Why a Guest Staying an Extra Day is About Much More Than Just Revenue

I want guests to stay longer at your resort. You want guests to stay longer at your resort. And, honestly, the guest should want the same…regardless of cost. If the goal of any given vacation is to have as good a time as possible, then you may want to see this graph from this week’s Stash on Ryan Solutions.

In all honesty, I was looking for a sweet spot: a length-of-stay that is long enough to let a visitor enjoy all there is to enjoy at your resort, but short enough that they don’t begin to think of home and long for their own bed.

So, I took the average net promoter score (1-10, “how likely are you to refer us to a friend” or similar language, 10 = very likely) of guests for various LOSs at 7 different resorts. Rather than run the NPS through a formula, I took each score as is to reflect individuals’ feedback.

A Clear Trend
The trend was clear: the longer someone stays at your resort, the better their experience appears to have been. Even up to 7+ days, the trend held true:

Which is interesting. Sometimes I skimp of the days I’ll stay on a vacation to save a few bucks, yet here are data that say for every extra day you stay (at least up to 7, the data got a little sparse after that), you can expect to have an incrementally better time.

It’s more than about getting extra revenue for staying longer, it’s about increasing guest satisfaction. If you can get someone to stay an extra night at your resort, they’ll not only spend more money but have a better time. That’s a pretty awesome combination.

What about that dip?
Yes, there is a slight dip at 4-days. This is doubly interesting to me when you consider that’s the average length an out-of-state guest stays. So, if you can get out-of-staters to stay 5 nights and in-staters to stay 3 nights, they’ll both hit high-points and both, in theory at least, have a better time at your resort.

How do you work this into your marketing? I don’t know. Part of me is tempted to just come out and say it, something like.

STAY 3 NIGHTS, SKI FOR FREE, AND HAVE A BETTER TIME
No really. When we ask guests how their stay was, people that stay 3 nights – hands down – had a better time than those that stayed two. Maybe there’s just so much to do at %%ResortName%%, they wish they’d stayed longer. Either way, here’s a deal to help you make the most of your vacation without breaking the bank.
Three Nights + $25 daily lunch credit + Skiing: $299/person

That’s one (not very good) idea, but I think you see where I am going with this: if you can get them to realize the benefit of staying longer, maybe they will.