As the summer travel season picks up, hotels across the country are preparing for high occupancy, longer stays, and increased expectations from guests. While much attention is often placed on staffing and rate strategies, the tools and features you already have within your property management system (PMS) can quietly become your biggest summer advantage—if you know how to use them effectively.
From creating value-rich packages to refining your marketing approach, tapping into underused features can help drive revenue, enhance guest satisfaction, and streamline daily operations during your busiest season.
Here are four often-overlooked tools that can make a big difference this summer.
1. Experience-Based Packages: Go Beyond Room Rates
Summer travelers are increasingly looking for more than just a place to stay—they want experiences. That’s why building customized packages that combine lodging with local attractions, amenities, or services can be a smart way to increase revenue and deliver added value.
Whether it’s a “Stay and Play” golf getaway, a couples spa weekend, or a family adventure package that includes tickets to a nearby attraction, bundling services with room nights allows you to enhance the perceived value while encouraging direct bookings. These kinds of offers appeal especially to leisure travelers who are eager to make the most of their vacation time.
According to Expedia Group, travelers who book packages tend to spend more, book earlier, and cancel less frequently—making them highly valuable guests during peak seasons. Offering curated packages tailored to your property’s strengths and your local market can help you stand out and improve revenue per booking.
2. Reservation Activity Notes: The Power of Personalization
Another often-underused feature in many PMS platforms is the ability to add detailed notes or “activity logs” to individual reservations. While this may seem like a small detail, capturing and referring back to guest preferences, special requests, or service issues can make a major difference in the guest experience.
Personalization isn’t just a nice touch anymore—it’s an expectation. Research from McKinsey & Company shows that 71% of consumers now expect personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when they don’t receive them.
Simple things like remembering a guest’s preferred room type, celebrating a birthday, or noting past requests for extra pillows or late check-out can help front desk, housekeeping, and management teams work together to create a consistent and personalized experience that drives loyalty.
3. Built-In Marketing Tools: Boost Bookings Without Extra Software
With summer occupancy surging, ensuring every room is perfectly prepared is critical to guest satisfaction. The Visual Matrix MOP system includes built-in Quality Assurance tools that help your team inspect, track, and verify room readiness before guests arrive. Whether you’re using room inspections, room attendant reviews, or process-based checks, these tools keep standards high and prevent service lapses.
Learn how to put these features into action:
4. Smarter Revenue Strategies: Dynamic Pricing in Practice
It’s no secret that demand-based pricing is a powerful tool for driving revenue, yet many small and mid-sized properties still rely on static rates or limited seasonal adjustments. Fortunately, you don’t need a full-scale Revenue Management System (RMS) to adopt smarter pricing practices.
By monitoring market conditions, booking patterns, and local events, hotels can make incremental pricing adjustments to better align with real-time demand. Even small shifts can help capture additional revenue during peak weekends or holidays. The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) notes that hotels using dynamic pricing and inventory controls consistently outperform competitors who rely solely on static pricing models.
If your PMS or channel manager allows for rate flexibility, now is the time to experiment and fine-tune your pricing strategy for the summer rush.
5. Quality Assurance with MOP: Make Sure Every Room Is Guest-Ready
With summer occupancy surging, ensuring every room is perfectly prepared is critical to guest satisfaction. The Visual Matrix MOP system includes built-in Quality Assurance tools that help your team inspect, track, and verify room readiness before guests arrive. Whether you’re using room inspections, room attendant reviews, or process-based checks, these tools keep standards high and prevent service lapses.
Make Every Feature Count This Summer!
High occupancy is only one part of a successful summer season. By exploring the tools already available in your system—and using them more strategically—you can make meaningful improvements in guest experience, team efficiency, and revenue performance.
Don’t overlook the small features that can create big results. Whether it’s building engaging summer packages, delivering more personalized service, or making smarter pricing decisions, your hotel can thrive this season by putting underused capabilities to work in fresh ways.
Schedule a quick 15-minute demo with Visual Matrix to see how these tools work together in a modern PMS
