Off Peak Discounts

Offering an ‘off-season’ discount is a concept that I’m sure you, as a hotel owner or GM, are all too familiar with. In fact, as you’re clawing your way out of a difficult off-season right now, I’m sure you’re keen never to return to such depths. You know your product is first class and your service top rate, so why should you have to lure guests with huge discounts and extra perks?

Well, I believe that off-seasons are a thing of the past. Off-seasons are the times when prospective customers least like to travel and therefore are much less likely to stay in your hotel, motel, or guest house. To entice these customers, hoteliers have turned to internet booking agents to offer unbeatable discounts as a last-ditch attempt to improve occupancy levels, but this has done little good for RevPAR.

So, what if you use your marketing skills to ensure that potential guests want to travel and yearn for a stay in your hotel. Sounds difficult? It doesn’t have to be…

It’s all about targeting; targeting exactly what within your hotel or surrounding area will attract your prospective guests; and targeting the correct words to use on your website and advertising to optimize your visibility within search engines.

Let’s start with the former marketing skill: targeting what amenities you can take advantage of in order to attract guests…

I’m searching on the internet for a guest house during the summer; a beautiful little cottage appears. I look at the amenities and discover that it is close to the beach, has a swimming pool, and is within easy walking distance of the local town, which has outside terraces and beachside bars. Perfect!

I’m searching on the internet for a guest house later that year. It’s snowing outside. I discover the same little guest house and check out the amenities. I’m told once again that there’s a beach, a pool, and outside catering. No thank you very much! It’s far too cold; I’d rather stay at home.

Actually, the guesthouse was close to a mountain with great winter sports and hiking available. There are lodges nearby with spas, which serve good hearty winter roasts, and the guesthouse has a great indoor sauna area… But I wasn’t told any of this. The guesthouse owners have marketed themselves as a great summer getaway and in the process have marketed themselves an off-season.

Your marketing must be constantly evolving in order to attract guests through each ‘high-season’ available to you. This might mean finding seasonal activities for every season and highlighting the benefits of avoiding the crowds, but no matter how you do it, you’ve got to give them a reason to want to travel off-peak.

Next, we’ll tackle the second marketing skill: optimizing your visibility in search engines to attract the right guests for the right seasons; another ever-evolving task.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click Ads (PPC) are vital tools if you’re going to attract guests all year round. And, there is no excuse for hit and miss website marketing anymore. With analysis tools, such as Google Analytics, it is easy to see which key words generate the most traffic to your site and pinpoint consumer trends during certain times of the year.

Once you have analyzed the data and know what consumers are looking for, it becomes easier for you to emphasize your unique selling points (USP) during each season and give your guests exactly what they want, not just what you think they want.

To summarize, it is possible to manipulate seasonality in order to gain conversions, and if you use your website marketing strategically, you can make the concept of an ‘off-season’ completely obsolete. Just don’t expect to build a website and be able to leave it untouched for a year… As the market evolves, you need to as well.

Thanks again for reading,

Emma

I am still on a search for the best hotel booking system for small to medium sized hotels. If you know of hotel booking software that can beat HotelSystems.co.uk for ease of use and functionality then please contact me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk

Can Your Lobby Replace the Common Shopping Mall?

Today, I read a fascinating article in The Week, titled The Vanishing Shopping Mall. I won’t ruin it for you by quoting large sections; instead you should give it a read yourself.

The article discusses the idea that malls, which were once blamed for killing high streets and downtown shopping districts, are quickly becoming an endangered species. Even before the economic crisis set in, shoppers were spending less time in malls and more of their free time in places where there are options other than shopping. Now, during this downturn, shoppers are not spending money on discretionary items… And, unfortunately, it’s only discretionary items that are sold in shopping malls.

Instead, shoppers are choosing to spend their time in places where there are alternatives to shopping. Shoppers are visiting places that The Week describes as “lifestyle centers”. They say that the amenities “draw the consumer in for reasons other than to just purchase items.”

So, is the failing of the shopping mall an opportunity for hoteliers? Is it possible to develop your hotel to entice the newly evolved general public? Is this your chance to drive traffic from outside the hotel into your lobby?

Starwood, once again, are ahead of the game in this respect. Their W boutique hotels have built their brand entirely around this concept. Starwood say,

“W Hotels are unique and individual expressions of modern living, reflected in the brand’s sensibility to a holistic lifestyle experience with cutting-edge design, contemporary restaurant concepts, glamorous nightlife experiences, and signature spas.”

Hotels that are able to lure the general public to their lobby for food, a few drinks, a coffee, a lunch meeting, or a party, whilst being able to purchase tickets or have their hair cut, are the hotels which will survive this recession.

Personally, I have a meeting every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, which never takes place in my office. Every week I meet my business associate in a Starwood hotel. Why? The answer is simple; the convenience! The convenience of being able to order any train tickets or flights I need from their travel centre before heading for a spot of lunch. After lunch I can grab a coffee from their lobby bar to drink during the meeting. I can use their free wi-fi after the meeting to complete my emails and write this blog before heading back down to collect my tickets. By then it’s six o’clock and I can head to the bar for a couple of after work drinks during happy hour. It really is a “lifestyle centre”.

In parts of Asia and the Middle East, hotel lobbies with a number of bars and restaurants are not uncommon. So, is it not conceivable that lobbies will (or at least can) become the recreation spot of choice throughout the West also?

Large hotels need to create an outdoor element to their hotel if possible. Is there a barbeque area or a place for patrons to walk? Could you introduce a band to bring life to your lobby bar in the evening? Is it possible to create a technologically advanced open area for patrons to plug in their laptops and charge their iPods whilst enjoying a martini?

This concept was bought home to me by the GM of the Sheraton Nanjing Kingsley a week a go. I have never actually stayed in the hotel, but after bumping into her for the fourth time that week, she asked, “do you live here?” In truth, the answer is almost yes; it’s a place to work and relax even though I am not staying in the hotel.

Think about your hotel, motel, or guest house. It may be small, but is there an opportunity for you to open it up to non-guests? Do you have a restaurant that you could advertise to the surrounding community? Could you open up your gym facilities to the outside world? How about massages or a coffee shop? Find a way to become the new centre of your community.

There is a world of opportunity out there. It’s up to you to seize it!

Thanks for reading,

Emma

I am still on a search for the best hotel booking system for small to medium sized hotels. If you know of hotel booking software that can beat HotelSystems.co.uk for ease of use and functionality then please contact me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk

Customer Service Flaws

Today I attended a number of meetings within a popular Nanjing five star Hotel. I started my day by meeting with some clients and I purchased coffee and tea for all attendees. Next, I met with the Training Manager to discuss the hotel’s training strategy for 2009. Finally, I met with the General Manager to discuss training seminars and also to conduct some research into the chain’s hotel booking system. After these meeting I purchased a takeaway coffee and proceeded to the taxi queue.

During my meeting with the GM I had mentioned this blog and the subject of empowerment. The debate was both lively and interesting and left me with a list of blog topics as long as my arm; I couldn’t wait to get back to my office and start writing… Until I reached the taxi queue and the subject matters flew from memory in favour of yet another customer service problem due to poor employee empowerment.

My Chinese language skills are not great and from time to time I have problems communicating with taxi drivers, especially those from outside of the province. Therefore, I explained where I wished to go to concierge and requested that he communicated with the taxi driver on my behalf.

I was confronted with a blank look and asked whether I was a hotel guest. I explained that I wasn’t in fact a guest but had met with the GM and had purchased goods from inside the hotel. I assumed that this would solve the problem, but no. Concierge explained to me that they had been instructed to only provide assistance and taxi services for hotel guests and were adamant that they had no intention of bending this rule for me.

It wasn’t the rule of denying assistance to non-guests that bothered me but the conversation that followed. In fact, ensuring that guests receive priority attention at all times is something that sits well with me, but it’s the lack of flexibility due to deficient empowerment that sends chills down my spine.

I do at least have an excellent topic (with perfect example) for my next management seminar within this hotel; I just hope that this service ‘innovation’ doesn’t create too many issues for prospective customers in the following months.

For another great blog related to customer service and management visit Paul Bacon’s blog: Notes From The Trenches -

http://sinohr.blogspot.com/

I’d love to hear your comments on customer service within the hospitality industry and also recommendations for alternatives to my favourite hotel booking software – http://www.hotelsystems.co.uk/. Thanks!