The importance of converting and targeting guests might sound like yearly calls to arms, but those tasks require a greater the level of complexity in 2017.
Hoteliers need to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to driving profitability in 2017, according to speakers at a recent Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International event.
Speaking on 19 January at the CitizenM Tower of London, Clinton Campbell, director of revenue management at Apex Hotels, stressed the need for collaboration.
“We have to forget titles and focus on profits,” Campbell said, mirroring comments made at the recent 24th Annual Hotel General Managers’ Conference.
The hotel industry has been dominated by talk of hotel departments working as silos, Campbell said. He said that needs to change and “everyone should sit around one big table.”
“A lot of what (revenue management does) is directed by marketing; a lot of what they do is based on the data we give them,” Campbell added.
Suzie Thompson,VP of marketing, distribution and revenue management for Red Carnation Hotels, said her work combines those disciplines, which leads to a more holistic approach.
“In terms of channels, how guests come to us, my aim is to not grow one at the expense of another,” Thompson said.
The one supplier on the panel, Terri Scriven, head of hospitality and tourism at Google, said she believed “global chains were finally realizing silos were not effective.”
“In the future I think we see more combining of revenue management, marketing and e-commerce in one team,” Scriven said.
Distribution directions
The new year will see hotel firms engage in a greater sophistication when it comes to targeting potential guests, as well as an increase in the percentage of budgets focused on repeat guests and upping those guests’ spend of wallet, sources agreed.
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