CASHING IN ON HOLIDAYS IN HOTELS

Four days of holidays and unlimited disposable income. Yet, most hotels recorded low room occupancy and food covers did not reflect the spirit of the season. Granted that Nigerians’ sense of recreation and leisure are horribly limited to gulping beer and eating pepper soup; and as a family, going to the beach dressed as if they were going for dinner. It is ultimately the responsibility of the hotel industry to renew peoples' mindset on relaxation, create avenues for leisure and generally up their games by being inventive and creative in introducing freshness into our culture.

We are yet to take full advantage of technology in the area of interactive sales and marketing. Recently, I was at a branded hotel for inspection with the aim of seeing how I can assist them in shoring up room revenue by increasing room occupancy since their earlier strategy of increasing average rate did not work.  For a hotel that is desperate to increase turnover, the lobby was devoid of any social activity. They have two restaurants, a decent swimming pool and an out bar yet revenue was not being maximized through these minor operating departments.

On meeting the management team on ground, I discovered some of them clutching ipads and tabs while the hotel where they work does not have a functional website. At this age, you barely can survive competition without challenging on the web. As first aid, they were encouraged to hoist a website, have a wi-fi internet facility from where their internet initiative can be launched. With five management members all with different sets of friends and families; to synergize and make a network of sales potentials out of this arrangements could have been a better catalyst in shoring up revenue.

It is similarly the responsibility of the sales department in tandem with the front office to plan packages not only for festivities but also on regular days especially during the low seasons. The food and beverage department should not be left out of this race for guests’ patronage. Such package emanating from the F&B must be advertised internally by placing boards in public areas like the lobby, entrance to restaurants and other guest contact areas. You do not need to be a Zuckerbak to place advert on Facebook and get friend and families to follow your hotel on tweeters and other social media. You can equally step things up by shooting a very short video of ongoing promo package and uploading it on YouTube. For e-marketing, the sky is the platform and your revenue the limit.

Hotels with lesser budget should not fold their arms in prayers for patronage or spiritual deliverance from the big hotels. They should be thinking of how to reach their guests on similar platform without hurting their revenue. For them, the battle for guests' pocket and promo planning starts from check in. The only subsequent source of contact with guests after check out is the relevant personal information like phone number and E-mail address you were able to secure on check in. Promo packages should be sent to guests by E-mail and follow-up done via bulk short message service which is relatively cheaper.

The general idea is to keep you permanently in the guests’ mind knowing full well that guests have short memory and even shorter sense of loyalty. Just like you and I, they will go wherever they think they will get value for less money. So, like a wolf in sheep clothing, be on their phones, I-pads laptops and other telecoms gadgets with your promo gospels. However, unlike salvation that is free; this comes at a cost.