How to get a hotel affiliated with tour buses?

Question

I am manager of a hotel in the Monterey, CA area-during the off season it is very slow but there are always TONS of tour buses around the area. Anyone with experience in the travel field, how would I go about getting our hotel affiliated with tour buses so we can be used as a lodging option for these groups? Any info is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

i have some experience with the field (on the transportation end). i would recommend talking with the manager/owner about this possible relationship. though one piece of advice, come prepared knowing what you can offer over who they already use & who is in your area. also, if they have some affiliation with someone else already ask how they became to that point. is there anything that their current affiliate doesn't offer, that would help them? sometimes, some business do want to know what they get out of it, so also thinking about a possible something for a specific amount of referrals in a month.

other than the direct source, you might want to also look into advertising on travel sites (ie hotels.com, expedia, kayak...). that might help with a large majority of the people coming into monterey, since most of the travel bookings occur over the internet these days.

good luck!