our Operators are viewed by many of the smaller hospitality operations, in particular by boutique hotels, as a necessary evil.
While they are contractually obliged to deliver a lot of nights and therefore present a constant stream of income, they take a big chunk of the margin which could land in the pocket of the hotelier.
Without the tour operators, however, these nights would remain vacant entirely, resulting in no income at all.
From a strategic angle it would therefore probably be wisest to negotiate the contracts in such a fashion, that the business resulting thereof covers the operational expenses.
The leftover occupancy can be dedicated towards experimental and alternative means of business generation.
I have previously been commissioned to develop a strategy reducing the dependency created by the tour operators for a mid-sized hotel operation and will try to explain the thoughts I had along the way.
Because business travelers are difficult to get a hold of, we will focus on the more or less internet-savvy tourists; and internet-savvy is the word we want to focus on from hereon forth.
A majority of tourists will conduct extensive research on the internet before they book the trip to the hotel or resort they have selected… or have been talked into selecting.
In a nutshell, your average tour operator takes advantage of this and spends a lot of money on a search-engine-optimized website so that research done through Google about your destination or your hotel ends up on their website, not yours.
Then, they usually seal the deal by putting together a beefed up package with a seemingly cheap flight and a few amenities they have talked you into.
All of a sudden the deal the Guest gets from them appears so much more lucrative than anything the Guest can purchase on your very own website.
It is essential to understand that you won't be able to compensate the aforementioned advantage by throwing up an unmanaged page on Facebook and generate the same amount of business they bring you, but that considerable planning and certain investments are necessary for a successful Digital Strategy to actually take off.
Most importantly though, what you do has to be individual and engaging for your Guests to potentially even turn them into loyal repeaters; something the tour operator will not necessarily have in mind because they get their money from other properties as well.
Reputation of YOUR Property
More often than it should, Online Reputation Management is treated like an unwanted stepchild by a lot of hotels.
This makes you wonder in spite of the persistent attempts by portals like Trip Advisor (TA) (and alike) to provide hoteliers with plenty of opportunities to engage with Guests and to keep their property's reputation above that of others.
Without wanting to wake the elephant in the living room, but a certain quantity of reports on such portals are made by the hotels and/or their representatives and this is an opportunity you shouldn't be shy to grasp.
Is this justified because everyone else is doing it? Hardly! Then again, your operation shouldn't go bankrupt because you didn't.
Engagement from the hotel-side is essential because it conveys to potential Guests that you care about them and their needs.
So even if departed Guests reward you with a not-so-positive review, you respond professionally and – of course – thank them politely for leaving a review (which you have encouraged them to write shortly before they left).
Incentivizing Guests to leave a review is NOT A SIN!; in fact, it is even encouraged by Trip Advisor.
You have to be creative about incentives and what would work better than offering them something you have plenty of?
Even if your Guest wasn't 100% satisfied, the perspective of spending a few complimentary nights on your property will be incentive enough to sit down and write a review about their stay.
The mere chance that their next stay may be free will subconsciously make them overlook minor shortcomings and result in a more positive review for your property.
Directing Attention to YOUR Property
Facebook and other Social Media Tools present a great opportunity for you to engage Guests, for instance by performing photo competitions.
Your Guests take pictures throughout their stay and post them on your properties Facebook Page; the Guest with the most likes wins an amenity during their stay.
Engaging them will have a few very positive effects.
One of them is that they will engage their friends on Facebook to like the Photo on YOUR page.
These friends will also be confronted with the other photos being posted by other Guests of your property.
Further, your Facebook Page will be filled with unfiltered, user contributed and unbiased pictures; and because every participant in the contest will want to deliver the best picture, they'll be keen to upload only their best shots.
Content provided by you has to be dynamic and engaging also, of course. And even more important is that it's constantly updated.
Contrary to popular belief these updates can consist of pretty much anything; and while you will be accustomed to the beautiful surroundings of your property, your Guests will not be so familiar with them.
This gives you tremendous opportunities to present your property by posting the daily weather with an according picture, today's activity agenda and pictures resulting thereof, perhaps even a video every now and then of senior staff introducing themselves.
All of these add a very personal note to your property and is very welcomed by potential Guests.
In the next part of this article, I will address converting web visitors into YOUR loyal guests and keeping Guests up-to-date; the new and the repeaters.
About the Author
Lars Hilse started consulting in Business Strategy in 2008 after leaving a successful career in the German Financial Sector. He now offers Interim Management Services, Strategic Advisory, Trainings and Workshops with a focus on profitable Digital Strategy both in Commercial and Government Sectors.
His Knowledge Beneficiaries are Small & Medium Sized Companies and Fortune 500's from 20+ Industry Verticals in 26+ Countries; among them are globally known brands like AXA, DHL, Ferrari, Singapore Airlines, etc. and all have collectively capitalized his knowledge to well over 650 Million Euros of increased revenue from the Internet.
His Keynotes have been applauded on four Continents and his Publications have inspired Academics in over two Dozen Universities around the globe. The groundbreaking Visions about User Experience he published in 2009 are today utilized by Facebook and other major Social Networks, influencing over one billion Internet Users.
When not on Assignment around the World, Lars resides in Bunsoh, Germany and in his rare Time off he pursues his hobbies (Astro-)photography, Psychology, Quantum Mechanics and his lifelong passion, the Internet.
Lars Hilse | www.larshilse.com | +1 (206) 456 1345 |
+49 1801 5557775788 | +44 845 5089559
