Holiday Savings Plan by Resorts

Travel Savings Plan

In a conversation with a person who came visited us from Germany, I picked few tidbits of information about life over there. One aspect which I liked was the vacation fund, which people save or put into a separate travel fund.

Talking of travel fund savings, I thought of the gold saving schemes where were started by the jewelry stores in Trivaandrum and elsewhere. This was somewhere in mid of 2010 or time before Corona.

So, somewhere in 2015, we joined for couple of gold scheme by the big gold shops in Trivandrum. At that time, we had more money coming in and we thought a small monthly subscription over a period will accumulate to buy gold ornaments at the time of maturity. And, boy, it was good! We could buy few sovereigns after the tenure of the gold savings scheme. 

Fast Forward to 2024 

Sometime in 2023, I wanted to go for a holiday, sans money.

How is it possible to have a holiday in a resort without much money or paying less! I wished that some resorts had a zero payment or minimal payment holiday scheme.

So, the plan I had in mind:

1. Resorts or hotels could promote an offer on their website or social media about a zero payment holiday scheme to woo travelers and guests from local area.

2. The plan is that rent is FREE for the stay. Or the guest can pay it after six month. All the guests have to pay is for food and other services.

3. The patrons who apply the scheme has the option to pay the rent after 12 months or 24 months! No questions asked even if they don't repay. 

4. In this way, folks like me or those who are hesitant to go for a monsoon time vacation would be rethink about a plan a trip to the resort and spend a day or two. 

5. The friction of paying for room rent is minimized and more bookings during weekdays or during off-season months.

What's the Pros and Cons of this Plan? ( That's the topic for another blog post)

Another Plan for Resorts!

Start a vacation savings plan to make it easy for travelers to plan a vacation ahead.

1. Promote a plan for 2025 vacation plan, where guests can start a small savings scheme! 

2. Guests can start with a minimum plan of 2500 a month for 12 or 14 months. After the end of the tenure guests can book the room, enjoy other services like Ayurvedic massages or spa or other facilities without paying any money. 

3. For such schemes, there will be other additional benefits, such as savings on food menu, or spa services or discount in room rates! All these can promote your customers to more regular customers and build loyalty. 

I'm not sure if such plan exists now! However, I haven't seen such plans on the hotel or resort website or social media pages. 

Pros and Cons of this Plan 

1. More brand conversation around this plan

2. Customers will feel attracted to paying in small amount that paying a full amount during the vacation. It won't pinch their purse.

3. It will build customer loyalty to the resort.

Cons 

1. To implement such a plan, hotel or resort require additional manpower. This is required to manage the details of subscription paid by customers, track the payments and follow each payment. Moreover, all amount received has to be accounted correctly.

2.


Will this work?

. Probably, resort administrators, managers, or owners should think about it and find out the viability of such a savings scheme for holidays. They can ask this questions - Is it worth the effort taken over a period worth to pay for the holidays!



P.S - ICICI Iwish Thomas Cook ( Thomas Cook Delightful Deposit )