Austin Hospitality Blog

The best way to increase sales in a downturn or recession is not just look “outside the box”, but to look “outside the building”.  When faced with diminishing sales, a shrinking booking window and less corporate travelers on the road, hotels and resorts need to use short term actions and long term plans to expand sales.  One thing for sure is that online sales will generate immediate results, so here are 4 quick steps to increase short term electronic sales and optimize online bookings now.

Take another look at your compset – Online Travel Agencies (OTA) have changed the way consumers shop for hotels, so re-evaluate your competitors in your destination.  Smart travelers will click on price and star ratings to obtain a quick assessment of what they can get for their money regardless of location.  So do the same, be objective and realistic, look outside your traditional compset, widen your vicinity or sub-region, enlarge your map, compare guest reviews, expand the amount of hotels exponentially, you will not regret it!  Ask someone who’s never visited your destination to provide you with your proper compset.  When you monitor your competition, add another star up and down to complete this exercise.

Evaluate your manual tasks – Are you trying to manually yield your hotel rates?  If you are, your team probably doesn’t have the necessary tools to yield at night or during weekends when it matters most.  One of the worst things you can do in a hotel transparent pricing era is to keep rates the same, so make sure you yield rates so you don’t leave money on the table.  The booking window is shrinking even more as people book on IPhones and Blackberries, so empower your hotel with automation: consider automated revenue management systems that integrate distribution simultaneously with rates decisions so you don’t lose on rates and occupancy.

OTA Page positioning, what is this? – Just like on Google, the order your hotel appears on the top of the page, or the middle of the page, or the top of the page 2 or 3 will make the real difference in between successful occupancies and disappointing vacancies.  The big difference now is that travelers use OTA as “Google engines” to select hotels, so make sure that your hotel appears in the right position at all times to maximize online sales.  Anticipate your competitors rapid rate changes so that your hotel does not fall off page 3 or 4, because if you do, you might as well put a closed sign on your front door!  To gain maximum market share, make sure to calculate optimal pricing positioning by star rating, guest reviews and location to ensure maximum bookings and revpar.  Consider a multiple page positioning approach for your hotel’s success.

Monitor & control you inventory – How many rooms did you allocate on all your OTA channels?  What happens if this number runs out at night or on weekends?  Keep you room inventory on the shelves, not in the back storage room.  Allocate resources in your budget for real-time dynamic rate optimization with automatic room inventory control.  These powerful tools will ensure proper room inventories on all electronic channels day and night giving your hotel a proactive attitude versus a reactive stance.  Continuously monitor your booking pace, automate GDS and OTA updates to maximize online bookings.

Hotels typically have two separate Internet connections in place, one for their back-office and one for the guest area. At Rome’s Hilton Airport hotel, things work out much better with Swisscom managing all connectivity through one shared network, providing bandwidth dynamically when and where it is needed. Optimizing bandwidth usage throughout the property, Swisscom reduces the hotel’s operational costs while increasing the effective speed for both guests and back-office users.

With 517 guest rooms, 21 meeting rooms and 70 back-office staff, Hilton Rome Airport has a strong demand for bandwidth in all hotel areas. In the meeting rooms, the greatest activity is during day-time while in the guest rooms, most bandwidth is consumed between 6 p.m. and midnight. As for its back-office, usage peaks several times during the office hours but also between 3 and 5 a.m. with the electronic closing of the previous day’s business. Swisscom responds to the hotel’s specific needs profile by prioritizing the right users at the right time, in accordance with specific rules set by the hotel. In addition, Swisscom is providing a redundancy solution for Hilton Rome Airport, ensuring a reliable connection even in the unlikely event that the primary circuit goes down. Swisscom’s dynamic bandwidth management is now operational at the Hilton Rome Airport and presently rolled out to many other Swisscom partner hotels.

“Thanks to Swisscom’s dynamic bandwidth management, we pay one network provider only and additionally gain the flexibility when bandwidth peaks beyond the foreseen availability”, explains Katherine Schneider-King, General Manager at the Hilton Rome Airport. “Depending on our actual needs at a given moment, we can prioritize bandwidth for our conference business, the guest rooms or our back-office. Here we see the real added value of our partnership with Swisscom: Their expertise as a bandwidth operator allows them to propose a unique solution that a Pay-TV provider or non-operator backed party is unable to deliver. Swisscom is really acting as a partner and helping us to reduce costs in these economically difficult times.”

To manage multiple data lines most intelligently through one converged network, Swisscom employs IBM Tivoli, an enterprise-grade network management toolset which it has adapted to the specific needs of the hotel industry. Through its access gateway, appropriate data routing and encryption technologies, all back-office data is systematically isolated from other circuits, excluding unauthorized access. Ensuring maximum service availability across all hotel areas, Swisscom’s Network Operations Centre pro-actively monitors the Hilton Airport’s network and circuits 24/7.

“As a network service provider for 2′000 partner locations in Europe and the United States, we have a unique mission to maximise the value of the IT infrastructure that we build and manage”, comments Leo Brand, CEO of Swisscom Hospitality Services. “Over the past 12 months, we have greatly invested in our staff and our technology tools to drive efficiencies in the hotel’s operations. Integrating the back-office into their guest-facing data network, we now offer our partner hotels a direct bottom-line benefit of IP convergence.”

Despite the upfront costs associated with going green, the lodging industry shows no signs of turning its back on its commitment to sustainability. Rather, many hotels are looking longer-term, recognizing the cost- and resource-saving benefits of going green, along with the good-will that it builds among guests.

Though hotels have long offered guests the option to hold off on laundering linens during their stay, many are now offering entirely environmentally-friendly rooms that have water-saving bathroom fixtures and in-room energy management systems.

Carlson Hotels Worldwide (www.carlson.com) recently surveyed its guests and found that they’re “very engaged” in environmental issues. Guests expressed a high degree of willingness to do their parts both at home and while traveling, and 58 percent said they’d be willing to book a hotel room that is environmentally-friendly. Carlson, along with many other hotel companies, is looking to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards as a benchmark for best practices. The U.S. Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org), which runs the LEED program, has certified 22 hotels and there are 574 projects in the works. “Buildings in every sector are recognizing that green building saves money energy and resources. This is precisely the reason that, while the economy has forced many projects to stall, green building is still growing,” says Marie Coleman, communications associate for the USGBC.

Going green presents its challenges, however. Panelists at a recent Cornell University roundtable suggested that LEED-certification remains a challenge for hotels, primarily because the standards were created for office and commercial structures. “LEED is about buildings, not about hospitality,” suggests Richard Penner, professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. As Simon Ford, SVP of innovation and design at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) puts it: “A green hotel does not equate to a green hotel experience.” Companies that seek to operate in a sustainable fashion need to analyze each product and process, and not all choices are clear-cut, the roundtable observed. For instance, which is more sustainable: paper towels or electric hand dryers?

As a part of its sustainability initiatives, IHG (www.ichotelsgroup.com) has developed a software program called Green Engage that’s expected to cut hotel energy use by 25 percent across the company’s entire portfolio. The online system lets hotel managers record their energy use and compare it to proven best practices at similar properties across the portfolio. The program then provides each hotel with a report on how to boost efficiency.

Whatever specific approach hotels take in going green, the Cornell panelists offer one clear insight: as sustainability becomes a strong guest consideration, a hotel’s brand may drive occupancy more than its location.

A critical aspect of hotel and restaurant management is making sure that employees are satisfied and loyal, because you cannot have satisfied guests with unhappy employees. Participants in the Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) Guest Service Processes and Outcomes Roundtable examined this critical connection, with an eye to improving sales. They discussed research that showed that working to make sure that guests are highly satisfied is worth the trouble, because highly satisfied guests are more loyal and spend more money than those who are merely satisfied. The CHR roundtable, held in September 2009, was chaired by Alex Susskind, an associate professor at the School of Hotel Administration.

Developing a strong service culture depends on a factor that roundtable presenter Rick Garlick terms employee engagement. Garlick, director of consulting and strategic implementation of Maritz Research, explained that employers need to gain their employees’ perspective and insight as part of building a strong service culture. In a related presentation, Joe Cardador, chief information officer of Service Management Group, showed the importance of moving guests from a “zone of indifference,” in which they are merely satisfied, to a “zone of affection,” in which they are highly satisfied. Cardador explained that highly satisfied guests were twice as likely to return to a restaurant as those who were just satisfied with their experience-and those highly satisfied guests were three times as likely to recommend the restaurant.

Throughout the discussion, roundtable participants agreed that one foundation of employee satisfaction is to establish a clear set of service-driven policies that are consistently executed. Susskind pointed to a study that showed the connection between employees’ perceptions, guest satisfaction, and unit-level sales. That connection involves employees’ belief that they can count on their supervisor and co-workers for support and assistance in fulfilling their duties. This support reinforces employees’ guest orientation which creates guest satisfaction. Together, these factors give a strong boost to unit-level sales.

It used to be so easy to make a Hotel reservation. We were led primarily by our prior Guest Experience.  We knew what to expect.  Hotel companies had defined brands, service standards were consistent, amenities continually enhanced, and marketing pockets deep.  We were believers and loyal to the brand. We felt good!

Along with everyone else this decade, Hotels began to enlarge their portfolios, new Flag Brands exploded on the scene, deals proliferated, competition was fierce – everyone wanted to get into the game!  Then the bust!  Literally overnight the landscape shifted – properties folded, debt became the driver for our performance, staff was disbanded, standards reduced, amenities rolled back, promotion halted. We took our eye off the ball.  Guest Loyalty may not be real and your Brand merely a commodity – could it be?

Your Consumer will be loyal to your Brand, if they believe your good will.  If they feel special when they walk through your doors, respected when addressed, satisfied with the product, service and facility, they will return.  But, many Hoteliers have forgotten that the Customer is king.  Retailer LL Bean never forgot that.  Their products are always high quality, reasonably priced and a return policy on goods forever.  Hotels now are in the news everyday, whether it be Boston with Hyatt, Chicago labor, deals run amok, defaults, publicly devaluing ratings, everyone scrambling.  Our Consumer watches all this with a jaundiced eye, almost reminiscent of Chevy Chase in the movie, “Caddy Shack”, guiding a young caddy on the Zen secret of golf, “Be the ball, Danny!”  Well, actually, it is the stance, the swing and the follow-through. The ball goes where we hit it. We need to return to some basics and learn and respond to the Guest Experience, as reported by that Guest.

On property, you have all the time in the world to plan and react to your Guest and make that visit memorable. Service lapses can be righted, room complaints handled expeditiously, special requests ably addressed.  You do have a captured audience which demands the best in hospitality attention, and no situation should go unanswered.  Ah, the perfect world.  There are no guarantees, other than LL Bean’s. But, once they depart, you have no “touch” response or control on what they report, and they do report, for everyone now is a critic on the Internet Voyager – word of mouth gone exponentially to a vast audience of knowledge seekers.  Blogs, social media, user generated reports are the new flashing billboards – nattering neon nabobs of influence all.

The topic of Brand Loyalty arose at the recent Lodging Conference in Phoenix, and the exchange among several Hotel Executives was deftly covered by noted writer, Patrick Mayock.  One such CEO, Tom Magnuson of Magnuson Hotels, was prescient with his comments, as reported by Mayock. “(The Internet) has allowed people to make their purchasing decisions on a set of objective criteria rather than the traditional Brand concept.”  He continued, noting that Consumers “…now purchase room nights based on location, quality, star rating, amenities, price and TripAdvisor rating”.  Naturally, other Brand leaders with extensive Loyalty Programs contested his position, harkening back to the strength of the differentiated Guest Experience.  Given the deterioration of that Experience currently, is it only the far off memory which is memorable?  If we think that the Guest Experience has not been eroded, we need to be prepared to do “some ‘splainin”, as Lucy would challenge Ricky.  Consider aggressive Reputation Management.

It all comes back to engagement of that Guest.  You have had your chance during their stay.  It is their turn now, and they are sharing their thoughts and reactions with many others.  Of course, some reservations are booked through a committed Brand Loyalty, but every year the number of reservations and the influence of On-line Travel Agencies (OTA’s, like TripAdvisor, Priceline, Orbitz, Expedia) drive a larger share of the business to your lodging.

The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University issued a stunning report on August 25, 2009, called, “What’s Your Hotel’s Reputation Management Strategy?”, which addressed the increasing power of the User Generated Content Reviews.  “The reality of public involvement in traveler reviews has dramatically altered the way customer loyalty and satisfaction must be compared at the property level…  Fanning the fires of this change is the amazing credibility afforded hotel web reviews by potential guests… In fact, 88% of those reading them say reviews contribute to their ultimate hotel selection. Additionally, review users consider what they read to be almost twice as important as brand or reputation in their decision.”

Other nuggets include, “Their goal is to find the best value within their price range…location and rate still lead the shopping goals.  For the almost 66% of US guests now reading reviews, the traveler rating and written traveler review…constitute a public wall of comments from which quality may be determined. ..many meeting planners now use traveler reviews to learn about hotel reputations. ..bad comments may prevent them from ever being considered for group business. Likewise, the growth of OTA’s as a corporate platform for travel aggregates the influence of these reviews to negotiated rates. In fact, even OTA’s use review sites to help set star ratings for hotels being marketed on their pages.”  Wow – game, set, match!

We have moved into an entirely new realm here, folks.  Loyalty Programs have value, as do Comment Cards.  But, your Guests are wired and enjoy, sometimes prompted, sharing lodging experiences.  Hotels must step aggressively into the Internet Age and turn all that data and commentary into useful and directed information for decision making, conversions and Reputation Management. We can debate all day, but Mr. Magnuson clearly caught the reality of the moment and the immediate future.

Aloha!  We are so excited about the newest hotel addition to Austin – Aloft Austin at the Domain!  Expected to open November 12th this will be the first Aloft to grace our laid back, music loving, BBQ eating city.  Located in the Domain, Austin’s hottest new area, this hotel is going to offer a forward thinking alternative to the traveler wanting a whole new experience.  Known for it’s flowing energy and personality, there is a definite urban design influence everywhere you turn.  Energizing public spaces will draw you from your guest room to socialize, read the paper or work on your laptop.  During your stay you must visit the WXYZ bar where lighting and music change during the course of the day to always set the perfect mood.  Aloft’s laid back, but trendy, style and help-yourself services inspire you to step outside the one-size-fits all travel routine.

Some of the amenities the hotel will feature include:

re:mix loung – work, play and stay awhile in this vibrant setting with activity and energy galore.  This playful social space will let you connect with others as you sip a drink, enjoy free wi-fi or pick up a game of pool.

Aloft guest rooms – spacious rooms with 9 foot high ceilings, plush platform beds, free wi-fi, 42″ LCD TV’s, custom amenities by Bliss Spa, rainfall showerhead & more

splash outdoor pool – Aloft’s outdoor swimming pool is just the thing for a quick splash or relaxing dip.  Open 6an ti 11pm, the pool’s comfy pod loungers give you the perfect place to catch some rays or surf the web.

re:charge gym – sprint, stretch, lift and sweat in Aloft’s gym.  And, it’s open 24 hours a day so whatever your workout regime, the gym with be chilly and stocked with water for you to burn those calories

complimentary hotel wide internet access – stay connected in your room, lobby, pool, bar…you name it.  And, the best part?  It’s all complimentary!

see green eco program – with the help of  their eco-aware guests, Aloft’s see green program aims to conserve water, energy and other resources.

arf program – bring Spot along, Aloft is pet friendly!  Your furry little friend will recieve a dog bed, dog bowl, toys and lots of yummy treats!

touch & go check in kiosks – zip through check in with touch and go kiosks.  The touch screen technology will allow you to choose your exact room, confirm rates and get keys.

re:fuel by Aloft – 24/7 grab & go gourmet, full of light meals, mix and match munchies, healthy bites, dreamy delights, make you own cappuccinos and more.

We sat down and talked to Michelle White, Director of Sales with the Aloft Austin, to find out what makes this hotel so hip!

How many rooms does your property have? We will have 140 rooms, 75 king rooms and 65 double queen rooms

Does your hotel have meeting space? Yes! We have 3 meeting rooms totaling 1634 sq feet. Individuals will enjoy spreading out in style in our two ex:change meeting spaces, each a roomy 630 square feet—or combine them for one expansive area for your best brainstorming. For those needing a smaller space we encourage them to try out Tactic, our 374-square-foot boardroom set up with a table for 12—and quick to reconfigure if there’s another arrangement you need. We’ve outfitted all our spaces with the best A/V set-up, including a 50” flat-panel plasma TV with both laptop hook-up and a DVD player. We also offer complimentary Wi-Fi in the meeting rooms as well as throughout the hotel!

What can a guest expect when they walk through the doors? Our atmosphere is unique. Our guests will arrive to an experience where sight, sound and scent all sync up to create a distinct look and feel for the pulse of the day or night. They will also find our employees are passionate about our brand. Upbeat and social, yet they are also tuned in to the needs of our guests and can handle anything that comes their way.

What sets your hotel apart from other hotels? Aloft offers something bold and new to the culture conscious traveler tired of one size fits all hotel experiences. Aloft hotels makes travel fresh and fun with a modern design and bright social spaces. We encourage our guest to get out of their room and experience the social setting. They have a choice of hanging out in the re:mix room with a pool table, board games, magazines, etc.; or at the WXYZ bar and enjoy one of our signature drinks, or out in the backyard where they can relax outdoors in our comfortable urban cool seating areas. Each area has day to night lighting and music to switch up the vibe. For the modern guest who craves something bold, sleek and unique, who knows forward design and needs a tech-savvy space, who loves the urban loft Hotels. For the modern guest who craves something bold, sleek w destination sensation, a totally different travel experience.

To book your group at the Aloft Austin at The Domain please contact Austin Hospitality at info@austin-hospitality.com

Has a hotel ever returned to you an item that you’d forgotten in your room?

And – perhaps more importantly, given how hard the economy’s hit hotels -  will hotels be as willing to do guests the favor since they’ve been cutting staff and spending over the past year?

Well, seasoned business traveler Mike Hillwig of Salem, Mass., sheds a little light on the subject.

Earlier this morning, he sent out a note on Twitter about how a hotel was sending back the pricey camera battery charger he’d forgotten in his room. Since I follow various tweets that contain key words like “hotel,” I noticed his tweet and asked him if he’d share his story with Hotel Check-In readers. Happily, he said yes. Here’s what he told me…

Hillwig just stayed at the La Quinta Inn in New Britain, Conn., where he’d scored a $48 room over Hotwire.

“When I got home, I couldn’t find the charger for my camera batteries. This isn’t a cheap camera, and the battery charger itself costs $50. When I called the hotel, they did indeed find my charger, and they’re sending it to me,” he told me via email.

This isn’t a completely happy ending – yet. Hillwig told me he just called the hotel this morning and they said they’d send it to him.

Did he have to pay shipping?

“They didn’t ask me to pay for shipping, so I wasn’t going to volunteer,” he said.

Hotel Check-In reader Chico Woo had his own positive experience while he was away on a business trip at an interesting time…

Woo was staying at the Newark Marriott, far from home, when his very pregnant wife called him around 1 a.m. to say that her water had broken and that their third child was enroute to the world, he told me. (Since the baby was six weeks early, it was an unexpected call.) After arranging things with his wife, he called his airline to move up his flight and in his haste to reach the airport, left his pricey Tumi toiletry bag and toiletries in 3 oz. that he’d just bought, he said. Cost: Around $450.

“I realized when I arrived at the hospital that I had forgotten my bag,” Woo wrote in an email. “I called the EWR Marriott and spoke to the manager and I explained the situation. They promised that they would find it.  I received a call 20 min later and was told it was going to be shipped to me.

“The next day I received my toiletry bag and everything in it along with a card congratulating me on the birth of our child. They even paid for the overnight shipping,” he said. “That was very nice of them.”

I have my own story.

I paid an upscale New York City hotel to ship an item I’d left behind about a year and a half ago, before the drastic travel downturn. Here’s what happened:

I was already at Penn Station about to catch my Amtrak train back to Washington D.C. when I realized I’d forgotten a crazy, expensive tube of lipstick on the sink in my room at the Grand Hyatt New York. (Stick with me guys; this could have been your must-have gadget!) When I called the hotel, I told them exactly where in the room it was and they quickly confirmed that they found it and that they’d gladly send it to me. I just had to pay a shipping fee of around $17, I was told. That didn’t bother me, as I was happy not to have to replace the tube at full cost and, after all, I was the one who forgot the lipstick.

Readers: What’s your experience been when you’ve forgotten something in your hotel room? Be sure to tell us which hotel, how expensive the hotel was, when your story took place and the outcome.

Marriott Hotels & Resorts does away with casting calls, glamorous models and impeccably staged scenes to let real guests help define the iconic hotel brand. Loyal, high performing guests, recruited via Twitter, Marriott Rewards and hotel general managers, are lending their names and faces to the brand’s newest awareness and advertising campaign called “The Driven.” (http://www.marriott.com/marriott-hotels-resorts/travel.mi)

The Driven campaign breaks through the clutter of hotel advertising by focusing on real guests and their reasons for choosing Marriott Hotels & Resorts, a full service, upscale brand within the Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE:MAR) portfolio of 18 brands. There’s never been a time when results or performance are more critical — and Marriott’s newest offerings are designed to keep travelers operating at their peak while on the road. From our genuine care service standards to innovative lobby and menu updates, Marriott Hotels & Resorts understands and meets the unique needs of The Driven.

Cydni – from Salt Lake City area co-founded a software company where she’s the Chief Marketing Officer, and the Women’s Tech Council where she says, “. . .women business leaders can connect and do some amazing things.” Click here to see Cydni’s ad.

Olu – from the Boston area is a pediatrician, tri-athlete and father, who told us, “At the end of the day, when I think that I’ve accomplished a lot, it just makes me feel completely content, completely at peace and I usually have a great night’s sleep.” Click here to see Olu’s ad.

David – from Princeton N.J. is an accountant, who captained his college tennis team to the NCAA Division 1 championship. On the importance of staying in touch with family and the office while on the road, “Being connected is as essential as air to breathe or water to drink — well, just about.” Click here to see David’s ad.

Learn more about these peak performers and Marriott Hotels & Resorts on the new Driven website WhereTheDrivenGo.com.

“We chose focused, demanding, on-the-go professionals to tell their story of Marriott Hotels & Resorts because they represent our core customer. No one can speak to the experience and benefits at Marriott better than the customers themselves. That’s what this campaign is all about,” said Deborah Fell, senior vice president, Marketing Strategy and Integration. “In their own words, these travelers describe how our new product updates — such as adaptable lobbies for working and relaxing, innovative dining and menu options, and 24-hour fitness centers — help them stay on top of their game. The hotel staff is a key part of the message too, as they are driven to deliver for our guests every day.”

While the use of real customers is a growing trend in marketing campaigns, it is still a rarity in the hotel industry, as Forbes noted in a story recently.