With a change of government in the US, there is always a bit of uncertainty. This time the uncertainty has been pushed further than most.

The unpredictable outlook is also tinged with some pretty challenging figures and trends. Two trends seem to be pulling us in the same direction: new properties coming online, and falling passenger figures to America.

We've lived through some good times over the last few years. Almost all of the metrics have been ticking up. Occupancy has been looking good, and so have room rates.

The result has been a construction boom. The latest statistics from STR show that there are roughly 190,000 bedrooms being built in 1,449 projects across the US. Supply is increasing.

But over the last few weeks we have seen some shocking tourism indicators. Recent figures from Travel Weekly suggest that foreign tourism is set to decline 6.8 per cent. We don't know if this trend is here to stay, but it's something everyone should be preparing for.

Secondary revenue should now be a primary focus

Over the last few years the industry has focused almost exclusively on driving primary revenue from the bedroom business. While tourism is increasing, that makes a lot of sense.

Many of the biggest hotel chains have focused on increasing occupancy and ADR while reducing the cost of acquisition. And they have done so successfully.

But while investment still makes sense today, there is a case for management switching their focus to secondary revenue streams like restaurants, meetings, and events. For many hotels, these sources of revenue haven't been properly squeezed and optimised yet. There is low-hanging fruit.

In this climate, growing secondary income makes sense because it doesn't depend so closely on tourism. By and large, the people in our meeting rooms aren't the same people in our bedrooms. That is true even in the biggest city hotels.

For the typical hotel, the most frequent users of meeting rooms are local businesses, and many are adopting more flexible and agile working practices. Fewer of them now allocate space to permanent meeting rooms, so they're increasingly on the lookout for convenient places to meet with clients and colleagues.

This is the trend that real estate companies like WeWork are taking advantage of, and something that hotels can tap into to boost their secondary revenue.

Treat restaurants and meeting rooms like bedrooms

Fortunately, the industry has already got the experience it needs to increase these revenue sources successfully. It is exactly what we have been doing on the bedroom front for the last five years.

First, we should concentrate on increasing occupancy and rates. I've heard many executives joke in the past that alongside the Gideons' Bible, meeting rooms are their most underused resource, and that they would do better to turn them into bedrooms.

But I'm eternally surprised how poorly promoted many of these additional facilities and services are. Information is often hidden deep on a hotel's website, if it's there at all. Improving the marketing of these resources is a surefire investment.

Secondly, intermediaries still make up a significant portion of a hotel's meeting and restaurant bookings. When you search the Internet for meeting rooms close to you, it's unusual not to find an intermediary in the top results.

This is surprising because providing direct booking channels for bedrooms has been a priority for CEOs over the last few years. However, that discussion is not being had by many management teams about restaurants and meeting rooms yet.

Launching direct booking alternatives is a quick and easy way for hotels to reduce cover charges and booking fees, and strengthen their relationships with customers.

Uncertainty is the word of the day in the hotel market. No one quite knows what the future holds, but some of the figures should cause us to take a second look at our income streams. And grow the ones that we may have been neglecting over the last few years.

BookingTek is a 10 year old technology business that delivers innovative digital solutions to hospitality companies around the world through offices in London, Washington DC Singapore & Sweden. The company specialises in t industry he food services industry and counts many of the world's largest hotel/restaurant groups on its client list including Marriott International.

Jordan Greenaway
Transmission PR
BookingTek