True hotel customer loyalty reveals itself in moments like this: A guest walks into your lobby after a long day of travel, and your front desk agent greets him by name, Welcome, Mr. Johnson! It’s so nice to have you back for a third visit with us. Would you like me to send up a late-night snack? Maybe a slice of that chocolate cake you loved last time?
As AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude become the new search engines, a new kind of optimization is emerging: GEO — Generative Engine Optimization.
Does your loyalty program need a little zhuzhing up? In case you missed the memo, points-based loyalty programs just aren’t as exciting as they once were. Travelers are expecting more from hotel brands, with 79% of Gen Z and Millennial travelers saying they care more about the experience than the cost of the trip.
One of the hospitality industry’s key bottom-line metrics, gross operating profit per available room measures the relationship between hotel revenues and expenses. In general, the better you understand GOPPAR, the better you will be at turning revenue into profit. That is why it is important to benchmark your GOPPAR, along with the other key P&L metrics, on a consistent basis.
In the hospitality industry, managing multiple properties transcends simply expanding the number of locations; it involves elevating the guest experience to new heights. At the core of this strategy is the creation of a unified guest profile, ensuring that guests enjoy a seamless experience across different venues within the same hotel chain. This integration is not just convenient but essential for fostering guest loyalty and enhancing satisfaction.
Performance benchmarking is paramount in the hospitality industry, and whether measuring success against yourself, the competition or a specific segment of the market, the process involves foundational historical metrics.
If you work in the hotel business, acronyms are part of the job. Among the many shorthand terms we use, two are particularly important for measuring performance. Their names might strike a similar chord, but delving into these respective metrics reveals crucial distinctions.
The luxury sector is growing steadily and creating great opportunities for brands to enter the market or grow their audience. But it’s no longer all about being flashy and pricey, today’s luxury shopper is more influenced by personalization, innovation, conscious consumerism, and an emotional experience. So while today’s luxury industry is broader and more accessible than ever before, it’s also more challenging. To meet the high expectations of today’s discerning luxury buyers and stand out from the crowd, brands must achieve customer service excellence.
Welcome to a series that's all about your future and the exciting possibilities waiting for you in the professional world! If you've ever wondered what cool jobs are out there, you're in the right place. We're kicking things off by unveiling the secrets behind one of the most creative gigs – Brand Management.
Today, in the best marketing teams, nothing is improvised. Data is the most valuable asset for these teams, and decisions, strategies, and campaigns are based on it. Marketers in the hospitality industry have embraced this trend, but the data and skills to use it wisely are still lacking in many teams and companies in the sector.
A career in event management involves much more than “throwing a party” although that in itself can already be an elaborate endeavor. If you love socializing and thrive on taking care of all the little details that make events perfect, you may like to work in Events Management. But have you considered exactly what could be involved in this career choice, what skills you would be required to learn, what kind of job outlook you can expect today, and what salary you would earn as an event manager.
The many ways consumers interact with hotels today are vast and diverse. From browsing social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook on smartphones to watching captivating YouTube videos on tablets, or even stumbling upon a hotel’s website through a search engine query on a desktop computer, the avenues for hotel discovery are ever-expanding.
Occupancy rate is one of the global hotel industry’s foundational performance metrics, showing the percentage of rooms occupied in a property, segment or geographic area for any given time. The objective of successful revenue management is to achieve the optimal occupancy level for driving growth in revenue per available room (RevPAR) and profitability.
Hoteliers juggle multiple factors in their room rates, including demand, costs, and the hotel’s current online visibility. Revenue management is the science of increasing your profitability every year and requires data from all departments. It’s not just about looking at the numbers: it’s about understanding why those numbers exist in the first place.
Picture this. You are sitting in an airport bar waiting for your flight. Your bartender comes by, and you ask for a Gin & Tonic. Without skipping a beat, the bartender, says, “Want to make it a double for just $4 more?”
There are over 27 million hotels in the world, which means that organizations interested in capturing the attention of customers will have to find a way to differentiate themselves from others in the industry, particularly those around their precise location. Not only does this require an intimate understanding of the target audience and what appeals to them about the hotel experience, but it also requires an understanding of the latest trends in marketing in the industry and where customers go to learn more about companies that can help solve their pain points and provide them with comfortable lodging when they travel.
Since the pandemic snuffed out hotel room demand, hoteliers have been digging through the resulting financial rubble in search of revenue. Unfortunately, focusing solely on revenue generation from rooms can obscure financial recovery vision.
In many aspects, I am offering a better product and value for my customers, but I am not seeing any increase in results. How can I stand out from my competitors? - This is one question I have frequently been asked by fellow travel and hospitality industry professionals, from destination managers to hoteliers or service providers. One might delve into the variety of factors that can influence the lagging performance of travel organizations (and there are many), but I have come to realize that simply rephrasing the initial ask, helps shift an operator's mindset to focus on the richness they have at hand, rather than on their shortcomings. The question then becomes:
Bed banks have been active players in hotel distribution for over 20 years now. They are not a new business model, but a simple online technology version of the traditional wholesalers of hotel accommodations that have existed for decades before that. Bed banks are specialized B2B platforms that contract supply from hotels and accommodations providers (typically in long-haul international vacation destinations) and make it available to travel sellers that aggregate travel demand from a variety of sources (traditional travel agents, small and midsize tour operators, some low cost airlines.) Example will be a beach resort in Thailand being offered by a bed bank to retail travel agencies in London.