The Colombian hotel market is currently in a price war with ADR falling, occupancy flat, room supply growth exceeding demand growth and OTAs are thriving in this environment. How then does a hotel achieve sustainable profitability?

When the OTAs, hotel managers and asset owners focus on growing total market and/or specific destination demand, long run profits for all can be sustained.

Your positioning should be reflected in everything you say and do, your service standards, enhancements, resource allocation, capital decisions, sales and marketing approach, human resource policy and budgeting.

Before I started my own business, I was heavily entrenched in the Marriott International corporate brass, where group meetings business accounts for 40% of the overall revenue for their US hotels. As a leader in marketing and e-commerce disciplines, my team’s focus was largely devoted to driving demand and revenue from the direct consumer segments […]

‘Book direct’ is the war cry of hotel owners, management company executives, chain CEOs and many marketing consulting groups. Like real war, the costs and benefits must be evaluated, particularly by those who will be paying for it – hotel owners. This is even more critical for a war that is unwinnable. “Wars are won […]

On a daily basis, I have the opportunity to interact with dozens of salespeople in a wide variety of locations. Over the years we have somehow gravitated from partnering with customers in building long-term relationships and account understanding to now taking orders in a more clinical, impersonal and highly transactional environment. However, customers still require […]

For a great hotel sales effort, hoteliers need to be reminded of basic principles. They also need to be reminded that sales is a ‘group’ process that requires the engagement of the broader hotel team.

The hotel industry has become a complex, fragmented, global, competitive brand business. There is an urgent need to fill “gaps” in our knowledge of brand management to help the industry improve brand performance.

Managing your social media buzz can take 30 minutes to an hour a day, tops. While this may seem like a lot, many customers are making their choice based on what they see and read. Chat with your team; seek and enlist someone that is passionate about this, and let them go at it. Use these tips, and you will see fruitful rewards!