Hale Makai Cottages is looking to build on the online and direct marketing efforts it began last year to draw people to the resort.
When Kristin Willis became property manager of the resort on the Hawaiian island of Kauai last year, one of her goals was to help develop an Internet-based vacation rental business along with Klaus and Rike Burmeister, who had jointly owned the property for the previous three years.
Part of the problem as she saw it was that Hale Makai needed to bring in new business and refine its booking procedures, rather than just rely on the same groups of repeat customers built up mostly through referrals.
The prime groups Hale Makai was interested in were newlyweds, honeymooners and families, as well as small businesses. So the resort, based in Heana on the island’s north shore, began posting information about itself on a series of vacation related Web sites including hawaii411.com, www.vrbo.com, www.vacationrentals411.com, www.travelhut.com, www.kauaidiscovery.com, www.gohawaii.com, www.perfectplaces.com, www.vacationpads.com and a lot of wedding-related sites, says Willis.
Hale Makai also ran a listing on the more general purpose Web site www.craigslist.org.
Twice-yearly postcard mailings are also sent to previous and the resort is exploring options like regular e-mail blasts to customers.
“But that’s not in budget now,” she says.
Hale Makai’s most ambitious project at present is upgrading its Web site http://www.halemakaicottages.com to enable guests to book vacations online. The site currently lists all the prices of its different cottages, shows pictures of the local landscape, lists available recreational activities, and sports a calendar of cottage availabilities.
Right now, potential guests can look at the site to check availability but still have to call to make reservations. “This presents problems because people are all in different time zones,” says Willis.
“Our Web guy went out to the property this month to try and redesign the site to give more information and also to make it possible to book online,” she notes.
She’s hoping to have the upgraded site in place by May.
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