The end of summer and the start of the new school year are fast approaching. The high season is not yet completely over, and the question of next year’s pricing is already being asked in the campsite industry.
To be sure of maximising your sales, it’s vital to have a good price list. Discover our 5 tips to create the best price grid as possible!
Qualify your data
The first thing to do is to qualify the historical data: clean up non-representative data (Covid-19, climatic event, major demand contingency such as the late cancellation of a large group, etc.), RM performance, presence of special offers, etc.
This gives us a usable history. But it is also a question of qualifying future data: changes in forecast stock, changes in product segmentation, calendar changes, etc. The work of RM and pricing relies heavily on historical data. It is therefore important not to use it as it is, without reprocessing.
Thinking through your pricing engineering
A pricing policy is not just a juxtaposition of prices. Prices should not be constructed independently of each other, but according to pre-established rules. For example, with reference prices and linked prices. A low-capacity mobile home with a sea view may be priced at a premium in value or percentage terms to a reference price on standard stock.
When pricing is adjusted to a reference price, the adjustment is propagated according to established rules (degressivity by length of stay, construction of linear or negotiated prices, early booking, pricing of certain types of mobile home, etc.).
Separate the effects
It is also good practice to separate out the effects that will have an impact on the price: inflation, calendar shift, changes in demand and stock, changes in the product, etc. This will improve the consistency of the pricing approach. The year-on-year price variation for a campsite can thus be worked out by a succession of positive or negative impacts, with cumulative systems, ceilings and weights.
The aim is to ensure that the various effects, which do not necessarily affect all campsites, are all correctly and consistently reflected in the pricing policy.
Ensuring the pricing continuity
A good price position evolves gradually and smoothly. If you anticipate strong demand, increasing prices by 40% from one year to the next is not necessarily a good idea.
Other average price levers can be activated: discount management, channel management. And even levers for increasing average prices that are painless for the customer, such as product re-segmentation. So, when the product allows, we can recategorise part of the standard stock as premium, for example. At a constant price, having more mobile homes in higher categories does not change the advertised price as such, but it does increase the average price through a mix effect.
But be careful not to overuse these levers!
Giving yourself pricing flexibility
Pricing should make it possible to increase the range of possibilities. With a pricing structure that is wide enough to give yield enough latitude to get the best out of it. Rigid models with early bookings that are highly differentiated by date or by type of mobile home, too many negotiated fixed prices, offers that are fixed in brochures, promotion plans that are decided long in advance, prices that are overly seasonalised by weekday, are all obstacles to fully exploiting the potential of demand that is no longer controlled but rather subjected.
Pricing must remain structured, with simple mechanisms. Subtle management and surgical actions should remain the domain of yield, not pricing.
You now have all the keys you need to create the most optimal pricing grid!
Keywords: Pricing, campsite, pricing policy, positioning, price leverage, price list
