Are there some common themes emerging from our work that hotel owners and operators, and the brands they use, need to be alert to?

We think so. There was much talk for the past few years about the separation of ownership from operation and now most of the majors (Wyndham, Intercontinental, Hilton and IHG) have completed their metamorphoses. Lenders and investors alike believe the new industry structure is likely to result in more focused management, better run businesses, higher profits and higher asset values. In our view, these desired outcomes will only arise if the new hotel industry addresses the inputs. The reshaped 21stC hotel industry must remember that its roots are in hospitality.

Only if guests and clients are welcomed and cherished by hotel management and staff alike and encouraged to return will the newly-focused brands and newly- liberated operators deliver the value that is being promised. Customers are no longer satisfied with the simple product or service. Increasingly they are buying an experience - and it’s an experience they are designing themselves.

Hotel brands need to recognise what retailers have begun to discover – that the mass market has gone and customers want to treated as individuals with their own specific requirements. They need to find a way of enabling the guest-contact staff to sell the various elements of the offer to each and every guest consistent with minimum brand standards. In our experience, today’s guest-contact staff are often not provided with the appropriate products and services to sell, nor well trained in giving sales messages or provided with other selling tools.

Just as important customers of hotel management contracts and hotel franchise agreements increasing want to design their own relationship with the business partner – not just the fee structure but which services the business partner provides.

Hotel brands, operators and managers need to address the processes that deliver the owner, guest and franchisee experience in the context of these paradigm changes.

Ian Graham
Principal
+44 175 287 3198
The Hotel Solutions Partnership Ltd