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The Only Hotelier Publication Dedicated to Driving More Bookings To UK Hotels
Heads in Beds Magazine November 2013
Coca-Cola
Lessons from
I
’ll be honest; at first, I didn’t get it. This whole concept of printing people’s names on bottles and cans of CocaCola seemed, dare I say, a little simple and frankly a bit naff! In hindsight, it was the marketing success of the summer and it serves as an awfully big lesson to every hotelier about the power of personalization. If you’re not familiar with the campaign, the soft
Quotes
“
drink giants printed popular names on their bottles in place of their logo, with the tagline reading “Share a Coke with… Sarah” Of course they had millions to splash on TV advertising but the point here is the element of personalization, not the deep pockets of the marketing team. You see, what this little name label did was fi
Snippets of what’s inside this issue
50 weddings booked for 2014 pg 10 10 steps to booking more conferences pg 16-17 Understanding PR pg 19-20 Finding Time for TripAdvisor pg 21 Don't get left in the Digital Dark Ages pg 22-23
Our mission statement about treating people with respect and dignity is not just words but a creed we live by every day. You can’t expect your employees to exceed the expectations of your customers if you don’t exceed the employees’ expectations of management”. Howard Schultz, CEO Starbucks Coffee
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encourage conversation. Many times over the summer I was tweeted by friends with a picture of their bottle politely advising that they should share a coke with me! It’s as if Coke had sat all their customers in a room and said, I want you to talk to your friend about Coke, and they all willingly obliged. Imagine what that would do to your hotel. “Before you leave Mrs Smith, I’d like you to talk to your semi-retired, super affluent, lady of leisure neighbor Mrs Jones about coming to visit us and spend lots of money here.” That’s effectively what the power of personalization does. It takes a seemingly ordinary event – buying a coke at lunch – and turns it into an extraordinary event, worthy of conversation. Much the same when a guest checks in to a hotel. They expect to be greeted, given a key and walk into the room. They don’t expect a personalized letter welcoming them to the hotel as they arrive. They don’t expect to be greeted by a hand-written, personalized welcome card as they walk into their 2 Heads in Beds Magazine
room. Giving some thought as to how to personalize your everyday jobs will make you stand out from every other hotel your guest has ever stayed in. And more often than not, it’s very simple and cheap (if not free) to do! The fact is that a personal touch executed brilliantly, provides a very good answer to the question, “How was your trip?” or “How did you get on in that hotel over the weekend?” Deliver a personal Wow Moment to your guest and they’ll be happy to sing your praises. You’ll be able to engage with your guests on a level far beyond delivering just a “nice” stay. Coke turned the everyday office lunch into a nationwide phenomenon – make it personal and those wouldbe bookers might just sit up, take note and book their next getaway with you.
More
Quotes
If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.
Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon.com There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.
Have a great month.
Sam Walton, Founder of Wal-Mart
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exists...
Why The Hotelier Circle
T
he hotel industry has undergone massive changes over the last decade. Everything about our industry has changed, from the way guests find a hotel, the amount they pay, the way they book, how they enter their room and how they talk about their stay – it’s all different and sometimes not for the better. Ten years ago, you could pay less than 10p to feature an ad when “Hotels in London” was searched for on Google. Today getting that user on your website will set you back as much as £15! Yes there’s enough consultants to go around, yes you can fork out for lots of training to keep up to date, but with margins tighter than
ever, and the groups engulfing the market in a seemingly endless supply of resource and money, where does that leave the independent properties?
Adam Hamadache is the author of Best-Selling book Give Your Guest A WOW! and founder of The Hotelier Association, hotel training company
The Wow Guest Group, PMPM Hotel Marketing. A finalist in The Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, and a regular speaker at hotel
About Adam
The owner managed independent hotel doesn’t get it easy.
It’s tough competing with the big boys and the fact is that it shouldn’t be! The Hotelier Circle exists as an affordable alternative to expensive consultants and training aiming to equip independent hoteliers in their fight against the OTAs and the major groups. With our support and advice, we help our members achieve more bookings, with less stress and happier guests!
From £45 per month, we provide the independent hotelier with up to date expert advice and practical know-how on just about anything that will get independent hoteliers fighting-back and making more money.
Bedroom Filler Fact Taking the trouble to offer the guest a personal experience will demonstrate they made the right booking decision and shows you value them, not just their cash.
industry events including The Hotel Summit, and The Hospitality Exchange, Adam is committed to help independent hoteliers compete and achieve super successful hotel businesses. Heads in Beds Magazine 3
Contents
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PAGE 5 Heaven & Hell
something well, we celebrate it, and we have a good snoop about how they did it so you can get the same results!
What Adam liked, what Adam didn’t like in the last month. A no-nonsense approach to what you should and shouldn’t be PAGE 14-15 Supplier Of Distinction doing in your hotel marketing Let’s be honest, there’s a lot of ‘em. Wasting money on bad PAGE 6-7 suppliers is just about the most Hotel News Review A monthly dose of what’s frustrating thing in business. happened in the industry in So when we come across a the last 30 days, and more supplier who’s doing great importantly, how it will affect things, we like to shout about it. YOUR hotel
PAGE 8-9 Wow Moment of the Month
PAGE 16-17 Conference & Events Selling Conference expert Ciara Feely gives us a 10 step approach to selling more conferences and meetings.
An extract from Adam’s BestSelling Book Give Your Guest A WOW! Handy little Wow Moments that leave guests raring to scream your praise to PAGE 18-19 their friends and family
PAGE 10-12 Hotelier Hot Seat
When a member’s doing
PAGE 22-23
Guest Experience Qualified Psychologist
Michelle Hawkins approaches the guest
THE DIGITAL WORLD HAS MOVED ON, BUT HAVE YOU? Social Media author and journalist David Taylor (pictured right) explains why you don’t have bedrooms decorated like something out of the 70s, so don’t have a website that’s stuck in the 90s! 4 Heads in Beds Magazine
experience from an academic perspective, proving that giving real thought to what the guest is feeling can pay dividends
PAGE 19-20 Getting public relations working for your hotel
Hotel Marketing Association head Linda Moore (pictured right) gives us an insight into the little known world of PR – explaining that there’s gold in them thar hills, if you know where to look!
PAGE 21 Ssssshhh, it’s the ‘T’ word
Yes, TripAdvisor is here to stay and no, we know you don’t have time to respond to all reviews, but it we’ve got the solution!
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Heaven & Hell
Our monthly summary of the things we loved from this month’s hotel visits, and the things we really didn’t.
G
reat moments of customer service triumph combined with those little things that left a bitter taste. Good to remember that hotel guests only ever really have one experience, so if there’s a ‘hell moment’ somewhere within their stay, it’s going to have a profound impact on what they think of your hotel.
Heaven
Personal, hand-written Greeting Card A lovely touch. Arriving in the room to be greeted by a greeting card. Not just any old greeting card though, this had been hand-written, addressed to me, wishing me a relaxing stay and signed by the GM and the team. A simple gesture but it was personal, unexpected and demonstrated they put some thought into me staying with them. A very well done to Stephen Fearnley and the team at Rookery Hall Hotel & Spa, Nantwich.
Hell
Thank You is completely diminished by the survey Survey Request Thank You request – something that very As always the Hell this month few people will enjoy doing. This piece of communication will remain nameless, but in will be the first opportunity to truth it could be one of a build the relationship nurturing number of hotels I’ve stayed in recently. It happens far too often process to encourage them to come back to the hotel, because frankly, it’s easy to do. A day or so after you leave a making it a formulaic, hotel you get an automated impersonal, insincere message email, sometimes it just says on an likely-to-be-deleted ‘Dear guest’ i.e. they’ve not medium is just lazy. even been bothered to make it My advice: Make the thank you, just a thank you. Send a personal to me. The next line is great ‘Thank you for staying letter for a few pence and ask for feedback only after at XXX’ you’ve thanked the guest for Then it goes downhill on ‘Please complete this survey their custom. etc etc.’ Here’s why this is a really Bedroom dumb approach: Filler Fact FACT: The post-departure window of the first 3 days Any communication that’s presents an incredible time to handwritten to the guest wow the guest, leaving them will carry bags more delighted with their choice to meaning and sincerity stay with you, gearing them than the same message up ready for their next stay. that’s been wordFACT: The industry email open rate is 20.4% - meaning that 4 in processed. Just make 5 are likely to delete the email sure the writing’s before looking at it anyway. neat and tidy! FACT: The sincerity of the Heads in Beds Magazine 5
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Hotel News Review
Gravetye Manor Wins Hotel of the Year
The AA Hospitality Awards last month saw Gravetye Manor win Hotel of the Year for England. A quick Google and it’s obvious why. Not only is the building a beautiful manor house dating back to the 1500s, it’s online marketing is modern, slick and user-friendly and if the Trip Advisor page is anything to go by, they’re getting the customer service bang on most times 94 Excellent Reviews, 0 Terrible Reviews. If that wasn’t impressive enough, their website even offers a tailored message when you land on the site – Good morning, or Good Afternoon. Very Clever.
TripAdvisor continues to Innovate
TripAdvisor’s new app is all about Price Comparison. Not resting on its laurels as the biggest platform of traveller reviews in the world, it now wants a hefty slice of the commission revenues, offering a price comparison tool on it’s smartphone and tablet applications. As these online powerhouses continue to gather strength and reach, 6 Heads in Beds Magazine
they will have a bigger and more significant influence in your sales – my advice is to do what they say you should be doing – for most, that’ll be responding to guest reviews regularly. Getting on the wrong side of them could be disastrous for business, but getting on the right side might mean a favour or two when you really need it. A bit like how being super active on Google+ gives you a few extra backhand nudges up in the rankings on Google.
Social Media – the awkward cousin that you have to invite
So we all know we need to be doing something with Social Media but most hotels aren’t quite sure what. Well it seems big businesses are the same almost two-thirds of big businesses have at least one full-time employee dedicated to using social media, but only 10% are reporting benefits to the business resulting from the investments. If Social media is continuing to be the unwanted relative in your business, get yourself a social media strategy from someone that knows – there’s nothing worse that knowing you should be doing something, but really having no clue why you’re doing it. The big global corporates might have the money to waste on stuff, but you’re an independent hotel – if you’re putting money and time into something, it better be putting heads in beds!
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A little yellow box – will it have an impact on your online traffic?
room, making the check-in process smoother and more personal according to In October, Google decided the global giants. that its ads that appear on Some guests will love it, others will fear smart phones should have a the technology. Chances are the little yellow box next to technology in the next 10 years will be them, just so everyone’s cheaper and more common place. My clear that it is indeed an ad. advice – let the big boys foot the bill and Why is this significant, you lose customers getting it right. When it’s might be wondering? Well, out there in the market for a fraction of organic links will always the price, snap it up! outperform ad links. So when the lowly traveller wants a hotel in London’s luxury market tops the London, like I did in my search, maybe world charts London now matches Hong Kong as the this little ad box might be enough to pull top destination worldwide with the greatest people away from the booking.com and concentration of 5 star properties in the the Hilton.com link and search a little more than 150 markets rated and further down the page. Chances are if you’re in a particularly rural area with few inspected by Forbes Travel Guide. Now the talk has turned to over-supply hotels, you’ll be on that page and you’ll be and whilst things are all very rosy right getting a few more clicks than usual… now, will it stay that way? I’d also like to watch this space! know what impact this is having on the market outside of London? You know, the other bit of the UK where you can experience true British hospitality. With this rise in luxury, the rest of the UK must follow suit, raising its standards to prove country character can outperform corporate 5 star every time.
Express Check-In from Guoman and Thistle
Business travellers who slump over the reception at 11.30pm after a grueling day have been offered a simple, swift check in by the now GLH group. Using a smart phone, guests can simply pick up a key using a sophisticated GPRS tracking system and wander straight up to their Heads in Beds Magazine 7
Wow Moment
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of the Month
If your hotel is not centrally located and has a car park used by most guests, pay attention to this WOW Moment, because it represents an opportunity to WOW your guests before they’ve even walked through the door.
First point: when your customer is booking, ask them if they wish to use the car park during their stay; if so, what is the registration number plate of the car they will be arriving in. Some guests may be booking way in
WOW MOMENT 13
Car Park Gre eting
advance, or plan to rent a car and won’t necessarily know this information. That’s ok, just don’t make it a mandatory field throughout the booking process. Second point: collate and print out the names and the corresponding registration numbers of the guests who will be arriving each day. Make sure this is listed in alphabetical order in terms of registration number. Third point: have that list with the concierge or at reception. This works best when you have a CCTV camera showing cars entering the car park. When the designated member of staff sees a car entering the car park,
8 Heads in Beds Magazine
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he/she quickly identifies the name of the guest who the car belongs to. They head into the car park and greet the guest with the following sentence: ‘Good afternoon, Mr Hamadache, welcome to Made Up Hotel, can I help you with your bags?’ This is one of my favourite WOW Moments. What a WOW! Not even Claridges or the Dorchester does this; nor does Atlantis in Dubai. No guest will ever expect this and it is one of the most powerful demonstrations that: a) You’re a switched on hotel b) You put the guest first
c) Your staff are exceptionally helpful and friendly This doesn’t have to happen with every guest. Not every guest will give you their car registration number for a start. Also, what happens when five cars arrive at once and you only have one or two staff free to perform this WOW Moment? In this case, do nothing, you don’t want to be showing favouritism to one guest. WOW Moments are about valuing your customer, not about making one customer feel less valued than an- other. If your staff can perform this task 10 to 12 times per
Bedroom Filler Fact Making the guest feel special on arrival is a sure-fire way to get your hotel talked about more. Every other bit about the stay could be normal, indifferent – but get that red-carpet, treated-likeroyalty welcome right, and they’ll be telling everyone about it. day (it takes two minutes) then the best part of 4,000 guests per year will tell that story over and over again. That’s powerful.
Heads in Beds Magazine 9
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Spotlight
Hotelier in the
Our Hotelier in the Spotlight features a hotelier who’s veering away from the industry norms to create remarkable success for their hotel. This month our attention is focused on Onkar Singh, owner and General Manager of the Three Saints Hotel in South Wales. Onkar has recently been a finalist in the Best Marketing Campaign category at the National Entrepreneur Awards after achieving unprecedented success for his wedding business.
“
I couldn’t believe the results of it but it is so simple but no hotel that I know of, even the five star or four star hotels, are doing that.”
Onkar, explain what you did to get nominated for the award. l We have a wedding venue in our function hall and I set up a marketing campaign to attract new brides and weddings for last year, this year and next year and it impressed the judges at the National Entrepreneurs Convention in the way that I set up my marketing campaign. Great, can you tell us about what sort of results you got for the campaign? 10 Heads in Beds Magazine
Of course! Roughly I have been achieving around about 20 enquiries a week and we have been converting at least five to six of those weddings every month, so we are booking five to six weddings per month for 2014 and it is just gearing up for 2015 so we projected bookings for next year for about 40 to 50 weddings.
l
so hence it is a complete system and is completely automated. Leads and enquiries come in and goes it goes straight to the events department and they book it so it is just like a booking machine for weddings!
So am I right in saying that you have a targeted Google Adwords campaign and you drive onto your website and you capture leads, then you take them Wow! So basically at through a bit of a capacity then. So tell us, marketing process to be what did you do to get able to convert them such great results? l A mix of new digital media. l We have four different headlines on Adwords We have implemented within the South Google Adwords to Wales area – we take them to a don’t bother trying specific page; it is to go anywhere what a lot of online round the UK we just marketers do and I specifically hit within do that at the hotel
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a 50 mile radius, and then people fill out the information and they get a free wedding brochure – that is the key thing. I have made this 20 page brochure free because the fact is brides who are getting married don’t actually know what they’re doing or what they want because they’ve never done it before! So we give them an incentive to give their information. We acquire all their details and then they get an automated that we can arrange a meeting with that person. email which includes the From there they walk away wedding brochure. with the quote and we just OK, so you drive leads to keep on top of them to the your website, capture their point that they are happy. information, send them a It’s such a slick machine. I wedding brochure…. couldn’t believe the results Then what happens? of it but it is so simple but l The events department no hotel that I know of, then within about an hour even the five star or four phone that person and star hotels, are doing that. what tend to find is that Indeed! A great example we’ve got a 50% chance of ignoring what everyone
Onkar Singh, owner and General Manager of the Three Saints Hotel.
else is doing! l Absolutely. Our average wedding is about £8,000 and the average wedding in the UK is about £12,000 or £13,000 but we know our sector and we stay within it. But we have places down the road that are four or five star hotels – very grand, and my assistant went up there to enquire about a wedding and it took them seven days for them to fi
Bedroom Filler Fact Proactivity when it comes leads is super smart thing to have. Having a system to ensure someone gets on the phone within the hour an enquiry is made demonstrates you’re on the ball and you can be trusted. Trust – the biggest thing needed when customers are making an expensive purchase. Heads in Beds Magazine 11
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reply to a message! It is absolutely unbelievable and that report just reconfirmed that people don’t care about brand, they care about the service. We give them more value up front which doesn’t cost anything – it is just a bit more effort at the front – free wedding planner, free DVD – we give them a pack with the quote with all sheets, big folders so they can write notes and take away so the beauty part of that is when they sit down and look at other hotels they have got small brochures but we have got this big file that is on their table. We discovered that when we took all our competitors brochures and put them on the table they looked all exactly the same. That’s fascinating. So when your bride-to-be has been to all these places then comes to sitting around the table with hubby choosing where to get married, you’re sticking out amidst all the clutter and noise. Brilliant. l A lot of hotels are just not quick enough to get with the times and this doesn’t cost us a lot of money. It cost me an average of £600 per month to run the whole 12 Heads in Beds Magazine
marketing campaign to bring in 5 to 6 weddings booked in the region of £7,000 so it works out about a 2,000% return on investment. Could I ask then in your opinion what should hoteliers be doing more of to get more heads in beds and get with the times? What can they be doing more to get their customers in their rooms? l I think it doesn’t matter what type of hotel you are if you can empower your staff to be the word, the face of who you are then morale is a big thing. If your morale is down then staff are not going to do great. If you empower them to do more, to look after the customer, give them a bit more exercise to make decisions there and then, you can create something really remarkable. That has been a huge difference for us. People say that the service in our place is excellent because of the fact that we have empowered the staff so I give my housekeepers around £50 in budget. That sounds interesting, tell me more about that. l I will give an example:
I give £50 in budget to them and explain that if you feel that you need to buy something for the customer you know that they need, there is no point in coming back to me and by then the customer has gone. So if someone needs a charger, go buy it and use the kitty. That little thing makes a complete difference and so I have empowered our housekeepers to make those decisions. A lot of hotels don’t involve the staff and they don’t realise those are the people that will make or break their business so get your people involved.
Bedroom Filler Fact Standing out from the crowd is very smart strategy in all marketing. Most hoteliers will not demonstrate the inclination or ability to think and act differently. When you do, it can give you a distinct advantage, just like Onkar.
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Q&A
with Adam Hamadache else, you’re carefully crafted message is unlikely to ever get opened. Email software has come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years. For as little as £12 a month you can have an incredibly sophisticated piece of software measuring and tracking everything you do in the way of emails. Take a free trial of one of these providers, create a What Can I Be Doing In My Emails To Encourage newsletter and start testing subject lines – what gets More Bookings? opened and what doesn’t. This is a very long and Personally, I use complex subject. There are GetResponse. Every week so many variables involved. when I send out the As a helpful guidance ‘Weekly Wow’ email I though, chances are you’re check the open and clicknot sending enough. As a through rate. The next day I subscriber to hundreds of change the subject line emails from hotels, there’s and send it again to those an awful lot of sameness that didn’t open it. This out there. One email a second sending almost month with the subject always gets an extra 5% to reading ‘October Newsletter open my email. 2013’. The first rule of any kind of marketing is to grab awareness. If you’re doing the exact same as everyone
How important is replying to TripAdvisor reviews?
Very. It demonstrates that you’re proactive about your guests experience. You’re happy to thank those that left a nice review and wish them well and you’re bold and brave enough to respond to those that were underwhelmed by their experience. The most recent statistic is that broadly 45% of your guests check you out on TA before making a booking decision. That’s astonishing. Unlike Google, where people browse and electronically window shop, Trip Advisor users are there to buy. I can’t say I know many people who spend their freetime browsing Trip-Advisor to pass the time. If they are on your page, they are close to pressing the “book” button. Do everything you can to present yourself in the most favorable way possible. Heads in Beds Magazine 13
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Suppliers of
distinction
Liz
As I’m sure you know there’s a lot of good suppliers out there but there’s an awful lot of bad ones too. This section of the magazine is dedicated to highlighting the great work that’s being done by the businesses that keep UK hotels delivering great service. We also twist their arm a little bit and eek out an exclusive super high value offer – giving you the best for less!
T
his month we’ve searched long and hard for our Hotel Supplier of the Month and by unanimous decision, Elizabeth Marsh Floral Design won the prestigious prize!
About
After 25 years using flowers to create an atmosphere of affluence
14 Heads in Beds Magazine
Service Floristry & Floral Design Location New Covent Garden Market, London Supplies to Nationwide
for companies such as Four Seasons, Harvey Nichols and Rolex, we have identified two key problems in the hospitality sector today.
Firstly, with new hotels and restaurants opening every week, competition is fiercer than ever for hotels and restaurants to wow their guests and earn their loyalty. Secondly, with budgets being squeezed, every expense has to be scrutinized and justified, in order to remain within the budget. Why Elizabeth Marsh Floral Design? They provide customers with stunning flowers that are also tailored to their brand and marketing strategy. They focus their clients’ budgets on the areas that really count so they get the maximum wow factor for their money, making sure clients spend enough to make the first impression
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on entering the building really amazing, and then use creative, longer term solutions for the quieter areas, where there is less traffic or focus. In short, hotel flowers are turned from an expense to a strategic investment, treating our customers like strategic allies. CLIENTS INCLUDE: l Sofitel St James Hotel l Pestana Chelsea Bridge Hotel
Offer
Liz is giving away 5 copies of her new book Petal Performance, exclusively to members of The Hotelier Circle. For your chance to win, simply email your name, hotel and phone number to wow@wowguest.com
About the book
This book is intended for those who suddenly find themselves in charge of an often considerable budget for floral décor. Whether this is a hotel or restaurant
Four Seasons Hotel, Canary Wharf.
Four Seasons Hotel, xxCanary Wharf l Dukes St James Hotel St Ermin’s Hotel
Firmdale Hotels l Four Seasons, Hampshire l Four Seasons, Canary Wharf
l
l
manager or a newly engaged bride, there is still the same expectation that you will create an atmosphere of affluence that will engage and impress your guests. This is all very well if you grew up visiting art galleries, gardening or discussing the finer aspects of the art world, but for those who did not, my hope is that this book will give you an insight into the art and economics of floral design - how it came about, how it is applied in the world
today, both commercially and for social events, and how to make sure you make the very best of it. Those flower-lovers amongst you might use this book to arm themselves against the financial overlords who dictate the budgets and remain blind to all except facts and figures, or you might just enjoy the pictures! Whichever is the case, I hope this lifts one small corner on what is the World of Floral Design in London today. Heads in Beds Magazine 15
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WOW Site Inspection...
How to do a
One of the fantastic opportunities of the Sales Process in the hotel industry is the “Site Inspection” or “tour of the hotel”. It mainly applies to the Conference, Meetings and Group Business Market. That is my specialty, I can show you how to increase mid week business by up to 50%..... by booking more Conference Business.
H
ere are a few of my best tips to increase your conversion rate and close more sales by WOWing your potential customers. 1. Prepare - know who is coming and where they are coming from. If you can collect them do so, that way you are controlling the whole sense of arrival and have lots of valuable time to build your relationship with them. Get someone else to drive so you can concentrate on listening and asking them the right questions.
and all business related matters straight away. Know all about the company or organisation, are they in the news, did they win any awards recently? Do they have a Green Policy?
3. Circulate a photo of them to all the staff, including the Gardener. Have him out keeping an eye, wouldn’t it be so impressive if he walked up and welcomed them by their name. All staff should know their name and address them when they meet them or pass them on the site inspection. Ensure you introduce them to the GM, have him join you if possible, introduce them to the conference team and the chef. Have the chef prepare a little taster for them if they aren’t staying for lunch.
Ciara
don’t have to ask for you, even better be outside waiting for them, with an umbrella if it is raining.
5. Do a site inspection of the hotel an hour before hand yourself to ensure the lights are on, doors are open, the rooms are set up. You don’t want any surprises. Walking into a dark room and fumbling to find the lights does not make the right impression. All the way through the site inspection you want to show that you have prepared, thought about the business and most of all really, really want it.
2. Research them on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. See if you can get a sense of their personality as you must adapt to what they want to hear. Are they warm and fuzzy and need to feel the love? Or are they brief and to the point and want to 4. Ensure you are waiting for 6. If they are short for time, offer them a drink on talk about logistics, numbers them at reception so they 16 Heads in Beds Magazine
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arrival to walk around with, or surprise them with a drink served in the main conference room. You really want them to spend as much time as possible in the room so they remember it and they have a visual of it when back in the office.
and tea/coffee breaks. Make sure to turn them into an advantage!
8. Have their logo on the screen of all the conference and meeting rooms. It does impress and is a nice touch. If the room is not available on the day of 7. I feel a really important their site inspection, make point is to have the room sure to tell them. set up in the style that is Otherwise you could have a their preference for the very annoyed prospective event. Ideally set it up client on your hands. A exactly to their client of mine recently specifications and came from America for a numbers. If that is not site inspection, the room possible set it for smaller had been used for lunch, numbers. It is all about was still dirty and a third of making it easy for them to the room was locked. The visualise their event at your client was mad, all the hotel. That is the hotel had to do was tell her important message you the room would be ready want to leave them with. an hour later and she Address any issues about would have re- arranged the room when they are in her schedule. She did not it, if there are pillars, talk want to give her business about the best way to set to that hotel as it said to the room around them, her they would be sloppy what the advantage of and not on the ball the day them is, how they help to of her conference, it also naturally divide the room, said we really are not that how you can have a few interested in your business. breakout sessions in the room and not have to move 9. Ask great questions the delegates or the pillars what is the number one allow you to set that part of result you want to get from the room for networking the conference, what
would you change about last years event? What do you want people walking away from your conference saying about your organisation? Then you know how to angle your pitch. It also says you understand their needs and their business and want to provide a solution to their problems.
10. Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up. Send what you promised to send straight away, have it in their inbox before they get back to the office. Send a hand written note to them, thanking them for their time.
Bedroom Filler Fact Doing the stuff that makes the selling easy will always reap its rewards. Putting a little thought in, demonstrating that there really is no better or higher level of service than what you provide will almost always win you the business, despite there being cheaper or ‘better’ alternatives out there. Heads in Beds Magazine 17
Wow treadmill
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The
By Michelle Hawkins, Qualified Psychologist
W
e humans are marvellous creatures. Through our incredible adaptability, we've managed to survive and flourish as a species in a great diversity of habitats. From the freezing blizzards of the North Pole to the dry arid heat of the Sahara desert, we've managed to colonise nearly the entire globe. At the same time, we've evolved to reward the behaviour of exploration through an inborn desire
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for novelty and to take actions that benefit our survival through feeling pleasures. However, our great adaptability is a double edged sword for it means that our hardwired desire for novelty and pleasure leaves us on a treadmill where "new" very quickly becomes "normal". Think about the last time you bought a new TV. Remember the elation you felt as the TV arrived at home and you set it up. How much you loved that
Michelle
TV for the next week and then somehow forgot to notice it until it just blended along with the rest of the furniture. Or how about that amazing dessert you enjoyed on a recent meal out. The first mouthfuls were to die for but then do you remember how each subsequent mouthful was slightly less pleasurable than the one before? And by the end, you forgot to pay attention to the taste at all... The same applies to Wow moments and this is the challenge for hoteliers. While you might Wow a guest the first time by surprising them, offering a novel piece of technology, or providing a sensory delight, you need to continually surprise and delight. And this means embedding a constant programme of change. Otherwise repeat guests will soon grow to expect and be accustomed to your Wow moments and see them as the "new normal".
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Surprises must continue to surprise and new technology must offer fresh content. For sensory pleasures, it's not the amount or the intensity but rather the frequency that matters so make sure you scatter as many different sensory pleasures thought the guest experience as possible. To avoid adaptation, try contrasting and changing sensory pleasures as guests enter different spaces or times of day. For example,
changing the complimentary surprise amuse bouche with every room service or branding different spaces with different scents that match the way you want your guests to feel. From this illustration of human nature comes a key insight into happiness. The contented life comes from living with gratitude and realising that happiness comes from wanting what you have and not having what you want.
Bedroom Filler Fact Being open to change, new ways of doing things and continually asking the question, ‘how can I make this better?’ will put you miles ahead of your competitors and drive you closer to the L word with your customers… No, they probably won’t love you, but they may be LOYAL!
Why Your Pr Needs Wow
Linda Moore, President of the Hotel Marketing Association talks how to use PR to your hotel, all it takes it just a little research and some creative thought. Tip - as you're reading this, ask yourself the question, "How can I make this work in my business."
T
here have been some fantastic PR coups this year. Just recently JK Rowling was unmasked as the mystery author Robert Galbraith of a crime novel whose sales had been in the doldrums. All of a sudden the book – The Cuckoo’s Calling - shot to the top of the best seller
list. Exciting too was another mystery unmasked in a Leicester car park which proved to be the last resting place of Richard III. The reconstruction of the King’s face proved he was probably quite a good looking chap not the maniacal hunchback we
Linda
have read about in Shakespeare. In fact, I don’t know about you but I found myself starting to feel a bit more sympathetic towards him especially as he is also being quite sensitively portrayed in the current BBC drama – The White Queen. All down to a fi Heads in Beds Magazine 19
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carefully crafted PR campaign on behalf of the Richard III Society, you see. These are campaigns which have been backed by lots of investment, of course, but a lack of funds does not mean that your PR should lack the Wow factor. Getting your PR right will help you get noticed, get you talked about and bring in those all important bookings. You could start by hooking up to some topical events. The recent birth of the Royal baby has led to a plethora of hotel Mum and Baby afternoon tea packages. One five star hotel in Park Lane has had a whole suite kitted out as a very upmarket nursery and another in Kensington is peddling its Mum to be shopping packages. All got good coverage in the media recently. Biggest, best or most expensive is another favourite that the press will love. Witness the hotel that put the world’s biggest hanging basket outside to promote its launch – it provided a lovely picture story. Or the world’s most expensive Club sandwich featuring 20 Heads in Beds Magazine
Wagyu beef, Balik salmon and caviar unveiled recently at a five star hotel in Hong Kong. True we may be straying into big budget territory again so why not take a look at Travelodge whose PR creativity over the years has been a godsend to the travel columns? They have regularly been creating stories out of things that people leave behind in hotel rooms – their so called books left behind index. Most recently the chart topper was Fifty Shades of Grey – well there is a surprise! While their free rooms for customers named Mary and Joseph last Christmas, still raises a smile. So when you are looking at budgets for next year do not make PR the first cut. Do some research, find out what is happening locally
to you and put together a plan. Be prepared to be opportunistic and don’t be afraid to join in the debate particularly through social media channels. PR can potentially bring you lots of business you just need to give it some Wow!
Bedroom Filler Fact Use the power of celebrity in your industry wherever you can. There’s a reason why Hello magazine is the best-selling publication in the world – had someone famous come to stay? Dead or alive it doesn’t matter, making sure you’re guest doesn’t leave without knowing is a smart move to getting talked about.
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Ridiculous Reviews
This month, we’ve pulled out a cracking couple of management responses from the TripAdvisor archives. A gentle reminder to not get carried away when bad reviews come in, and have a bit of fun with it all!
“
I make no apologies for the li in the roo lac colour m .. .. a f t e r all the called “Th room is e lilac roo m” so what expect .... colour do I have che you cked the p definitely aint tin a says lilac nd it not ‘terrib avoid furt le lilac’. T her disapp o ointments, that “The please not red room” e is red and room” is c “The coral oral. If yo u want lum suggest yo inous we u book the ‘Mark Roth which is p ko room’ ainted in bright ora nge.
”
“
e at th h t y r rainy y sor y l l b i l r u f r dread h us. I’m te t i s a w w g er stayin forecast weath e r e the you w y t a s s y and l n i y n l u wh t s h l u rig t and As yo gest brigh wledge ful g n no did su pt and ack our part i r a r ce we ac ibility fo oid a simil v ns respo ilure. To a r next a ou this f ing y ggest the r u d is em su ther a e probl , might I w the ay holid an? I hear redictable p be . Carib ittle more Wales l h t a u o all e in S r e h than
”
Heads in Beds Magazine 21
90s?
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Is your marketing stuck in the By David Taylor
T
ake a look at the average hotel website and it won’t have evolved much from the 1990s when the internet took off. Most are simply glorified booking engines with complicated menus, out of date fonts and very little in the way of dynamic content to entice the visitor. In a nutshell, they are merely online versions of brochures.
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Yet the world has moved on so much, even since the mid 2000s. By the end of 2013, more people will be accessing the internet from mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) than from computers. We really are in the mobile internet age. At the same time, it has been estimated that by the end of 2015, 86% of all content viewed online will be video. And then there is social media. Combined with the mobile internet and increased use of video, this new channel has totally transformed not only marketing but also customer service, sales, recruitment, public relations and even human resources. Most hotels are using the likes of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube but there are many others such as Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and Vine which offer new ways of
communicating with guests and potential customers. Finally, pay-per-click advertising on both Google and Facebook, is providing new avenues for hotels to market themselves to new audiences. Yet how can GMs and marketing managers ensure their online presence is up to the job? The answer is to have a properly structured marketing plan which is based around specific business goals, an understanding of the hotel’s target audience and a willingness to innovate. At the heart of this must be a website fit for the demands of the 21st Century guest. Dynamic, easy to read, designed round a mobile interface and with regular changing content, it is a far cry from the clunky interfaces we are currently used to seeing.
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Remember that your website has two specific functions. If used in conjunction with an integrated marketing campaign, it is of course a vital lead generation tool, helping you to make direct sales. However increasingly, it is being used as a lead conversion channel. As more and more people book via OTAs, they will still refer to the hotel website before making their booking. In both cases, you need to ensure that your website is up to the job. Then think about the various social media channels. What business objectives will be met by using them? How will they be resourced, in terms of content and time? Will there be a specific budget
allocated to populating, customising and advertising these channels? How will you measure their effectiveness? Sites like Facebook and Twitter can be incredibly powerful tools but they need to be used correctly. They should also not be
seen as a panacea. In an increasingly fragmented media scene, there are now so many ways to reach an audience – the trick is to find those that work, whether they be tradition, web-based or social. Often it’s a combination of the three. Heads in Beds Magazine 23
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You are one…
If you don’t have an assistant,
L
ast week I did a little experiment. I picked up the phone to 20 hotels that we’ve worked with over the years and I asked the owners why they don’t respond to reviews on TripAdvisor. The majority consensus was that they know they ought to, but just don’t have the time. Well, they’re right - on both counts. As hotel owners and managers, there are far too many staff to manage, guests to worry about, interactions, power cuts,
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restaurant dramas (I could go on…) in the day to find time to respond to reviews on Trip Advisor. Here’s the snag though… Doing so may just be the difference between getting a booking and not getting a booking. The stats right now, as you read this, is that 45% of your would-be guests on the verge of clicking the big BOOK NOW button or picking up the phone to check availability, check out your page on Trip Advisor before making their booking decision. Put another way, if you’ve got a terrible page, with awful pictures, dreadful reviews and no responses – you’re missing out on approximately 45% of your turnover. For most hoteliers, this will be a substantial 6-figure sum. I don’t want to get too techie and jargony but the Trip Advisor algorithm doesn’t
just pop those with the best reviews at the top – it’s far more complex and it actually takes into account how pro-active the hotelier is at responding to reviews – both positive and negative ones. At the risk of laboring the point further, it goes without saying that when a would-be guest clicks on your page and sees that the GM has responded to every single post professionally and articulately – it gives that prospect the feeling that these guys are on the ball. “OK, I get it! I should be responding more!” You might be thinking. But it still doesn’t change the fact that there’s no time in the day…. The fact is, you’re time is too important and you shouldn’t be doing it. Delegating out to virtual assistant, for some should be the way forward. Virtual Assistants (or VAs) start from about £7 per hour – typically you’ll find a
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very capable VA for £10 per month. Chances are you’ve not got the reviews whizzing in either, so using them for about 2-3 hours a month should suffice.
This myth of not having time is really not a valid answer at all. The question is are you prepared to spend £20 a month to take control of your reputation online to encourage more guests to Here’s what to do… come and stay with you? Have them check the Trip I would certainly hope so! Advisor page every few Take a look at days, drafting a professional www.peopleperhour.com response for your approval. you can post a job for free, Once you start to build a setting your own budget trusting relationship, you and payment is made via a can have him/her respond secure channel. Within 30 on your behalf without your minutes, you can tick this prior approval. annoying thing off your list That’s going to cost you and move ever closer to a about £20 a month and more successful, less save you £THOUSANDS in stressful hotel business. lost sales. Well done you.
Bedroom Filler Fact Doing something about how busy you are instead of talking about it will make you less busy. If you’re not using an assistant, you are one. For as little as £7 per hour, you can have a virtual assistant doing all those odd jobs that keep you in the office late. So the question really is ‘can you afford not to’? Heads in Beds Magazine 25
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Hotel Quiz
1
Where in the world can you find several capsule hotels that offer “rooms” an average of 6.5 feet long and 5 feet wide? a) Cairo b) Tokyo c) Dubai
2
With an interior of about 5,500 square metres, the world’s largest ice hotel is located where? a) Sweden b) Canada c) Norway
3
painters Jasper Johns and William de Koonig a) The Plaza Hotel b) Warwick New York Hotel c) Hotel Chelsea
5
What is the name and location of the world’s first underwater hotel? a) Poseidon Undersea Resort, Fiji b) Crescent Hydropolis, Dubai c) Jules Undersea Lodge, Florida
8
At the Million Donkey Hotel guests can sleep in a bed inside a metal cage that is completely suspended in the air. Where is this hotel located? a) Spain b) Italy c) Israel
9
The luxurious La Stephen King was Mamounia hotel inspired to write his provides guests with four Both Adolf Hitler and 1977 novel, The Shining staff members for every room. Michael Jackson stayed Where is the hotel located? after a night at the Stanley a) Morocco Hotel. Where is the Stanley at which Berlin Hotel? a) Hotel Adlon Kempinski b) Italy Hotel located? c) Portugal a) Eureka Springs, Arkansas b) The Ritz Carlton c) Hotel Hackescher Markt b) Estes Park, Colorado To stay at the Serai, c) New Hope, Pennsylvania Which Hotel served a luxury desert Name the famous the world’s most camp with 21 sleeping tents, a dining tent, library bar tent, New York City Hotel expensive cocktail, where punk rocker Sid according to the Guinness pool and spa, where would you have to go? Vicious allegedly stabbed Book of World Records? his girlfriend, Nancy a) Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai a) India Spungen, and that was a b) Merchant Hotel, Belfast b) Egypt c) Jordan temporary residence to c) Hotel Laforet, Tokyo
4
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Answers: 1) B 2) A 3) B 4) C 5) B 6) A 7) B 8) B 9) A 10) A 26 Heads in Beds Magazine
Action List
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Your
I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hereby acknowledge that the super useful, practical information provided in this edition of Heads in Beds will be utterly useless if I don’t do something about it. I therefore will be doing the following this month: Signed: Deadline: What I plan to implement:
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Next Month
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Mandy Patrick. President of the Northern Ireland Hotel Federation. Mandy Partick MBE runs the third generation, 4-star hotel in Belfast known as the Park Avenue Hotel. Mandy is also the president of the Northern Ireland Hotel Federation, a not-for-profit limited company representing the hotel and guesthouse sectors in Northern Ireland; it’s main roles are identifying and reviewing issues affecting the hospitality industry and lobbying governments and
the NI Assembly on the economic and employment opportunities of tourism. Developing services for the benefit of the industry, the Federation actively works in partnership with others to create the right conditions for tourism.
We’ll be talking to Mandy about what’s working for her hotel right now and what hotels need to be doing more of to boost trade over those quieter winter months.