I previously wrote about how effective SiteMinder, one of the world’s best channel managers for accommodation providers, is at generating revenue and saving your operation money. Combining SiteMinder with revenue management software can take those revenues to the next level. Coming available later this summer will be one of the best options available on the market turbosuite. turbosuite is working on integrating fully with SiteMinder, but is still a powerful tool to use right now for your hotel, motel, or Airbnb vacation rental.

Before getting into how turbosuite integrates with SiteMinder and what it can do today, let’s first discuss what revenue management software is.

Revenue Management Software

Everyone reading this should understand what revenue management entails when being applied to the accommodation industry. There are five basic components to it: collecting the data about the operation and market; creating segments from the data to help analyze it more thoroughly; building revenue forecasts; planning and taking action; and analyzing the process and results to determine what can be improved upon. Revenue Managers would be doing each of those areas manually or creating simple automatic rules that their PMS would follow when settings rates and restrictions.

Revenue management software simplifies each component by using artificial intelligence to power it. No longer are revenue managers loading Booking.com and copying competitor rates into an Excel spreadsheet, or poring over their PMS data to see which rates are selling when. The software does the work for them. Revenue Managers still oversee each component and analyze the results to ensure everything is working as well as it should, however. Using the tool is not completely hands off and automated.

turbosuite

There are plenty of revenue management systems available and several of them integrate with SiteMinder. They all include the same basic functionality, so what makes turbosuite different?

There are two main differentiators that I can see:

1. All types of accommodations are analyzed

When I was looking at the different options for revenue management systems, most specialized with one type of accommodation. Hotels, motels, or vacation rentals. Revenue management functions the same for each type at its core, but the big difference is how a market is analyzed. With hotels, there are broad categories based on location (downtown, airport) and type of hotel (boutique, full-service, high-end, etc). Hotels are mainly limited to a few online travel agency sites (OTAs – i.e. Booking.com, Expedia, Trivago). Pulling together the rate information is easier for hotels because you create a competitive set of hotels that match your location, type, and usually only look at a few sites.

Analyzing the market for vacation rentals is more complicated. Instead of a competitive set of 10-15 hotels, you are finding the information for 50-100 (or more) units in your market. Your property is not only competing within the city, but may also be competing within your own building. For a quick example, in Kelowna, there is one condo tower downtown that has around 75 different units listed as a vacation rental. The downtown core may have around 300 units total (not including the hotels) and the city may have 1000 different units. Analyzing the market manually is time intensive and likely inaccurate too.

turbosuite analyzes both types of accommodations effectively. They are pulling in the data from Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb. Other revenue management systems may only be looking at Booking.com or Expedia if they focus on hotels, or only Airbnb if they focus on vacation rentals. Having all that data leads to the second point.

2. Analyze the full market, not a comp set

With turbosuite, they analyze the entire market for you. With other revenue management systems, you can be limited to having 10-15 properties that you compete with to compare against. With turbosuite, there is no limit to the properties you are compared to. It compares pricing between the hotels and the vacation rentals, matching up properties that have similar amenities to find the best rate in the market. The amenities can be as large as a pool, fitness centre, or parking included, to as detailed as having a coffee maker or internet at the property. turbosuite offers a comprehensive look at the market with daily updates to show how all your properties compare.

By analyzing the total market, turbosuite is dialled into any sudden shifts in demand. If one hotel sells out, while the others remain mainly empty, it is likely a sign of a large, hosted meeting taking place. But when hundreds of vacation rentals get booked up within a short amount of time, that is signalling a larger, city-wide event. turbosuite will notice that shift and suggest new rates to take advantage of that increase in demand. It won’t be able to determine if that event is the latest Taylor Swift concert being announced, or the city has won the rights to the Super Bowl, but it will set your rates to the appropriate amount.

With vacation rentals, the rate suggestions can also take into account the cleaning fees and adjust those to different levels. Most properties have fixed cleaning fees based on the unit and number of people. It makes sense to treat it as a separate form of revenue that can be adjusted to not only cover the cleaning costs, but also put a little more profit into the pockets.

Forecasting and Reporting

With all this data at their disposal to analyze, turbosuite can provide accurate revenue forecasts for up to a year. It uses the current demand for accommodations and combines it with the historical records to create a forecast that accommodation providers can use to build their overall revenue budgets. turbosuite will be able to determine the spikes in demand, and the dips during shoulder seasons, to be as accurate as possible.

The reports on the system are varied and useful. The revenue forecasts are part of the reporting system, but other reports will help you determine how effective turbosuite is doing for your properties. It will track the valuable metrics of room nights, revenue, and ADR, but also the properties web rankings, how visible the properties are, and the conversion rates on the various sites. Another component of the reporting system is showing you the pickup report for the revenue generated by a set period.

Putting turbosuite Into Action

Turbosuite is excellent at pulling in all the data to analyze, but how do properties change their rates?

Turbosuite makes that part incredibly easy. The main screen shows the calendar for the month with different rates – your base rate, and the ideal competitive rate. Underneath, there are codes to give you the information you need to determine whether a day needs to be acted upon or not. Opening up a day will provide even more detail about how far below/above your rate is from the competition, making manual adjustments to the rate or stay restrictions, and more. At the bottom are the magic buttons to push the new rates out to SiteMinder (or other channel manager) or revert back to the original base rates.

During the demonstration I received, this process was quick and painless. If someone wanted to, they could select the entire month and click the button to adjust the rates automatically, all at once. Of course, it is advisable to look at each day/week more carefully and understand that is happening in the market.

All of the above is just a quick overview of what turbosuite can do for your properties while using the SiteMinder channel manager. There is a lot more to be shown, so if the above is of any interest, I encourage you to reach out to turbosuite and get a demonstration of their software. It does integrate with other channel managers or property management systems, as well.

If you are interested in learning more, please visit their website: turbosuite or fill out the below form that will be sent directly to them.

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SiteMinder is the world’s leading channel manager that is packed with features to help hotels perform better. Some of those features includes its website builder, its ability to be integrated with 100+ property management systems (PMS) for hotels, and the ability to be connected to 200+ online travel agencies (OTAs) and other web apps to help with productivity. All of these are great for hotels to improve their overall operation. This post is going to highlight some of the other positives for SiteMinder: low transaction fees, Demand Plus, and the Insights that are available for the competition.

Low Transaction Fees

This is the one feature that will save your hotel or property the most money. If you use a competing channel manager like Sabre’s SynXis, hotels are charged a small fee for every reservation they take that goes through the channel manager. At the low end, fees are generally cheaper (maybe even free) for web bookings – reservations that are made through the hotel website. At the higher end, are fees for reservations through the GDS (travel agent booking system). In between, there are fees for bookings made through other channels, like Booking.com or Expedia. These fees cover the costs of the development of the channel manager software and integration with the PMS so reservations booked online can be entered into the PMS automatically.

The downside of these fees are they can quickly add up. Below is a sample chart of the fees based on a 33/33/33 split between web bookings, OTAs, and the GDS. To keep the math simple, let’s say there are 3,000 total reservations taken, which is a reasonable number for a 100 room hotel.

A few caveats to the above numbers, they don’t include any commissions you may be paying for the GDS bookings (usually 10%) or the commissions charged through Expedia, Booking.com, etc (around 18%). Altogether, the fees will be much higher than $22,500.

For SiteMinder, they still have a transaction fee for GDS bookings (which is charged by the GDS systems), but they waive the transaction fees for web bookings and OTAs. That produces a chart like this:

The general hotel is likely going to save a lot of money by switching over to SiteMinder. This does not include the potential savings from using SiteMinder’s new product for guest communication, GuestJoy, which is 25% the cost of the competing service, Guestfolio. And, of course, there will be opportunities to earn more through SiteMinder.

Demand Plus

Last year, Google announced a change to their Business Profiles for hotels which allowed hotels to enter in their own rates and link to their website. I thought it was a great addition to the product for hotels.

What I did not realize at the time, however, was the hotel link tended to be buried underneath all the advertising services, namely Booking.com, TripAdvisor, trivago, etc. This can change with SiteMinder’s Demand Plus service.

With Demand Plus, hotels get boosted to the top of the listings. It still marks the hotel as the official site, and will show the lowest rate available on the website, not the BAR/RACK rate, which allows hotels to advertise a lower rate than Booking.com to gain some direct business. There is a minor commission fee attached to these bookings, but the major plus to these bookings is you receive the guest’s full information. No masking of email addresses, phone numbers, or credit card numbers, allowing you to take ownership of that guest experience from the time of booking through to checkout. More opportunities for room upsells, other products at the hotel to book, and to retain them as a guest in the future directly rather than a OTA service.

Each month, you will receive a statement to verify the bookings. Hotels aren’t charged for no shows or cancellations, only for stays at the hotel.

Direct Plus also offers quick analytics for reservations. It will tell you how many times it has been viewed, the clicks, reservations made, and the revenue from the Google profile, trivago, and TripAdvisor.

Insights

So far, you have seen ways that SiteMinder can help you save money and earn more bookings online, but it can also help you earn more money on all your reservations, online or at the hotel level. Insights offers different views of the hotel operation from the online bookings. A lot of this information is likely similar to the hotel’s overall reservations, but presented in a easily understood graphic manner. There are different charts for booking performance compared to the same period last year, channel mix (direct, different OTAs, GDS bookings), country mix, and room and rate type mix. The last two items offer a lot more information with a charts about ADR, average length of stay, and average lead time. That information can help determine if a certain room type should be priced higher if it is more in demand, or whether to offer rate discounts for longer stays.

The next section is a pace report, which can help track how well the hotel is performing with its reservations compared to previous years. You can filter down to a set period of time to compare to a similar period (i.e. to compare holiday weekends that may change each year) or to the same period (month vs same month a year ago).

The final two areas of the Insight section are going to be very useful.

Rate parity is going to help keep track of your rates being pushed out to the OTAs. The one benefit of a channel manager is the rates that are sent to the OTAs should be the same. There can be errors with the information, so it is useful to check. The rate for Direct Booking is currently the lowest available rate for the hotel.

Competitors rate is a monthly view of the rates pulled from Booking.com. It compares the hotel rate with the median hotel rate of a comp set that you select. You are able to select up to 10 other hotels to include within your comp set. The monthly view shows you whether your hotel is higher or lower than the median rate (arrows are for +/- 10%).

Clicking on a date, gives you a way to drill down to each day to see the competition in a easier way. It brings in the lowest rate, room type, plus has the median rate at the top for quick comparison.

This feature alone will save a lot of clicking around on Booking.com. The monthly view will help General Managers and Revenue Managers set their room rates for several months to come as well.

Summary

This is only a slice of how SiteMinder can help your hotel, motel, or vacation rental business improve the operation and save money.

Switching to SiteMinder will require some work with the setup. If you are currently using a channel manager, there will be a lot of copying and pasting of descriptions and policies. Because of the time involved with switching over, I am offering my time and expertise in SiteMinder to help you get setup more quickly and more smoothly.

Fill out the form below to get started.

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Little Hoteliers is a property management system for small hotels and vacation rentals (front desk system, booking engine for a website, and channel manager.) While exploring their website and looking at their products, I came across their resource centre for small hotels which have several free offerings.

There are 10 ebooks covering topics such as:

• a guide for booking engines
• revenue management 101
• The Top 10 Travel Trends For 2016

Reviewing the revenue management and dristribution books, I was quite impressed with how simple the books were to digest. They should take no longer than a few hours to get through the complete collection of books. Best of all is that they are free and yours to pass along to staff members or other people in the hospitality industry that may be interested them.

Some of the books may be of interest for larger hotels and operations, but in general, they are written for smaller properties that are unfamiliar with channel mannagement and online marketing.

They also manage a blog which is full of articles and kept up to date. Definitely a great resource to dive into.

If you enjoyed this, consider subscribing to the Weekly Hospitality Newsletter, published every Friday for free.

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Combining my experiences in the hospitality industry and the knowledge I have gained in the past few years with running a vacation rental, I decided to create a short ebook to help introduce vacation rentals to everyone else that may be interested. It is written for people with no knowledge of the hospitality industry, keeping it as simple as possible.

The best part is I have decided to make it completely free. Feel free to pass it along to anyone you think may be interested in renting out their own vacation rental, or even just staying in one for their next vacation.

The short introduction to the book is found below, but the book is divided into seven steps:

1. PREPARE

Is operating a vacation rental for you? The challenges ahead and how to make smart decisions.

2. RESEARCH

How many rentals are near you? What types of rentals? How is tourism?

3. SPACE

Time to prepare your space, but with what furnishings? What else do you need to have to impress?

4. PRICE

What prices are other vacation rentals? What is your break even point? What is your longterm plan?

5. EXPENSES

How best to control your expenses? Potential problems and how to avoid them.

6. MARKETING

How will people discover your property? How do you help them return to you in the future?

7. LAUNCH

How to make the launch of your marketing materials go smoothly and what happens after that first reservation arrives.

For those who wish to donate and receive future updates to the book, use the appropriate link below. Look forward to receiving some feedback about the book. 

There is a global trend happening that is scaring many in the hospitality industry: people are starting to stay away from the large hotels and wanting a more personable stay. The hunt is on for individual experiences, a story that can be shared with their friends and family. People are seeking out two different types of places to stay: boutique hotels and vacation homes. The latter allows for the most personable experience and is exploding in popularity.

It is a hospitality revolution. A great shift in booking trends that is being experienced around the world, all at the same time. People are booking spaces of all sizes and varieties: condos, whole homes, a bedroom, a houseboat, and villas able to accommodate 40 people. You can find these spaces in all corners of the world, from the Klondike Gold Rush town of Dawson City, Yukon, the remote Easter Island, to Kigali, Rwanda. The best part is there is always space for more homes and properties to jump in to be a part of the global trend, not to be excluding from it.

Creating that experience for these travellers is just as rewarding for the owners of the vacation rental. Meeting people from other parts of the world, sharing stories about your individual journeys, and, sharing the city you live in with others can bring a great joy within you that can’t be found elsewhere. One of the most rewarding experiences is telling someone a place you enjoy eating at or visiting, and then having them repeat their positive experience back to you. A journey created by both parties that starts at your own home.

Not only is operating a vacation rental rewarding for your personal enjoyment, it can be financially lucrative. Depending on how large of a space you are willing to share with others, it can pay for your monthly expenses, your monthly mortgage payments, or become a major source of income. With the global trend moving to these smaller spaces, the potential to earn income with a rental property is going to exist for a long time yet. That is a great positive for anyone looking to explore the possibility of operating your own rental property.

There are seven steps that lead towards joining this revolution. The purpose of this small book is to lead you through those steps, giving you some ideas on what to expect, what to prepare for, and to help you decide whether to make the leap to join in. It is not the ultimate guide in how to operate your property. With the variety of properties available to stay in, there are equally as many ways to operate them. The ultimate decision comes down to personal choice and comfort levels.

This book is to help you discover your comfort levels when it involves your property, and lead you to make the best choices possible. So grab a notepad and pen to make some notes, a cup of coffee or tea, and prepare to learn all about the ongoing vacation property revolution.

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The end of the year is nearly upon us, which is the best time to prepare for 2016.

Part of that preparation will include a review of your daily, weekly, and monthly revenues through the year and select periods of the year (i.e. your high season.) This review can be done through reports pulled from your property management system, but some systems can’t give you enough information to make an informed decision. Using a pickup report can help you make that decision by being able to review the year in detail, showing you which weeks were busiest and also which months created the most bookings for months in the future.

This is the fourth year that I will be releasing a pickup report to be used by Revenue Managers and General Managers around the world- and I truly mean that. I have had emails from Canada, United States, England, Germany and more. Over 500 hoteliers have been using the pickup report, which encourages me to keep developing future versions.

The version for 2016 is complete and I am releasing it now. As a special offer for the readers of my blog, and for people who have purchased it previously, I am putting it on sale taking 25% off the price.

For people who have been using the 2015 version of this pickup report, I am developing another spreadsheet to pull in the data from the old form to be better on-going analysis. I am hoping by mid-December, if not earlier, that it will be ready. Everyone purchasing the 2016 version will be notified when it is released for download.

For people using the simpler version of the pickup report, if you would like a 2016 version, please get in touch and I will gauge interest in developing it.

If you have any questions, please email me. For more information about the pickup report, please see this page for a longer description.

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I am often surprised by the initial reaction of many hoteliers. In general we are willing to outsource specialist fields like legal, accounting and payroll, but are not averse to getting professional help when it comes to improving our strategies to generate more income.

– Patrick Landman, Why Would Hotels Outsource Revenue Management

This is an excellent post from Patrick as to why independent hotels should consider hiring someone to handle revenue management duties or assist in their properties. He makes some great points as to what not only a professional revenue manager can do for a property, but also what someone outside of the hotel can do for them.

A similar situation has been happening at one property I am working with which has shown tremendous growth in the nearly two years I have been working with them (I promise to get the annual review up shortly.) They had some Front Desk agents leave, and the new ones are going through some growing pains with learning the property management system, the hotel, and so forth.

The immediate response from the staff at the hotel was: We need to simplify the system and strip down the rates to bare bones.

It’s an easy human reaction to have. When things get overwhelming, we want to pull away, strategize, then attack the problem. With a business, this does not usually mean success. The machine was working before, so why stop it to rebuild it?

The better solution is to work with the staff to give them confidence in using and mastering the system, not to protect them and have them shy away from it. As they grow more confident in the system, they will feel better about overcoming those challenges. If the system was simplified, it would not help them grow as a person and would also not help the business grow.

This approach is easy to see with someone who is involved, but not immersed in the situation on a daily basis. People can easily grow attached to numbers like they do people and be frustrated when things change. A good example: gas prices. When prices stabalize at a certain price point for a week and then increase 5 cents, people easily get upset. Same happens with staff members at hotels. They grow accustomed to memorizing the rate structure in their heads and being able to quote it quickly. A sudden change means they are having to relearn the numbers.

In the case of the property I am working with, a simple demonstration of how the numbers would change was enough to keep the rates the same (a potential drop of $100,000 will do that.) I not only feel confident with the rate structure as is, but I feel confident that the people that have been hired at the Front Desk will be able to quickly master things and help the hotel continue its growing success.

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On Friday, I had a call from a prospective buyer looking to receive some help on whether to move forward with the purchase of a property or not. Looking at the financial information available can be a great starting point when judging a property, but it can be difficult to get a sense of how well the property could be doing without some additional homework.
Below is a snapshot assessment of the property that I put together in a few hours. It has some information about how the guests feel about the property, how it compares to the market, potential changes and the growth that may exist. It is not meant to be a detailed business plan on how to make things happen, but to give ideas on what could be done. In the case of this Inn, there are definite areas of weakness that can be fixed. This won’t happen with all properties, of course, since some are excelling in all areas.

If you are interested, I put together these reports for free. Contact Me and be ready to provide a little information (the property name, location, asking price, your background, and so forth.)

Inn – Initial Assessment

At first glance, this property is full of potential. The revenues are slowly climbing up, the rates are in line with the competition in the immediate area, and the website is an untapped market for increased growth. Looking through the TripAdvisor reviews, there are a few negatives that need to be addressed in order to sustain this growth, however.

TripAdvisor

3.5 Stars 82 Reviews

The reviews are fairly balanced in nature. 11 of them were Excellent. 39 Very Good. 16 Average. 8 Poor, 8 Terrible.

I only read through the past two years so some of the problems may have been fixed, but here are some of the negatives:

• Breakfast was poor quality or very limited in number
• Shady business practices (getting charged for a broken window or other miscellaneous charges showing up on the receipt)
• Door locks weren’t locking properly (late November 2011)
• Handicap accessible rooms are not very accessible (can’t get past the doorway in the bathroom)
• Sound proofing in the rooms can be terrible on weekends
• No rapport with the owner/manager

Since the inn is rather limited in its services, the positives are equally limited in quantity:

• Location is one of the first things people mention.
• Value given by the lower cost compared to larger hotels
• Some people loved the beds (Tempur-pedic)

No one loved the continental breakfast, didn’t read anything about the pool or wireless internet. Wireless internet is usually the biggest complaint about a property of any size so this is a positive. I was a bit surprised about the pool area not being mentioned. The general impression I get from the people posting reviews is they only stayed 1 night, arrived late, and were more leisure travellers than business.

Website and Online Bookings

The website was developed by the same company that did a lot of the other motel/hotels in the area that are independent. The design is rather basic and could use improvement. It also hasn’t been updated. There are links for virtual tours that lead to pages saying, “Coming soon” or a calendar that is blank. Lots of room for improvement here. There are hardly any pictures of the rooms even which is one of the main reasons why people go to the website in the first place. The cost involved can range from $3,000–5,000 depending on the design firm.

I did a quick look around online and found that the Inn is not very active with bookings. The main site to book online (apart from the website) is Booking.com. Expedia is one of the biggest sites for revenue so I was surprised that they weren’t even listed. Not being on Expedia is a sign that they may not be active in a GDS (global distribution system) which is how travel agents find their hotels, plus Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire, etc.

To get onto a GDS would require upgrading the booking engine on the site and hotel (most likely). My preferred vendor is usually around $250 a month or less, plus commissions. With my main client, upgrading their GDS brought in an extra $100,000 a year without doing anything else, so it’s something to look into if the purchase goes through.

Competitive Market

I did a quick scan of the other motels/inns that are similar in nature to the Inn (e.g., limited service, under 90 rooms) and it matches up well from a price point. A lot of the competition has airport shuttle service, fitness centre, free breakfast, and updated rooms.

The impression I get from looking at the hotels’ websites and pictures is that the competitive market has a sense of identity, whereas the Inn doesn’t. This is probably because of the owner who doesn’t care much about building a business. There are quite a few options here in terms of creating a brand for the Inn, which will help build some loyalty with returning guests and have a reputation within Salt Lake City. It can be as simple as changing the artwork in the rooms to be the same style to more expensive as replacing a lot of furniture in the hotel. Lots of ideas floating around in my head after just seeing the front of the building.

In terms of rates, the Inn’s rates are in line with the competition. There is a lot of fluctuation happening depending on the day, probably because of different conventions and such. Rates are generally $10 below the competition, which makes sense if the services remain limited. By increasing the quality of services available, the rates can easily go up. Some ideas would be microwaves and mini-fridges in all the rooms, increased speed and quality of wireless internet, putting in a fitness room in a less desirable room (one by the elevator.)

The Business

I did a search to look at the price of hotels sold in previous years in Salt Lake City and discovered that the Inn was purchased in March 2007 for a price in the 3–3.5 million range. This helps explain the dip in revenues for 2010. A lot of the business for 2008–09 was most likely built upon previous arrangements with the previous owner/manager. If they had contracts with companies that lapsed or couldn’t match certain services that the property had in the past, this could easily add up to $300,000+ drop. I am not sure if there are other reasons for the drop, like whether the entire market dropped.

One option is to purchase the Hotel Horizons report for Salt Lake City. It costs $500, but contains 5 years worth of information about the market in Salt Lake City. Occupancy, ADR and RevPAR (Revenue per available room).

For the numbers you do have, I can project some basic growth:

2012: 23 rooms (per day) @ $85.00 ADR = $700,000

2013: 25 rooms (per day) @ $87.00 ADR = $800,000

2014: 26 rooms (per day) @ $90.00 ADR = $854,000

2015: 30 rooms (per day) @ $92.00 ADR = $1,000,000

The combined effort of upgrading the website, installing a new booking engine, and getting connected to a GDS will be a huge, immediate impact to the operation. The remainder of the year can be spent building relationships for future years, putting rate structures in place, and learning more about the quirks at the hotel that need repaired.

In 2014, there should be a few more contracts or loyalty in place to help build some growth. Any renovation plans should occur to improve the facility (furniture, decoration, exterior). Word will spread around and in 2015, the fruits of those labours should really shine through.

If the inn was producing revenues of $700,000+ already with little care to detail, revenues should easily increase if you have people in place that deeply care about the guests entering the hotel. The costs to reach that amount can be minor or major depending on the direction you would like to take the property (focused more on business, leisure, or a combination of the two).

The asking price seems slightly higher than some other properties I found that sold last year. In August, a slightly newer property of 60 rooms sold for 30–35,000 per room. The hotels were being sold around 55,000 per room. Depending on fast the owner wants to sell, you may be able to offer 45,000 per room (2.7 million) and finalize a deal around 49,000 per room (2.94 million).

One thing I forgot to ask on the phone is whether the owner has been putting down a management fee of some kind, paying himself, on the profit/loss statement. The absence of laundry wages may be accounted for there. If not, it’s another reason to project a slightly lower asking price to account for those additional services. I’m not sure what the minimum wage is like there, but I would estimate laundry wage to be at least $20,000. A Front Desk Supervisor would be $25–30,000, at least.

I hope all of this has been useful to you. Please get in touch if you believe you will carry forward with this property or if you’d like to look for some alternatives in the region. I would be more than happy to assist you in finding something reasonable for longterm growth.

The post Hotel Assessment: Example appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.

I recommend all owners at least explore the possibility of having a vacation rental video in their marketing portfolio. Please, whatever you do, don’t invest in one of those slideshows that has photos whizzing in from outer space or messages disintegrating into mist. A slideshow displaying different photos of your property does not constitute a video: even if it has music or voiceovers. A video is an actual video. One that communicates space and personality and ambiance. Ask to see your videographers portfolio before signing up. And don’t think of videos as your first two-piece suit. Rather, a compliment to that.

Matt Landau, Videos are for Winners

Matt is a smart guy. I have mentioned him previously in a post about The Value of Professional Photographs for Hotel Websites in which he tested how the quality of photographs effected overall bookings. In his latest post, he talks about the value of videos for promoting the vacation rental, but it also works for properties of all sizes.

Videos are becoming more common on hotel websites, but it is extremely important that they are done as a professioanl. It will help you control the viewing experience that potential guests have when watching the video. What I mean by this is that if a promotional video is a minute long, but starts off a bit choppy or uninteresting, people are more likely to click forward on the video, perhaps missing parts you wanted them to see.

The other reason why hotels should consider including a video on their website and cross-posting on YouTube, is because people are seeking out these videos more and more. For example, yvr2002rtw is a user on YouTube who posts only videos of hotel rooms and luxury airline services. He has over 60 videos posted, and over 600,000 views. That’s an absolutely staggering amount for videos that aren’t popular music videos or comedic events gone viral.

The problem with his videos, which becomes quickly evident after watching several in a row, is that they are a bit disjointed. There is no real story with them, more “show and tell.” This style of video is difficult to watch all the way through and leads to people skipping forward or not bothering to watch it at all.

Something else that Matt touches on his post is the value of capturing both the neighbourhood and the owners’ personality. The rooms at your property are only part of the story there. As I said in my post on Aligning with Your Guest’s Needs:

If people can recognize the indentity of the property immediately, they will buy into the services that are offered, and the ones that are not.

What better way to help people identify what your property is about than by watching a video? A quick two minute video will give a person much more information than two or three pages of text. Plus, it will be more enjoyable to watch than to read something on their computer screens.

Matt paid for two videos, one of the property, and one of the neighbourhood around his property. They are both very well done, and I encourage you to click through to watch them. The one of the neighbourhood is posted below to show you the effect a promotional video can have.¹

If I were to do a video of a property, here are the elements I would be sure to include:

• Share the experience of the property (the lobby, the restaurant, staff, pool area, lounge)
• Share some of the experiences from local activities (a neighbourhood pub, a winery, a market, coffee shop or other destination activities like a golf course, ski hill, beaches)
• Share the experiences of your more popular rooms (the sitting area, the bathtub/shower, and finally the sleeping area)

I would probably design multiple videos depending on the amenities your property offers. Perhaps a video to showcase your amenities that would draw in the corporate people (meeting rooms, a focus on the work space in the hotel rooms, business services) or a meeting planner (catering, meeting rooms, accessibility to/from hotel rooms).

To find a media company to work with, do a quick Google search, and be sure to look at several of their portfolio videos before making a final decision. It would also be useful to have a sit down meeting with them to discuss your needs and what they can provide to you. If you need assistance in tracking down a company, get in touch and I will gladly assist you.

The post The Power of Video Marketing for Hotels: Why You Need It appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.

When asked how Omni Hotels came up with such successful offerings, Vice President of Corporate Communications, Caryn Kboudi, expressed, “we are all moms too. Many of us who work at Omni are parents, so more times than not, our best ideas are conceived by moms and dads. The saying goes, ‘when moms are happy, everybody’s happy.’ But only when kids are happy, are moms truly content.” Take recommendations from your colleagues who know what kids want and what they don’t want. Better yet, gather the most honest feedback of all – the children’s.

– Cherryl Marie, Don’t Kid Around with Your Kids’ Programs | Hotel Interactive

I am always fascinated with how larger hotels solve minor problems or improve their services without adding much cost to their operation. A lot of the hotels Cherryl writes about would be fun to visit, especially now that I have a young daughter in my life. That being said, the article focuses entirely on older kids, ones who can do a lot of activities on their own or teenagers.

Seeing as how my daughter is under the age of three, my challenges with keeping her entertained are a bit different than an older kid. Sometimes, she can sit still for an activity, othertimes, she wants to run around and play. And, of course, eating is a whole different story.

Here are some ideas I hope to see implemented by more hotels as I start traveling with her more:

• Have a map at the Front Desk available for parents with a list of parks within a reasonable distance, beaches, swimming pools, or other centres that focus on kid activities (centres with ball pits, climbing walls, etc).
• If you happen to have a playground next to or close to the building, try to keep access to it clear of debris – not just for looks, but young children are infamous for picking up anything and trying to put it into their mouths.
• If possible, inform the parents which channels cater for children or youth so they can find them easily – Treehouse and YTV in Canada, Nickolodeon or Nick JR in the U.S.
• If there are events happening in your area that will be of interest to kids, let the parents know – parades, festivals, community celebrations, etc.
• If your property has a lot of kids coming through the door, maybe have a small play area for kids (a small table with crayons, colouring books) to help keep the kids entertained while the parents check into the hotel.
• Have playpens available and keep them clean on a regular basis.
• Have a few items on a restaurant menu that most kids will eat and keep them healthy (macaroni and cheese with cut up vegetables mixed in, spaghetti with lots of vegetables, mini hamburgers, sweet potato fries)

There are plenty of other things properties could do to cater to their younger guests, so feel free to share any additional ideas you have in the comments below.

The post Kid-Friendly Hotels: Taking Care of the Little Ones appeared first on Four Sides Hospitality Consulting | Hotel and Airbnb Consultant | Canada.

The hospitality industry is not for the faint hearted but it can offer interesting and rewarding careers for those with the right disposition. A harsh reality is that the hours are long, the work is hard and you are expected to smile your way through it. The advantages are that career and travel options are great and there is never a dull day. Also, the opportunity to meet incredible people from all over the world makes it worthwhile.

Options

Generally, practical training is a critical part of a hospitality course. Hospitality schools will often be affiliated to or have connections with various hotels and guest houses so that students can get some real-life work experience.

There are many different avenues within the field. For example, there is food and beverage management, hospitality management, accommodation, tourism and also business subjects like communications, accounting and marketing. If cooking and food are your passion, it is also possible to go into culinary arts as part of hospitality course. The actual job options are many, but the scope of this article is limited to just describing the differences between hospitality and food and beverage.

Hospitality Management

This course usually allows students to step into junior management positions in hotels and guest houses. It teaches the basics of hospitality, as well as aspects of management. Courses will range from subjects like food production theory to sales and marketing and guest care. It is something of an overview of the hospitality system and also involves practical work experience.

Food and Beverage Management

Such a program will focus on the “craft skills” of food and beverage, with subjects such as food safety, and bar and beverage management. These courses are more focused on kitchens and bars and the back-end of hotels rather than the front end like hospitality management. Like the hospitality management courses there is also a strong business element, with focus on sales and marketing, supervision, hotel and restaurant accounting and so on. Students would then go and gain experience in top kitchens either in their area or abroad

Distance Learning

If you are tied down to an area or have to work full time as well as study it is possible to get a hospitality qualification through distance learning or correspondence. This is also a very useful option for those already in the field who want to upgrade their skilla and gain further qualifications while still working.

The hospitality industry is an exciting one, and is a good option for those who desire travel as part of their careers. To ensure that you are happy in your chosen career it is wise to do all the necessary research first, such as checking out the pros and cons of each different job within hospitality. Practical work experience is valuable in finding out if this is something you really can do for a living. Even before entering a course it might be wise to do some job shadowing first; just to be sure you know this is where you want to go.

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