Hospitality Net

I have learned in my career to consider the marketplace, the competition and the overall trends and cycles if I expect to be successful. In the past, this has usually meant creating an annual marketing plan and working that plan. Weekly and monthly action plans would lead to quarterly reviews and updates. The next year’s plan would take those updates and trends and as a team or a corporation, we would decide the next plan of strategies and tactics.

I must share that I read two interesting and disturbing articles within the past three weeks:

For those of us who have been in the industry for more than 15-20 years, the notion of occupancy and rate cycles is not a new phenomenon. What is new is the realization that the combination of gasoline prices affecting literally all products and services is going to hit the hospitality industry incredibly hard.

TIA hosted an emergency summit of travel leaders in June in Washington, DC to discuss next steps for moving this issue forward with policymakers and TIA has called on each of the major presidential candidates to commit to addressing this issue. This type of proactive leadership is healthy for the industry, but will it help individual hotels?

The title of this article is Updating marketing and sales strategies mid year NOW is essential. I offer the following observations:

Finally, for those of us who have been in the industry less than 10-15 years, think back to whatever industry you may have been involved with before and remember those cycles. If you are under 35 in age, look at the economic histories of other businesses and recall what they did well or poorly.

The hospitality industry has had a solid run of accomplishments these past ten years or so, but that was preceded by a very mixed 20 year cycle.

Look at what is going on in your hometown and figure out as many ways as possible to be an essential part of the community as a good corporate citizen. That commitment will help ride out some stormy valleys of lower demand and will endear you and your hotel to the community and help maintain your levels of success.

Feel free to share an idea at johnjhogan@yahoo.com anytime or contact me regarding consulting, customized workshops or speaking engagements

John Hogan is a frequent guest speaker at industry events and advises hotel management groups and owners, lenders, asset managers and operators on industry 'best practices' and conducts reviews of quality in operations and marketing.

Hogan’s professional experience includes over 35 years in hotel operations, food & beverage, sales & marketing, training, management development and asset management on both a single and multi-property basis. He holds a number of industry certifications (CHA, CHE, MHS, ACI) and is a past recipient of the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s Pearson Award for Excellence in Lodging Journalism, as well as operational and marketing awards from international brands. He has served as President of both city and state hotel associations.

John’s background includes teaching college level courses as an adjunct professor at three different colleges and universities over a 20 year period, while managing with Sheraton, Hilton, Omni and independent hotels. He was the principal in an independent training & consulting group for more than 12 years serving associations, management groups, convention & visitors’ bureaus, academic institutions and as an expert witness. He joined Best Western International in spring of 2000, where over the next 8 years he created and developed a blended learning system as the Director of Education & Cultural Diversity for the world’s largest hotel chain.

He has served on several industry boards that deal with education and/or cultural diversity and as brand liaison to the NAACP and the Asian American Hotel Owners’ Association with his ongoing involvement in the Certified Hotel Owner program. He has conducted an estimated 3,100 workshops and seminars in his career. He served as senior vice president for a client in a specialty hotel brand for six years.

He has published more than 350 articles & columns on the hotel industry and is co-author (with Howard Feiertag, CHA CMP) of LESSONS FROM THE FIELD – a COMMON SENSE APPROACH TO EFFECTIVE HOTEL SALES, which is available from a range of industry sources and AMAZON.com. He resides in Phoenix, Arizona and is finalizing his 2nd book based on his dissertation – The Top 100 People of All Time Who Most Dramatically Affected the Hotel Industry.