chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Jennie Burton — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:45:28 -0000

My husband travels weekly for business, he is diabetic and breakfast is important and when he is in a different city each week it is often difficult to have the time to find a low carb breakfast. Having egggs and low carb whole wheat bread for toast would help him alot. I wish hotels would have some diabetic friendly rooms with refrigerators and microwaves, and advertise that breakfast has some low carb choices. Better yet advertise that they are a Diabetic friendly hotel.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

CletusShirley — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:45:29 -0000

These things are all what hotel managers would like but this doesn't mean it will happen. Considering how things are going with the economy, more and more people don't feel like traveling. Just look how many companies downsized and how many people got a salary cut. So, hotels miss their clients and the clients miss their vacations.
Shirley Cletus @ Cheap Sydney Hotels

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Drew — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:18:11 -0000

Hotels need to watch themselves, we've seen a lot of them increasing their prices as business travel picks up again. The fact is, alternatives exist. After I kicked up a stink about always being the one who was packed off around the world, my company looked into serviced apartments London, thinking I'd feel more at home. I didn't but that's beside the point. They served my purpose and so would many bed and breakfasts. There is such a thing as pricing yourself out of the market and there's been a lot of belt tightening going on. Not many companies will just accept price increases, they'll look elsewhere.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Susan Hall — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 05:26:42 -0000

Some hotel in Melbourne offer that kind of information but only if the client ask for it. This is because this can be interpreted by the client as an intrusion in their private life and most of them don't seem to get the idea that the hotel staff just want to help them.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

smartbrains — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:30:38 -0000

I live at Perry and MLK right around the block from the SD. I see it EVERY single day and it makes me sad to see it go to waste but I do not think to myself "that bitch Jennifer Granholm" everytime. She had NOTHING to do with the sale of the Silverdome but I will admit that the state should be more hands on with the situation.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Rowant01 — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:40:31 -0000

wow very good comment

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Angelaric rickson — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:38:30 -0000

We're going to be experimenting with cross-product promotion in the coming weeks - if a customer bough this or looked at this, then here's another gift idea on that theme etc. Hardly cutting edge or new thinking i know but with the realisation from our page stats that many visitors are landing on product specific pages rather than arriving at the main shop gift page, this makes good sense as we expand our personalised gift portfolio.
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Best Tourism Info
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Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Eirka — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:24:25 -0000

In the hotel business everything varies from one day to another, one day you are upgraded and another time you aren’t, one time you have one price and other time another, it is all a question of availability (FYI), as for the price most of hotels and airlines are using yield management because there is always a high or a low season. After all it is a business, right? So they have to make money to keep their stakeholder, their staff and management happy.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Pyro — Mon, 25 May 2009 07:58:34 -0000

Being aggressive in offers and search really made the business of hotels more valuable. Also the points which are added to these ones are also very much important. I can easily guess how far u worked for this article.
loyalty programs

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Kevin Stirtz — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:59:58 -0000

Chris - Love your comments about elevating the concierge offerings. This would take some effort but the payoff would be more than worth it. It's getting horribly difficult to compete on price in the hotel business. So what's left bu to compete of customer service?

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Stephen R. Jones — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:28:03 -0000

Great post and equally great responses which I spent a huge amount of time gold mining. Chris shared many, and those responding shared even more nuggets. I operate a 41 room value added property in a North state community, I would say that the business traveler has become more internet and industry (hospitality) savvy than those of the past. We are linked to the economy sector because of our brand, but are approach and property exceed the rest of the properties in our sector.

Too many operators fail to service the customer, watch their rates and find and meet the needs of their own unique niche. We offer one-price-pays-all, express check-in and express check out. No guessing what all those charges are when you check-out. Also, it speeds up the process and the guest is in and out of their room with limited time spent. The time the do have we use to inject information, suggests and ideas for eating and activities in the area. Get to know them and see if we can assist in their stay.

As for WiFi, the economy chains got this a long time ago. They don't charge for it. Mostly those hotels that think they'll go under if they give needed amenities at no cost. Most economy properties (branded,) have introduced standards that make the systems work. It seems the larger hotels and resorts use it as a revenue income instead of a value added amenity.

TripAdvisor, Facebook, Twitter and the host of other resources are there, it's just that too many are content to complain that business is bad and they continue to the things they have always done and they wonder why they are not being successful. I daily use a gorilla marketing approach to my market. Even reading the post and... I said and the replies! Nuggets are found in hidden places. Rare one is just found in your pocket, search for them!

When it is all said and done, the properties that work the business, keep their eyes open and take the time to maybe even "sleep" in their own rooms and see what they're guests are experiencing - they will grow regardless of business. As for us, Business is Good !

Yours in Service,
Stephen Jones
540 North Market Street
Redding, California 96003
1-800-243-1106
http://www.reddingtravelodg...
"Redding's Best Kept Lodging Secret"

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Albert Maruggi — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:13:33 -0000

Rachel, what Hilton should know is whether you have a blog or you are an active commenter online. That is a key element that hotels are missing, I suggested to a provider of hotel software that such a metric would be a value add to their product. They are thinking about it.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Albert Maruggi — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:27:05 -0000

Chris good post, but don't throw leisure travel under the bus just yet. Michael Wardlow is right. The issue is profitability for business traveler is high, especially in airfares, e.g. it takes 3 or 4 leisure travelers to deliver the profit of one business traveler on average.

Also hotels need to think regional for the next 6 months. If gas prices stay under $2.50 for the summer, you bet shorter (300-500 mile) vacations will be up. We are working right now with the top golf course in Minnesota to drive early bookings from a 4 state area.

Now the interesting part of your post is the longer tail. While the actions you recommend today may not be enough to fight corporate nickel and dime watchers, as the purse strings let up, travelers will reward their sacrifices today with "I deserve it" accommodations later.

Speaking of hotels, I have to book my room for San Fran's InBound Marketing Summit see you there.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Travel-world — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:53:01 -0000

Now a days, Most of the travelers choose to stay in the cheaper hotels in order to save money during the trip.Most of the hotels now even it is cheap you can avail some facilities like those expensive one. :)

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Guest — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:37:53 -0000

And yet some hotel chains just don't get it. I've been a loyal HIlton customer for several years, but am just not traveling that much right now. Instead of making an effort to figure out what might spur me to travel more, they decided that a better tactic would be to try force: buy something from us or you'll forfeit the points you've earned using your Hilton loyalty program. I simply don't think that's the right approach.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Kim Orlando — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:44:11 -0000

Hotels need to offer their business travelers incentive to return as leisure travelers - especially those biz travelers with families. I like the hotels.com offer - would definitely use that so that a family trip can benefit from the free night offer.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Robert Tolmach — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:14:37 -0000

Hi Chris,

I've been a reader for a couple months. Great stuff!

Here's a suggestion for a spin-off story: How Airlines Can Win More Business Travel.

Have airlines not noticed people fly with notebooks (even when we're traveling for personal reasons)? Do they not know that we need electricity?

Just do this: give me an electrical outlet next to my seat at the gate area, so I don't have to sit on the floor next to the only available outlet. And provide electrical jacks on board. A few airlines are starting to offer power on board, although in some cases only for the expensive seats up front or only in certain rows, and you need to call ticketing to find out which. Not even the flight attendants know.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Dave Lutz — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:23:01 -0000

Hotel chains are a weird model. While there aren't a ton of different brand flags flying outside their door, the ownership and often management of each is highly fragmented. They count on the brand to spec operating systems and to drive demand.

What Chris is recommending requires each hotel to operate like they are their own cafe shaped business and rely less on the mothership. Tough times require creativity. I like the idea of improving listening skills and creating new opportunities using social media.

Till now, most hotels are relying very heavily on solutions like Trip Advisors, Expedia, etc. There is critical mass in these channels that can't be ignored.

After 9/11 hotels had a terrible problem with rate integrity. You could get a rate for one price on hotels.com and potentially a different price at their own brand.com They have invested significantly into the incredible number of distribution channels to ensure that you can get the best rate on their brand.com site.

Many hotels are definitely hurting with the cut backs in leisure and business travel. They are in a business that is highly driven by the supply and demand. They need to institute a variable pricing each and every night to maximize revenue. Generally speaking, we should see hotels offering the greatest flexibility in pricing for weekend stays. Additionally, most revenue management experts recommend not overly discounting rate, but increasing value. Good news is that we should start seeing more hotels throw in WiFi, parking and breakfast.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Brisbane Hotels — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:30:58 -0000

Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. In 2007, there were over 903 million international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 6.6% as compared to 2006. International tourist receipts were USD 856 billion in 2007

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

We don’t need no stinkin’ conc — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 04:27:03 -0000

[...] don’t need no stinkin’ concierge! March 14, 2009 at 6:46 am | In Uncategorized | Chris Brogan writes about ways hotels can win business traveler’s hearts and [...]
P.S. - Sorry, forgot to tell you great post!

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Ola Rynge — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:40:39 -0000

Interesting post. I totally agree that there are a lot hotels can do to increase their business, not only by attracting more customers, but also by providing more added value services.

A few months ago I wrote the blog post "7 steps to better hostels" and I think that many of these steps could be considered by most hotels as well.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Benin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:29:25 -0000

Hi Chris, I really like this post. Let me ask you, is there a way business's or the hotel using your example could database its customers preferences using social media apps?

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

mona — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:47:16 -0000

HI !
i agree with burkot ! one have to be aggressive but i am little confused about this business because my point of view is that their is not much risk in this hotel business ....

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

Michael Wardlow — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:53:27 -0000

Hi Chris - The reality is that leisure travel is suffering much less than corporate travel in this crisis. At some point, leisure travel's decline will level off - people will visit families, people will eventually go on vacations again - but corporate travel is different - it's a controllable expense which CFOs are intensively focused on right now (they finally got the message!), and more and more, companies are going to a procurement approach which is going to drive some of the added value and incentives you listed above right out of the market.

Business hotels generally concentrate their sales energy on their volume customers, who in the past were professional travel buyers who were skilled in squeezing both savings and value out of their hotels. Individual travelers like you benefit because of the demands of the high-volume buyers - HP, Boeing, MS, JP Morgan etc who individually purchase hundreds of millions of dollars in travel services each year. These buyers are cutting way back. Way, way back. So are the smaller accounts. And they are staying at Holiday Inss now, instead of Sheratons. And they are laying off the employees who used to travel. And they are cancelling meetings. You may need a conference room, but most companies are deciding right now that they can do without the offsites and the added expense. They're going to webex and freeconference.com, anything to reduce cost. So the hotel is stuck with a lot of expensive square footage that isn't making them any money.

More and more, travel management is now dumped into procurement departments, where it is sourced like rubber bands or cell phones, by people who can negotiate on price up to a point, but don't necessarily know how to get the perks and amenities - things like free wifi that the hotels don't want to give away anyway. I know a lot of travel managers who've been laid off, and if you're a travel supplier, you have to wonder what these companies are thinking - while welcoming the opportunity to increase prices every way you can.

Service is great, and I'm all in favor of profiling guests and anticipating needs, but until a Boeing or MS buyer says 'my travelers always need to know where the nearest drugstore is,' that is probably something you're just going to have to ask the front desk for.

Re: How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel

coachpalmer — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:04:15 -0000

Great Suggestions. It would be great to be able to indicate interests when booking and have a custom sheet printed with what is going in the city from amenities to dining and entertainment.

Most hotels are Web 0.1 and for all of the low cost sometimes free solutions out there the return on investment would be very attractive.