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HOTEL BUSINESS REVIEW

JUNE FOCUS: Sales & Marketing

 

New Lodging Sales and Marketing Trends

By Robert O'Halloran Professor & Director, Hospitality Management, East Carolina University | May 2021

As we, as a society, embark on a "new normal" in terms of travel, lodging, meetings, and tourism in general, lodging sales and marketing continues to be a vital function in any property.  The pandemic is not over.

However, there is optimism about recovery, and vaccines are available to many if not all. The current pandemic, like other crisis situations, has created new sales and marketing methods and tools to handle new issues but which new and or modified marketing and sales practices will be sustainable?

Lodging sales and marketing will need to focus on service and value. Service is the tool that can differentiate one product or service from another. Service, sales, and marketing in these times must include digital options, i.e. websites, apps, virtual tours etc.  Even in our own world of selling and marketing higher education, we were operating in the mode of potential student visits to campus, tours of our facilities and meeting faculty and other students.

We continued even while we prepared for a full return to campus in the fall and to receive communications from prospective students and their families that want to see our facilities and meet with someone. In response to these requests we created a virtual tour video which highlighted our physical space, our labs, etc. The video was brief and hosted by one of our student leaders. It has been warmly received  by visitors to our website and shared on our social media outlets including YouTube and Facebook.

Whether your efforts in your lodging property are videos, social media marketing, website enhancements etc. or more likely, a combination of these, lodging properties need to provide prospective guests options to collect decision-making information. These marketing  options are often going to be digital, and they are likely to be sustainable channels for information distribution.

As a student (a long time ago) in a marketing class, I remember marketing (or one of its tenets) meant meeting and or exceeding customer or guest expectations by focusing on the 4 P's, Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Sales and marketing in the lodging industry will continue but must adapt to new hurdles that they may face, as they have and do in the current pandemic. Positive traits for successful sales and marketing programs should include adaptability and flexibility. To frame and operationalize these traits, hospitality and tourism industry operating models can include positive characteristics descriptors such as:

  • Entertaining new ideas. The state of the industry today is constant change. The pandemic has created many negative scenarios for businesses and their owners and employees, but it has forced them to be innovative and flexible in order to survive.
  • Being open to considering new ways of doing things. New ways of doing things have, in recent times, meant technology and virtual meetings, sales etc.
  • Actively seek out and carefully consider the merits of new approaches to work. Sales and marketing workforce plans now all include some virtual tools to help meet and or exceed guest expectations and sell products and services.
  • Embracing new approaches when appropriate and discarding approaches that are no longer working. The "normal" methods of doing things may have changed forever. While some yearn for a return to past business practices, some operating methods will likely have changed forever.
  • Deal with Change. Hospitality sales and marketing professionals must become adept at dealing with change. Pivot has become the word du jour for businesses looking to survive these times. Businesses need to pivot quickly and be both proactive and reactive to the changes beyond their control. 
  • Decision Making. Take proper and effective action when necessary without having all the necessary facts in hand. Perfect information, i.e., having all the facts to make the best decision is a difficult goal to achieve. Making split seconds decisions in the hospitality industry requires reflective thought and judgment using the best information available.
  • Easily adapt plans. Be flexible with goals, actions, or priorities in response to unpredictable or unexpected events, pressures, situations, and job demands. Sales and marketing goals are often in a constant state of change with or without COVID-19. Adjust goals to those targets that show growth potential and also are attainable.

Sales and marketing as a functional area of business needs to be fluid and easily change direction.

(Adapted from Competency Model Clearinghouse, 2018).

Reassess Who You Are

Once you are comfortable with your property or business and your strengths,  challenges, and opportunities, what are your next steps? We are in a recovery mode nationwide. Trends have indicated that regional and or local travel destinations have been performing well. Smaller is good in some cases and in others a return to older but renovated physical space has been successful.

Remember back to all the old beach or resort motels, maybe 20-30-40 units, all outside entrances and no large common space inside? It has been interesting to see some of these old motels get a facelift and meet guest needs of safety, and ultimately build trust. These renovated sites have individual outside entrances, that in pandemic times are attractive to a segment of potential guests.

Reassess what your target markets are. If you have a meeting business segment, virtual meetings, whether you like them or not, are not going away entirely. In some cases, your lodging property can be the staging area for webinars that reach out to a national audience. Through sales and marketing, lodging operators can communicate their uniqueness, their innovations and more. High quality photos, videos, virtual tours, and positive relationships with Trip Advisor (and similar sites and companies) can yield positive results.

Interview your guests and your employees. A great place to work can mean a great place to live and livability plus visitation can be a sales and marketing guideline. Livability and visitation are tied to sustainability, and sustainability efforts by communities and hotels and other businesses will likely be enhanced. Guests are interested in sales and marketing decisions that are good for the community, good for the environment and good for the business.

Visibility and timely responses are also keys to sales and marketing efforts. Up to date and current websites and social media posts reach out to target markets like never before. Share what you and your employees do with the community. Lodging operations are expected to generate employment for members of the local community and therefore cannot isolate itself from the community.

Thinking forward for the long-term benefit of your lodging operation, a goal should be to build confidence in your prospective guests through your sales and marketing efforts. That confidence will allow potential guests to book a stay and build trust in your property. Lodging operators can start by re-defining themselves (their own hotel) and answer the following questions. 

What is your concept? Are you a branded property or are you an independent? Are you urban, rural, small resort etc.? How old is your property, are you new? older? renovated? Trends indicate smaller markets, access to outdoors, smaller resorts, and regional travel are leading the way.

Who is in your competitive set? Who are you really competing with? Are your competitors other branded hotels, vacation rentals, larger properties? Why are they your competition? What criteria do you use to place them in your competitive set? What facilities and amenities do competitors offer that are competitive with your own and are new hotels in the pipeline in your market?

What is market growth expected to be? Is the market growing, or in current times, is the market on the road to recovery? What and who are area-demand generators? Are you targeting the right market segments, or do you need to drill down a bit further? Is yours a local or tourism destination market? Is the focus of your sales and marketing on group business? Obviously, each target market that you have can be subdivided and categorized into more specific units.

How will your hotel penetrate the market? Can your hotel capture more than its fair share of supply? That means taking business from your competitors and or creating new business? If you compare your property location, facilities, and amenities with your competitive set, are you operating at an advantage or a disadvantage?

What is your price point? How much are your guests willing to pay? Do your target markets expect discounts and if so, how big a discount? How many room types do you offer? What other revenue streams are available in your lodging property?  Are you limited service, full service, Branded? Independent?

Is your concept sustainable? Finally, given your operating models, can you establish yourself in a market and create a sustainable presence? Will your sales and marketing efforts allow you to penetrate the market successfully in all segments or are you focused on a specific target market?

Focus on Personal Service and Sales

Once you know your hotel and your market position, determine the concerns and expectations of our guests? Responses to comments, posts on Trip Advisor and other sites or the hotel website will be important parts of market research and are part of closing the circle of service, which is a vital part of the sales and marketing effort. Communication, honesty, and trust will build confidence in the lodging product. If your offerings (products and services) change, make sure to communicate those changes to your guests. Changes should be based on guest research and feedback.

(Adapted from Competency Model Clearinghouse, 2021).

Personalization services are particularly important for tour operators and hotel marketers since their clients and guests are acquired through targeted emails (Lefever, 2020 ). Market positioning and sales are allies but not the same. One needs to understand selling and how to close a sale. My father was a salesman (insurance) most of his professional career and was good at it.

Personally, I am not a salesperson and feel I never got the sales gene. Given the importance of sales, lodging property businesses, when recruiting, selecting, and hiring for hotel sales, need to match identified sales and marketing goals with the right sale's people. A sales professional knows how to be flexible, adaptable and knows personal service and is in the business of building relationships. In the long term, perhaps the goal is for a lodging property to create its own marketing service brand?

Technology, Sales and Marketing

Technology is here to stay as it relates to sales and marketing of hotels. If you review the lists of sales and marketing trends that are available, they are full of technology innovations and ideas. As a resource I am including HSMAI, the Hotel, Sales and Marketing International, who share a collection of articles, panel summaries and more that provide good ideas and best practices in sales and marketing during the time of the pandemic and going forward.

We have touched on technology previously in this discussion but here are a few more marketing trends, tactics, and methods to add to your list. I had never heard of social media influencers and people doing that as a career but Lefever (2020) shares that "influencer marketing" is the digital counterpart to the traditional word-of-mouth approach used to increase brand awareness and to generate direct bookings for hotels. As a word of mouth substitute it makes sense.

People listening to people also ties nicely to user generated content and its marketing value. Social media posts, blogs etc. that share experiences can be valued sales and marketing tools. Sales and marketing professionals using technology can also follow up on trackable visits to your website, and social media platforms. Other technology to connect with can include the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), chatbots, your hotel and other mobile apps, and embracing virtual technology options.  ?

Conclusions

A return to the "new normal" will mean greater attention to a price and value-relationship expectation of consumers and will be accomplished with greater attention to service. Successful sales and marketing will monitor guest preferences to direct the focus of the sales effort to satisfy customer needs. ABCD or Always Be Collecting Data, will be part of an effective sales and marketing effort going forward. An obvious demonstration of new media and technology and an integrated marketing and communications plan will be useful both in the long term, strategically and to meet tactical objectives.

Partnerships can be great marketing tools. Local business partnerships can  offer unique and innovative products and services. Local connections can also help shape a guest visit by allowing guest to be immersed in local traditions and cultural activities. Keep reminding yourself that partnership market is an effort to benefit everyone in a partnership through collaboration of effort.

Finally, given that we are in a pandemic and in a recovery mode, it may be useful to apply an offering, adapted here from Local Business (2020) based on a crisis communications guide.

  1. Message: The pandemic is not a secret: tell your potential guests what your safety measures and consideration are and how you are delivering a safe guest experience.
  2. Empower the staff: Your employees are your greatest sales and marketing people as our students are for us.
  3. Over communicate: Using the context of visibility and accountability and communicating with your guests, past, present, and future can set a sustainable framework. This context is what is recommended in online learning.
  4. Over collaborate: Whether this is embodied through partnerships, your professional networks and association can be great sales and marketing partners.
  5. Over deliver: Do what you promised but do more than that. As noted at the beginning of this discussion meet and exceed the guest expectations.
  6. Keep marketing: Do not let your property disappear, keep your images and messages in front of your guests and potential guests. Tough times often can mean budget cuts however, and this not the time to stop marketing. Market safety and security in these troubled times, recovery and the new normal are in sight but not here yet.

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This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California notwithstanding any conflict of laws provisions. You and HotelExecutive agree that the venue for all legal disputes, controversies, actions of any kind arising under or related to this Agreement shall be San Francisco, California. You and HotelExecutive further agree that in case of any litigation regarding this Agreement, you irrevocably and unconditionally (i) consent to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts in the County of San Francisco, California for any litigation or dispute arising out of or relating to this Agreement, (ii) agree not to commence any litigation arising out of or relating to this Agreement except in the California Courts, (iii) agree not to plead or claim that such litigation brought therein has been brought in an inconvenient forum, and (iv) agree the California Courts represent the exclusive jurisdiction for all litigation relating to this Agreement.

11. MEMBERSHIP FEES

Hotel Business Review Subscriptions

If you choose to purchase a subscription, member subscription payments can be made in U.S. Dollars, as well as a variety of international currencies. Membership terms are Annual Recurring, and Monthly Recurring. The Annual Recurring subscription is an annual commitment and subscribers will be charged each consecutive billing cycle. Annual Recurring subscriptions can be cancelled after the first billing cycle and within 30-days of the billing date for a full refund. Monthly Recurring subscriptions are ongoing and subscribers will be charged each consecutive monthly billing cycle. Monthly Recurring subscriptions can be cancelled after the first month and within 7 days of the monthly billing cycle for a full refund.

12. PAYMENT AUTHORIZATION

Payment for the services provided to you in, at, through or in association with HotelExecutive may be made by automatic credit card, debit card, direct debit, bankwire or Paypal and other approved payment means offered in, at, through or in association with HotelExecutive, and you hereby authorize HotelExecutive and its agents to transact such payments on your behalf.

You hereby authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to charge your credit card to pay for your membership to HotelExecutive. You further authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to charge your credit card for any and all purchases of products, services in association with HotelExecutive. You agree to be personally liable for all charges incurred by you in association with your access or other use of any content provided by HotelExecutive or any third party in association with HotelExecutive. You acknowledge and agree that your liability for all such charges shall continue after termination of your access or any type of membership arrangement with HotelExecutive.

In the event that you have chosen to have your membership automatically rebilled, unless and until you notify HotelExecutive that you wish to cancel or terminate your membership to HotelExecutive, you hereby agree and authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to automatically renew your membership to HotelExecutive on a continuing basis and to charge your credit card (or other payment means you have selected) to pay for the ongoing cost of your membership. You hereby further authorize HotelExecutive's Internet Payment Service Provider to charge your credit card (or other approved payment means you have selected) for any and all purchases of products, services and entertainment provided to in, at, through or in association with HotelExecutive.

13. PRIVACY POLICY

The following is the Privacy Policy for HotelExecutive

We can be reached via telephone, email, or online at our contact page. When you visit our site we do not log any information regarding your domain or email address. Information Sharing: We do not share user information with any third parties other than via press release distribution as described below.

Hotel Newswire is a newswire service that distributes press releases on behalf of our users. If you decide to submit a press release for distribution through our system we will transmit your entire press release including any personal information therein contained to our media contacts and online distribution points including search engines. This is the only redistribution of your information that we engage in. Your submission of press releases through our system indicates consent with this policy. The information we collect during your registration process is used to notify users about updates to our service and inform users of any special events hosted by Hotel Newswire. This information is not shared with other organizations for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

Cookies: Our system requires the use of cookies to enable the user to log back into our website to access information from the newswire, without having to log in each time using the required username and password.

If you do not want to receive email from us in the future, please let us know by following instructions included in our communication with you. Users who supply us with telephone numbers online may receive telephone contact from us regarding their account, or informing them of new products and services available on the HotelExecutive website. If you do not wish to receive such telephone calls, please edit your account and remove your phone number from your account profile. This can be done from your user account menu.

Ad Servers: We do not partner with or have any relationship with any ad server companies. From time to time, we may use customer information for new uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at any time, we will post the policy changes to our website to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our website periodically.

Upon request we provide site visitors with access to all information (including proprietary information) that we maintain about them. Users can access this information by logging in to their account.

Security: We always use industry-standard encryption technologies while transferring and receiving user data exchanged with our site. We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information that we have collected from you on our site. We do not store credit card information in our systems.

If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us.

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