By: Eric Gourdie, Strategic Revenue Director at Sceptre Hospitality Resources
Below are some best practices and strategies to consider while trying to improve your electronic channel contribution.
1. It is important to remember that many travelers research a trip several weeks or months in advance before actually booking. The traveler’s decision of which hotel to stay at is often determined well in advance of your hotel’s booking window. It is important therefore to make sure that you have competitive rates and inventory on a rolling calendar basis twelve months to a year in the future.
Best Practice: Review your rate and inventory deployment quarterly to ensure that inventory and rates are available for a rolling 12-month period.
2. Even though RFP season is over for 2012 it is important to start thinking about 2013 and review your hotel information as it is loaded in some of the RFP tools available online. Such as Sabre RFP, RFP Express, Lanyon, or similar RFP/FIT electronic contract tools. As we all know the amenities offered today such as free high speed Internet, parking options, and/or dining options can be critical to acceptance in a program and/or costly if included as free when there is a charge. Recently, environmental program questions, such as LEEDS certification, recycling and environmentally friendly products questions have been showing up on the standard RFP forms.
Best Practice: Once a year all RFP/FIT contractual tools should be thoroughly audited for accurate and up to date information.
3. It is important to make sure hotels “know” their competitors. Hotels often look heavily at their competitor’s pricing, deployment, and inventory strategies but fail to fully evaluate their competitor hotel’s strengths and weaknesses. This evaluation should include a full review of free and paid amenities, product, location, customer service reputation/philosophy, and team. The following sites, in addition to a full site inspection, can assist with the review.
- Trip Advisor; Frommers; AAA and/or AAA.com; Mobile Travel Guide
- Travelocity.com; Expedia.com; Orbitz, Priceline/Travelweb; Cheap Tickets.com
- Hotel Website and GDS Hotel On-Line Description
Best Practice: Institute an adopt-a-hotel program to evaluate your competitive set twice a year both electronically and through a site inspection twice a year.
4. Each year hotels are asked to renew program participations and/or contractually auto renew programs. It is important to make sure that each program renewal is evaluated annually. In particular negotiated account status, third party agreements, and FIT contracts should be conducted. The following question should be asked during the evaluation:
- How much incremental revenue occurs on off peak stay patterns or dates?
- How much additional marketing support and/or share is does the hotel receive?
- What is the program’s inventory penetration in the market?
- How can I negotiate the most favorable margins/pricing, market share, marketing, and/or terms?
Best Practice: Create a program evaluation notebook. Update incremental revenue, market share information, market position and merchandising, and program market penetration quarterly.
5. Consumer confidence in a product quality and consistency is essential. The Internet is a critical communication tool to the consumer. It is important that the message that is provided to the consumer through the Internet is accurate, up to date, and consistent. Hotels should remember there are numerous sites, which display information about their product and should ensure that a consistent and accurate message is available. The following channels hotel on-line descriptions and photos should be reviewed bi-annually:
- All Major Third Party Sites
- Hotel Proprietary Website
- Property CRS Listing
- Property Paid Online Directory Listings such as Yellowpages.com; Niche Marketing Directory Listings, and/or City/Organization Listings.
Best Practice: Conduct an annual audit of all electronic on-line descriptions and information reviewing accuracy of information and marketing message.