The guests who loved their stay this summer can't hear from you in February.
Your summer guests had a good time. You know they did - they said so at checkout. A couple of them mentioned they might come back. One left a really lovely review.
By February, those same guests will be sitting on a grey Tuesday thinking about booking a break somewhere. They won't be thinking about you specifically. They'll be looking at whatever comes up first.
If you haven't kept their contact details, there's nothing you can do about that.
This is the quiet season problem. And it compounds every year.
The platform gap
If those summer bookings came through Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia or any other platform - you don't have those guests' email addresses. The platform does.
They paid you for the room. They own the relationship.
That means you can't email past guests a quiet-week rate. You can't tell them about a weekend you know they'd love. You can't let them know you have three nights free in February before you have to discount them on the platform and pay commission on top. You can't ask them to book directly next time and save you both something in the process.
The platform can reach them, though. And it will - with your listing and your competitors' listings side by side.
The people who want to come back in winter are real
VisitBritain's 2025 figures show England overnight trips were down 3% on the year before - but spend per trip was up 9% to £333. The guests who are travelling are spending more, and they're choosing more carefully where they go.
Most people also plan ahead. Bookings for a February weekend don't all happen in February. They happen in October, November and January - when someone is staring at a long stretch of grey and decides to give themselves something to look forward to.
The quieter months on this coast aren't quiet because nobody wants to be here. They're quiet because the businesses that could fill them don't have a way to reach the people who already like them.
What capturing guest emails actually means in practice
It doesn't have to be complicated.
It means having a clear, simple way for guests to agree to hear from you - ideally before or just after they leave, while the stay is still fresh. Some pre-visit welcome information. A follow-up message after checkout that includes a soft invitation to stay in touch. A QR code that takes five seconds to scan.
The important thing is that they've actively agreed. Under UK data protection law, you can't use a booking email address for marketing - even for a guest who loved their stay. But getting explicit consent isn't difficult, and most guests who've had a good experience are happy to be kept in the loop if you make it easy.
What you'd actually send them
A quiet-dates email in October doesn't need to be a polished campaign.
Brief and personal works well - here are a few weekends we have free this autumn, here's what's on locally, here's a small incentive for booking directly with us. Something that makes past guests feel like they're getting the inside track, not being sold to.
Fifty past guests who already know you and trust you are worth considerably more than five hundred cold contacts. You don't need a large list to fill ten quiet weekends. You need the right people on it.
The timing of this matters
The best time to set this up was before the season started. The second best time is now.
Getting guest email capture in place in October means you have a list - even a small one - to use in November and January. Those are the two months that, for many businesses on this coast, do the most to determine how the quiet half of the year goes.
This isn't a big project. It's a straightforward setup that most accommodation businesses here don't have - and most of their competitors don't have either. Being the one who does it first is a meaningful advantage.
We help independent accommodation businesses on the Yorkshire Coast build a direct relationship with their guests - email capture, setup and the quiet-season campaigns to use it. The autumn bundle runs until October.
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