Editorial Board   Guest Author

Mr. Larkin

Enda Larkin

Founder, Dobiquity Inc.

Enda Larkin has over 30 years' experience in hospitality and tourism, first in hotel management and since 1994 as an independent consultant and business mentor with HTC Consulting. Over the past fifteen years, he has led numerous consulting projects for public and private sector clients throughout Europe and the Middle East. Interventions have varied in scope from a strategic review of the Guesthouse Sector in Ireland to supporting the establishment of a National Hotel Training Institute in Sana'a Yemen. His particular areas of expertise include: supporting strategic planning and business development in hospitality SMEs, mentoring enterprises towards attaining business excellence (EFQM), guiding process management activities to deliver operational efficiencies, leadership coaching and development, designing and delivering management development programs, implementing best practice HR policies and procedures, and conducting product and service quality assessments Mr. Larkin holds an MBA from ESCP Paris, a BSc in Management from Trinity College Dublin and a Higher Diploma in Hotel Management from the Dublin College of Catering. He is also a prolific author with the following titles in print: Ready to Lead? (Pearson/Prentice Hall 2007), How to Run a Great Hotel (How to Books 2009), Quick Win Leadership (Oak Tree Press 2010), Short Stories and Tall Tales for Managers (Oak Tree Press 2011) and The Essential Manager (CAI, 2013). In 2015 Mr. Larkin established Dobiquity, a revolutionary software service that is changing the way the global hospitality industry works. Via a user-friendly management portal, Dobiquity offers access to a growing portfolio of customisable apps that enable hospitality SMEs to save time and money, work smarter and make better decisions. Dobiquity provides an easy, affordable and secure way for hospitality managers to improve business performance by digitising important operational tasks. Mr. Larkin was born in Dublin, Ireland and currently lives in Geneva Switzerland. Please visit http://www.dobiquity.com for more information.

Mr. Larkin can be contacted at 353-0-87-242-7917 or endalarkin@dobiquity.com

Coming up in June 2018...

Sales & Marketing: Opinions Matter

Hotel Sales and Marketing Directors manage a complex mix of strategies to attract and convert customers into guests. Part of their expertise includes an awareness of customer behavior during the reservation process, so they can make sure their hotel is favorably positioned. One such trend is the growing popularity of travel review sites. According to one recent survey, 61% of prospective customers consult online reviews in order to validate information about the hotel before making a purchasing decision. Another survey found that the average hotel customer reads between 6-12 reviews across 4-10 properties before making a final decision on where to stay. Similarly, other studies have shown that consumer reviews are a more trusted source of information for prospective customers than other kinds of marketing messaging. In fact, reviews are often considered to be as influential as price regarding whether a customer decides to complete a purchase or not. Plus, travel sites with the most reviews - including recent reviews from satisfied customers and thoughtful responses from staff - were also found to be the most appealing. So having positive reviews on a travel website is essential and can help to increase a hotel's conversion rates dramatically. Of course, there are all kinds of additional marketing strategies for sales and marketing directors to consider - the importance of video and the emergence of live streaming; the implementation of voice search; the proliferation of travel bots; and the development of Instagram as an e-commerce platform. The June Hotel Business Review will report on some of these issues and strategies, and examine how some sales and marketing professionals are integrating them into their operations.
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