Flexibility with groups can strengthen relationships
As the coronavirus pandemic spurs group cancellations, hotel sales and marketing teams are focused on rebooking what they can into the second half of 2020 and seeking out whatever revenue there is to be had in the meantime.
Hotels that have in the past been able to count on groups as a major revenue driver are being forced into revenue-later or something-better-than-nothing sales scenarios as those groups dry up, at least temporarily, due to pandemic fears and social-distancing edicts.
At a time when hotels are closing and employees are being furloughed due to lost business, the motivation for sales teams becomes clear, said Allison Handy, SVP of sales, marketing and revenue optimization at Prism Hotels & Resorts.
"The message I'm hoping to emphasize with my team is that every little bit of money you get coming in—whether it's a cancellation fee or a few rooms for that government agency that needs a block of rooms, or that corporate team that has to be within arm's reach of the office—whatever small piece of business you can get is potentially one more employee that gets hours to work to put food on the table for their family," she said.
"When we think of it in those terms, it's a new source of motivation to hunt for revenue. We're being creative. We know that right now companies can't hold conferences, but they want to live-stream. Maybe they don't want to live-stream from their bedroom desk with their dog barking in the background. If we can provide a place for them to live-stream a conference or message to their teams, that's a small source of revenue."
