Archive for the ‘Revenue Generation’ Category

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Keeping the Pipeline Full

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Sales has always said that if the pipeline isn’t full not much will come out as confirmed bookings. Another analogy that is used is the sales funnel.

How do you know if your sales staff is making enough of the right calls to generate the business you have projected?

Start by looking at your historical bookings over the last 4 years by market segment. How many sales calls in each market segment did your sales staff make to achieve those bookings? Are you satisfied with that booking pace? If not, identify the percentage increase you expect from each market segment. Then simply increase the number of sales calls for each segment by the percentage increase you desire.

    Test your market segment expectations.

    It’s easy to set goals and expectations. Making sure they are realistic is a separate issue. Your sales team has to “buy into” your sales goals and expectations.

        Can your sales staff realistically make enough calls on former or potential customers to meet the sales call goals by market segment?
        Are there enough potential customers coming to your area in each market segment? If not, how can you increase sales from existing customers in the market segment to meet your booking target for the segment?
        Test the assumptions on both of the above with your current sales team. Then sit down with them and assess the results and where they feel modifications are needed in the targets. Then ask them what additional market segments they feel the hotel should sell. The sales team can’t just say the targets are unrealistic, they need to be responsible for identifying other sources that could generate the business in the time they have to sell.

    Now step back and identify what additional training your sales team needs to meet the goals. We are all familiar with “order takers.” Today we need people who can find business and then sell the business at the rates we need. Our customers still want to get the best deal possible, but most also know that the markets are starting to change. They are willing to listen when your sales staff sell the value your hotel offers for the price you want to charge.

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Attracting Millennials to your Hotel

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Millennials are more social than Baby Boomers. Staying in their room working all evening, or watching a movie doesn’t hold a lot of appeal. They would rather work in the lobby or an open business center, even if they are not conversing with others. A key is a roomy business center. They are not interested in seeing how many people can be crammed into a 10′ x 10′ “business center.” They’ll work in the lobby first.

What can you do to encourage them out of their rooms?

  • One hotel started offering popcorn from 4:30-7 PM weekdays. Guests checking in came back downstairs. Business travelers enjoyed the popcorn. The popcorn encouraged conversation. So this select service hotel got a permit to sell beer and wine. First month on the program beer and wine sales topped $10,000. Now they are looking to add simple sandwiches. Word is spreading, and the hotel picked up additional 221 room nights in Feb. They now lead their market segment by 20 points. (They were third in the segment.)
  • Another hotel had a very small lobby. They moved their fitness room which had been just off the lobby and next to the pool. They converted that room to a “great room” with a big screen TV, 3 computer work stations, 3 game tables, complete with decks of cards, backgammon, cribbage, etc. They also added 3 vending machines. First month, vending machine sales topped $1100. Now there are typically 5-10 people in the room from about 5-10 PM weekdays. Families use the room on weekends when kids games replace the cards, etc. No increase in repeat bookings yet, but no attrition either
  • Another hotel knew a retiree who loved to make homemade donuts. They convinced her to make her donuts in the hotel from 5-6:30 PM weekdays. She always baked up few so the smell greeted guests checking in. Then she would fry up donuts and dip them in the frosting of the guests choice. The program was so successful it quickly attracted local business people. She now has taken over two rooms and the donut operation is available from 6 AM to 6 PM. Occupancy in Feb. was up 11 points over 2009 and ADR was up $3.

Share your success stories with us.

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Getting More Business from Top 20% of Your Customers

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Historically most companies get 80% of their business from 20% of their customers.

Each of us knows who our top customers are. Majority of a full service hotel’s profits come from rooms and banquets/catering.

What Are You Doing to Optimize Business from these 2 Segments?

Clients are telling us they are getting more meeting business the first half of 2010 from smaller companies.

We asked them what they were doing to increase the spend. Here are few of their comments:

  • Encouraging breakfast meetings. Very small groups can use the restaurant. Larger groups use meeting rooms. Some groups just want light breakfast, others want full breakfast buffet so they can start their meeting while the group is eating. A few groups broke up before noon, so providing breakfast ensured the hotel maximized F&B revenue from the group.
  • Another hotel found groups had lunch at the hotel, but let their groups go elsewhere for dinner. Hotel started selling evening cocktail reception from 4-6 PM for these groups. They got additional revenue from the cocktail reception with pool table, foosball, and poker for matchsticks including lessons. They found 25% of the group ordered dinner in the hotel so they could continue the games, which typically evolved into business discussions. The clients felt they got additional mileage from their meetings, and the hotel got additional dollars from their groups.
  • Another hotel surveyed the Top 20% to ask what additional amenities or activities they would like to offer their groups. One company wanted to offer something for their Secretaries who always arranged groups, but didn’t get to attend. They asked for a floral workshop. The hotel contacted a local florist who offered to do it for only the cost of the materials. No room nights, but a fun afternoon for Secretaries who also were given a tour of the hotel, including various room configurations.

What has your hotel offered groups that was unique and increased revenues from your Top 20%?

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10 Online Marketing Tips for 2010

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

I’m just getting caught up. Tail end of December Ryan Bifulco had following excellent article on HotelInteractive.com. If you don’t subscribe to HotelInteractive.com, give it serious consideration.

There are countless studies and reports touting how critical it is for hotels to be active with blogs, search engines, e-mail and social networks. Yet many hoteliers are still very skeptical about new media and Internet advertising. With empty rooms to fill in 2010, perhaps more hotels will warm up to these online hotel marketing programs:

  1. Rethink your Distribution. Partner with people that produce results.  Grow your bookings through a combination of targeted banners, text links and e-mails.  Distribution does not just mean listing on Expedia anymore.  Look at meta search players and travel sites to fish in new ponds.
  2. Stop Ignoring the Power of Viral Marketing. This year it’s about engaging potential customers using online videos, podcasts, blogs, games and social networks.  All of these areas allow users to spread the word about your hotel as they share it with their friends.
  3. Participate in Social Networks. This doesn’t mean slapping up a Facebook page without also having a fan page and group as well as the right audience as friends. Having a Twitter page with 50 followers won’t do the trick, so be an active part of the conversations to boost your following (audience) and make sure you know the Twitter lingo such as “#traveltuesday.”

  4. Fuse in Digital PR. It used to be important to just have your hotel featured in the Sunday section of The New York Times. Today it’s also vital to have your hotel show up on popular online sites like About.com, which coincidentally is owned by The New York Times and draws in 60 million unique users a month.
  5. Retarget Travelers. 98 percent of the users that visit a Web site leave without buying anything.  But hotels can use retargeting to have a second shot at advertising to that same potential visitor even after he has left your site.
  6. Revisit your SEO plan. SEO has changed more in the last year than in the last five years. SEO does not mean buying your way into Google (we call that SEM, folks). It means making your site as friendly as possible to the search engines. It also means doing more with blogs, bookmarks, social media, video SEO and audio SEO.
  7. Shoot an HD video. Time to upgrade those hotel photos from five years ago!
  8. Package your Hotel. You need to offer more than the traditional “breakfast package.” Get creative and sell the experience. Why not put together a “Thrill Seeker Package” which includes the room and a day of skydiving.  And don’t be stingy on your room rate, as you can mask it within the total price of the package.
  9. Publish your own E-mail Newsletter. When guests register online or at the hotel, ask them for their e-mail address and see if they might be interested in receiving a monthly newsletter filled with interesting information about the hotel, specials, packages, seasonal menus, etc. Building this internal database of travelers interested in your hotel brand is priceless and an excellent way to market your hotel throughout the year.
  10. Develop a Digital Strategy. Brainstorm with your team and work with experts to understand how to tie all these things together in a way that fits your brand. The items listed above are all related and must be harnessed together to really get ahead.
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Nagib’s Corner: Ways to Beat the Slow Recovery

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Happy 2010,

Firstly, hope you all had a wonderful time with your families over the holidays.

Secondly – wish you have a successful year ahead, both with your business and family.

The basics determine how to develop more business in 2010.

· Leisure Travel Outlook - Value Is King: no secret on this reality. Focus on building value into your packages.

· Look for deals on the Internet : watch your website and analyze the stats very closely. This still remains your most effective growth medium if you use it - well. Imagine the sheer numbers of people who could be selecting you!

· Both components of demand for business travel services (individual and group) will recover as the economy improves; yet demand from individual business travelers is likely to rebound first: corporate transient traffic and negotiated corporate traffic. This area will grow ahead of convention and meeting markets.

o In house data mining for leads. Use your employees PLUS all your normal sources.

o Identify originating source of the traffic and make a sales visit to them – it’s inexpensive and highly effective in building relations and loyalty.

o Be strategic in where you anticipate traffic to come from, not just chase what may have been there earlier. Markets evolve.

o Review your approved RFP solicitations – approval is only step one: converting that into sales is where the rubber meets the road.

o Channel management: CRO, GDS, etc. Good time to check visibility and update to highlight value propositions.

No, they won’t come just because you built: however, those who are coming to your neck of the woods will come to you if you give them reason to! And that will likely provide you what you’re looking for.

Good luck and all the very best for the year ahead!

Nagib.

Nagib Lakhani
RevMax Hospitality Consulting Services
O: (425)677-7866     C: (425)445-7750   F: (866)508-7866

nagib@RevenueMaxConsulting.com

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5 Questions Every Revenue Manager Should Be Asking

Monday, January 4th, 2010
Following is one of the most helpful articles I’ve seen for Revenue Enhancement for 2010. Patrick did excellent job. Here’s the link if you have not subscribed to this excellent publication.
http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/UserRegistration.aspx
04 January 2010 9:03 AM
By Patrick Mayock
Associate News Editor
patrick@hotelnewsnow.com
REPORT FROM THE U.S.—While presenting at the Hospitality Leadership Forum in early November, Mark Lomanno, president of research firm Smith Travel Research, made a statement ominous enough to send chills up the spines of revenue managers everywhere.

“On an inflation-adjusted basis,” he began, “ … it’s going to probably take eight to 10 years to get room rates back to where they were in 2007.”

This assessment was more severe than the reality faced in the aftermath of 9/11, when it took rates six years to recover on an inflation-adjusted basis, according to STR. But then again, this downturn also has seen historic extremes in industry performance declines.

Still, not everyone agreed with Lomanno’s projection. Jim Rozell, senior director of revenue optimization at Carlson Hotels Worldwide, said that 2007 was an inflated benchmark to begin with.

“In 2008, portions of 2007, rates were not where they should have been,” he said. “They were well above where they should have been,” adding rates are now where they should have been.

For the industry to think it will recover to 2007 levels is probably unrealistic, he said.

Yet others, such as Bonnie Buckhiester of Buckhiester Management, a Seattle-based yield management consulting firm, concurred with Lomanno.

And whether you agree with the claim or not, it’s important to start thinking about recovering rates at the onset of the economic upturn. Here are five questions every good revenue manager should ask himself or herself to get started:

1. Have you forgotten your price point?

There’s a difference between slashing prices and making discounts look like promotions, Rozell said. The former implies cutting rates to establish the lowest competitive price point among your peers, assuming that guests’ booking decisions are based solely on price.

Promotional discounts, however, offer cost-conscious consumers a value-oriented deal that maintains a reference to the original price point. For example, if a guest buys two nights and gets one night free, they still know how much that third night is worth.

“The key thing is to keep that higher reference price out there, so that people being driven by value still realize this is a (US)$299 product,” said Chris Anderson, assistant professor for the Cornell School of Hotel Administration.

2. Are you using the right comp set?

Bonnie Buckhiester

“Revenue mangers have to go back and revisit their comp sets and determine if they’ve got the right comp sets,” Buckhiester said. This is especially important as revenue managers learn to navigate the new normal, in which five-star hotels are charging four-star rates, four-star hotels are charging three-star rates, and so on.

Read “It’s all about who is in your comp set.”

3. How often do you update your forecasts?

Monthly forecasts are great for C-level boardroom meetings, but they don’t provide the type of up-to-date information needed to make accurate, day-to-day decisions from the revenue management perspective, according to Buckhiester.

So how often is often enough? Track accuracy by the day, Buckhiester advised. This is especially important for hotels at which revenue management is not outsourced or automatic.

4. What’s your most profitable business mix?

It’s not enough to determine your most profitable business mix in general, Buckhiester said. You must determine the most profitable business mix for today’s market conditions, and then adjust it accordingly as the economic climate changes.

To do so, look at all revenue streams, all income, all internal and external costs, and really drill down into them to determine what mix of guests will generate the highest total revenue—not just the highest initial room rate.

5. Does the product match the price?

Price points shouldn’t be arbitrary; they should accurately reflect the product and demand, Buckhiester said. While this might sound obvious, far too many hoteliers aren’t analyzing where the demand for certain guestrooms and packages actually lie.

Buckhiester advised taking a month or two to track upgrades to see what guests want and are willing to pay for. Then, build in up-sell opportunities to capture that demand.

Kimpton Hotels, for example, offers guests upgrade opportunities in their confirmation e-mails. “This is what you bought … you can get this upgrade for (US)$10 right now instead of (US)$20,” Buckhiester said. “It may or may not be available when checking in, and you can change your mind.”


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Nagib’s Corner: Social Media Evolving Into Social Marketing

Friday, December 4th, 2009

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen

Once you have your internet strategy for your website being well managed, and are using the tools for maximum utility, these additional media are the next horizon of opportunity. They need constant and consistent time and resources dedicated to manage and maintain. If you are ready and can support that investment, then and only then, does it make sense to move with these emerging opportunities. We are close to the point where these will become the standard in your marketing mix, just as websites were several years ago. Websites are now indispensible in your current distribution strategy – so will social media marketing become a part of the staple.

Below are some interesting examples of how you can promote your hotel – can you see hotel openings, corporate parties, etc., being promoted in this manner? Lots of fun!!

Take care and have a wonderful weekend!

‘Twend’: Social Media Evolving Into Social Marketing

– Hotels, 12/1/2009

In 2009, social media Web sites completed the transition from being a source of procrastination for young adults to a mainstream cultural phenomenon. With Twitter—and to a slightly lesser extent, Facebook—leading the way, 2010 will see social media become firmly entrenched as a powerhouse marketing platform. At both the brand and property levels, even the most conservative of hotel companies are dipping their proverbial toes into the social media waters.

As social media becomes more and more commonplace, expect companies and consumers alike to continue exploring interactivity in greater depth. Social media gives hoteliers an incredibly inexpensive way to build brand awareness, while doing it in a way that makes the brands seem simultaneously hip, down-to-earth and fun.

A great example is Caesars Palace Las Vegas’ Trick or Tweet promotion in October. Using its @CaesarsPalace Twitter account, Caesars Palace tweeted locations on property for followers to visit within a certain time frame. For guests who played along with the real-time, real-life social media scavenger hunt, the hotel gave away prizes.

Savvy hoteliers are increasingly using social media to let guests sell the hotel to other guests, which is authentic marketing at its best. For instance, Dolce Hotels and Resorts held a Facebook contest in November that invited fans to propose dream vacations at its Dolce Hayes Mansion, California. The best of the submissions were then posted on Dolce’s Facebook page for fans to vote on a winner. The prize: the very dream vacation proposed by the winner.

In a slightly edgier version of the same coin, MGM Grand Las Vegas in November asked followers of its @mgmgrand Twitter account to tweet their “sins,” using the #mgmsin hashtag, with one participant selected at random each day of the month to win a free room night.

What a brilliant promotional premise: Get the public thinking and talking about your brand, your destination and all the fun (and scandalous) things they could do while there, then just sit back and watch the conversation mushroom organically.

Nagib Lakhani

RevMax Hospitality Consulting Services
O: (425)677-7866          C: (425)445-7750        F: (866)508-7866
nagib@RevenueMaxConsulting.com
4313 245th Avenue SE, Issaquah, WA 98029

Confidentiality Implied

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Andrew Freeman & Co. presents hotel, restaurant trends for 2010

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Andrew Freeman’s Trends for 2010 are a must read. Excellent ideas for all types of business.

San Francisco, CA—November 16, 2009. Available exclusively to media today, Andrew Freeman & Co. (AF&Co.), a leading hospitality and restaurant consulting firm, is releasing their 2010 Trend Watch List. Tapping into the pulse of top restaurant and hotel trends to expect in the coming year.

The 2010 Trend Watch List was developed by AF&Co., from a combination of close industry observation, coast-to-coast travel, discussions with industry experts, meetings with hotel and restaurant clients, press contacts, conferences attended and media sources.

An industry veteran, prior to opening Andrew Freeman & Co., Andrew worked at legendary New York venues including Windows on the World, the Russian Tea Room and the Rainbow Room. Eventually Andrew left New York for San Francisco to become the Vice President of Public Relations and Strategic Partnerships for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants. He spent ten years with Kimpton, launching over 40 hotels and restaurants as well as the global brand. While there Andrew was responsible for strategic development and execution of all public and media relations activities.

AF&Co.’s annual Trend List, now in its third year, has quickly become an industry standard in anticipating market demands and consumer feedback. Read on to review the complete list:

WHAT ARE THE TOP TRENDS FOR 2010 ACCORDING TO ANDREW FREEMAN?

Putting Off the Ritz – Keep it simple! Forgo the finery for now. Keep ambiance, service, and menu items simple and comfortable. Hotels can lose some of the in-room amenities; restaurants take a more casual approach with less white linen, simpler tableware and less decoration. Less is more, but choose wisely.

Examples: 400 thread count sheets are fine, and when it comes to relaxation, a good cotton robe goes a lot farther than a silk throw.

The Magic Touch – Hotels and restaurants operate touch-screen interfaces for check-in, placing orders end user-guided guest education. Everything is paid for with the swipe of a card. Reach out and touch someone.

Examples: Incentient electronic winelist at SD26 (New York, NY) and for in-room guest service in-face Ritz Carlton in Moscow; Virgin Air snackbar; Stanford Court Hotel touchscreen tourist maps (San Francisco, CA)

Guest Who’s Coming to Dinner – Create cache by offering guests something special and inviting. Celebrity yoga instructors, chefs, actors, singers, masseurs, bartenders and designers visit and do what they do well. Restaurants host Guest Chef Nights and visiting bartenders come in once a week or for a week at a time. Pop-up restaurant appearances expand outreach and help build support. Guest experts are great for sales and public relations.

Examples: The Tides Zihuatanejo’s Yoga Retreats with celebrity instructor Tom Morley (Zihuatanejo, Mexico); Tastemaker Dinners at étoile at Domaine Chandon (Yountville, CA)

Reality Bites – Bring reality TV to real life whether it is culinary showdowns in restaurants or behind the scenes glimpses into running an outlet in the hospitality business.

Examples: Sommelier Smackdown at Fifth Floor (San Francisco, CA); Deathmatch dinners (Portland, ME)

There Is Such a Thing as a Free Lunch– Bring in guests by giving out. Hotels offer added services at no charge. Restaurants drink up the profits by keeping guests on site and happily hydrated from beverage purchases.

Examples: River Terrace Inn offers guests complimentary DVD rentals, bikes and bottled water (Napa, CA); Palio D’Asti provides free pizza during happy hour (San Francisco, CA)

Everything Old is Indeed New Again – It’s the revival. Old-school ambiance rich with historical significance enrich hotels. While restaurants return to “classic” salad dressings and dips: blue cheese, green goddess, thousand island and louis dressing or pimento cheese and onion dip. Let’s go retro.

Examples: Hotel Shattuck Plaza (Berkeley, CA); Shrimp cocktail with green goddess dressing at PorterHouse New York (New York, NY)

Get Your Game On – The lobby as living room concept goes more casual and fun with pinball, pool tables, foosball or with theme nights like Movie Nights, Makeover Madness, “Dancing With the Stars” and “American Idol” viewing parties. Restaurant make dining fun with activity oriented events.

Examples: Pillar & Post (Niagra on the Lake, Ontario); “Golf & Grill” twilight golf games and dinners at Wente Vineyards (Livermore, CA)

Values Driven Incentives – Guests choose hotels and restaurants based on like-minded values. Hotels will donate a percentage of group business from group stays to the charity of choice, while building a strong relationship and being able to reach out to like minded businesses. Restaurants attract guests with conscious concerns seeking restaurants that reinforce their views.

Examples: Kimpton Hotels Shared Values Program; River Terrace Inn sponsors the Napa Valley Land Trust

HOTELS
The Discovery Channel – Guests are in search of experience vacations that allow them to get involved. Wise hotels bring the true taste to the table, or the farm. Farm stays, winery bootcamp programs, voluntourism, and cooking classes. Escape to an alternate reality.

Examples: Feather Down Farms (multiple locations, Europe); Stony Creek Farm (New York, NY), Liberty Hill Farm (Rochester, VT)

The Loyal Treatment – Guest loyalty programs give more out, more often, in efforts to boost business and keep a strong relationship.

Statistics: Loyalty is up 19% in a tough economy (Hospitality Technology)

I Heart Art –Say it with flowers and you’ll have to say it again and again. Art speaks volumes and doesn’t have to be replaced every week. It saves money, it can be a source of community involvement and it looks good. Art is smart.

Examples: Hotel Palomar, Art in Motion (multiple locations); rotating local art work at The Lodge at Sonoma (Sonoma, CA)

One Size Does Not Fit All – Small and quirky hotels offer a unique experience; often at a more budget friendly price. Loose the traditional hotel accoutrements and replace with an alternative vibe. Airstream trailers, unusual property conversions, small but funky is the rule.

Examples: Pod hotels, Micro Hotels, Hotel Airstream (Newport Beach, CA), hip/funky hostels.

Outside the Box - Open air or outdoor lobbies, independently situated bungalows or guest units set amongst landscaped areas. Outdoor massages and exercise programs. Urban adaptations feature mini-rooftop gardens. It’s the great, great outdoors.

Examples: Cottage Suites at The Lodge at Sonoma (Sonoma, CA), Bardessono (Yountville, CA), Apple Farm (Philo, CA)

The New F Words – Form. Function. Flair. Hotel guests demand fully functional work and relaxation spaces; from practical desks, focused lighting, adequate bathroom counter space, plenty of plugs and the latest tech equipment. Don’t let design be a detriment.

Examples: ergonomic chairs, spare desk-side outlets, wireless speaker phone, and in-room connection ports with USB outlets including direct connection capabilities to sync a laptop with the 32” flat screen TV at Wyndham Phoenix Hotel (Phoenix, AZ)

Let’s Get Really Personal – Show the love and appreciation with a completely personalized experience. Customization goes to the next level to create the at-home feeling. Design at every touch-point is being personalized.

Examples: Pre-loaded digital images of family photographs, customized playlists and magazine selections in every guestroom for return guests.

RESTAURANTS

Coming to America – International influences are ingrained. Sriracha (rooster sauce) is the new salsa, which replaced the old ketchup. Vietnamese Banh Mi is the new Ham & Swiss; and Middle Eastern spices and spreads go mainstream as pizza makes way for pide. Forget chicken noodle soup, it is pho; pho sure.

Examples: Short rib sliders with Sriracha aioli at E&O Trading Co. (San Francisco, Larkspur and San Jose, CA); Sourdough bread and lavash with feta walnut spread and Caspian tapenade at Zare at Fly Trap (San Francisco, CA)

This Is a Stick Up - Small foods on a stick. Skewers, satay, and yakitori; no ifs, ands or kebabs about it.

Examples: Satay at Pranna (New York, NY); Anticuchos at La Mar Cebicheria Peruana (multiple locations worldwide)

Use Your Noodle – Asian noodles including ramen, soba and pho; from basic broths to high-charged broths with barbecued meats and all sorts of additions.

Examples: Big Bowl (multiple locations, ILL, VA, MN)

Sandwich Smorgasbord – Enjoy a globally inspired buffet of sandwich style options including Scandinavian open faced, Indian Kati rolls, PLTs with pancetta or pork belly, international grilled cheeses and tricked out Mexican tortas bursting at the seams. There’s a reason why delicous begins with Deli.

Examples: The Sentinel (San Francisco, CA); Take a Bao (Century City, CA)

Love Shack Baby– Seafood shacks go upscale and mainstream, even in inland areas. Old favorites like oysters, fried clams, fish ‘n chips, lobster rolls, crab cakes and clam chowder, as well as fish tacos, clam bakes, lobster boils and all encompassing fish frys. We’re hooked.

Examples: Nettie’s Crab Shack (San Francisco, CA); Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine Lobster Roll (multiple locations, East Coast)

School of Fish – Pristine local organic produce is no longer enough, chefs and guests are casting their nets beyond small, local, sustainable and organic farming to demand sustainable seafood certified by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood watch and other eco-conscious organizations. So long snapper; make way for mackerel.

Examples: Area 31 (Miami, FLA); Fish (Sausalito, CA)

Dinner Theatre – Interactive entrees, apps and desserts create an experience not just a dish. From simple tableside preparations, mix it yourself tartar, sauces added at the table, build your own sundaes and ingredients that pop in your mouth; dinner is the show. We’ll all work for food.

Example: Cote de boeuf pour deux served and sliced tableside at Grand Cafe Brasserie and Bar, (San Francisco, CA); at home dessert kits from Mi2Sweets (San Francisco, CA)

One Plate Wonders – The carte du jour is combined for speed, efficiency, cost-savings and fun. It’s a completely fresh take on the blue plate special.

Examples: TV dinner at FIVE (Berkeley, CA); Quadrifoglio at SD26 (New York, NY), Red plate special at Red Star Tavern and Roast House (Portland, OR)

Suit-Your-Size – One size doesn’t always fit all. Entrees available in small and large sizes lets guests tailor the experience to size. Call it the shrinking waste-line.

Examples: Perbacco (San Francisco, CA) and Poggio (Sausalito, CA) offer pastas in half and full sizes; Hobson’s Choice (Williamstown, MA) offers most entrees and the Mudd pie dessert in full and half sizes.

Downsizing – Small is now smaller. With smaller budgets and more flexible menus we’ll see the equivalent of cocktail hors d’oeuvres; something to nibble with your drink before (or in lieu of) a full meal. Mini tacos, snack sized empanadas, finger sandwiches, sliders, and riblets. Equally approachable for the waistline and wallet these are the new essential handheld devices.

Examples: Best-O-Burger (San Francisco, CA); “Three bites and a flight” three mini tacos and a flight of paired wines Carneros Bistro & Wine Bar (Sonoma, CA)

Paint My Plate – Restaurants and art galleries merge as restaurants with art galleries attached open and art galleries bring in chefs and food for artistic food-focused events.

Examples: 18 Reasons (San Francisco, CA); Mua (Oakland, CA)

Garden Tap – Sausages and suds under the open sky. Beer gardens with good grub are spreading like Teutonic plague.

Examples: Charlie’s Kitchen, (Cambridge, MA) Café Berlin, (Denver, CO)

Eat Street – It’s the food truck tweet-up, a mash-up of narrowly focused food purveyors clustered together and sharing a communal seating area. Consider it the new block party.

If You’re Happy and You Know it… – Extend happy hours; start early, go late and offer a second late night shift. How happy can you get?

Examples: Postrio happy hour 2:30pm – 6:30pm (San Francisco, CA), Grand Cafe Brasserie & Bar happy hour 4pm – 7pm (San Francisco, CA)

Hot Foods:
Eggs: deviled, pickled and deep fried
Sous vide fruit, jam packed fruit with jolly rancher intensity
Pasta: ramen, soba and spaghetti
Legs & feet
You silly rabbit
Cassoulet and crock pots
Fritters and croquettes
Ceviche (moving east), fried chicken (moving west)
Polenta and grits
More than just your token tofu

Cool Drinks
Iced tea is the new water
Retro sodas
Red, white or orange – natural wines
Hard ciders and cask aged beers
Dessert drinks and spiked shakes
All tapped in: wine on tap
Beer cocktails
Flower power: rosewater, crème de violette and hibiscus syrup
Foam art and branded drinks on cocktails and coffee
Bitter cocoa and coffee tinctures in cocktails

This article is from Nov 17, 2009 HotelWorld Network. To subscribe:

http://www.hotelworldnetwork.com/magazines/hotelworld-network-subscribe

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Nagib’s Corner: Gaining Medical Group Business

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

The medical sector remains one of the few industries that is still showing strong demand for the lodging industry. If you are tracking and data-mining your in-house guests, you may already have much of this information at your fingertips:

Opportunities within the medical segment:
·         Hospitals and clinics employ IT personnel to convert their records to digital formats. Much of this demand is extended stay or comprises of significant repeating stays.
·         Medical equipment training – installation and training generates extended stay traffic. Check with your local hospital or clinic – if they’re planning on installing new equipment, there may be opportunity.
·         Pharmaceutical reps coming to your area (some of these positions have been consolidated so smaller centers are seeing more visits from out-of-town reps making sales calls) and other related demand.
·         Training, training, training – a significant portion of the medical industry traffic.
·         Nurses – many hospitals bring in contract nursing to meet demand or move staff from other hospitals and clinics within their system to meet specialty needs. This also includes specialty physicians. Marketing to this segment should focus on safety and convenience – shuttle services, accommodating shift schedules, light and healthy snacks, welcome amenity, etc.
·         Patients, friends and family – if your area hospital has a specialty they are known for, you will likely see patient traffic related to this specialty. Or if your area hospital acts as a regional facility, you’ll see traffic from patients and family. Again, probably multi-night stays. How do you attract? Shuttle, refrigerators, microwaves, direct bill (very important in some cases), a landing page on your website and sensitivity to their reason for the visit, for a start.

If you have comments on how you have marketed to this segment, please let me know.

David Brudney, a HotelNewsNow.com columists offers more thoughts

Much has been written and discussed about the restrictions placed on physicians attending pharmaceutical and other life-science industry corporation training and educational programs, in particular, at high-end resorts throughout North America. It’s no wonder then that many resort operators have limited drastically or even abandoned altogether pursing this lucrative and highly coveted business.

That’s why I was nearly blown away at what I discovered recently at a very much “non-resort” hotel here in San Diego. Old habits are hard to break for us hotel sales guys, and, of course, I checked the reader board first before meeting my out-of-town breakfast guest.

I found a medical technology company’s name listed with a full day and evening agenda of meetings. One that really caught my eye was a meeting or event scheduled in the hotel’s outdoor parking lot.

Curiosity got the better of me. I wandered out to the large outdoor parking area, and there I found in a corner of the lot connected end-to-end, two oversized mobile homes—too huge and too long to be called truck and trailers.

I walked inside the tented reception and refreshment center in front and then up the steps into the first unit. What I found was a complete mobile operating room. (I recognized my surroundings right away having personally experienced hip replacement surgery.) In the room were two orthopedic surgeons—both employed, I learned later, by the host medical technology company—in full scrubs maneuvering a cadaver leg under a sheet on one of several operating tables. My tour guide explained the two surgeons would be demonstrating new procedures and techniques for large joint implants for the hip and knee and, later on, extremity implants for the hand, elbow, shoulder, foot and ankle.
Upon returning to my office, I logged onto the medical technology company’s Web site and learned they’ve been a certified designer, manufacturer and worldwide distributor of orthopedic implants and instrumentation for more than 50 years. Drilling further, I found they produce a number of educational programs for health care professionals at various regional locations.

These programs are designed to educate the seasoned veteran surgeon interested in expanding his/her scope of practice in the foot and ankle. The program aims to “facilitate higher levels of physician competencies, improve health care delivery and subsequent outcomes of patient care . . . to promote the highest level of patient safety, and further advance the specialty of orthopedic surgery (of the foot and ankle).”

Physicians and other health care professionals attending—as many as 100 over the two-day event—received hands-on training sessions, cadaver workshops, lectures and presentations.

I wanted to be sure the company was compliant with all current rules and regulations, so I navigated my way to the site’s “Customer Relationship Policy” definitions where I found the following information:

(Company authorized) use of “appropriate” off-site venues including hotel or other commercially available meeting facilities conducive to the effective transmission of information.
Health care professional attendees may be provided with modest meals and refreshments in connection with these programs. Any such meals and refreshments must be modest in value and subordinate in time and focus to the educational or training purpose of the meeting.
(The company) may pay for reasonable travel and modest lodging costs incurred by attending health care professionals where there are objective reasons to support the need for out-of-town travel to efficiently deliver training and education on products and/or medical technologies.
They do, in fact, state that “resort locations are not acceptable locations” for the company’s training and/or education events, adding resorts “are generally not deemed conducive to training, education, or the effective transmission of knowledge and should be avoided as venues for programs and events.” I can’t think of a single resort I know that would not take issue with that statement—but let’s save that for one of my future columns or articles.

No doubt there must be countless other medical technology companies booking similar training and education events at hotels just like the one here in San Diego. Where resorts have lost, maybe well-located, full-service commercial hotels will benefit—especially those with large, accommodating outdoor parking areas. The San Diego hotel in question was a large, well-respected branded, full-service commercial hotel with 350 guestrooms, less than 25,000 square feet of indoor function space, shopping close by, freeways accessible, located only eight miles away from San Diego’s downtown and airport.

Events just like the one described in this column will be held at various regional locations throughout 2010.  Should they continue to avoid booking resorts, for whatever reason or reasons, this creates some terrific business opportunities for full-service commercial hotels. (Especially those with large outdoor parking.)

Happy marketing!

Nagib Lakhani
RevMax Hospitality Consulting Services
O: (425)677-7866               C: (425)445-7750                F: (866)508-7866
nagib@RevenueMaxConsulting.com

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What’s Your Revenue Per Hire?

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Do you know what the average revenue per hire is for your property or company? Is that measurement one of your Standards for the HR Department?

This article by David Earle comes from Staffing.org an organization that studies Optimum Performance. Enjoy

What is your average revenue per employee? We went to Hoover’s and spent a few minutes to find out that..

Microsoft’s is about $628,000
GE’s is about $565,000
WalMart’s is about $193,000

Exxon Mobile’s is $5,974,455 (and that’s not a misprint)

We did this after talking last week with Tom McGuire, Director of Global Talent Acquisition at Coca-Cola. Tom is the rare staffing director with both CFO and operations experience who views his current responsibilities from those blended perspectives.

Tom views each of his new hires as a $7 million proposition, meaning that over time each one will be associated with that much additional revenue. He isn’t so much concerned with time, cost and other efficiency metrics. Instead he focuses intently on quality because the corporate impact of getting quality right – the right people performing at a high level in the right jobs – is vastly more consequential to Coke than shaving a few days off time-to-hire or a few dollars off a job board contract.

Which is not to say that Coke ignores efficiency. They know exactly how much is going where and what the results are. But they have figured out that the traditional wide mouth funnel that produces lots of applicants is not efficient for them. They get better results hunting for talent with a rifle than with a shotgun.


In our view, Coke has a number of things exactly right: a) They have a Director who can talk financials with anyone in the company; b) He works from a strategic perspective, understanding the link between talent and enterprise performance; c) He works at the highest level of the company, with full corporate understanding and support; d) Having held operational positions as well as financial ones, he understands what types of people Coke needs to hire to remain successful; and e) He has thoroughly analyzed the efficiency of his recruiting channels and optimized their efficiency.

If 20th century staffing was built on two key relationship formats – those with candidates and those with hiring managers, 21st century staffing will require one more: the relationship with senior management. As we have explained before, senior managers operate according to the law of large numbers. Small numbers, such as department budgets, are not where they can afford to spend very much time. Mid-level managers need to manage those, with senior managers becoming involved only when problems are identified.

The practical impact of this law on staffing managers is that, to catch the attention of senior management, they have to, as Tom has, connect their efforts to the largest possible corporate line item. Doing so is not all that difficult. All corporate endeavors, even non-profit ones, have a revenue line which, divided by the total number of employees, yields a revenue-per-hire number. You can use FTEs or part-timers or, as the Federal Government does, both.

Comparisons to individual companies can be calculated using Hoover’s (www.Hoovers.com) and the U.S. Government can provide the data for groups of companies organized by NAICS code (www.census.gov/econ.census).  For example, the average revenue/employee ratio for 6,293 oil and gas extraction companies is about  $1.4 million. The average for 16,349 hardware stores is $140,275. (Both stats based on 2007 data.) The average for the Fortune 500 is about $300,000.

So first look at your retention and productivity numbers, both the actuals and what you wish they were. Now start playing around with the impact of good hires vs. bad hires. You can frame this by comparing the performance of your strongest and weakest performers. Coke, for example, can compare the performance of local brand managers who perform similar functions in various, distinct geographic markets. What jumps out quickly are the revenue consequences over time of a poorly managed territory vs. a well-managed one.

If diving into these calculations doesn’t come easily, ask for help. Enlist your CFO in the cause. Just asking will demonstrate your business acumen. And if you are fortunate enough to actually develop meaningful data and use it to guide staffing policy, you will have developed an exceedingly marketable skill.

Of the three relationships that will be key to 21st century staffing, the senior management relationship is currently the weakest and thus needs the biggest makeover. As the chart shows, we often believe it to be quite adequate, but that’s because we have been satisfied with an influencer role rather than a driver role. The driver role is descriptive, that is, one drives business results. While influencers are certainly respected, it is the true drivers who are indispensable.

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