A hotel turnaround in a competitive and changing economic environment requires a different focus than just cutting expenses, controlling labor costs and pushing more sales activity. In today’s ever changing lodging and travel marketplace, a successful turnaround is often a result of quickly adapting to and taking advantage of price value models, customer experiences and mobile marketing. It is also a matter of successfully trouble shooting the problem first. Then, deciding on the appropriate solutions that will create both an immediate and long term return for lasting results. These solutions should include: Maximizing Revenue Revenue enhancement (also called yield management) is no longer just a tool but a necessary priority and part of day to day operations. Good yield management maximizes (or at least significantly increases) revenue production for the same number of units, by taking advantage of the forecast of high demand/low demand periods, effectively shifting demand from high demand periods to low demand periods and by charging a premium for late bookings. While yield management systems tend to generate higher revenues, the revenue streams tends to arrive later in the booking horizon as more capacity is held for late sale at premium prices. In general, management sets the longer term revenue driving strategic policies. However in repositioning or turning around the performance of unprofitable hotel, a shorter window of time in addressing and reacting to ups and downs of the occupancy and revenue cycle is more important. Just like a 10 minute daily staff meeting to set the operational focus of the day, a hotel turnaround should begin every morning with revenue management tools targeted at filling vacant guestrooms, getting higher average rates and filling short term group room blocks. Customers First Think of it as the power of 3, says this hotel turnaround consultant – create a positive and memorable experience during check in, while the guest stays with you, and upon check out and departure. According to Peter Tarlow, president of Tourism & More “When interacting with customers, travel-industry professionals should project enthusiasm, courtesy and humor to put people at ease and win their trust. Machines do ordinary transactions; people perform unique and memorable transactions. Always be real and let your customers know that serving others is not merely something that you do, it is something that you choose to do!” Your guests will reward or sometimes scold you with their comments on Trip Advisor, Yelp and the various OTA (online travel agency) sites such as Expedia and Hotels.com. Most people will say nothing when they have bad experiences and plenty when they have great ones. A hotel motel management company can boost your ratings and rankings on hotel sites by focusing on getting more positive reviews because the Internet has become the best and lowest cost word of mouth driver for more customers. Being Mobile Target marketing through mobile platforms and devices presents a unique opportunity for a turnaround of an underperforming hotel. Today’s travelers and potential guests often monitor their smart phones and mobile tablets looking for recommended places to stay, availability during crowded travel periods, and last minute deals while on the go. Ask and answer these questions to decide if your hotel marketing is mobile enough in today’s fast paced mobile and social media focused environment: – Do you have a “mobile” hotel web site and is it geared toward capturing room reservations easily and immediately? – Have you set up a Facebook hotel business page and is it updated daily with promotions, special deals, featured guestrooms and customer comments? – Does your marketing plan include a Twitter account to attract followers and are you tweeting similar messages as in Facebook that your potential customer knows about at least a couple times per day? – Do you advertise using Google Adwords and does your hotel take advantage of its mobile device targeting? In summary, successfully performing a hotel turnaround is driven predominately by more revenue and happier customers. Still, creating, driving and managing this process for ongoing results requires a daily focus of time and investment in mobile marketing programs as well.
