Jewelry Store Mentors - Lodging Newsletter June 30, 2025

By Wm. May
Published: 06/30/25 Topics: Lodging Newsletter Comments: 0

Seasonality dominates the lodging industry. But there are business categories that have greater ups and downs. Take the retail jewelry market, for an example, where stores make 30% of their annual income in just the four-week Christmas holiday season. It’s make it or break it.

Store owners like to say - Jewelry is the only object you may keep your entire life, not furniture, or houses, or cars. Jewelry fits the bill even if you can’t afford the bill. Right now, you might have the watch grandpa gave you, the bracelet your husband bought for you, or that engagement ring.

In 1947, the DeBeers diamond syndicate proclaimed that "A diamond is forever". And it worked, even though (surprise) those shiny white pieces of glass-like rocks are not as rare as good old Cecil Rhodes, founder of DeBeers would like you to believe. An engagement ring has become the almost required sign of love between two people.

As a young man, I stumbled into a small chain of jewelry stores. My tiny advertising agency was anxiously looking for clients. Gordon - an executive there - thought I might have a splashy, new idea to help them.

The stores were already doing everything else extraordinarily well. Beautiful products, preferable locations, smiling sales people, and credit for young couples to buy that ring. The third generation family members running the stores had learned from their parents how to take care of customers, operate honorably, and pay attention to the details.

In a jewelry industry publication, I found statistics saying most people buy jewelry their entire lives from the store where they made their first purchase - usually an engagement ring. So with unusual ideas, I ran ads on youth-market top-40 rock-and-roll radio stations, with scripts and actors who treated listeners like they were important, appreciated, and wanted. Soon new custumers entered the stores singing the "The diamond people" jingle.

But when phoning the store owner during the holiday seasons, he said politely, "Please call me back after the holidays. I must keep my eye on the road."

During the lodging industry seasons, I have tried to find away to explain that to property owner clients. "Right now the store is full of customers (Travelers) and I have my eye on the road to making you money. Can we talk when things are slow?"

Lodging Newsletter by William May

June 30, 2025 - Jewelry Store Mentors

There are ten (or more ways) to lose a booking. In no particular order. But we want to avoid them all.

Phone Numbers: Businesses spend millions of dollars to create commerce websites, build traffic, but then hide their phone number, to decrease employee hours. In lodging, refusing a phone call is a sin. Our phone numbers are memorable and posted throughout the websites and marketing materials.

After Hours: If a guest can’t reach a human being with questions or for help, they never come back. Our phones are open 24/7/365, with live humans for after hours services. If you call, we answer or call back lickity split.

Yakity Yak: Speaking of phoning, does your manager do outbound phone calls to past guests? If not, your property is losing bookings. We do it religiously. Personal interaction is the most powerful sales tool.

Goldilocks: Prideful owners lose bookings when they refuse market demands. It is necessary to pursue high rates in the high seasons and be competitive other times. Wise owners authorize our secret S2D2 yield management experts to get the highest annual profit for every home

Magnanimous: Like it more not, some shoppers want to negotiate. Refusing to justify rates or haggle a bit, turns them off, killing bookings. Significant discounts are are rare. If you never offer a bit more for a bit less, you lose. We find it’s better to help guests find what they want at price they can afford.

Square It: Offering more than can be delivered is easily detected by guests and bookings are lost. It is necessary to fully explain the property, even if it has negatives. Guests appreciate the candor. We provide clear, concise information which comforts guests into staying with us.

Channels: While some find advertising on VRBO, AirBnB, Expedia, Booking.com and other advertising "Channels" is costly and unwieldy, failure to advertise widely loses bookings. In fact, we advertise properties on hundreds of websites, including our own.

Tourism: Falling to advertise on regional traveler websites hides properties from guests who want to give owners money. We even developed our own tourism websites and get guests the competition doesn’t even know exist.

Creativity: Terrible photos are a quick way to turn off bookings. If you don’t have drone photos, 3D tours, floor plans, and more on the website, your property loses. We have all of that and more.

Guest Services: The guest may be 100% in the wrong when they lose a key, or break a lamp, but accusations or violating the golden rule loses bookings when guests chargeback on credit cards or secure a channel discount. Keeping the booking (income) is as important as getting the booking.

Bonus (#11): Property owners who interrupt managers while they pound away at sales, lose bookings. We ask clients to let us do our job answering guest phone calls, emails, online chats and text non-stop. Those jewelry stores owners, who caught the idea, are now in the 5th generation of ownership with six profitable stores, because they kept their eye on the road.

Author: Wm. May
Blog #: 1032 – 06/30/25

Sponsor: Vortex VIP –

Comments: 0

To comment, login or register now free

[+] Submit Your Blog Here!