Once again, last week HOSPA and its HOSPACE conference and exhibition delivered an activity and information-packed day to delegates drawn from across the hotel industry and its supply chain, complete with plenty of opportunities for networking with new and existing contacts.
From the overview session at the start of the day, through to the presentations at the Educational Workshop Programme in the late afternoon, there were many thought-provoking presentations on subjects to which H&C News will be returning regularly in the months ahead.
Here, however, we take an initial look at just two of the sessions and the panels’ opinions.
Leaders’ Panel: key issues, trends and developments facing the industry today
The panel: Robert Cook, CEO at De Vere and HOSPA president; Surinder Arora, Founder and Chairman of Arora Hotels; Angela Vickers, MD of Apex Hotels; Grant Hearn, CEO at Travelodge; Steven Cassidy, Area VP, UK and Ireland, Hilton Worldwide; Paul Dukes, Chairman of Kew Green Hotels and HOSPA
As you’d expect, such a panel combines wide experience with strategic insights, and began by offering suggestions as to how to best tackle the current market and conditions:
- Think smart, be creative, and be entrepreneurial: don’t wait for the economy to improve (which will not happen quickly). Innovative solutions are needed in all areas of business, including finance, revenue and IT.
- People strategy: developing your people is essential, from attracting starters, apprenticeships, working with Universities to develop management courses, and more – a pipeline of potential leaders can be developed. “Treat your guests like royalty, your staff like family”.
- Prioritise: focus on making progress and achieving real results. Whilst the campaign on VAT has general support, there is little sign of government taking action. On the other hand, sorting out the Visas process (especially for the Chinese market that is currently by-passing the UK) should (must!) be possible and quickly.
- Social Media was recognised by all as now at the forefront of marketing and a key means of engaging and interacting with customers. It’s not just about selling or service delivery, it’s key to knowing and understanding your customers’ likes and dislikes. Over 90% of Hilton customers use social media in some form: if a similar figure is true of other hotels, it simply confirms the need to communicate through social media.
- It was noted, however, that it is important that there are codes of conduct in place and known to staff so that social media is used effectively and not allowed to send out the wrong message, damage reputation – or take over too much of the working day. Removing access should be a last resort, not a general policy.
- OTAs are recognised by many as a ‘necessary evil’, but working with them can now be more sophisticated and controlled: you must protect your brand, retain strategic control of your inventory and pricing, not permit ‘commoditisation’. However, this does also depend on the strength of your brand and the market ‘reach’ that it provides: OTAs can deliver both ‘reach’ and customers in specific areas, though at a cost.
- Note: it can be argued that OTA commission is effectively marketing spend, payable only when sales are achieved (unlike traditional advertising which requires up-front investment against an unknown return). Like any marketing spend, however, it needs to be carefully planned, targeted – and measured for ROI.
- Becoming a CEO: there was agreement that there was no one ‘best’ route to achieving this status – experience of more than one area of line experience was valuable, and developing competencies such as leadership, communications and financial skills is essential. Only experience can provide the understanding of operational issues and nuances that are needed, but revenue management is recognised for its growing importance.
Revenue Management: the future of Revenue Management and its skills, people and place in the organisation
The panel: Chris Cooper, Group Director of Revenue Management at Rocco Forte Hotels; Pamela Carvell, Pampas Marketing and Life President at the Hotel Marketing Association; Mark White, GM at Millennium and Copthorne Hotels at Chelsea FC; Jim Cockell, Group IT Solutions Director at National Express; chaired by Peter Jones, Chair of HOSPA Education Committee
- Is Revenue Management a Science or an Art? Predictably, it’s not that simple! Strategic, automated pricing as practised by the airlines, for example, is a science – and perhaps this now applies to some major hotel chains. However, it remains an art for smaller independents, who need to grasp the opportunity (and benefits) that automation and systems could deliver to their business.
- Revenue Managers must not be divorced from operational realities, operating in their own ‘ivory tower’, manipulating numbers. Two-way communication is needed: they must understand how the business works, and communicate how they can interact, what their data actually means, how it can help sales and marketing and work with them to deliver revenue.
- Revenue Management should be more customer centric: third party relationships are very important, it’s not just about working online. Understanding the customer and customer mix is vital to creating the right products and price points.
- It should be about total revenue management, not just about room sales: what does the hotel need to achieve overall?
- Revenue managers have access to lots of data about their customers, need to share it with sales and marketing, and need to exploit it.
- Recruiting revenue managers: they should not just be drawn from finance or rooms, but also from sales and marketing – and experience of outside industries such as retail can be invaluable.
- Training and development is key: increasingly, ‘soft skills’ are needed – leadership, communication, and strategic skills. Other industries – such as retail – offer valuable insights that can be applied in hospitality. Understanding all the elements of the ‘customer journey’ is important, as well as the ‘guest experience’ that should be delivered: this requires Revenue Managers to understand and draw upon the other job functions across hospitality. And the ability to think creatively beyond (but underpinned by) the numbers – thinking outside the box – is valuable.