Reboot? Recovery? New normal?
Call it what you will as our hospitality industry progresses toward a post-COVID era. Regardless, we must acknowledge that we are working with two years of skewed data, especially as many traditional business travelers booked “disguised” into transient leisure slots. At the time, we were simply happy to sell rooms. Now we must do better, recapturing and growing revenue by reinvigorating direct booking relationships, as opposed to giving up commissions to online travel agencies.
We cannot rely indefinitely on seemingly automatic, continual increases in rate, or abundant leisure travel. Instead, we must progress from a scrambling — excuse me, tactical — mindset to a strategic one. For many organizations, this means setting up and taking advantage of strategic, outsourced relationships in specific disciplines, especially in revenue management.
We are deluged with data from many sources these days, both in the C-suite and at the property level. We can end up spending inordinate time and resources working through all this information on weekly sales calls. Even if we make the correct decisions based on this data, we can still be left playing catch-up. Sound familiar?
The best technology firms can provide top-notch business intelligence that looks forward, not backwards, with respect to inventory and pricing in comparison with our best-in-class competition. This helps us make better inventory and pricing decisions for key dates, while saving us both time and money. Our general managers and directors of sales can achieve the right revenue at the right place, while, organizationally, we can run leaner and at a faster pace.
Ghost of a Chance
Similarly, we must find ways to ignite any square footage in our properties into an enhanced revenue stream.
For example, the pandemic has changed patterns of food ordering and distribution. Let us compete with DoorDash and others by making fuller use of our food and beverage facilities. We can stretch the eating envelope with partnerships with entities, for example, that help to set up ghost kitchens and virtual brands. Guests can order from us without even knowing it, while food and beverage over-capacity can even be exploited in the opposite direction — to external food app customers. Maine lobster roll or Texas brisket sandwich? Yummy.
Existing sundry and gift shops — complete with their own online portals — or grab-and-go markets can similarly be leveraged with strategic partnerships that enhance look, feel and product mix, while adding state-of-art ordering and fulfillment technology. Whether you operate a Florida coast hotel or Colorado ski resort, you might offer designer flip-flops for one on-site market and UV sun goggles for the other.
These are just two examples of how we can activate our properties, leveraging existing facilities with programs that, within brand standards as appropriate, give any property a distinct local flair and appeal.
Meeting space is another area ripe for creative approaches that generate cash flow and keep a property in the local spotlight. What ever happened to open mic or stand-up comedy night?
Our properties have already made substantial investments in these features. Alert “product placement,” whether for food, merchandise or events, along with great marketing and fulfillment, can pump up the moneymaking possibilities and property cachet without requiring much additional human capital.
First Person Perfect
All this said, our industry must also re-establish the relationships, especially with group business, which became frayed during the pandemic. We need to get back to knocking on doors, restoring discipline to identifying, quantifying, negotiating and securing group business. Newfound strategic relationships with information, sales and revenue-management experts will help in that regard.
Moreover, the best property managers are expecting and allowing their general managers to be entrepreneurial in running an asset. This takes a finely tuned business antenna, great people skills and active involvement in the host community. We hear the phrase "high-tech, high-touch" quite a bit. Our challenge is to make it real and get our cash registers ringing in new and fun ways.
Kerry Ranson is the CEO at HP Hotels.
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