What a change in the hotel business as we know it, eh? If you are lucky enough remember this iconic group from the 60′s, one can almost hear Peter, Paul and Mary singing the updated hotel version of Where have all the flowers gone?, … “Where have all the the conventions and groups gone?….Long time passing”. Those of us who have been in the industry for a while have not seen a drop off in group business like this for this extended period of time….ever?

I completed a few sales audits at hotels in a major markets and while pleasantly surprised at the continuity of systems and energy of the DOS’s, sales managers, etc., I was struck by the lack of detailed examination and analysis that had occurred relative to focusing and targeting the competition and their natural transient customer for the hotels. As far as background goes, these are newly opened hotel which couldn’t have been built and opened from a timing stand point at a worse time in our industry. The brand I have been auditing is still in it’s infancy thus not as recognized as old standbys but promises to be a “hot” star on this brand’s horizon.  The locations are “A” locations when there is convention and group business a plenty but a “B” location when relying on drive in or pure corporate transient customers.

Sales Directors and corporate sales departments need to continually shift and refocus their strategies when confronted with the dramatic shifts in business that have occured in the past year.  Group business in secondary or tertiary location convention centers are only attracting the flower shows, occational concerts, flea markets and the like.  The rotational convention business is now able to book in much larger, and from their standpoint, prestigious venues in more primary locations as rates have dropped and availability of space is abundant.   An amazing opportunity for some of the groups that in the past have not had the opportunity to hold their events in downtown and otherwise untouchable locations when times are good.  Thus hotels in proximity to those secondary venues and convention centers that were built under the auspices of “if we build it they will come”, are suffering.
Having a brand is certainly a plus as frequency program users and loyal brand travelers will seek out brands they are comfortable with and provide the benefit of loyalty program points.  The individual hotels who pay for these brands must find ways to further tap into and market/sell to those loyal customers whether they be individuals or companies that have local or national negotiated agreements with those brands.

•  Think about using some of your marketing dollars  buying and providing frequency point bonus offers to those in companies who book the business – remember the old “secretary clubs”….is it time to revisit that program if you don’t have it in order to get back in the offices of those who book business travel in local businesses?
• Offerings of double points to frequent program users who stay at your hotel for specific need periods of time is always a winner but you need to make sure all your web channel notifications are updated and posted.

Are you taking a close look and analyzing carefully weekend and weekday trends that are playing out in your comp set and how others are playing the rate game for business?  Getting back to basics and making sure that all in your hotel have their eyes, ears and sales hats on is critical as we move toward rosier booking times.

Another dilemma has often been how to tap into that database or customer base from the brands.  This is where your sales & marketing teams needs to work closely with the brand regional sales management and sales teams in mining the opportunities with them for your hotel.  Don’t take no for an answer as the natural tendancy from the brand marketing and sales system leaders is to deny access to national negotiated accounts for fear of unwanted pestering, sales abuse and other fears.  In today’s environment, savvy sales departments are finding ways to tap into and market their product directly to the national accounts especially when those accounts sit with demand at their back door.
Take the time to begin to sew the seeds of this years short term booking windows with all leads you can source, all the programs you can put in place and stay on top of them all year long.  Measure them, make sure your GM is in lock step and making the sales close if you need it.  Your persistence, time and energy will win you room nights and success as this turn around year begins.  Good luck to all!