Hotel is Hospitality business or a renting business

New years Greetings:

2019 is not only another new year but it’s certainly a  THOUGHT PROVOKING year for  our Hotel business.

Now….think of an athlete.

Have you ever noticed that before running the athlete takes a step back. This helps them to take control of themselves and also gain momentum to run fast. Similarly it’s time for us to take a step back and analyse, which are the areas where a CHANGE of APPROACH is needed.  

Now lets see how do we business….

Primarily our business starts with buying a property to build a Hotel, decorate the hotels with a beautiful garden, expensive interiors and cutlery, well designed restaurants etc.  After all this, the cost of the room is fixed on the basis of these investments. But if I ask you a question…. Are we missing out on something? If yes then what????

The hotel business has been running like this so far but all of us need to STOP and ANALYSE……what is the MOST IMPORTANT thing which is MISSING in this style of Business?

It is “HOSPITALITY” or the ‘‘SERVICE LEVEL”

In Hindi Hospitality means’ Satkar”,

• but what did we invest in making the hotel service oriented?
• Who is going provide service to our guests?
• Is it the expensive property, cutlery which we bought or the PEOPLE /STAFF who are working in our hotel?
• Are we thinking about training these staff and create more positive experience for our guest?

Well, if the answer is NO. Then there is a major scope of Change in our business APPROACH.

We must REMEMBER Hotel is part of “SERVICE INDUSTRY “ and it’s called Hospitality industry. Time has gone when we could run this business as a Real Estate business. Now we need to make a LEARNING   INVESTMENT on our STAFF for making our unique SERVICE LEVEL to create exciting experience for our GUEST.

If all this still sounds alien to you……let me break down the present scenario to you.

Changing phase of Hotel business

These days technology is with everybody, in the form of Mobile phone and it’s no secret that India is ranked higher than US, in usage of mobile phones. Additionally we have indefinite use of internet, data , social media, which is our new way of life.  All this have undeniable benefits for hospitality business but also comes with some set of challenges. 

We are glad that ………

• We could reach guests worldwide
• With the help of online platforms – we could have 2 channels of sales now. One is Off line Sales and another is Online Sales though we need to engage a competent partner for this.
• The services can be viewed by our future guest as well. We could collect review/ feedback showcase our services. Such a platform was completely absent so far.
• Our old guest could refer our services to their friends and family through these platforms.
• Payment all over the world has become easy and hassle free.

Relation of Technology

But remember ….. we did mention about the challenges as well. The biggest challenge which we are facing in Hotel Industry is ‘TRANSPERENCY’

You must be thinking ……. What is this Transparency? Let me simplify this for you.

Importance of Online Platforms and its impact of business

So far the service which we used to provide to our guest was NOT VISIBLE to others except the respective guest but now it has changed. How????

For example:

These days , in-case a guest has faced any problem in the hotel, it is extremely easy for them to leave a negative feedback in ‘ REVIEW” section in any of the online platforms like hotel website, OTA etc. Then worse is, the same review could be viewed by everybody visiting that platform and this ONE negative feedback will be injurious for your business. 

Here……… we must understand a common human behavior, which is,  to get affected by negative experience more than positive. So… what I mean is…… it’s easy to receive negative/complaining feedback, for ONE ODD  instance as compare to receiving positive / appreciative feedback for our services. 

The Changing Aspect

Now….there are THREE important things we need LEARN from this example.

1. First- Reviews are experiences of our guest which is if good then its POSITIVE and if its troublesome then its NEGATIVE.
   1. But who is creating these experiences?
   1. Our STAFF and their BEHAVIOUR (very few reviews are property related problem and even it is so, if our staff has been able to handle the problem with their polite and professional behavior then the guest goes happy).  

• Second most important is – These good or bad reviews are the parameters/ standards/ benchmark for getting repeat business or additional business online. It creates REPUTATION of the hotel and its extremely important for the guest because today all the guest will certainly check online to see reviews of each property before making a decision. 

• Third point is– Now we have International and Domestic guest who are well travelled and have experienced Service everywhere. They are capable of comparing GOOD and BAD Service. Technology has empowered them with tools to see the SERVICE LEEL before they check in.  Hence there is no reason that they would INVEST their money in a property which is good to look at however fails to provide DELIGHTFUL EXEPERIENCE.

So now it’s a loss and gain situation for you. Technology has made ‘HIGH SERVICE LEVEL” a denominator for revenue generation.  

If you want to invest in your business …… then the old style of investing has to be changed. You need to make conscious investment in TRAINING YOUR STAFF SO THAT THEY COULD PROVIDE BETTER SERVICE TO YOUR GUEST. The STAFF IS COMPETENT TO CONVERT A COMPLAINT to POSITIVE EXEPREINCE WHICH COULD BE FURTHER SHOWCASED IN YOUR REVIEW. 

 Because it’s high time that we understand- SERVICE LEVEL is rationally proportionate to REVENUE GENERATION / BUSINESS.

Thank you for taking time and reading it. I hope this article helps you to give another perspective to your hotel business.

We work with hotels to optimize their revenue primarily through – Technology based Sales & Marketing channels that requires technical understanding.

I request you to connect with us or call me if you have any concerns you want to discuss about hotel sales and operations. We are well connected with experts in the industry who will help finding solutions.

Connect to me on 9818105631 or sales@epacesetters.com or visit www.epacesetters.com

Ashley Radhakrishnan