It’s late September, so those of us in the hospitality industry are now well into the development of budgets, marketing plans, & business plans for 2016. Generally speaking, the state of our industry is very (very!) good, but this does not mean that everyone expects this trend to continue open-ended. Sometimes in the hotel industry when things are good, we tend to inadvertently relax, spending less time focusing on continued growth, and more time on trying to squeeze what we can out of the current cycle. While understandable, this is not only counter-intuitive, but potentially downright dangerous.
Challenging Convention: Why Do We Discount?
One of the greatest opportunities for revenue enhancement in the hospitality industry lies with our ability to break through some of the paradigms that drive our decision-making process. So many times, our strategies and tactics are determined by doing things the way we’ve always done them, rather than asking ourselves WHY we are doing them that way.
Are the salespeople in your hotels really selling?
Hotels of every star-rating, size, shape and location have had on-property sales teams for as long as the hotels themselves have existed. Along with the existence of these sales teams has been the assumption that these salespeople spend most of their time actually selling on behalf of your propert(ies). Unfortunately, experience, history, and results tell a different story.