Hotel Business Review

Ms. Lutz

Social Media & PR

Why Public Relations Should be Part of the Hotel's Executive Team

By Didi Lutz, President, Didi Lutz PR

As a hotelier, you need to select the best executive team possible to streamline daily operations, maximize revenue, monitor exposure, stay ahead of your competition, increase repeat business, while managing a million other things every day. Selecting your executive committee members traditionally consists of the following areas: Operations, Sales, Human Resources, Accounting, Engineering, Rooms, Food and Beverage. All these executive team members represent specific areas of the hotel that generate revenue, as well as influence and interact with the guest experience.

But, why isn't your Public Relations or Communications professional on the Executive team?

For years, the role of an in-house Public Relations Manager or Director usually fell under the hand of the Director of Sales and Marketing. The position typically includes handing all media requests, facilitating press inquiries, producing messages, press releases, announcements, media pitching, compiling media lists, gathering press clippings and maintaining photo archives, organizing Fam trips, monitoring the news environment, and most importantly, creating the public relations plan and helping form the communications strategy for the hotel. This person is also responsible for establishing and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships between the hotel and the media.

This is a very specialized expertise that many hotels tend to outsource it because true hospitality PR professionals are few and far between. So, properties think it makes more sense to spend money to outsource large agencies for communications counsel, when they could hire a specialized professional to do the job in-house. Some properties have had Directors of Public Relations for years or specialized independent consultants, and I'm happy to see that more and more hotels and resorts are doing the same. But, there is still a misperception.

The Public Relations Director needs to have his/her own department, regardless of a property's size because it interacts with all departments, not just with Sales and Marketing, as it has been conveniently pushed under that umbrella, and wrongfully so. Public relations professionals service all departments and need to work independently in order to better function with the property. For instance, when a story that has to do with the hotel's HVAC system, the PR Director needs to work with Engineering to promptly get the necessary information for the reporter. Similarly, the PR Director is responsible to media train the General Manager, Director of Sales, or the Concierge for a TV clip or a radio spot. And if the PR Director creates a crisis communications plan, s/he needs to meet with all departments in order to create a comprehensive plan.

These activities need to be reported directly to the General Manager, not the Sales and Marketing Director, as they affect the entire management of the hotel first and foremost.

It is important to understand that Public Relations and Sales need to cooperate well in order to coordinate their efforts effectively. Nowadays, many properties choose to adopt an integrated marketing communications approach to their outreach campaigns, and those include public relations efforts. These two departments need one another to function. But, they should be distinctly separate areas. Sales and Marketing focus on revenue generation, capturing business and following up, creating seasonal packages, sending out proposals, and overseeing advertising campaigns, website content, and many other functions. Part of the job of the Director of Sales and Marketing usually includes overseeing the Public Relations Director's activities.

However, the alcove of PR is so unique, and while it relates to some of the Sales and Marketing activities, it still carves its own niche. PR and Communications are so important and critical in overall hotel operations that need to function independently in order to be efficient. For example: imagine if a PR Director notices something in the news that could become a potential crisis for the property very quickly, yet has to wait to talk to the DOSM, who would then have to call an emergency Executive Meeting. Imagine the time wasted to follow the chain of command and protocol, rather than giving the PR Director the empowerment and privilege to contact the General Manager's office directly to provide the necessary communications counsel.

Sales and Marketing, and Public Relations have such similarities it is no wonder why hotels arrange their marriage. Similarities may include:

• Both are interact with the public, but at different capacities
• Both focus their efforts to the maximize the hotel's exposure
• Both need to generate and reflect the proper image of the hotel
• Both need to convey the same message to the public and audience alike to maintain consistency
• They are both involved with marketing collateral, promotional events, web, advertising campaigns, other branding content

Some differences may include:

• PR Directors do not solicit business directly as Sales and Marketing
• Sales and Marketing do not talk directly to the press (unless there is no PR representative)
• PR creates story angles and secure placements
• PR talks to editors not to event managers for potential business
• Sales and Marketing puts together packages to create demand
• PR takes those packages and place them in the news to get buzz
• PR creates communications strategy that aligns with Sales strategy
• Sales and Marketing put together a charity event to create business leads.
• PR will shape the event into a newsworthy angle that will attract editors to write about it and create photo opportunities for the hotel

PR certainly helps Sales and Marketing with their outreach initiatives, by adding directly to the word the mouth (WOM), maximizing exposure and setting a hotel ahead of the competition. For that purpose these two departments need each other. But, I think the rest of the hotel needs to better understand the function of PR, to effectively utilize all of its potential, which involves much more than just serving Sales and Marketing. Your PR professional has the responsibility of creating your hotel's message and filtering it to potential guests. Communication should be a property-wide initiative, and Public Relations, whether or not it must report to Sales, it certainly deserves its own seat on every hotel's executive team.

Didi Lutz is an internationally acclaimed hospitality public relations professional specializing in boutique hotels, luxury travel, destination and tourism communications. Prior to starting her own business in February 2005, Ms. Lutz was the Director of Communications for the Hotel Commonwealth, a 150-room luxury property in Boston. Within the first year of the Hotel Commonwealth's opening, she established the media relationship that led to worldwide recognition for the property as one of Ten Best New Business Hotels by Forbes.com. Ms. Lutz can be contacted at 561-628-7422 or didi.lutz@gmail.com

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