HOTELS

Scott van Hartesvelt

2009 Business Plan Preparation
August 14, 2008

It’s that time of year again; time to begin planning for your upcoming 2009 business plan.

The Internet continues to grow share as a critical distribution channel and should be planned for accordingly. It can prove to be the tool that will give you a competitive edge and help you achieve and ideally exceed budget.

Over the coming weeks, I plan to write several posts geared to help you through this process.

To begin, I want to share a quick story. gCommerce was recently hired by a management company to audit the online performance of a newly acquired hotel. To accomplish this, one of our first requests was to review the “2008 Marketing Plan.”  We turned to the 'Internet' section only to find the following:

“We intend to grow Internet-based revenue through the design of a new Web site and better search engine marketing.”

That was it! They had budgeted almost US$40,000 for the new Web site and had a large amount allocated to search marketing, but there was no detail. No strategy or assumptions that guided their recommendations.

This story is certainly not representative of most hotels, but I continue to be amazed at the lack of thought that goes into a majority of hospitality Internet marketing plans. Are we intimidated with the technology-speak to the point that we are afraid to manage our Internet marketing personnel or partners? Where to begin?

Internet marketing programs should be subjected to the same process as traditional marketing efforts. While there are many successful variations, I believe the process should go something like this:

1. Internet marketing team submits a “Year-in-Review” document to the property for discussion. In it, they detail the performance of all Web-based initiatives, including revenue by channel, total budget spend to date, ROI by initiative, etc.
 
2. Property presents forecasted business mix and overall performance by month for the upcoming year to the Internet marketing team. This includes growth or decline year-over-year by market segment and any key assumptions guiding the forecast.

3. Based on the previous year’s performance, the property proposes tangible online revenue goals to the Internet marketing team. The review of the team’s specific goals, combined with the property’s overall performance expectations, will dictate where the Internet marketing team focuses its efforts.

4. The Internet marketing team tenders a plan that includes key assumptions, proposed budget, media calendar by month, and description and benefits of each proposed initiative. All of this should be broken out by market segment. Every proposed initiative should be measureable and in line with the needs of the property as guided by the property goals.

5. Property reviews the assumptions, budget, and plan, and provides edits and feedback.  

6. Once finalized, all parties agree to specific performance metrics by month. Monthly reports are submitted by the Internet marketing team detailing actual performance against the agreed performance metrics with recommended adjustments based on performance.

When complete, a proper eMarketing plan should be a minimum of six pages. It should detail why initiatives are important, how much they will cost and how they will be measured. Most important, the plan should mirror the needs of the property.

If you hope to grow group business, how will search engine optimization specifically contribute? If you need to improve the total revenue per guest, how will changes to your Web site better merchandise your outlets?

In 2009, a well thought out eMarketing plan should be the norm, not the exception.

Posted by Scott van Hartesvelt on August 14, 2008 | Comments (1)