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[temp_author] => Kasia Russell
[title] => The Benefits of a Small Hotel Management Company
[sub_title] =>
[seo_url] => the-benefits-of-a-small-hotel-management-company
[body] => The last few years have been fraught with mergers and acquisitions in the hotel management space. Companies have grown larger and less personalized, more streamlined, increasingly technologically advanced, and geographically agnostic. The benefits of a large management company may seem obvious: efficiency and economies of scale, technology and innovation, specialized knowledge and resources, and distribution channel advantages, among others.
However, when choosing a management company for your hotel, I encourage you to look beyond the seemingly obvious and evaluate whether a more personalized and strategic approach is appropriate for your hotel real estate investment goals. This article outlines the benefits of selecting a small management company for the day-to-day operation of your hotel.
How Do You Know if You Need to Hire a Hotel Management Company?
One of the most obvious reasons for hiring a management company or changing operators is the struggling performance of your hotel asset. Indicators of struggling performance include unexplained falling revenue or income levels, lack of increasing revenues as compared with the market and industry, increases in poor guest satisfaction scores and online reviews, and/or high employee turnover. Inadequate performance is not only problematic in the short term but can also lead to declines in the asset's marketability, reputation, and even market value. Hiring the right operator can help rectify issues and maximize the hotel's performance as a real estate investment.
Another reason to seek a third-party operator is simply that these firms are qualified and employees have years of hospitality operational experience. These firms know how to negotiate with brands, implement revenue-management strategies, hire talented staff, market the asset, and manage expenses on a granular level, to name just a few areas of expertise. Hiring a management company in many cases can be more cost-effective than managing the property in-house as a result of this experience and the benefits of leveraging industry relationships. Hiring a third-party operator also helps release time and resources of the owner that could be used to focus on other business priorities.
Finally, hiring a hotel management company is crucial as a first-time hotel developer or as an existing owner looking to reposition an asset. The lack of experience in this space can lead to costly mistakes that can be easily avoided by seeking the advice and guidance of a qualified operator. Have you ever considered where the laundry storage room should be placed relative to the elevators? Or how the back-of-the-house office space is designed to maximize guest-facing and revenue-generating areas in the front of the house? Have you thought about whether your hotel should be designed with connecting rooms or showers only in the bathrooms, and whether the hotel should feature an in-house laundry operation versus outsourcing laundry? Hotel operators have decades of experience and market intelligence that can help navigate these and many other important considerations.
What Are the Major Differentiators to Consider When Evaluating the Qualifications and Benefits of a Small Hotel Management Firm?
The single greatest advantage to working with a small or boutique hotel management company is the firm's ability to be nimble. With a smaller company, decisions can be made quickly. The leadership structure of a smaller company is likely flatter, allowing for agility and flexibility in everything from staffing decisions to contract terms. Changes can be implemented without having to cut through red tape, and owners often have direct contact with the company's decision makers. Proactive solutions do not get bogged down in the bureaucracy of a large firm, allowing problems to be addressed swiftly and decisively.
A terrific example of this is the hotel management agreement. Most firms look to secure agreements for 5-, 10-, or even 15-year terms as a standard. This provides the manager with financial security and assurance for a significant duration of time, putting less pressure on them to maximize the hotel's performance. Smaller companies can step out of the industry standards and work with the owner to create more compelling terms. Shorter termination clauses of 30, 60, or 90 days after an initial period are becoming more common and are sometimes used by smaller firms to assure owners that if expectations aren't being met or exceeded by the operator, the commitment risk is relatively low.
This further protects the owner from costly legal and termination fees if it is determined that the relationship with the third-party operator is no longer aligned with the owner's priorities. Additionally, the shorter term offered by a smaller firm can keep the company vigilant and its operational decisions more at the forefront since the guarantee of the agreement is relatively vulnerable.
Along these lines, termination fees, performance thresholds, and/or incentive fees are more likely to be negotiable items. Smaller firms are also less likely to mandate standardization across their portfolio of managed hotels. If your property is unbranded, you don't have to worry that a certain brand of bed linens or hand soap will be mandated across the board; the autonomy of those decisions lies with the ownership group in collaboration with the operator.
In that vein, ongoing and regular dialogue with clients is a major differentiator of small management firms. Keeping the owner involved to their desired degree ensures that near- and long-term goals are actively implemented in collaborative partnership, instead of in a vacuum. Reporting on hotel performance can happen on a daily basis, if needed, and questions on performance can be answered in real time.
A small management company has the ability to provide a more personalized and hands-on approach with regard to the day-to-day management of your hotel asset. Not only are you more likely to have a dedicated account manager who knows the local market, the company's smaller client list allows it to focus wholly on your priorities. One of the most important components of this is the design and implementation of a strategic marketing plan. A smaller management company will conduct thorough market research and leverage local connections to help maximize your hotel's exposure to its target guest base.
The firm will help you better evaluate the competitive landscape and identify opportunities and services gaps given the intimate understanding of the local market. A smaller company with more focused experience will undoubtedly be aware of changes in market dynamics that could affect the operation of its client's hotel. Examples include the opening of a new hotel, renovations of competitive properties, travel freezes at local firms, corporate expansions, and new meeting and group demand sources, to name a few.
I experienced one such example at the end of 2019 when a small hotel management firm in the Pacific Northwest leveraged its relationship with a tech company that had significant exposure to business operations in China. This relationship allowed the hotel management company to better prepare for the impacts of COVID-19 on the global travel industry. This firm was able to warn its owners, beef up reserves, and weather the storm of the pandemic with better preparation than many other operators.
Another often overlooked and misunderstood benefit of using a boutique hotel management company is its relatively lower overhead and cost of doing business. Many smaller companies have employees working remotely, eliminating the cost of renting office space. These companies often do not have multiple shared service fees to help deflect their corporate overhead. Boutique firms have leaner teams, passing those savings on to the owner in terms of competitive contract fees and terms. Despite streamlined operational budgets, quality of service and guest experience are not compromised-and, in fact, are strengthened through a higher level of interaction with the property.
Although each hotel management contract is different, one of the most significant components of the agreement is the fee. Hotel management fees can range from 2% to 5% of gross rooms revenue depending on the size, quality, and type of hotel. A provision for an incentive fee is typically included regardless of the size of the hotel and is usually tied to the excess after meeting the budget. Smaller companies have the ability to negotiate more creatively, with possible fees including a monthly minimum fee as a percentage of the property's total revenue or a tiered rate as a percentage of revenue.
Finally, it is important to understand how the firm is integrated into the greater hospitality industry. What is the experience of the principles and owners? Is the firm associated with an advisory council to help lead the industry's ever-changing trends? Do members of the firm attend industry events and provide thought leadership on industry topics? Is the company part of a larger firm, allowing collaboration and synergies with other advisory services? These are just some of the considerations that can help a small firm stand out in a sea of large-scale operators.
The ultimate decision regarding the management company to hire for your hotel takes a tremendous amount of research and time. Not all firms are created equally, and hotel assets vary significantly; there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution. Understanding the benefits of a small or boutique firm is crucial when determining the best option for your hotel investment. As an owner, you have specific goals for your hotel investment that may include market reputation, employee retention and professional advancement, and/or community impact, in addition to maximizing return on investment. Your management company should understand your goals intimately and work with you on these differentiators to achieve success.
[summary] => The benefits of a large hotel management company may seem obvious. However, when choosing a management company for your hotel, consider looking beyond the obvious and evaluating whether a more personalized and strategic approach is appropriate for your hotel investment goals. This article outlines the benefits of selecting a small hotel management company for the day-to-day operation of your hotel.
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[title] => 3 Ways Flexible Stay Options Boost Sales and Add Value for Guests
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[seo_url] => 3-ways-flexible-stay-options-boost-sales-and-add-value-for-guests
[body] => Throughout my experience in the hospitality industry, one thing has remained consistent – if you make a major business decision or implement a new strategy that benefits your business, your community and the customers you serve-you will stand out among competition and thrive.
Part of weighing decisions for a lodging concept is measuring the benefits and the sustainability of what you're trying to accomplish, and when it comes to your offerings, it can be hard to budge.
Flexible stay options were a no-brainer for us when looking at the potential sales benefits as well as our customer base, which includes a wider audience seeking the flexibility of long or short-term stays. WaterWalk's extended stay and unfurnished unit offerings have become a brand differentiator among our competitors and has placed our properties into a niche that prospective travelers are looking for when booking their stays – whether for work, leisure, or a combination of both.
The trend towards flexible lodging options is being driven by the changing preferences and needs of travelers, and today's travelers are seeking unique and personalized experiences that go beyond traditional hotel offerings. People are no longer satisfied with a one-size-fits-all approach or the limited square space and amenities of cookie-cutter hotel rooms.
Lodging brands that prioritize customization and adaptation to their local markets demonstrate their understanding of the diverse needs of travelers. To compete with alternative accommodations, traditional lodging brands will need to adopt a more flexible and adaptable approach. By offering tailored experiences, lodging brands can provide exceptional service and become an essential part of the hospitality landscape in their local markets.
Increased Visibility to Appeal to New Types of Guests
Providing flexibility by offering both short and long-term stay options will attract new types of travelers to your property. The business traveler and the vacationer may be your current categories of guests, but by adding flexible stay options, your property will become a potential option to suit a variety of unique needs and emerging consumer behaviors. Flexible options will attract blended leisure or 'bleisure' guests that both work and play during their travels as well as remote workers who are looking for a change in scenery. Additionally, with no strict terms or caps on extended stay dates, hotels will have the ability to cater to local residents, nomad travelers and guests with careers that involve traveling for work (think travel nurses, pilots and flight attendants) and looking for their next temporary home.
A dynamic product offering not only increases the diversity in your customer base, but it also allows for increased visibility in markets outside of your property. These offerings can also lead to positive word-of mouth marketing, which is one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to attract new customers. When travelers have a notable experience, they are more likely to recommend it to their friends, family and colleagues. Travelers from cities you may be targeting for growth may share their experience with residents there and boost your brand's credibility from afar even with no existing presence in the area. This will make it even easier to appeal to a new market, as there is already an awareness of your concept and its services.
Providing flexible stay options that allow guests to customize their experience involves undergoing adaptations to your property, its amenities, features and even its design. With extended stay offerings comes interior upgrades for guests, like adding an in-room ice maker, stovetop, dishes, silverware and even a washer and dryer, for example.
Additionally, for today's long-term guests and bleisure travelers, the livability of the local area and where they are staying is also a key factor. There is no longer a standard workplace environment – it continues to change, with many employees working from coffee shops, coworking spaces or their own kitchen islands. This evolving workplace environment presents an opportunity for hotel brands to cater to the needs of traveling professionals by offering both in-unit and shared community amenities that accommodate their work environment needs and make extended stays more comfortable and livable.
Upping your amenities to support a work-from-anywhere lifestyle is one way to appeal to this category of guests – including perks such as personal, high-speed WiFi access, attractive interior decor for virtual meetings and quiet workspaces. When it comes to the destination aspect of bleisure and work-from-anywhere travel, the addition of amenities that support the leisure side of travel such as a swimming pool, children's playground, pickleball courts, an open lawn with public grills and a fitness center with modern exercise equipment will provide guests with an all-in-one environment.
The amenities that support livability for your guests, no matter their reason for traveling or length of stay, will provide guests with an enhanced experience that complements their flexible lifestyle and grows your brand's reputation. Catering to multiple types of guests through amenities, features and the design of your property not only increases the value of your offerings but also provides guests with more convenience and comfortability when deciding to book a longer stay. This can be your differentiator when guests compare your property to the competition, and ultimately lead to booking your next guest.
Local Community Support + Loyalty
Each destination has its own unique culture, lifestyle and travel trends. By providing flexible stay options for guests at your property, you create an environment that supports the local community and offers additional housing options for residents. Locals who may need a new place to live but don't want the pressure of being tied to a lease agreement or a mortgage will now have another option. You can then make your new offerings known to the community through marketing efforts and local business partnerships, furthering the reach of your business to drive additional sales in your market.
Increasing the flow of travelers in your market will help support other local businesses and attractions if your property is centrally located and you work in tandem with the businesses in your community. Hiring a director of sales and general manager who are local to the area and willing to make connections will help drive the community to support your property more. Identify ways to partner with businesses in your area and stay informed on what services they provide so that you can adapt your concept to meet the needs of the community. Hosting pop-up food markets or participating at a local chamber event to introduce your lodging services to the area are a couple great ways to immerse your brand into the community.
When the residents in your local area have an increased knowledge of your flexible stay offerings, combined with your hotel delivering excellent customer service and supporting other local businesses, the community support of your property will naturally grow. Increased local support of your brand will lead to more customer loyalty and a better reputation for your business, providing more potential for new customer referrals and sales growth. Localized customization will also elevate the guest experience and create a strong sense of connection and loyalty among travelers.
Differentiation in a Highly Saturated Industry
When building and growing a hotel brand, it's important to take note of what your competitors are doing and how you can provide a service that stands out. With an increase in guest expectations for travel post-pandemic and the continued popularity of vacation rentals, it can take bold moves to make a name for your hotel and differentiate your brand from the competition. Flexibility will not only make your concept a better fit for prospective guests, but it also provides the opportunity for your brand to fit into multiple niches in the industry vs. being limited to the short-term stay space.
One way that flexible lodging concepts can stand out is by offering customizable rooms that allow guests to personalize their space by using their own furniture and unique decor. By providing this type of customization as an option, lodging brands can create an even more memorable experience for their guests, making them feel at home.
Another way to improve flexibility is to make changes to room access technology. Door systems that use radio frequency identification (RFID) and Bluetooth room access reduces the cost of the traditional keycard and allows for future app integration which makes for a smooth mobile check in for guests. While there are numerous additional ways your brand can differentiate itself – customer service, community engagement, amenity offerings, value and more – guests can make an easy decision to look elsewhere if they don't find personalized options to suit their needs.
With the rising number of traveler types and the ever-present demand for lodging options within local markets, the need for flexibility from lodging brands is here to stay. Flexibility is not just about attracting new customers, it is also about retaining existing customers by providing a customized experience that meets each guest's specific needs.
As more extended-stay concepts continue to open around the country, it is important that lodging brands tailor each property, whether a conversion or ground-up build, to their local markets and offer a premier, flexible option for the community and visitors. By offering flexible options, lodging brands can continue to attract and retain customers by creating memorable experiences that set them apart from the competition.
[summary] => Evolving workplace environments and travel kicking back into high gear three years after the pandemic have presented new categories of travelers. From business to leisure travel and everywhere in between, this increase in traveler types proves that providing flexible lodging options at your property to appeal to both short and long-term guests is essential. What are the benefits of offering flexible stay offerings? Increased visibility from new categories of travelers, more local support from residents in the community and ultimately an increase in sales.
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[title] => The Benefits of a Small Hotel Management Company
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[body] => The last few years have been fraught with mergers and acquisitions in the hotel management space. Companies have grown larger and less personalized, more streamlined, increasingly technologically advanced, and geographically agnostic. The benefits of a large management company may seem obvious: efficiency and economies of scale, technology and innovation, specialized knowledge and resources, and distribution channel advantages, among others.
However, when choosing a management company for your hotel, I encourage you to look beyond the seemingly obvious and evaluate whether a more personalized and strategic approach is appropriate for your hotel real estate investment goals. This article outlines the benefits of selecting a small management company for the day-to-day operation of your hotel.
How Do You Know if You Need to Hire a Hotel Management Company?
One of the most obvious reasons for hiring a management company or changing operators is the struggling performance of your hotel asset. Indicators of struggling performance include unexplained falling revenue or income levels, lack of increasing revenues as compared with the market and industry, increases in poor guest satisfaction scores and online reviews, and/or high employee turnover. Inadequate performance is not only problematic in the short term but can also lead to declines in the asset's marketability, reputation, and even market value. Hiring the right operator can help rectify issues and maximize the hotel's performance as a real estate investment.
Another reason to seek a third-party operator is simply that these firms are qualified and employees have years of hospitality operational experience. These firms know how to negotiate with brands, implement revenue-management strategies, hire talented staff, market the asset, and manage expenses on a granular level, to name just a few areas of expertise. Hiring a management company in many cases can be more cost-effective than managing the property in-house as a result of this experience and the benefits of leveraging industry relationships. Hiring a third-party operator also helps release time and resources of the owner that could be used to focus on other business priorities.
Finally, hiring a hotel management company is crucial as a first-time hotel developer or as an existing owner looking to reposition an asset. The lack of experience in this space can lead to costly mistakes that can be easily avoided by seeking the advice and guidance of a qualified operator. Have you ever considered where the laundry storage room should be placed relative to the elevators? Or how the back-of-the-house office space is designed to maximize guest-facing and revenue-generating areas in the front of the house? Have you thought about whether your hotel should be designed with connecting rooms or showers only in the bathrooms, and whether the hotel should feature an in-house laundry operation versus outsourcing laundry? Hotel operators have decades of experience and market intelligence that can help navigate these and many other important considerations.
What Are the Major Differentiators to Consider When Evaluating the Qualifications and Benefits of a Small Hotel Management Firm?
The single greatest advantage to working with a small or boutique hotel management company is the firm's ability to be nimble. With a smaller company, decisions can be made quickly. The leadership structure of a smaller company is likely flatter, allowing for agility and flexibility in everything from staffing decisions to contract terms. Changes can be implemented without having to cut through red tape, and owners often have direct contact with the company's decision makers. Proactive solutions do not get bogged down in the bureaucracy of a large firm, allowing problems to be addressed swiftly and decisively.
A terrific example of this is the hotel management agreement. Most firms look to secure agreements for 5-, 10-, or even 15-year terms as a standard. This provides the manager with financial security and assurance for a significant duration of time, putting less pressure on them to maximize the hotel's performance. Smaller companies can step out of the industry standards and work with the owner to create more compelling terms. Shorter termination clauses of 30, 60, or 90 days after an initial period are becoming more common and are sometimes used by smaller firms to assure owners that if expectations aren't being met or exceeded by the operator, the commitment risk is relatively low.
This further protects the owner from costly legal and termination fees if it is determined that the relationship with the third-party operator is no longer aligned with the owner's priorities. Additionally, the shorter term offered by a smaller firm can keep the company vigilant and its operational decisions more at the forefront since the guarantee of the agreement is relatively vulnerable.
Along these lines, termination fees, performance thresholds, and/or incentive fees are more likely to be negotiable items. Smaller firms are also less likely to mandate standardization across their portfolio of managed hotels. If your property is unbranded, you don't have to worry that a certain brand of bed linens or hand soap will be mandated across the board; the autonomy of those decisions lies with the ownership group in collaboration with the operator.
In that vein, ongoing and regular dialogue with clients is a major differentiator of small management firms. Keeping the owner involved to their desired degree ensures that near- and long-term goals are actively implemented in collaborative partnership, instead of in a vacuum. Reporting on hotel performance can happen on a daily basis, if needed, and questions on performance can be answered in real time.
A small management company has the ability to provide a more personalized and hands-on approach with regard to the day-to-day management of your hotel asset. Not only are you more likely to have a dedicated account manager who knows the local market, the company's smaller client list allows it to focus wholly on your priorities. One of the most important components of this is the design and implementation of a strategic marketing plan. A smaller management company will conduct thorough market research and leverage local connections to help maximize your hotel's exposure to its target guest base.
The firm will help you better evaluate the competitive landscape and identify opportunities and services gaps given the intimate understanding of the local market. A smaller company with more focused experience will undoubtedly be aware of changes in market dynamics that could affect the operation of its client's hotel. Examples include the opening of a new hotel, renovations of competitive properties, travel freezes at local firms, corporate expansions, and new meeting and group demand sources, to name a few.
I experienced one such example at the end of 2019 when a small hotel management firm in the Pacific Northwest leveraged its relationship with a tech company that had significant exposure to business operations in China. This relationship allowed the hotel management company to better prepare for the impacts of COVID-19 on the global travel industry. This firm was able to warn its owners, beef up reserves, and weather the storm of the pandemic with better preparation than many other operators.
Another often overlooked and misunderstood benefit of using a boutique hotel management company is its relatively lower overhead and cost of doing business. Many smaller companies have employees working remotely, eliminating the cost of renting office space. These companies often do not have multiple shared service fees to help deflect their corporate overhead. Boutique firms have leaner teams, passing those savings on to the owner in terms of competitive contract fees and terms. Despite streamlined operational budgets, quality of service and guest experience are not compromised-and, in fact, are strengthened through a higher level of interaction with the property.
Although each hotel management contract is different, one of the most significant components of the agreement is the fee. Hotel management fees can range from 2% to 5% of gross rooms revenue depending on the size, quality, and type of hotel. A provision for an incentive fee is typically included regardless of the size of the hotel and is usually tied to the excess after meeting the budget. Smaller companies have the ability to negotiate more creatively, with possible fees including a monthly minimum fee as a percentage of the property's total revenue or a tiered rate as a percentage of revenue.
Finally, it is important to understand how the firm is integrated into the greater hospitality industry. What is the experience of the principles and owners? Is the firm associated with an advisory council to help lead the industry's ever-changing trends? Do members of the firm attend industry events and provide thought leadership on industry topics? Is the company part of a larger firm, allowing collaboration and synergies with other advisory services? These are just some of the considerations that can help a small firm stand out in a sea of large-scale operators.
The ultimate decision regarding the management company to hire for your hotel takes a tremendous amount of research and time. Not all firms are created equally, and hotel assets vary significantly; there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution. Understanding the benefits of a small or boutique firm is crucial when determining the best option for your hotel investment. As an owner, you have specific goals for your hotel investment that may include market reputation, employee retention and professional advancement, and/or community impact, in addition to maximizing return on investment. Your management company should understand your goals intimately and work with you on these differentiators to achieve success.
[summary] => The benefits of a large hotel management company may seem obvious. However, when choosing a management company for your hotel, consider looking beyond the obvious and evaluating whether a more personalized and strategic approach is appropriate for your hotel investment goals. This article outlines the benefits of selecting a small hotel management company for the day-to-day operation of your hotel.
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[author_title] => Senior Managing Director, Practice Leader
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[feature_summary] => The last few years have been fraught with mergers and acquisitions in the hotel management space. Companies have grown larger and less personalized, more streamlined, increasingly technologically advanced, and geographically agnostic. The benefits of a large management company may seem obvious: efficiency and economies of scale, technology and innovation, specialized knowledge and resources, and distribution channel advantages, among others. However, when choosing a management company for your hotel, I encourage you to look beyond the seemingly obvious and evaluate whether a more personalized and strategic approach is appropriate for your hotel real estate investment goals. This article outlines the benefits...
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[title] => 3 Ways Flexible Stay Options Boost Sales and Add Value for Guests
[sub_title] =>
[seo_url] => 3-ways-flexible-stay-options-boost-sales-and-add-value-for-guests
[body] => Throughout my experience in the hospitality industry, one thing has remained consistent – if you make a major business decision or implement a new strategy that benefits your business, your community and the customers you serve-you will stand out among competition and thrive.
Part of weighing decisions for a lodging concept is measuring the benefits and the sustainability of what you're trying to accomplish, and when it comes to your offerings, it can be hard to budge.
Flexible stay options were a no-brainer for us when looking at the potential sales benefits as well as our customer base, which includes a wider audience seeking the flexibility of long or short-term stays. WaterWalk's extended stay and unfurnished unit offerings have become a brand differentiator among our competitors and has placed our properties into a niche that prospective travelers are looking for when booking their stays – whether for work, leisure, or a combination of both.
The trend towards flexible lodging options is being driven by the changing preferences and needs of travelers, and today's travelers are seeking unique and personalized experiences that go beyond traditional hotel offerings. People are no longer satisfied with a one-size-fits-all approach or the limited square space and amenities of cookie-cutter hotel rooms.
Lodging brands that prioritize customization and adaptation to their local markets demonstrate their understanding of the diverse needs of travelers. To compete with alternative accommodations, traditional lodging brands will need to adopt a more flexible and adaptable approach. By offering tailored experiences, lodging brands can provide exceptional service and become an essential part of the hospitality landscape in their local markets.
Increased Visibility to Appeal to New Types of Guests
Providing flexibility by offering both short and long-term stay options will attract new types of travelers to your property. The business traveler and the vacationer may be your current categories of guests, but by adding flexible stay options, your property will become a potential option to suit a variety of unique needs and emerging consumer behaviors. Flexible options will attract blended leisure or 'bleisure' guests that both work and play during their travels as well as remote workers who are looking for a change in scenery. Additionally, with no strict terms or caps on extended stay dates, hotels will have the ability to cater to local residents, nomad travelers and guests with careers that involve traveling for work (think travel nurses, pilots and flight attendants) and looking for their next temporary home.
A dynamic product offering not only increases the diversity in your customer base, but it also allows for increased visibility in markets outside of your property. These offerings can also lead to positive word-of mouth marketing, which is one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to attract new customers. When travelers have a notable experience, they are more likely to recommend it to their friends, family and colleagues. Travelers from cities you may be targeting for growth may share their experience with residents there and boost your brand's credibility from afar even with no existing presence in the area. This will make it even easier to appeal to a new market, as there is already an awareness of your concept and its services.
Providing flexible stay options that allow guests to customize their experience involves undergoing adaptations to your property, its amenities, features and even its design. With extended stay offerings comes interior upgrades for guests, like adding an in-room ice maker, stovetop, dishes, silverware and even a washer and dryer, for example.
Additionally, for today's long-term guests and bleisure travelers, the livability of the local area and where they are staying is also a key factor. There is no longer a standard workplace environment – it continues to change, with many employees working from coffee shops, coworking spaces or their own kitchen islands. This evolving workplace environment presents an opportunity for hotel brands to cater to the needs of traveling professionals by offering both in-unit and shared community amenities that accommodate their work environment needs and make extended stays more comfortable and livable.
Upping your amenities to support a work-from-anywhere lifestyle is one way to appeal to this category of guests – including perks such as personal, high-speed WiFi access, attractive interior decor for virtual meetings and quiet workspaces. When it comes to the destination aspect of bleisure and work-from-anywhere travel, the addition of amenities that support the leisure side of travel such as a swimming pool, children's playground, pickleball courts, an open lawn with public grills and a fitness center with modern exercise equipment will provide guests with an all-in-one environment.
The amenities that support livability for your guests, no matter their reason for traveling or length of stay, will provide guests with an enhanced experience that complements their flexible lifestyle and grows your brand's reputation. Catering to multiple types of guests through amenities, features and the design of your property not only increases the value of your offerings but also provides guests with more convenience and comfortability when deciding to book a longer stay. This can be your differentiator when guests compare your property to the competition, and ultimately lead to booking your next guest.
Local Community Support + Loyalty
Each destination has its own unique culture, lifestyle and travel trends. By providing flexible stay options for guests at your property, you create an environment that supports the local community and offers additional housing options for residents. Locals who may need a new place to live but don't want the pressure of being tied to a lease agreement or a mortgage will now have another option. You can then make your new offerings known to the community through marketing efforts and local business partnerships, furthering the reach of your business to drive additional sales in your market.
Increasing the flow of travelers in your market will help support other local businesses and attractions if your property is centrally located and you work in tandem with the businesses in your community. Hiring a director of sales and general manager who are local to the area and willing to make connections will help drive the community to support your property more. Identify ways to partner with businesses in your area and stay informed on what services they provide so that you can adapt your concept to meet the needs of the community. Hosting pop-up food markets or participating at a local chamber event to introduce your lodging services to the area are a couple great ways to immerse your brand into the community.
When the residents in your local area have an increased knowledge of your flexible stay offerings, combined with your hotel delivering excellent customer service and supporting other local businesses, the community support of your property will naturally grow. Increased local support of your brand will lead to more customer loyalty and a better reputation for your business, providing more potential for new customer referrals and sales growth. Localized customization will also elevate the guest experience and create a strong sense of connection and loyalty among travelers.
Differentiation in a Highly Saturated Industry
When building and growing a hotel brand, it's important to take note of what your competitors are doing and how you can provide a service that stands out. With an increase in guest expectations for travel post-pandemic and the continued popularity of vacation rentals, it can take bold moves to make a name for your hotel and differentiate your brand from the competition. Flexibility will not only make your concept a better fit for prospective guests, but it also provides the opportunity for your brand to fit into multiple niches in the industry vs. being limited to the short-term stay space.
One way that flexible lodging concepts can stand out is by offering customizable rooms that allow guests to personalize their space by using their own furniture and unique decor. By providing this type of customization as an option, lodging brands can create an even more memorable experience for their guests, making them feel at home.
Another way to improve flexibility is to make changes to room access technology. Door systems that use radio frequency identification (RFID) and Bluetooth room access reduces the cost of the traditional keycard and allows for future app integration which makes for a smooth mobile check in for guests. While there are numerous additional ways your brand can differentiate itself – customer service, community engagement, amenity offerings, value and more – guests can make an easy decision to look elsewhere if they don't find personalized options to suit their needs.
With the rising number of traveler types and the ever-present demand for lodging options within local markets, the need for flexibility from lodging brands is here to stay. Flexibility is not just about attracting new customers, it is also about retaining existing customers by providing a customized experience that meets each guest's specific needs.
As more extended-stay concepts continue to open around the country, it is important that lodging brands tailor each property, whether a conversion or ground-up build, to their local markets and offer a premier, flexible option for the community and visitors. By offering flexible options, lodging brands can continue to attract and retain customers by creating memorable experiences that set them apart from the competition.
[summary] => Evolving workplace environments and travel kicking back into high gear three years after the pandemic have presented new categories of travelers. From business to leisure travel and everywhere in between, this increase in traveler types proves that providing flexible lodging options at your property to appeal to both short and long-term guests is essential. What are the benefits of offering flexible stay offerings? Increased visibility from new categories of travelers, more local support from residents in the community and ultimately an increase in sales.
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[author_title] => Chief Executive Officer
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