DC Hotel Company Drives Sales with Online Tools

Property sales teams use Delphi.NetTM to share leads, cut tech expenses

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. October 14, 2008

FEBRUARY 20, 2008. Overseeing five high-occupancy properties totaling nearly 1,000 rooms inside the beltway would be a challenge even if they were all standard 'big-box' flagged operations. But managing sales for five unique hotels that range from the 340-room Washington Plaza to the luxury boutique 54-room Morrison Clark Inn, calls for equal parts experience, business savvy and technology.

RB Properties, Inc.'s (RBP) five busy hotels in downtown Washington are located in some of the most desirable areas of the city. Three of them are across the street from the convention center; one is on Pennsylvania Avenue in the financial center and another in Foggy Bottom close to the Kennedy Center and George Washington University. Although no two hotels are alike, RB Properties' business strategy balances demand across its portfolio and keeps occupancy up by placing sales responsibility for all its properties in the hands of one Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Lisa Hornstein.

"Each of our hotels is a full-service, landmark property that features distinctive architectural style and authentic period appointments," explained Ms. Hornstein. "To supervise this many individual properties, all of which have their own slate of group meetings and events and separate sales teams, we use an online sales and catering system from Newmarket International called Delphi.NetTM at all our hotels except Washington Plaza. Our centralized business development management strategy with Delphi.Net lets me view my teams' sales activities from my office." Hornstein said the Washington Plaza hotel, because of its size and number of complex functions it hosts, uses the property-based Delphi sales and catering system. RBP's hotels include the Henley Park, Hotel Lombardi, State Plaza as well as the Washington Plaza and the Morrison Clark Inn.

RBP's mission is to offer guests great service and a wonderful experience at a competitive price. The company carries the same goal into its operations by creating efficiencies with technology. "We wanted to automate our entire five-property operation on a single sales and catering platform to simplify reporting and generate cross selling opportunities," said Hornstein. "Washington Plaza, with its 13,000 feet of conference space, needed a comprehensive heavy-lifting sales and catering system, so we installed the Delphi property-based solution to automate its sales management, lead tracking, banquet activities and meeting room reservations. Our smaller hotels also needed a system that would track sales and automate their processes, and be able to link with the Washington Plaza, but without the hardware requirement or cost of the larger system." RBP implemented Delphi.Net in its four smaller hotels because it is a browser-based online application that required no additional hardware while providing excellent functionality without the higher cost of a system purchase.

Selling RBP's five DC hotels is not a simple process because they each attract a different mix of corporate travelers in the capital for business and families who are more interested in the city's museums, historic attractions and cultural activities. "Automating the sales teams at our four smaller hotels has freed them up to do what they do best -sell," said Hornstein. "From a financial standpoint, Delphi.Net allowed our smaller hotels to have a great product at an acceptable price point. It is a wonderful sales tool."

All RBP's properties are connected through the Internet which enables them to communicate online to combine efforts for more effective team selling. Since the Delphi and Delphi.Net systems share compatible formats and field designations, RBP's sales teams can quickly verify if a new corporate client at one hotel already has an account established at its sister properties. If there is a lack of availability at one property, its sales team can quickly check the other hotels and send leads to the most appropriate properties in the group to keep the business in the company.

RBP has a solid reputation for smart acquisitions of exceptional downtown Washington, DC accommodations. With five architecturally significant hotels - ranging in style from Victorian to Retro - the company provides a truly distinctive experience for both tourists and business travelers. Sales VP Hornstein, said, "We are proud of our properties and our business operation. By automating our sales processes we have streamlined the weekly and monthly reporting at all our properties. The bottom line is that by using the Internet to link all our properties we communicate better to server our clients more professionally and close more business."