6 Ways to Leverage a Hotel Recovery

　　I have been fortunate both in my life and my career to have had and continue to have amazing mentors. The most influential mentor I have had in both is my father, Paul O"Neil, who has been an hotelier for 45 years. Most everything I learned about the hotel industry I learned from him, either through osmosis or from his teaching me a lesson without me knowing I was being taught anything.

　　I have known since I was a young boy that my father was good at what he did, but being young I had no idea why, so I asked him. His response: “It’s not me. I just hire good people who know more than I do.” Consider it lesson No. 1.

　　With that said, I asked my father for his thoughts on hotel operations and guest service during a recovering environment. Below are points we find critically important to not only survive a slow-growing economy, but also to set the hotel up for future success.

　　Point No. 1: Value

　　First and foremost, travelers are looking for value. Value is not a simple formula we can sit back and calculate. It’s perceived and it’s personal. But there are questions we can ask ourselves to help understand if our hotels would be considered exceeding value expectations.

　　Are your rates competitive in the market? It’s OK to have the highest rate in the market, but there must be a perceived difference to the traveler when they book your hotel other than the name on the building.

　　How are your reviews? Sure, you could have great rates, but if your reviews are poor on reviews sites you will lose bookings.

　　What is included in your rate? Are there any value-added items included like water, high-speed Internet access, parking or breakfast?

　　How do your service levels compare to your rate? If guest have a great experience and service levels exceeded the expectations the rate has set, the perceived value will be high. If a guest says to himself or herself, “The service was excellent but it should be at US$400 per night,” the service did not exceed the expectation the rate premium set for your hotel.

　　Point No. 2: Keep guests happy

　　The saying “never let unhappy guests walk out your door unhappy” holds true now more than ever. As we all know, things happen from time to time where we could have provided better guest service. Hotel teams from bottom-up and top-down need to know how important it is to turn that experience around before the guest walks out your door.

　　There are many touch points with guests throughout their stay and plenty of times to solicit feedback. If someone on your team hears anything slightly negative, it is important they act and that they feel empowered to act. If unhappy guests leave your hotel, you may have lost those guests forever. Even worse, they might prevent you from booking new guests by posting negative reviews on a review site.

　　Nip guest issues in the bud. Make sure there is a culture in your hotel or company that fosters guest service and empowerment. Speak of guest satisfaction often, measure it, react to issues, reward positive reviews, involve all your associates (not just managers), give your team the tools they need to succeed (but hold them accountable to use them) and be sure the work environment is conducive to fairness and fun.[page]

　　Point No. 3: Maintain appropriate staffing levels

　　As we all know, we have had to make tough decisions during the past couple years that has led to reductions in both expenses and payroll to match the lower revenues. Too many businesses cut the muscle along with the fat. DON’T LET THAT HAPPEN! Guest interaction positions should not be the place to make cuts. Productivity levels must be maintained, but this is not the “low hanging fruit.” Too many companies are tempted to cut too far, and when they do the guests notice. Have you ever read the comment “the hotel seemed understaffed” in a positive review?

　　Point No. 4: Take reputation management seriously

　　With so much information now available online to “help” guests make a purchasing decision and with so many channels for them to shop on, reputation management has become just as important as revenue management.

　　Travelers can read reviews of your hotel on so many channels and review sites that staying on top of them is a full-time job in itself. But management’s attitude towards sites like TripAdvisor should be positive rather than negative. More than 74% of the reviews posted on TripAdvisor are 4 stars or better, so it is not just negative experiences that are posted. Use review sites as marketing tools. Encourage reviews and if there happens to be a few negative ones, respond. Guests like to see management’s engagement, which shows they are listening. Take reputation management and social media seriously. Our guests do!

　　Point No. 5: Make the booking process easy

　　Everyone has more on their plate including your clients and guests so ensuring your hotel is easy to book is critical. Hotels must evaluate all their booking processes. Don’t give the customer more time to shop around. Convert, convert now and convert often.

　　Take groups and meeting planners, for example: These clients want a simple booking process that is straightforward, quick and stress free. Are your contracts too long? Are you returning phone calls on a timely basis? Are you easy to communicate needs to? Are you flexible? If it’s taking too much time to close the deal or you find you or your team is always encountering the same issue when booking groups, meetings, weddings, etc., it’s you, not them.

　　Sometimes we inherit contracts the hotel has always used or menus the hotel has always used or pricing the hotel has always used. Take time to review these and put yourself on the other side of the fence and ask yourself if the process is too cumbersome. The easier the booking process, the more repeat business you will get. This evaluation, although slightly different, should be done to other booking processes like your booking engine and call centers.

　　Point No. 6: Keep employees happy

　　Last but not certainly not least is employee or associate satisfaction. This is important at any time, but even more so during down times. Hotels must do whatever they can to keep their people motivated and engaged. Associate satisfaction should at a minimum be measure semiannually, and managers must be incented not only on their departmental score but also on the overall hotel score. As the economy recovers and hotels run at higher occupancies and start demanding higher rates, there are going to be more hotel jobs available. We need to do whatever we can to keep our great people and not let them go.

　　A recovering environment can prove challenging for operations, especially if the economy has not really decided if it’s truly ready to recover. I know personally through pains and experiences that paying attention to the above has helped and I know my father would say the same—and not just during down times, but all the time.

　　In short, remember these three words: BACK TO BASICS!