HOTELS

Bart Berkey

Fishing Where The Fish Are
August 13, 2008

"Good day for fishing, but the catching is horrible" is a quote that I don't wish to hear again on my precious days off.

Do we fish where the fish are? What tools do we use?

This week I am on vacation celebrating a family tradition with 30 relatives from all over the country (from Pittsburgh, to Iowa, to Iraq--where my cousin was stationed). My father-in-law, my son and I went deep-sea fishing in the Delaware Bay. A deck hand of 30 years made that statement about fishing and catching.

The captain relies on two things when taking sunburned visitors to his favorite fishing spots:

1. What has worked in the past (history, tradition, knowledge, intuition)
2. What technology is telling him today (a sophisticated underwater radar system)

We rode 10 miles out from shore to where the fish usually bite. Doing that, combined with the "fish finder" radar system, we found fish. A perfect blend of tradition and technology.

Twenty years ago, I remember being excited because we were getting a fax machine. At the time, there was only one computer, which the entire office needed to share for word processing.

What are you using to find business?

1. What has worked in the past? (past customers, evaluation of market segments, geographic territory production)
2. What does technology provide today? (the Internet, group booking systems and tools, guest history reports)

A former business partner, Sergio Asensio, is a brilliant gentleman that has developed a data analysis company specifically for hotels trying to identify where to go after business. His approach is similar to the Chinese proverb:

"Give a man a fish, you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime."

Through his model, he makes it easy for hotels to identify where to look.

Try typing the name of your competitor in a search engine to see what the World Wide Web will tell you. Often, clients have links to the competitor's name. Make a list for all of the clients that appear, evaluate the "fit" for your property, and drop the line!

What tools are you using today to find out where to fish?  Please share...

(In case you were curious, we caught of total of 10 fish as a family that day, and we were able to make an appetizer from the two that were edible and of appropriate length)

Posted by Bart Berkey on August 13, 2008 | Comments (0)