What is The Most Effective Building Strategy To Extend Occupancy and Revenue? The Way to Differentiate Yourself?

What is The Most Effective Building Strategy To Extend Occupancy and Revenue? The Way to Differentiate Yourself?

What is The Most Effective Building Strategy To Extend Occupancy and Revenue? The Way to Differentiate Yourself?

By Said Ul Amin | Submitted on November 23, 2022.

What is the most effective building strategy to extend occupancy and revenue? however, will we tend to differentiate ourselves to contend with alternative major building competitors?

When I opened my 1st shop building, I had no expertise in the building business. the sole building expertise I got was from being a guest in hotels. I failed to study cordial reception management. thus what did I do to urge rolling? I approached an advisor and asked him to facilitate. The advisor wished to charge over $10K for simply 3 months, and then I made a decision to try and do all the promoting myself.

Here's where I started:

I contacted online travel agencies - HRS, Booking, and Expedia. I place along all the knowledge concerning my hotel: photos, facilities, amenities, building location, conveyance, distances from the building to specific attractions, general costs, and business rental costs.

I completed each obligatory OTA coaching and finalized contracts. As shortly as my building became out there on OTAs I got reservations instantly. it had been quite superb. So, I need to emphasize to the hoteliers/apartment house owners, that it's vital to be able to book the most OTAs on the cyber web. I need to admit that while not attending these mentioned OTAs my team and I wouldn't be able to function with several guests as we've in previous years.

As you approach your guests, it depends on you whether or not you'll get them as regular guests or not. it's to try and do with providing the most effective service you'll imagine.

Your goal ought to be for guests to recollect you for your service, quality, kindness, homely feel, individuation, and focus. check that your guests leave your accommodation glad. Also, I am employing a successful "Guest Comeback Card" as AN honors/points program. At checkout, I give guests a GCBC. If a guest has visited a North American nation 10 totally different times, they get a reduction on their next keep.

"GCBC" may be an efficient various to an upscale "points program". This GCBC is simply one example. you'll additionally give a free night as a present. At checkout, we tend to raise guests, most of the time, if any further bookings area unit needed.

This strategy results in several revenant issues. once you are asking this question, it is a sensible plan to say the advantages of booking. (Lower rates compared to OTAs, space accessibility, space choice, etc.) If you discover that a number of your regular guests aren't returning, decide on them and raise them.

it's vital that you simply recognize what happened; so you'll eliminate any downside now. allow them to recognize that you simply wish to supply them with the most effective service they will realize in your town which you would like to form a positive distinction. do not beg them to come back, however, show them you care and would like to see them once more.

Another strategy we tend to wish to use is to contact corporations that are unit reachable. several corporations close to North American nations organize regular seminars or events. Sometimes, some corporation's area units are simply not aware that a building is close to them. thanks to this truth, you would like to urge the eye of those corporations.

a standard answer you always get to the current post's question is: Apply to a lot of OTAs and your occupancy can mechanically increase. Well, I ail that answer. some months passed, I applied for an extra OTA, and then some days my building became out there on the platform.

throughout some months I received eight to ten bookings through this channel. Therefore, adding new OTAs to your existing OTAs isn't continuously an answer to several considerations.

Of course, their area unit edges to be on totally different OTA platforms, and it undoubtedly will increase your visibility. Having high visibility is the key to your success. However, detain mind that being on several OTAs means that you would like to pay longer to maintain your externals.

Having a channel manager is a different way to extend your occupancy. within the 1st week, once my building opened, I failed to have a channel manager. it had been nerve-wracking.

I had to manually block rooms on numerous OTAs, as a result of as shortly as I got the reservation, maybe from HRS; Then, booking. com and Expedia did not realize it. and then I had to log into the extranet of those 2 OTAs and block the area.

As you'll imagine, it is a ton of labor and you've got to be fast. If you do not block the area now, you'll be overbooked later. I like to recommend everybody to use Channel Manager which is out there on numerous OTAs. victimization the proper channel manager eliminates a great deal of stress. I will fully guarantee you that!

Attention: Don't drastically reduce your room rates. Assuming that you will get hundreds of reservations and will always be fully booked from one day to the next. First, if you love your accommodation and want your guests to respect and care for your amenities, be careful how low you lower your prices. In my experience, the more I lowered my prices, the stranger my guests were.

I had six very strange guests at my hotel when I offered low prices for two weeks. He was so strange to all the other guests that I had to take him aside and explain to him the rules of our house.

Now I know what my rooms are worth and I will no longer sell them for that amount. You don't have to offer low prices to increase your revenue. Also, many guests will associate the price per room with the quality of accommodation. This is another fact that should be in the back of your mind.

Increase income now.

The original question of this post was: What is the best strategy for increasing income?

To answer this question, you first need to know what you're selling. So, if you are planning to increase your income, start listing all the items that you are selling in and around your residence.

For example, I'm selling: one room per night, minibar items, early check-in and late check-out options, extra beds, and a shuttle service (sometimes). I can sell breakfast, wifi, and parking (but they are included in the price).

Once you have your list in hand, go to the next step: analyze each item and ask yourself "What do I need to do to increase the price of this item or sell more?" When I look at my item "room" and the number of sales in a week, I am actually satisfied and confident that slowly but surely I will get more and more regular visitors.

While the price of this commodity still has a lot of room for improvement. Nevertheless, if I increase my room prices by 10€-15€, my regular guests will ask me why I did it. I might even lose some of my regular visitors. I don't want to take that risk and so I ask myself what I need to do to increase the value of my room and make my guests appreciate the price change.

Well, to increase the price of this item, I have to increase its price. So, I'm going to put a pair of flip-flops, a bathrobe, a bedspread, and a smartphone cleaning pad in their room. Now my regular guests will understand my price increase and enjoy the upgrade as well.

Next, I look at my minibar. I sell 14 minibar items. Because of the moderate prices and the selection of things I offer my guests every day I have to refill a few minibars. A minibar can be seen as a cash cow. Here you can do a lot of trial and error. In fact, I recommend introducing something new every 6 months.

The next items on my list are early check-in, late check-out, and shuttle service. At this time, I don't advertise these items anywhere, but I try to make them available when a guest requests them—and charge for it.

I cannot guarantee that these items will always be available. That's why I don't mention them everywhere. If you can guarantee your guests some of these items, market them on your website and on your booking button. In relation to corporate hotels, early check-in is always required!

An extra bed is also a good thing to sell. You should always have an extra bed this item is a no-brainer.

I'm including my free parking lot, free Wi-Fi, and breakfast as magnets to attract new guests. It is very difficult to find a free parking space in the city.

By offering my parking lot as an added value to my rooms, my hotel becomes more attractive to potential guests. In my opinion, wifi should always be free. Nowadays, it belongs only to the general service. Offering free Wi-Fi also increases your appeal.

If you're offering a great breakfast so that guests can find everything they're looking for, you should get paid for it. Charging for breakfast increases revenue. It's not uncommon to charge €10-20 for a gourmet breakfast.

Unfortunately, I don't have enough space to set up many different showcases. Otherwise, I would fill these showcases with leather wallets, belts, umbrellas, electrical adapters, souvenirs, gift cards, and self-branded sweets.

I have been asked for these items a couple of times so I know they are needed. If you have enough space, you should consider setting up at least one showcase to gain some experience.

Selling bundled products is another way to increase revenue. People love to hear about special deals and discounted items. If you bundle different items together, put an attractive price tag on them and create a discount due to the number of items available or time sensitivity (while available), you will sell more. Look at all the items on your list and start combining them. I am sure you will come up with some interesting offers.

The final question in the post's title is: How can we differentiate ourselves to compete with other major hotel competitors?

Most of my major hotel competitors/chains have more rooms than I do. Thus, they probably earn more and have more money available to spend on amenities, new gadgets, and fancy designs.

They can impress their guests with: useful amenities in the rooms, a large lobby, a magnificent reception, a beautiful breakfast/dinner room, a beautiful panoramic view, a precious garden, a roof balcony, and much more. Some, that we as a boutique. Dream of a hotel.

However, we have advantages as well. Due to the fact that we do not serve hundreds of guests at once, we have the ability to be more personal with our guests. In our hotel, we always try to remember the names of each of our guests.

Early in the morning, we greet them by name. We ask how they slept and if everything was fine. At breakfast, we make sure they have what they need. For example, if guests stay at our hotel for a few days and they tell us after their first breakfast that they would like something special, we do our best to make it available for the following days.

Most of the time we are building guest relations. We start with small talk, and sooner or later we have long conversations. We're talking about everything: sports, politics, cars, restaurants, popular vacation spots, and more. It's fun and by doing this we really get to know our guests. We make them feel at home and that we are there if they need someone to talk to. In fact, we strive to make guests feel like part of our extended family.

I believe the biggest chance we have to score against the big players in the hotel is through our personality. Taking time out of your daily routine to sit down and have coffee with your guests is inspiring and unique.

Guests will remember it and also tell their family, friends, and colleagues that they know the hotel owner personally. Your guests will be proud of the fact that they spent time with the owner and discussed various topics. Your guests will immediately realize that you care about them and that each guest is unique to you.