Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re great. Your rooms just got remodeled, you just hired a hot new chef and the views at sunrise and sunset– you just got to see them to believe them. Guess what? There are 10,000 properties that are talking about all those same things that you love so much about yourself. And, in today’s consumer-powered world, they do a quick search on the things they love, and if they do match what you love, you don’t come up on the first page. And, if you’re not on the first page, you’re not in cyberspace –you might as well be in outer space.
No one loves your hotel as much as you do.
It’s price, right? Wrong.
Unless you’re Amazon (#2 budget behemoth Wal-Mart is even having trouble keeping up), you can’t win on price. Sure, your reactive sales/butts in beds might try to toss out a lost leader and run some also-ran promo like “Fall into Savings,” play the psychological card with “You deserve a mid-week getaway,” or even pull out the magic word trick and say “Free massage and dinner for 2.” But once you’ve spiked, you’ll tank, because you’ve traded long term revenue for revenow. You’re cannibalizing the true costs of goods and services you provide, as well as the experience you can deliver that adds up to much more than that.
Real revenue is a direct result of repeat & referred business.
We’ve summed it up as R&R for 2 other “Rs” that you might not have thought of –Relationships & Revenue– because you’re in the hospitality business, and you both deliver rest & relaxation, and feel rest and relaxation, when revenue and customers are coming in the door, again and again, without much effort on your part! That’s sales efficiency.
Wait, you’re telling me I can have more Revenue, with less Reactionary work & stress?
Yes. By building relationships with your guests. How? Well, relationships are built on trust and caring, so you have to create a story –a real one, not some fantasy in your head about how wonderful you are and how much they should love you. It has to be honest and be able to complete the circle of promise and fulfillment. AND, it has to be different than any other property’s story, because otherwise, that whole search engine thing will bite your butts in beds.
How do I start?
We can help you with this, because it’s what we do, but you can begin by taking a good look at what you do really well (and improving the things you don’t do so well), and then creating experiences that package the winnig deliverables into dreams that won’t cost a lot to implement, will last far longer than the average stay, and linger for a lifetime. For example, instead of offering “Fall into Savings,” offer guided hikes through the forest to see the leaves change. Supplement the generic “Mid-week getaway” with concierge business services and virtual conferencing so guests can unplug, but still take care of the work that can’t wait. And, instead of “Free massage & dinner for 2,” add a kinesiology bodywork class and a curated vegetable garden tour with the chef where you actually get to select the tomatoes that will be on your evening’s plate!
Then what?
Then, you create narratives that are built around these promises, and the way (tone/personality/voice) you fulfill them, and no one else can/does. We can help with that, too. Then, you listen. You run analytics on what sticks and what doesn’t. You find out what the reaction is to communications and then re-tailor them to where the guest is in their journey. And, if all these “YOUS” are scaring you, once again, WE have some amazing artificial intelligence Lead Generation & Lead Learning tools with incredibly accurate and powerful results that make it easy for YOU, and build relationships with your guests like you’ve never seen.