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Summer In The City
June 1, 2007
Those of us baby boomers who’ve been around this business long enough remember the time when weekends in urban destinations were dreaded. Why?
Because the lodging week traditionally ended on Thursday and restarted again on Monday. Room wings would have shut down, staff were off, any business at any rate would be welcomed and ushered in like royalty during those lonely three nights when footsteps echoed down empty corridors.
How things have changed! With the resurgence of downtown living, retailing, and entertainment so has come the building up of our weekend business.
Instead of cavernous emptiness, now kids’ laughter fills the corridors. Instead of the “give away” rates of old, now weekend rates can be highest of the week. Instead of occupancies “maxing” out in the low 70%, now 80% is a real possibility. Is this a real trend or a blip?
This is for real and is an important indication of how we must start thinking about our business. Our industry is getting much more segmented. No longer will one marketing concept work. Leisure business is not some big homogenous group all acting like robots, all consuming in the same manner.
What we are now seeing is increasing amounts of niche business within every major segment. It is a trend that will continue and intensify. It will not go away. We are at peril if we ignore it. What does this mean to us in practical terms?
It means we have to analyze our business more thoroughly than ever before and understand every component and segment. We must develop marketing tactics aimed at each niche and uncompromisingly go after them. We should equally watch the areas and segments that will erode as societal trends move away from traditional demand patterns. More on that another day.
So as Memorial Day weekend in the United States—with its promise of warm sun filled days ahead fades into our memories—I leave you with this thought: If we watch the weekend user trends and carefully and methodically take advantage of them, then every weekend will be “Summer in the City.”
Posted by Laurence Geller on June 1, 2007 | Comments (0)