Some very sage advice from Carol.
With the very many domains not within our control, there are some that we DO control. And, they happen to impact revenue – imagine that! Her observations are spot on.
Whilst Carol speaks to the opportunities in the social media environment, I remain somewhat skeptical about plunging into this arena. My concerns emanate from some observations:
· There are many opportunities within the traditional avenues of ecommerce which many hotels are not fully exploiting yet. The payoffs here are tried and well proven.
· The greatest impact in these media is still, in my opinion, a proper and vigorous attention to guest feedback sites – TripAdvisor, Expedia, Travelocity, etc, etc. With a strong ecommerce and internet strategy coupled with a disciplined approach to responding appropriately and honestly to guest comment postings, you can influence a larger number of travelers than diverting limited resources prematurely to exploring new outlets.
BTW: I have set up a Twitter account, and have received many requests from others to follow me but have yet to come across someone I know who actually uses this! I plead guilty to the same too!
So, where would I push first?
So, that is my two cents. Read on and good luck, as always!
Nagib.
The 20% Solution to Increased Market Share and Revenue - By Carol Verret
Date: 2009-10-07
Industry: -Gaming-Hotel- Category: Features
The local market may be fraught with challenges - new supply, major demand generators cutting back on budgets and revenue dilution due to heavy discounting. These factors comprise the 80% that is out of control of individual properties - accept it and move on to the 20% that you can control.
PKF states that ‘Our research over the past 10 years reveals that seventy-five to eighty percent of a hotel’s performance is systematically a function of changes in the larger market in which the property is located,’ notes John B. (Jack) Corgel Ph.D., Senior Advisor to PKF Hospitality Research and the Robert C. Baker Professor of Real Estate, Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. ‘And who is better at knowing that remaining twenty to twenty-five percent than the local property owner or operator? The person in charge of the hotel knows when rooms will come in and out of service, when renovations occur, and when competitors open across the street.’ (Hotel Marketing, August 14, 2009)
The local market may be fraught with challenges - new supply, major demand generators cutting back on budgets and revenue dilution due to heavy discounting. These factors comprise the 80% that is out of control of individual properties - accept it and move on to the 20% that you can control.
How would the numbers look different if you generated an additional 20%? That means that 80% of your market is out of your control but that 20% is the difference between 100% market share and 120% — that 20% could be the difference between servicing the debt on your hotel or not, that 20% can save a few jobs in your hotel. 20% can easily be spread among multiple market segments.
Market share will determine which properties are best positioned to move rate when the recovery begins. There are various reports that most hotels have access to that indicate market share by market segment. Those include the Hotelligence report, the monthly STR report and some of the reports furnished by the OTAs. An analysis of these reports read with an eye toward market share reveals opportunities for achieving that additional 20% over the market average.
Achieving an additional 20% or whatever percentage the hotel is below 120% market share is doable. A strategy developed across all market segments based on report analysis of which market segments have room to move the needle on market share, can yield significant revenue benefits.
Corporate Business: ‘The next six weeks are very critical in my point of view, said (Starwood’s) Chief Financial Officer Vasant Prabhu during a presentation at Deutsche Bank’s leveraged finance conference. It is ‘the first indicator of what next year’s trends look like.’ ..in relation to the return of corporate business. (Forbes, October 1, 2009) Using the Hotelligence report, where can you steal share? Have you examined the in-house reports to locate smaller volume businesses that may be using you but aren’t on your radar screen? Are these businesses in a market sector that is growing and are there any others in that market sector in the local market? Build a corporate package for the smaller accounts that won’t beat you up on rate like the big RFP accounts.
Corporate Groups: You have exhausted the database, you have done your internet searches and the battle fatigue has set into the sales staff. Have you tried nontraditional sources such as social networks to put out ‘hot dates and rates’? Is there a corporate group promotion on the hotel’s FaceBook page in addition to the usual ’specials’ for F&B? Have you put out a subtle tease on the LinkedIn discussion groups in which you participate? While only 13% of meeting planners say they use Twitter can you reach that 13% with a Twitter promotion provided that you have meeting planner followers? Is the hotel on i-Meet, the social network for meeting planners and suppliers? Are you absolutely sure that you have mapped all of your accounts to locate every contact that can give you business?
Leisure: Autumn and the holidays are a heavy travel time for both leisure transient and leisure groups. Going back to social networks, have you posted leisure packages on the hotel’s FaceBook page? Is the LinkedIn hotel profile ‘tagged’ with links to landing pages that have special packages for leisure groups? Is the hotel still implementing Twitter campaigns for leisure business? Going back to the database, corporate clients also have leisure travel and groups that come into the market. Send out mini eblasts to the corporate database promoting leisure packages. Promote special rates for holiday travel family travel to your corporate clients. Be present on internet platforms where leisure groups go to check out their options such as Hotel Planner and others.
The bottom line is - are you absolutely sure that you have exhausted all of your sales and revenue management options to achieve small percentage gains in both revenue and market share? Can you get that incremental revenue up by another few percentage points in share?
If the next 45 days is critical in terms of demand, are ready to ‘own’ an extra 20% of any increase in demand?
The 20% Solution Consulting Package is available now - email carolverret@earthlink.net for details.
Carol Verret And Associates Consulting and Training offers training services and consulting in the areas of sales, revenue management and customer service primarily but not exclusively to the hospitality industry. To find out more about the company click on www.carolverret.com. To contact Carol send her an email at carol@carolverret.com or she can be reached by cell phone (303) 618-4065. Visit www.hotelsalesblog.com.
This article comes from Hotel News Resource
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com
The URL for this story is:
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article41568.html
