The news is not good in the European Hotel Industry, and is not set to improve soon with forecasts of 1 in 5 hotels going out of business over the next 12 months. AccuBook wants to make sure that everything possible has been done for their customers and associates.
Hotel OWNERS and MANAGERS have been invited to a short presentation-cum-discussion where we will outline what can be done to sell more rooms online. We dont believe we can turn around the economic recession but there IS room for improvement in thwe way most hotels undertake Online Marketing, THE ROUTE THAT OVER HALF A HOTELS CUSTOMERS USE TO LOCATE AND BOOK THE HOTEL, that just might make the difference in their turnover.
Presentation - Mount Errigal Hotel, Letterkenny Wednesday November 25th 19.30
The call has deliberately gone to Owners and Managers, as we see many occassions where it is these people who inadvertently influence how much money they make online, even if they do not realise it.
To make a quick example, recently whenever we have taken over new hotels we have had to spend time encouraging the Hotel Managers to appoint someone to the post of Revenue Manager, give them targets and the time to reach the targets. ON some occassions we have been forced to pull the Revenue Managers OUT of the hotel, and train them in our own office on a weekly or monthly basis, only to see when they eventually return to the hotel that they are distracted by other day to day hotel tasks. HOTEL OWNERS AND MANAGERS ARE NOT PRIORITISING THE AREA THAT IS GENERTING 50% OF THEIR REVENUE.
The end result of the discussion next week should be that Hotel Owner/Managers go away with specific tasks such as clearly appointing a Revenue Manager, ensuring they know what is expected of them and what are their targets.
If they can do this we have a plan for 2010 which will work with the nominated Revenue Managers to guide and assist them to reach the targets. It would be no use participants joining this program in 2010 and saying; 'I need to ask the boss about this', or 'My Manager wont let me do this'. They must be empowered to do what is necessary to drive sales. One of our successes this year was with a hotel that appointed a new Marketing Manager and then uttered these words 'Do whatever you want'. IT WORKED, possibly for all the wrong reasons, but it worked. The hotel signed up to more booking engines, flexed the rates on a daily basis and then started regularly to send out E Zines and SMS Messages. It was much more consistent becuase the Owner had said 'Do whatever you want'. We dont recommend that all hotels take this approach, but it does show what can be done when people are empowered to get on with Online Marketing.
Over the years much of our time is taken up persuading hotels to undertake Online Marketing. These suggestions are often taken half heartedly as a shopping list. The 2010 program will be quite prescriptive ie It will only make sense for hotels to particpate who are willing to put aside their preferences and try all angles to generate room sales. We believe now is the time to react.
Not only will we support the participants to reach them, but we will send a monthly report to the Hotel Onwers and Managers so they can view progress and react if necessary.
Most of the Online Travel Agents and Booking Engines such as Hotels.com and Booking.com have said that they will attend the 2010 Program.
Dont forget - Mount Errigal Hotel, Letterkenny Wednesday November 25th 19.30
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