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The
most recent Smith Travel Report indicates that occupancy or demand for the third
quarter rose by 2.6%, year to date by 3.6% and in September alone by a whopping
7.1%! REVPAR increased by 6.4% in the third quarter, 7.5% year to date and a
stunning 11.2% in September. It is obvious that September numbers drove most of
the third quarter gains.
While there are no hard statistics for the same
period for online bookings, the limited stats that we have from hotel companies
and individual booking channels ranges from 17% to 50% over last year. We do
know that most consumers, from leisure travelers to groups are finding and
qualifying the hotel online prior to ever contacting us.
Given the stats above, how does your hotel's
sales department productivity measure up? How well have they integrated online
functionality into the processes of the sales department's
day-to-day operations?
A hotel owner stated to me at the end of 2003
"My bookings from online sources have increased by
about 37% over last year, my sales department productivity is flat. Guess where
I am putting my resources next year -- the web site and managing online
channels."
At a recent seminar, the participants were
hungry to learn about using the Internet in every step of the process -- from
prospecting to guided virtual tours. We went online to their proprietary or
franchise web sites to demonstrate how to conduct a
guided virtual tour. Most were shocked by the lack of functionality that either
site afforded them in this process.
There are a variety of issues that affect the
functionality of these processes online. Many of the tools are inexpensive and
easy to accomplish -- we need to expand the notion of how we conduct sales to
include online tools as standard operational processes
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New Business Development.
There are a variety of online resources available
to the sales department, many by market segment. The sales department needs to
be working these with the same intensity that they work trace files. If your
sales department isn't making these a vital component of their prospecting
activity, you can be sure that other hotels are -- and gaining market share from
these sites.
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Pre-Approach Qualifying. There is so much
information on the web -- at the click of a mouse. The sales staff should
be accessing information about their prospects prior
to contact so that they know if they are worth pursuing. They need to
know which factors to look for in reports that
indicate the potential of a prospect to produce and to make a judgment about
those in which they should be investing their time.
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Using E-Postcards. E-postcards can be created quickly and
effectively at a desktop PC. Their uses span individual prospect approaches to
creating targeted e-blasts that fly under the radar of spamming. A little
creativity and basic computer skills are all that are required.
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E-flyers. These range from the
extremely clever to the purely informative. They make an excellent vehicle for
customer relationship management and to inform a broad range of guests and
clients, who have given permission to receive them, of
changes at the hotel and special promotions.
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E-stationary.
Make your hotel's email correspondence from all
departments stand apart from the rest of the hotel e-chatter that hits your
clients' Inbox! This can be designed to have the same look and feel as the web
site and online brochures (you do have online brochures, don't you?)
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E-brochures.
While printed brochures are not quite yet dinosaurs, how many do you have left
in your hotel supply closet from the 50,000 that you ordered prior to the new
renovation and addition of high-speed Internet access to your amenity list? At a
panel discussion of meeting planners, they all indicated that they have cleaned
out or eliminated their massive file cabinets full of hotel sales kits. The
meeting planners unanimously agreed that they would prefer to have brochures and
sales kits electronically so that they can be downloaded as needed.
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The Web Site.
All too often the web site is developed without the input of sales or
consideration of how it can be used as a sales tool --
not just a design masterpiece. The inclusion of design elements and photography
that appeals across and to many market segments makes it more functional for the
generation of group leads. Franchise web sites offer the opportunity to include
multiple photos but many hotels only include the exterior and maybe one other
photo! The description screens are rarely edited to reflect seasonality
and special packages. The reservation function is awkward at best
-- at worst it doesn't
interface with the property management system. |
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At
an annual sales meeting of a medium sized hotel company to which I presented a
seminar based on these issues, I was asked, "Does this
mean that we won't need sales people any more?"
I answered a qualified "No"
-- qualified because those sales people
who can't incorporate
e-tools into their processes risk becoming irrelevant! |
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CVCT,
Carol Verret Consulting and Training, offers consulting and seminars on
incorporating using e-tools to enhance productivity and functionality well as
revenue management and customer service. Our associate, Tony D'Angelo,
specializes in HR consulting and seminars. Contact Carol at
and log onto the company web site
www.carolverret.com. The company can be reached by
phone at (303) 618-4065. Log on for info about live web casts and online
training modules that also address these issues. |
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