Avoid Hotel No Vacancy

– Posted in: Advancing the Gig Biz Booster Hot Tip!
Avoid Hotel No Vacancy
Avoid Hotel No Vacancy - by Jeri Goldstein     

If you want to avoid hotel no vacancy signs during your upcoming fall tours, please take note as you head into the fall touring season.

I thought I’d share some tips to help you get your hotel reservations on the nights you need, during your upcoming tours. In fact, some of these ideas will be useful no matter when you tour. And even though they may fall into the “common sense” category, you may be as surprised as I was to know that most artists don’t think about hotel reservations until they begin advancing the tour or the gig.

Here are 4 things you need to consider in order to avoid hotel no vacancy while you’re booking your tour, way before you get ready to hit the road.

  1. Is this area known for any special seasonal events?

A perfect example would be autumn in New England. People flock to this region of the U.S. during “Leaf Peeping” season, as it is known. Now, if you tour New England in the fall, you may run into crowds looking for hotel rooms throughout that region from September through late October.

You’ll find similar situations during peak season in any foreign country as well. Depending on where you play, the competition for rooms and the price of the room may be at a premium.

  1. Are you playing in a college town?

Even if your gig is not on the college campus, hotel rooms may be in great demand during certain times of the year, based on college events. The few I can think of are:

  • Homecoming weekend
  • Home games for football and basketball
  • Graduation weekend or
  • Major concert events
  1. Are you playing in a resort area?

Depending on whether the area has a seasonal tourist crowd, hotel room competition may be stiff or non-existent with plenty of deals for the asking.

  1. Is the gig occurring during the time of a major event?

    Now you may not follow certain sports, and ignorance in many cases, is not necessarily bliss—so you may be unaware that the gig you booked near Indianapolis, IN, falls during the week of the Indy 500. The potential for a great bar gig may be directly related to greater late night crowds. But, I will tell you from experience, that you will not find a hotel room for nearly 50 miles surrounding that city if you haven’t booked the room way in advance.

Again, this will be true for certain cities during spring break in Florida or Super Bowl weekend in whatever city that year’s game is being held.

Stay ahead of the crowds and avoid hotel no vacancy when you’ve confirmed your gig if hotel rooms are not included in your contract.

Five questions to ask the booking person:

  1. Do they have any special deals set up with nearby hotels?
  2. Will they book your rooms for you to get their special deal, now?
  3. Are there any regularly occurring events in town around the time of your gig that might make it difficult to book hotel rooms for that night?
  4. Should be aware of  any special events occurring at the time of your gig?
  5. Can they recommend any hotels between their town and the next town on your tour route?

This kind of info may be useful and may save you money if it makes sense to get out of town right after your gig and travel part-way to the next gig.

By knowing what to expect when you book the gig, you can plan your hotel reservations in plenty of time and avoid hotel no vacancy issues. If the gig is a last-minute pick-up date, it would be useful to know this information. Then, you can work around any potential problems and either beat the crowds or avoid them.

When was the last time you got caught on tour without a hotel? How have you changed your behavior to make sure it never happens again?

Leave me a comment below.

I can’t wait to hear about your success.

Thanks to Carol Ehrlich for this week’s Biz Booster Graphic Image. Check out her work at V360.com

Now, Thanks to Curfew, for providing This Month’s Biz Booster Theme Music, “Future Dance.”

And for more career boosting tips, articles, books, resources, tele-seminars, online courses, visit me at Performingbiz.com

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