How Do You Increase occupancy & aDR with a Waterslide/Waterpark?

Adding a waterpark or water features to your hotel provides an important tool to increase your occupancy but how do you leverage and market the waterpark to maximize its use for guests and local residents?  Terry Rempel of Lethbridge Alberta understands this process as he did a terrific job in his development of a 119-room Ramada Hotel with a 13,000 sq. ft. waterpark and three dividable party rooms.

Terry implemented and marketed a Birthday Party program which kept his rental party rooms booked and turning every three to four hours on busy days. He included a waterpark animal mascot that visited party goers and bought an old limo to pick up and drop the kids off.  He upsold pizza, birthday and balloons from a local vendors and created a VERY successful place for the whole city to have birthday parties.

He treated the waterpark like a commodity by charging visitors cheaper admission to the waterpark on his low occupancy nights (Sun – Wed) to encourage local business.  As the week got closer to the weekend, he gradually raised the “waterpark only” price until it made more sense to purchase a room and get the passes with the room.  By doing this he was able to bring in additional revenue on slow nights and build his occupancy on the weekends.  He also was able to raise his room rates because of the amenity which further allowed him to maximize his return on investment.

By selling admission to the waterpark to locals he soon became their favorite hotel for family visits and parties. In a small city with population of 82,000, Terry’s Ramada is the busi­est in Canada, which shows you that you don’t have to be big or in a big market to be successful.