NASHVILLE, Tennessee — As the hotel industry shifts from a leisure-driven rebound to a more holistic demand environment, there’s a new key metric for hoteliers to follow: volatility.
Speaking with Hotel News Now at the 2022 Hotel Data Conference, Erica Lipscomb, senior vice president of commercial strategy for Crescent Hotels & Resorts, said that’s going to be the word she harps on through the fall.
“How are we now measuring it, whatever those shifts are, so if we’re seeing, we believe and we forecast that leisure is going to come down, well then that shift is we’re starting to see an increase in negotiated; we’re seeing increasing group,” she said.
One way hoteliers must respond to that shift in demand is to pay closer attention to their leading indicators, she said.
“And so there’s not just one,” she said. “It’s how are you pacing on the books — not versus last year, not versus 2019. Again, it’s about that ramp, so how are you looking at pace? We always want to have share; we always want to win. So how are you indexing in your competitive set?”
Overall, Lipscomb — and the Crescent team — remain bullish on the future of the hospitality industry, although going forward one of the biggest challenges is changing their mindset on work-life balance for employees.
“We’re realizing what COVID brought to mind is that you need to have that balance,” she said. It’s about “if I’m making sure that my team is taking that vacation, that they are with their family because of a specific event — if somebody is going down to drop their child off today for college move-in, I need to value that time.”
For more of Hotel News Now's interview with Erica Lipscomb, watch the video above.