Early bird price? Last minute sale? Competitive pricing? Refer a friend discount? Deposit? Instalments? There are so many ways to organise a pricing plan for your group trip! It can get complicated, and fast.
Whether you’re planning a retreat, group trip for your community or running a tour company, organising your pricing structure is an important part of making your business successful. Pricing your retreat or group trip is all about finding a balance between your out of pocket expenses, hidden costs, and compensation for time and effort, that allows you to cover all of these costs, and make a profit.
Getting your group travel pricing structure right can lead to increased sales and a more successful trip. Rather than trying to “wing it” you should have a deliberate strategy that takes advantage of tried and tested pricing plans. So here are our top tips for pricing your next trip!
Deciding the pricing of your group trip should involve researching your competitors. Evaluate the pricing of your competition to see where you can fit in with them. We’re not just talking about the same type of trip, but looking at the details too, like location and type of experience. Customers are more likely to make a purchase amongst competition if the pricing is competitive rather than all the same, and they can see the value of the different options on offer.
Consider the exclusivity of your trip, accommodation, any extra activities offered and the duration when you’re evaluating how much to charge. It’s a lot to juggle, but if you can work with all of these factors and price yourself competitively then you’ll be more likely to have sales success.
Sometimes people can wonder why a product is so cheap, and a retreat or group trip is no different. Will the accommodation be subpar? Or the experience is not the escape from everyday life that the customer wants it to be? Context is important. You need to be clear about the benefits that you're offering and justify the price. If you’re offering a luxury retreat or accommodations then customers will expect to be paying for the prestige of it. On the other hand, if it’s a budget experience then make sure you detail exactly what’s on offer or any extra costs so that customers aren’t worried about unexpected costs.
Don’t have a complicated pricing structure that confuses your customers. You can offer clear discounts that customers can easily see. Having hard to understand inclusions or exclusions and tiered pricing can make someone give up and look elsewhere instead of having to try to figure out exactly what they need to pay.
Offering an early bird discount is a great way to get sales off the ground. You can make it for a certain amount of time, or a limited number of people. Use it as part of your marketing strategy, by notifying potential customers across your social media and website about the discount before sales commence.
Encouraging customers to come back for a second trip is a top marketing strategy. If you’ve done it right and made a good impression, then customers will want to travel with you again. Engage them by offering a discount for further experiences. It’s up to you whether you limit this to just them or encourage them to share it amongst their friends and family. Staying in touch with your customers after the trip ends is key to making the most of this pricing strategy.
Two heads are better than one, and selling two places on a group trip is better too! Encourage sales by offering a discount for two people signing up together. This could extend to a group discount if you have the room for larger numbers.
Similar to the above two group trip discounts, you could offer a discount code to customers to refer a friend. This could be offered to previous customers or those who have already signed up for the trip. When you use a payment platform like WeTravel it's easy to implement discount codes for your trip. Just remember, don’t make things too complicated!
Creating a pricing plan for your travel business or group trip should be something you do at the planning stage so that you can include it in your marketing and budget for the trip. However, if sales are slow you could have some contingency plans for discounts that will help to sell places. Remember to keep a track of your costings and pricing decisions so that you can evaluate for the next trip.
Check out our free resources for group trip planning for more top tips!