Hotels have long tacked pesky fees to guest bills. Mandatory nightly resort fees that can top $50 with tax. Valet and self-parking charges. Plus fees for early check-in, late checkout, rollaway beds and mini fridges.
Now they’re coming for the lounge chair.
- The Bellagio resort in Las Vegas, where room rates run several hundred dollars a night, will save you a poolside seat on the Friday of Labor Day weekend—for $200 a person. That gets you a standard lounge chair, side table, umbrella and towels. Don’t confuse it with a cushier daybed or cabana, which will set you back $575 or $1,200.
- Excalibur Hotel & Casino, the Bellagio’s budget cousin, is asking $125 for two chairs at its Spring pool, slightly less than the nightly room price. Perks include shade, a bucket of ice and cold water.
- At the Sheraton Waikiki in Honolulu, a pair of reserved lounge chairs and an umbrella in the front row of the hotel’s infinity pool is going for $125 on Labor Day weekend.
- The JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix, the largest resort in Arizona, is charging as much as $150 per “plush” lounge chair on weekends this summer. Unlike other chairs around the pool, these are padded. The only other listed perks: “upgraded water selections and towel service,” though towels are free for everyone at the pool. (The hotel says guests who reserve lounge chairs also receive occasional poolside treats, including fruit cups.)
oooohhhhh goody! A Donald Ducking Fruit Cup!
Disney has long been the master at selling you stuff you can get for free. (Think MagicBands, water, visits with Mickey and Pluto, etc.)
Now, while you may be thinking this is evil… underhanded…. gouging….
You should be thinking….
How can I adapt this in MY business?
What product or service do you currently offer where you can have a DELUXE version?
What are you currently giving away for free (or included in some fee) that you could PLUS and charge for it?
In my carpet cleaning business, our top tier package contains “expedited drying”. In other words, we take a couple of blowers and aim them at the carpet.
Costs me nothing. But I get to charge $19 a room.
Do the math!
Let’s say you clean 5000 rooms a year. And you can only manage to “sell” expedited drying to 10% (I would hope you could do better).
500 rooms x $19 = $9500.00
That is $9500 right into your pocket!
Every year!
Not too shabby, right?
Do you do “free consultations” or “estimates”? Consider charging for them. You could create an entire WOW experience (that costs you nuthin’ or next to nuthin’). Every one of my clients and prospects gets a client folder with a ton of documents in them, creating an experience.
My competitors know I do it.
But for some idiotic reason, they continue to UNDER VALUE their time and give it away for free.
Want more ideas on how to make some serious ka-ching?
I will be revealing tons of them at my event in Baltimore in November
===>> www.dbos2022live.com
Just one idea like this taken from the event will more than 10x your investment.
Screw surviving in this $h*ty economy. Let’s get rich(er)
