call Tracking

Did you know that not everyone who stays with you books online? Of course you did, because you answer those phone calls and manually type those reservations in by hand. Shouldn’t you know where those calls are coming from, how they found your phone number, what they talked about, and when they called?

It’s the missing data that compliments Google Analytics perfectly. It can help you understand what cities your guests are calling from, what time of the day they are calling, and when to staff your office more or less. 

It can help you analyze conversations with detailed recordings and transcriptions so you can see how many people are upgrading their site because a team member offered it or who love staying near the swimming pool.

Plus, it allows you to track all of that offline marketing. Find out if that trade show was worth attending or that billboard was worth paying for, or if that printed ad in the magazine was worth the cost.

Forecasting Demand

What if you knew what the average daily rate was for short-term rentals in your area? What if you knew what time of year people started to book and when they typically stay? Would it be helpful to know what the average occupancy rate was before you bought that new cabin and how much revenue it might make?

How about future demand analysis? Future rate analysis? Booking trends? Types of amenities people want? How about the average rental rates or the lead time for bookings in your area?

All of this is possible with the right partner and the right data. We can help you collect and analyze thousands of short-term rentals from massive sites like Airbnb and VRBO so you can make smart business decisions. 

Competitive Analysis

Are you thinking about purchasing land in a specific area? Have you already bought and are ready to begin development? Maybe you purchased an existing campground and need to start marketing.

Your first step in any of these instances above should be understanding your competition. 

We can analyze their websites, social media, reviews, digital advertising, and traffic and provide a path toward winning more customers than they have. We can help understand the interest in a specific area of the world, down to the city or even a local attraction. Then we can give you an easy path to winning more business than they have.

The amount of data that can be gathered and analyzed about your competition is limitless. Why build or buy without knowing exactly how to be better before the first shovel goes into the ground?