The long weekend is done, the first week is done, and the school holidays still have nine days to run. Term 4 does not start until Monday 12 October.
This is the part of the holidays that gets neglected. The promotional energy went into the lead up, the first weekend was busy, and the temptation now is to coast to the finish. Meanwhile there are families still deciding what to do with the back half of their break, and a lot of them are deciding on the morning of the day itself.
A meaningful share of school holiday activity decisions are made same day, on a phone, usually before nine in the morning. That is not a booking window you can plan for weeks out. It is won by whoever is visible, open and clearly answering the question at the moment someone looks.
1. Post in the morning, not the evening. If families decide before nine, an evening post is a day late. Move your posting time for the next nine days.
2. Fill the weekdays. The second weekend will look after itself. Monday to Thursday of the final week is where your empty capacity actually is, and it is the easiest thing in the world to sell to a parent running out of ideas.
3. Keep the rain plan visible. If you published one last week, repost it. Nine more days means at least one wet morning and a lot of people searching for an answer at short notice.
4. Ask every single customer for a review. This is the highest volume of happy people you will see until Christmas. Ask on the day, in person, before they drive home.
Scheduled morning posts: Write the next nine days of short posts in one sitting and schedule them for seven thirty each morning. Nine posts, one hour, and you are visible at the exact moment decisions are made.
A review card or QR code: Something physical you can hand over or point at. Asking works. Remembering to ask is the hard part, and a card on the counter solves it.
1. Schedule a short morning post for each of the next nine days
2. Build one midweek offer aimed at the final week
3. Republish or pin your wet weather option
4. Ask every customer for a review, in person, on the day
5. Photograph the place while it is full, because you will need those images in January
The second week of a school holiday period is the cheapest attention you will get all season. Everyone else has stopped trying, the visitors are still here, and the bar for standing out has dropped considerably.
Nine days of visitors are still in front of you and the competition for their attention has quietly halved. Post in the mornings, sell the weekdays, and collect every review you can. What you gather this fortnight is what sells your summer.
Not sure what is working and what is noise? If you want this looked at properly, book a strategy call.
Call 0477 435 422
Most operators treat a school holiday fortnight as one event. It is two, and they behave completely differently.
The first week is planned. The second week is improvised, by tired parents, on a phone, that morning. Six things worth doing with the nine days you have left.
1. Change when you post
An evening post reaches someone who has already decided how tomorrow goes. A seven thirty post reaches them mid decision, with coffee, scrolling for something to do with the day. For the next nine days, that is the only posting time that matters.
2. Sell Tuesday, not Saturday
Look at your bookings for the final week. The weekend is probably fine. The weekdays are where the gap is, and a parent on day nine of the holidays is the most motivated buyer you will meet all year. Give them a specific reason to come on a Wednesday.
3. Ask for the review while they are standing there
Reviews requested a week later get ignored. Reviews requested in person, on a good day, get written. You are about to have more satisfied customers in one fortnight than in the previous two months, and every one of those reviews will still be working for you when someone is choosing where to spend Christmas.
4. Shoot the busy version of your business
In January you will want photos of a full room, a packed table, kids in the water, a car park with cars in it. You cannot take those in June. Take them this week while the place looks like the thing you are trying to sell.
5. Watch what people actually asked you
Keep a note this week of every question a customer asks in person. Where is the toilet. Is there shade. Can we walk to the beach. Do you do coffee before eight. Those questions are your website updates, your Google posts and your next month of content, written by the people who pay you.
6. Get your summer dates live before the holidays end
The families in front of you right now are the same families who will book Christmas. The moment to mention that your summer availability is open is while they are having a good time at your business, not in a cold email six weeks later. If the dates are not live yet, that is this week’s real job.
Your action for the week
Sit down for one hour and write nine short morning posts, one for each remaining day of the holidays. Schedule them for seven thirty. Then put a review card on the counter and ask every person who walks out happy.
Weekly South West Visibility Ideas is a series for tourism, accommodation, and hospitality operators across the South West of Western Australia.
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