What’s Your Plan to Increase Revenue in 2018?
Is there anything holding you back from achieving your revenue goals in 2018? If you fell short in achieving your revenue targets for 2017, have you discovered the root cause for the shortfall?
Do any of the statements below ring true for your hotel?
- You don’t have a property level sales person to actively pursue accounts in your backyard.
- You have increased competition in your local market.
- Your competitive set has dedicated sales people actively prospecting in your market.
- You are reliant on the OTAs (3rd party websites) to provide base business to your hotel.
If you did not have a local sales strategy in place this past year, you are taking a passive approach to generating revenue and likely relying too heavily on OTA’s, walk-ins or compression within your comp set to fill your rooms. This is not a long-term strategy and you will never create profitable, long term base business for your hotel if you are not actively prospecting in your backyard.
When looking for leads, finding where to start can feel overwhelming. Below is a list of resources and strategies you and your team can use to begin prospecting:
- Brand reports
- Arrivals reports
- Parking lot checks
- Bid Clerk (for crew business)
- Google your competition i.e.: “hockey tournaments abc hotel 2018”
- Reach out to your top accounts to thank them for their business and requalify them for next year. Find out what you are doing well and what you could improve upon.
- Sports tournaments at local facilities
- Fish bowl at front desk
- Partnerships (festivals, banquet halls, funeral homes, golf courses)
On your slowest check in nights (Sunday and Thursday for most hotels), delegate some of this important research to your front desk and night auditor to help you find contact information for these leads.
Lastly, set a goal and carve out time in your schedule to make a certain amount of calls per week. Start with a realistic target that does not overwhelm you and commit to making the calls each week. You will start seeing the impact of your efforts over time as you build profitable base business for your hotel.
Wishing you much success in 2018!
