Without a single leader to connect destination demand, promise, price, and delivery, silo KPIs can be achieved while guest satisfaction and profit stagnate. The result is familiar: rate fights, conflicting reports, and teams working hard toward contradictory goals.
NB: This is an article from Demand Calendar
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It’s time to restore the GM as the orchestrator, the accountable owner of the guest journey, not as a super-specialist, but as the leader who aligns all specialists around one narrative anchored in the local destination (the real reason the guest is here). The GM sets the promise, ensures the team can deliver it consistently, and closes the loop with learning that improves both happiness and total spending per guest.
What follows is a concise, practical reframing of the GM role – why it failed, what to own, and how to establish a foundation – and a clear conclusion: the only person uniquely suited to optimize the whole is the general manager.
The Case for Change: Why a Journey Owner is Essential
Guests buy experiences, not transactions.
Nobody books a “rate + room” in isolation – they buy a purpose-driven trip shaped by the destination and how your hotel enables it. When the promise (why come), the price (what it’s worth), and the delivery (what actually happens) are orchestrated, you lift NPS, repeat intent, and spending per guest. When they’re not, you invite churn and discounting.
Silo KPIs can rise while NPS and profit fall.
Marketing can hit traffic goals, Sales can fill the calendar, Revenue can lift RevPAR, and Finance can trim costs – yet the property still underperforms. That’s misaligned optimization:
- High occupancy and underprepared operations lead to slower service and lower guest satisfaction ratings.
- Discount-driven conversion leads to weak price integrity and poorer flow-through.
- Cost cuts in housekeeping and F&B lead to a decline in cleanliness/quality, resulting in fewer ancillaries.
- Only an accountable journey owner can make the trade-offs that protect the whole.
The destination is the reason for the stay.
Travelers choose a place first, and then a hotel second. Embedding the hotel in local demand and culture (seasonality, events, trails, dining, arts) raises perceived value and resilience. Destination-anchored offers (micro-itineraries, partnerships, seasonal experiences) support stronger pricing, better attach rates, and more memorable stays, outcomes no single silo can deliver alone.
Bottom line: Without a GM owning the end-to-end journey, you achieve transactional wins but experience experiential losses. With a GM, you get coherent promises, consistent delivery, and profitable loyalty.
