What does SMERF mean for hotels and the hospitality industry?

OK, we might subcategorize into whether the former are traveling with colleagues or alone., or whether the latter have brought their family or friends. And we might look at seasonality and local events, and their effect on whether they’re using your hotel as the focus of their activities or just a convenient base.

But we miss out when we forget to consider – and therefore market to and cater for – guests that don’t fit into these convenient buckets but do have other things in common. We’re talking about the likes of social, military, educational, religious and fraternal groups.

Conveniently, there’s a handy acronym for this type of guest, which you’ve no doubt worked out: SMERF.

Hold that word in your head, because the SMERF market isn’t insignificant, and this’ll help you with your strategy to capitalize on an often neglected demographic, one that epitomizes the opportunities of group business and maximizing occupancy.

Real-world examples of SMERFs

While SMERFs shouldn’t be treated as one amorphous blob, and each group needs the personal touch, they do have much in common in terms of your broad marketing approach.

So let’s take a moment to establish exactly who they are.

Social groups

Social groups can be defined by a common interest or affiliation, familial or otherwise, and very strong bonds, ones that often lead to yearly reunions.

The examples we could give are virtually infinite but two that caught our eye while researching this article were:

• This Scottish family clan gathering in Texas, who met for the 61st year running in 2022

• These go-kart racers who travel to Super Nationals in Vegas every year

Organizations like these are less governed by the conventional cycles of the hotel industry, often traveling instead at times marketing an anniversary or

But once they’ve set a date, they need accommodation and they often need it in bulk, ideally at the same property.

Military groups

Broadly speaking, the military can be broken down into:

• The army and its various specialist units

• The navy and marines

• The air force

But this is before you subcategorize by officers, the rank and file, reserves and veterans’ groups, and whether these groups are traveling while on active duty, which is the most common use case, or are taking a break together – perhaps they’re pulled into a port a long way from home and have a period of shore leave.

As with social groups, timing can be hard to predict and doesn’t follow the usual patterns. But if you’re ready to accommodate these people when they need it and you have the marketing tactics to attract them (see below), their bulk custom could be lucrative.

Educational groups

Bucking the unpredictability trend are student groups, who do tend to travel at less random times: namely, during school and college holiday – although there can be exceptions, particularly around long weekends.

Sometimes they’ll travel as part of their high school, college or university, or they’ll be part of an association in that educational establishment, such as a musical band or a sports team.

But it could be that these groups comprise people from different organizations who are united by type and an operator, such as EF Tours or Atlas Obscura, that caters for them. Establishing links with organizations like this certainly wouldn’t hurt!

Don’t forget to factor in that some travelers will be minors accompanied by adults who in most cases won’t be their parents.

Religious groups

Religious groups are as varied as religions themselves, with each religion being subdivided into individual denominations.

Take a look, for example, at the Knights of Columbus or the Red Hat Society, but this barely scratches the surface of communities of like-minded people who will travel together en masse (no pun intended).

Their reasons for traveling are almost as diverse as their beliefs, with obvious examples being religious holidays in places of significance. But they might be latching on to one-off events near to your hotel or en route to pilgrimages: your hotel doesn’t have to be in Lourdes or Mecca; if it offers rest and recuperation along the way, then market it as such.

Fraternal groups

More common in North America than elsewhere, fraternal groups (and sororities) are the college social organizations usually named after a string of three Greek letters.

Single sex and semi-secretive, they usually straddle educational institutions, being united not by geography but by outlook, values and interests – so these are often what determine their activities and travels, rather than geography.

Pi Lambda Phi is a prominent example, one that offers year-round events, reunions and conferences, many of which requiring accommodation. Another is Alpha Tau Omega. But there are countless more.

Bonds are very strong, in and out of college, so graduation doesn’t draw a line under fraternity get-togethers, and while their origins might be in the USA and Canada, that doesn’t mean members won’t travel together overseas.

Much like the social groups with which we started this section, membership of these societies sometimes simply provides an excuse to congregate.

Why hoteliers can’t afford to neglect SMERF groups

We’ve already hinted at some of the reasons why you might want to direct your efforts towards SMERFs. But before we look at how to do that, let’s get more specific on the why.

And there are two big levers you can pull.

Maximize off-season bookings

SMERF groups represent good demographics to market to outside of peak travel seasons.

These groups often have travel events during the off-season, and if they choose your hotel it will easily fill a higher number of unoccupied rooms.

In the case of some of these groups, price consciousness might be more of a factor in their decision-making than it would be for a business traveler, but finding a sweet spot for the right size of group can provide new business without which would see your hotel rooms going empty.

Tap into a recurring event and you can also market for recurring SMERF business.

Capitalize on their reliability

SMERFs are usually far more reliable than other types of traveler.

Group members are personally invested in their groups, and often have been for quite some time. The thought of passing up what might have become a longstanding annual engagement, one in which they see well-established members of their group, will be anathema, and the fear of missing out – or FOMO – will be strong.

Cancellations are less likely than with more typical travelers who are less emotionally tied to whatever reason it is they have to travel.

Much doesn’t change from one year or one event to the next; what could change is their hotel of choice, and if you get it right on the day and in your follow-up marketing activities, yours could become a recurring part of the tradition.

How to attract SMERFs

So we’ve covered the what and the why. Let’s review the how – how you can attract SMERFs to your hotel with tried-and-tested revenue management and marketing strategies that cater to these types of traveler.

We’ll keep this short and broad because these groups are unique, so too much granularity would become irrelevant for some of them. But this should provide a good starting point for your individual plans, once you’ve worked out which are most relevant to your hotel.

Offer group booking discounts

We’ve seen that some SMERF segments might have budgetary limitations, so offering them group discounts will appeal to their bargain-seeking tendencies and create demand.

It’s also likely to be completely in line with your general policies and practices in this area.

If you’re in any doubt about occupancy and room block economics, though, conduct some displacement analysis, in the low season – which is often when these groups need accommodation – you’re unlikely to find yourself missing out on higher-value business nearer the stay date. So take the SMERF business!

Clearly price wars are never good but if you’re competing with oyster hotels for SMERF bookings, having the edge on room rates will give you an obvious advantage while retaining high profitability.

Provide special amenities

Offering special amenities can entice SMERFs to book with your hotel.

Knowing a bit about the nature of the group – which you should do – gives you a headstart in designing ultra-targeted amenities.

To get you thinking along the right lines, take a look at this non-exhaustive list of ideas of amenities you could offer:

• Easy check-ins, where members of a group are fast-tracked

• Shuttle services to the group’s event, so karters going to the Vegas race track we reference above, for example

• Providing tailored welcome packages – these needn’t be expensive but the more personal they are, the more they’ll make your guests smile and start their stay on the right note

• Themed meals in your restaurant, perhaps with a drink on the house

• Special opening hours for your restaurants and bars to cater for unusual timings in groups’ activities – if the numbers justify it economically

• Easy check-out, along with a cheap but personalized parting gift of memento

As we’ve said, some of these things can be marketed in advance to offer incentives and get the business in the first place; others, though, can be showcased on arrival and during the group’s stay, and should increase the likelihood of future bookings, which should be one of your key objectives.

It’s also great for boosting your reputation; even if these guests don’t return, they’ll talk.

Center marketing around special occasions

The importance of events and special occasions – either one-offs or annually occurring meetings – cannot be overstated when considering SMERFs.

It should therefore go without saying that you should note these in your locales and use them as the basis for targeted marketing tactics to draw in guests.

Some you’ll be able to easily research through familiarity with your local convention and visitors bureau (CVB) or will be offered by data providers; others will require more digging or speaking to SMERFs who you hope will offer repeat business.

A good example of the former is ITB’s annual trade show in Berlin, but you should have a fair idea of the big attractions that your property can potentially serve..

But don’t just note these special occasions; make sure that this information, along with any contact information you have, is cross-referenced in and integrated with the various digital systems you use, including your PMS, CRM and RMS, and that anyone involved in setting prices or marketing can readily access them.

Which brings us neatly to our final section, which looks at data-driven insights.

Advise readers to make note of special events or regular group events in their locale and use targeted marketing tactics to draw in readers.

Generate excitement about booking with your hotel with better SMERF insights

Data-driven insights underpin all good hotel sales, marketing and revenue management, and SMERF-based activity is no exception.

Here’s are some solutions that will inject certainty and science into your operations:

• Business Intelligence for revenue management – forecasts, reports, assessing your metrics, such as RevPAR and ADR: this is the platform to understand your hotel and drive strategy, and you can incorporate things like data on event planners into it.

• Market Insight – spot and analyze demand patterns and get a view on trends before your competitors.

• Rate Insight, gives you real-time access to your hotel and short-term rental competitor’s past, current, and future rates with the most accurate data in the industry.

It’s all about knowing your guest, knowing their habits and knowing what events and local attractions draw them to your neighborhood.

Doing this with good data and the right software to elevate that data could turn your hotel into an Alpha Alpha Alpha operation.