HOTELS

Scott van Hartesvelt

Keep On Fighting
September 16, 2008

It’s tough out there for many hoteliers. But this article is not yet another voice telling you what you already know. Instead, I want you to know how important it is to keep fighting, to keep searching for new business.

Through my day job, I have the opportunity to speak to hoteliers all the time. Over the past couple of months, there has been a marked change in their tone. People are focusing more and more on controlling expenses and limiting services to protect their property’s bottom line. Budgets have gone out the window and forecasts seem to lack the predictive power they had just a few months earlier. People are coming to terms with the economic conditions we are living in and it is impacting the passion with which they pursue new business. I think I understand why.

Most standard revenue-driving programs cost money to implement, money that is hard to come by, especially in today’s trying times. Executive team meetings probably are more focused on the expense side, while drops in revenue are chalked up to the economy. My father once told me that the best of the best build their reputation in difficult economic times. They fight harder than the average property for new business, business that sustains them until the economy recovers and beyond. Keep fighting.

There are a multitude of revenue-producing ideas out there. If a current source of business dries up, try moving the cash register to a new market segment. If your Web site has dropped in performance, try some more creative packaging instead of just lowering your rates and hoping for the best. Maybe growing international business is a way to combat the decline of a domestic market segment. I have written about this before, and Oban Multilingual (OM) has published a telling new report on international traveler behavior that provides some great insights. Their report leads to some very easy-to-implement and inexpensive ideas on how to better attract an international customer. Here are a couple of easy highlights:

* 70 percent of Web users worldwide (900 million people) do not speak English. If you are trying to attract an international crowd, it is important that your Web site be translated into the target country’s native language. Furthermore, if you watch OM’s video featuring some of the street interviews, you learn that some translations are so bad, so out of context for the native vernacular that they actually could hurt more than help. 

* International travelers seem to prefer Expedia and TripAdvisor, though several other sites are mentioned as well. Most of these companies have special programs that allow you to better attract international travelers. Work with your market manager or account representative at travel sites to explore your options and enhance your placement. In many cases, additional exposure won’t cost you a thing.

* Google is not the pre-eminent search engine outside of the U.S. when consumers are searching for travel-related services. If you are working with your optimization firm to attract international travelers, make sure it is identifying search engines that have strong market share in the target country. In most cases, this effort will not cost you anything and could lead to significant improvement in international traffic.

These are only a couple of examples of ways we can keep fighting for business. Cost-effective programs that you can accurately track are vital to actually growing market share in these times, and to sustaining that market share when the economy turns.

Posted by Scott van Hartesvelt on September 16, 2008 | Comments (1)