This year, Black Friday officially falls on November 29, but the exact dates and duration of the promotion always depend on the tour operator and the hotels. So, the tour operator “Multitour” and the management company “ATELIKA” launched their campaign today, on November 8. We are talking with Yulia Vysokanova, head of Multitour, about the timing of the campaign, its stages, agent commissions, and why the travel industry needs such promotions now.
– Julia, this year you are launching your special Black Friday promotion. Which hotels and tours will participate in this sale?
– Yes, this year we launched the traditional Black Friday promotion earlier than the official one. And we will carry it out in two stages.
We were the first to make a separate promotion for the ATELICA, Brave World and Sunville hotel chains. This sale will last from November 8th to 15th. But if the owner of the hotel chain considers the sales plan completed, we can finish it earlier than the 15th. Therefore, you should hurry up if tourists want to buy holidays in our chain of hotels at discounted prices.
Opening the veil of secrecy for those who will read this article: from November 15 to 22, our promotion will be extended, but no longer for hotels in our network, but for facilities from our rest of the hotel range.
I would like to draw your special attention to the fact that not all Multitour hotels will participate in the promotion, but 20-30 selected hotels. There will also be a sale of some sightseeing tours during this period. I won’t announce them in advance, for obvious reasons: the promotion should be a surprise.
– Many of our readers are traditionally interested in the “background” and motives of such actions. Why do Russian hotels and tour operators hold Black Friday-type promotions on the Russian market?
– It’s simple. I think that many of our customers understand all the motives of the business implicitly, but, indeed, we meet such questions every year, just like you.
Black Friday promotions are necessary to receive a large sum in a short time, which in the case of hotels is then used for renovation and purchase of equipment before the high season. In the case of a tour operator, this money is used for advertising, prepayment to hotels (to get better prices and more seats), the introduction of new technical solutions, etc.
Selling your product at a reduced price is now in any case more profitable than taking loans from banks for development, especially with the current key interest rate. So this is an affordable way for the travel industry to take important and voluminous development steps during the off-season (while there is time for this), which will bring long-term benefits to hotels, travel companies and the buyers themselves.
For example, large blocks of guaranteed rooms in hotels in Russia, Belarus, and Abkhazia, more convenient websites, booking systems, and personal accounts. Renovated rooms, new restaurants in hotels, landscaping and infrastructure, and so on. Such autumn sales are fought off quite quickly – during the season.
– At the same time, we see questions from retail of this kind: “why is the commission for agents reduced during such promotions?”.
– Yes, this is the most popular question. Indeed, the commission is lower. Some people are indignant about this, although I personally do not understand the reason for this indignation. An agent always has a choice.:
- It is more expensive to buy and sell to a tourist, but with a high agency commission under the contract.
- It is very cheap to buy and sell to a tourist (40-50% discount on Atelica hotels, 20-30% on other Multitour hotels), but with a limited commission.
The second way, if you think about it, is beneficial to everyone. It is beneficial for tourists because it is possible to buy a tour for very little money (the difference will be clearly visible in the season, prices are dynamic and increase as hotels fill up).
It is beneficial for agents because their promotion increases the flow of customers, while their earnings, in fact, do not decrease as a result due to volumes.
It is beneficial for the hotel chain and the tour operator because in a short time we see a sharp increase in the amount of money on the accounts for various purposes, even if without much profit. Which we have for the duration of the promotion, of course, is also decreasing.
The network and the tour operator themselves minimize their profits during the sale . Therefore, the wishes that the supplier of the product would reduce the price by 40-50%, and figuratively speaking, would also give away the “last cowards”, paying agents a standard commission or giving tourists cashback – well, sorry, such statements are not realistic. We already share generously.
And the Black Friday promotion (like any other) is an opportunity that benefits all participants in the sales chain, not just one. And accusing someone of “violating loyalty” in this case is at least incorrect and unfair. Perhaps next year there will be no such action at all.
– Everything looks logical. And if you still don’t cut the agents’ commission for the duration of such actions? What then?
– In fact, it is impossible not to reduce the commission. If, with a significant reduction in our price “from the manufacturer”, we keep the standard commission to the agent, we will simply go into negative territory.
I hope we all understand that hotels and tour operators are engaged in business, not charity and “giving money away.” And everything has to be justified from a business point of view. I repeat, during the promotion we have different tariffs – choose any one. Everything is fair.
Although not exactly true. However, it is possible not to reduce the standard commission if you hold a “hand-drawn” promotion. Namely, prices were artificially “raised” before the action, and allegedly “lowered” during the action. But, I’m sorry, we don’t do that. And we won’t.
– Speaking of promotions… will you have a traditional “Early Booking” promotion for Russian resorts this year?
– We are still thinking about it. The paradox is that many of our prices for next summer are already lower than those of some other market participants. I just don’t see the point in calling these lowest prices an “Early Booking” promotion and trying to advertise it as a “price reduction.”
On the one hand, this is a good psychological or marketing ploy. On the other hand, customers who can count can laugh at us or start treating us negatively.
We will decide closer to the middle of November what to do. But in my opinion, in the current conditions of the Russian market, early booking in the form of a separate promotion is beginning to become obsolete.
Interviewed by: the editorial board of Vestnik ATOR