Tag: hotel advice

The Definitive Guide on How to Market Your Hotel

Posted on by Carol Jones

You’ve set up an incredible hotel, with comfortable, stylish rooms, all the very latest amenities, and a great team.

But what use is having the best facilities, location, and customer service if no one knows you exist? That’s where marketing comes into play.

Building an effective marketing strategy for your hotel will help you to reach out to potential customers, maximise bookings and boost revenue.

Here’s our definitive guide to successfully marketing your hotel.

Get Online

Today, being online and present in the digital space is everything in the world of marketing. With at least 95 percent of consumers carrying out research online before the make any travel purchases, it’s vital that your hotel has a website if you want to effectively market it.

Your website is your shop front, and should be professional, credible, and show your hotel in the best possible light. Include plenty of high-quality images, video content, and details about the rooms and amenities.

It’s also well worth considering integrating an online booking system into your site to make it as seamless, quick and easy as possible for potential guests to arrange their stay.

Ensure You’re Easy to Find

Having a website isn’t enough. If you want to ensure your hotel is receiving as many enquiries as possible, it’s vital that your audience can successfully locate you online.

This means ensuring that your website is optimised for search engines (Google) – so, when guests search for hotels in your area, you come up as high as possible in the rankings.

Make The Most of TripAdvisor

While your website and social media platforms will allow you to tell everyone just how great your hotel is, TripAdvisor allows your guests to tell them – and that can be significantly more powerful.

Before booking a room at your hotel, most guests will check your reviews, so managing your online reputation is crucial.

TripAdvisor is the world’s largest travel review site, with approximately 390 million unique visitors each month. This presents a huge marketing opportunity for hotels.

So, make sure you set up your free TripAdvisor profile, populate it with as much useful information as possible, regularly check reviews and engage with your guests.

Respond to Reviews

Once you’ve started receiving reviews, it’s important to monitor them and respond accordingly.

It’s only natural that you’ll receive a less-than-perfect review from time to time, but the nature in which you respond to those reviews will make all the difference.

Make sure you respond to any negative reviews as quickly as possible and try to resolve or address the guest’s feedback or complaint in a useful manner.

Remarketing is Essential

Abandonment rates for booking hotels online are high, meaning plenty of potential guests will visit your site, start the booking process, and then get distracted and not complete the booking. This is where remarketing comes in.

A remarketing campaign will allow you to remind your guests about your hotel, provide them with extra incentives to book, and make completing the process as easy as possible.

Reward Customer Loyalty

Marketing isn’t just about targeting new customers – it’s just as important to reach out to existing customers and encourage them to revisit your hotel.

A customer loyalty scheme is an effective way to get your guests to return time and time again, by offering discounts and rewards to regular visitors.

Get in Touch

For more information about the hospitality business, and in particular hotel finance, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

How hoteliers can increase room rates by improving customer facilities

Posted on by Carol Jones

Here, Mike Hardman from hospitality equipment suppliers Alliance Online shares his advice for hoteliers looking to improve their customers’ experience — and, therefore, increase revenue.

Your revenue per available room (RevPAR) is a good way to measure the average rate you sell your rooms at, allowing you to keep track of your success and compare your hotel with competitors. If you haven’t already, you can determine your RevPAR by multiplying your average daily rate by your occupancy rate. Your occupancy rate is the number of occupied rooms you have divided by your total number of available rooms, multiplied by 100.

If your RevPAR isn’t as high as you’d like, you can raise it by focussing on customer experience. Improving your facilities won’t just allow you to charge guests more for their stay — your customers will also be more inclined to share their positive opinion of your hotel online and bring you more custom.

Below are just some of the ways you can improve customer facilities and increase your average room rate in return.

Offer something extra for your guests

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During the booking process, tempt potential guests with packages and promotions. Give them the option of add-ons such as breakfast, shuttle services, or extra treats for their room to bump up their average spend.

When setting up rooms, it’s a good idea to provide your guests with low cost but high-quality items that have the potential to feel like little gifts. A bowl of fresh fruit, a vase of flowers, boxes of chocolates and, of course, toiletries can all be stocked in the room to make your guests’ stay more luxurious.

Improve your housekeeping and room services

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High cleanliness standards are perhaps the most crucial way to show your quality and maintain positive reviews from guests. Don’t be frugal with deep cleaning tools, products, and practices, or you could end up paying the price. You can also offer extra services for guests, such as laundry and dry cleaning, ironing and pressing, and even shoe polishing to increase value.

Make sure you’re advertising the fact you offer room service; if you find that guests aren’t always taking advantage of it, it might not be as obvious as you think. Present their chosen refreshments with style by finding modern, instagrammable crockery, and ask staff to remove the lids from serving dishes in front of guests in their room. Staff can also bring a bucket of ice and pour drinks out of the bottle for an extra flourish. This level of service feels fancy, but it also gives staff the opportunity to ask guests whether to leave the bottle and add it to the bill.

Customer service

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Effective planning and smooth communication between staff and guests allow problems to be solved before they become disasters. Keep on top of maintenance to prevent any issues arising during your customers’ stay, such as faulty air cons or cosmetic damage. Be prepared to manage your guests’ needs as quickly as possible by having plenty of extra pillows, towels, chairs, highchairs, and cots to hand. If this is something you might struggle with, consider whether your inventory management system needs updating.

As much as you can, go for the personal approach. Instead of working the whole building, give staff sections to take care of so they can better keep track of their guests’ names and preferences. If possible, it’s also good to invest in staff that can communicate in many different languages to cater for foreign guests.

Staff should be fully-trained and aware of the contents of all service dossiers and menus. That way, they can be a complete source of information and don’t have to leave guests waiting as they try and find someone who knows the answers to their questions. These little organisational details improve the overall guest experience, making them more likely to spend money in the future or convince others to do the same.

With these tips, you can begin to improve your customer facilities and consequently raise your average room rates.

What Support is Available for Business Buyers?

Posted on by Carol Jones

While entrepreneurs can often find lots of generic information about buying a business, it’s less easy to find details on more specific kinds of regional support. So, we are looking at the various kinds of help available to those looking to purchase a business in the Principality of Wales.

What businesses are popular in Wales?

There are a large number of business opportunities in a country with such rich diversity.

Traditional tourism is very strong in Wales, but the coastal regions and wild interior landscapes are now being exploited for more adventure-type of experiences than ever before. And with its own rich and unique cultural history, Wales is also the natural home for many different types of creative and craft-based industries.

The energy industry also has deep roots in Wales, though the rise of renewable energies and modern concerns about the environment have also played a prominent role in the formation of some new sustainable, eco-friendly Welsh businesses.

A welcoming, outgoing and tourist-heavy population also provides countless locations and opportunities for food and drink businesses.

Wales attracts global players in areas such as Life Sciences and all kinds of Tech and ICT industries. And furthermore, the country is renowned for its workforce expertise and strong track record in developing strong links between industry and the higher education sector.

Why buy rather than start a business?

Starting a business has its own merits and may seem like the obvious option for an aspiring entrepreneur full of fresh, innovative ideas. However, there are some important advantages in choosing to buy an existing business instead.

Not only are there less risks attached to buying a ‘going concern’ rather than attempting a new start-up, you will also be able to reap the financial rewards much sooner.

In Wales especially, buying an established business will provide you with a fast-track opportunity to grow and find success in a rapidly growing market. There are now a record 238,200 active firms in Wales, and a huge 99.3% of that number are independent SMEs.

An ideal business-purchase opportunity for example, could be purchasing an off-license in a prime location. Not only would such a business have its own local customers, in many areas there would also be opportunities to contact and supply other establishments – especially those business owners catering for tourists.

What kind of support do you need?

Buying a business comes with its own special difficulties, so getting the right help at the right time can make this process far easier.

Broadly speaking, support services will involve: Financial, advisory and overall mediation services.

Finance

It’s very important to have all your finances in place before attempting to buy any business. Sellers will be keen to know not only that you wish to purchase the business, they will also need firm reassurance that you have the necessary means in place to go ahead and complete the transaction.

The Development Bank of Wales is a specialist lender to businesses in Wales and can offer loan support in a number of different formats.

The Bank can support both B2B and B2C enterprises and, although it does lend to others, its particular focus is on micro to medium-size business needs.

Brokers

A broker’s expertise can be very helpful, especially if you feel intimidated by the entire purchase process.

They can guide and support you from start to finish. Your relationship with your broker will be vital to your success, so you should also spend time to ensure your broker understands precisely what you are looking for.

And it goes without saying that your broker should be someone you can get on with and trust completely to manage your investment on your behalf.

Advisory

In our modern age, finding an advisor can be done from the comfort of your own home. And thanks to the abundance of resources available, you will be able to find advice on trends and all kinds of sound investment for yourself. For example, Business Wales can offer business advice to prospective entrepreneurs.

Whatever route you choose, when it comes to helping you to develop business ideas and innovation, the enthusiastic help and support you will receive in Wales will always be second to none.

By Jo Thornley, Head of Brand and Partnerships at Dynamis. Joining in 2005 to co-ordinate PR and communications and produce editorial across all business brands. She earned her spurs managing the communications strategy and now creates and develops partnerships between BusinessesForSale.com, FranchiseSales.com and PropertySales.com and likeminded companies.

 

How to Improve Your Hotel

Posted on by Carol Jones

Hotels are at the forefront of the hospitality trade, so you’ll need to maintain a dynamic approach to improve, or even just retain, your market position.

And while that’s rarely an easy ask in a sector where running a hotel means long hours are so often the norm, there are still a number of things you can do to make your hotel more effective and efficient.

For your guests, that means increased amenities and enhancing their overall experience, and for you, that means increased profitability.

So, what might be done to introduce a welcome breath of fresh air to raise the profile of your business?

Consider expansion

You can approach this in a variety of ways. If you know there is a new market you could accommodate, then adding to your facilities will increase your bookings and revenues.

While there will be some additional costs, these are always less for an established business, and some elements (e.g. marketing) can remain more or less the same by changing rather than increasing your strategy.

If that kind of expansion won’t work for you, consider enhancing your current provision. This might mean refreshing and expanding your menus for example, or even ringing the changes by inviting in a pop-up restaurant.

Whatever you do, make sure your dining facilities go well beyond the practical and functional. Modern expectations now dictate that your visitors will usually be looking for a memorable experience to enrich their stay, not just a basic provision that you could simply have at home.

Whatever you plan to try, remember this is also your opportunity to move with the times and reflect the latest trends. That in turn will also impress your guests, which should always be your main focus.

Renovate your facilities 

If you do nothing more, then giving everything a fresh coat of paint will send a message to your guests that you want nothing but the best for them.

Your refurbishments could also stretch to include new mattresses or upgrading your bathrooms. There’s nothing better to improve your visitor’s experience than offering some extra comfort and luxury.

A modern and stylish bathroom with a sumptuous, spa-like feel could be just the thing to get your guests talking, recommending and then re-booking.

Listen to your customers 

You won’t need reminding how important cleanliness is, but it’s your guests who make the judgements.

So take note of all feedback – positive or negative – to gauge how well your facilities are working, and to address any shortcomings before they become a recurring issue affecting your bookings.

Social media is a well-established marketing tool in the hospitality sector, so make sure you are the first to know what your guests have to say about their stay at your hotel.

And likewise, if you can do anything to make your guests feel that your hotel gives them special attention and added value, that will also reflect in social media recommendations and increased business.

Social media also offers the chance to keep an eye on what your local rivals are doing to attract business. So, if you keep tabs on them, you’ll get to hear about new initiatives early, which will then give you time to respond as necessary!

Campaigns and events 

Your hotel is a great space for events, so use this to your full advantage.

In particular, it can be used to strengthen your links with the local community – an important consideration for most hoteliers dealing with a seasonal trade.

Advertise the fact that you are happy to host birthdays, weddings, christenings and everything in between. Consider customer-friendly discounted rates for large group bookings, and even develop your own entertainment and themed nights to help market your facilities to your local clientele, thus sending out the message that you are not there for the tourists alone.

Whatever your budget, there are always ways to develop and improve your hotel.

And the best way is usually to create an improvement plan. This will ensure that you are always looking forward, keeping your focus firmly on enhancing your visitors’ experience, and getting the best possible return on your investment.

 

By Jo Thornley, Head of Brand and Partnerships at Dynamis.

Joining in 2005 to co-ordinate PR and communications and produce editorial across all business brands. She earned her spurs managing the communications strategy and now creates and develops partnerships between BusinessesForSale.com, FranchiseSales.com and PropertySales.com and likeminded companies.

 

Book Yourself onto a Bed & Breakfast Course & Kickstart Your Dream

Posted on by Carol Jones

If you’ve dreamed of owning your own bed and breakfast or guest house for a while, you’ve no doubt read many wonderful books, blogs and guides on how to make it happen.  Why not take that step forward towards your dream of owning your own bed and breakfast and book yourself onto a bed and breakfast course?

A Bed & Breakfast course can encourage you to take that first step and decide whether this is the right decision for you. You’ll be given practical advice by expert B&B owners and given some useful resource materials. It’s the perfect way to focus your attention to making your guest house dream come true!

Also, lenders look favourably on applicants who have attended courses as it shows a commitment to their plans and that they understand what is involved in running a successful B&B!

Here are three of the best courses available for those interested in setting up their own B&B business.

Bed & Breakfast Academy two-day course

The Bed & Breakfast Academy two-day course promises to provide you with “everything you need to set up, run and market a successful B&B”. Run by Karen, the owner of the successful Hopton House, it’s the ideal opportunity to network with both fellow soon-to-be and existing guest house owners, as the size of the course group ranges between just 6 – 12 people.

The cost of the course is £250 per person which includes a workbook containing all the information covered over the weekend, examples of the documents you’ll need to set up and run your business, a light buffet lunch on both days and refreshments throughout.

The Red Townhouse two-day course

Run by the owners of The Red Townhouse, Elaine and Richard, this two-day course is ideal for anyone not entirely sure if running a guest house is for them. It covers everything from what the business involves, to what makes a successful B&B and the most common mistakes to avoid. You’ll also be given course materials and an information pack to take away with you for future reference.

What makes the course at The Red Townhouse different is its personal approach as they tailor each course to their clients requirements. You will be the only clients on the course and therefore able to ask any questions, or raise any concerns, relevant to your potential business.

Accommodation is included in the price of the course – you’ll stay at The Red Townhouse itself, giving you a perfect opportunity to see how a great B&B should be run. The Red Townhouse is located in Cumbria on the edge of the Lake District and North Pennines – a beautiful place to stay!

How to Run a Bed & Breakfast (formerly Pillowtalk Training)

How to Run a Bed and Breakfast is run by Paula and Ken Hartley who gave up operating their very successful B&B to concentrate on helping others achieve their dreams of being self-employed and running a hospitality business. Currently Paula and Ken run training courses in Shropshire and Berkshire but if demand is high enough elsewhere they are happy to run courses across the country.

Pillowtalk Training also offers a consultancy service to B&B/holiday let owners who feel they could improve their current business with a little help from some experts. Making some minor adjustments can make a huge difference to profitability.

By attending a Bed & Breakfast course you are benefiting from the experience of others, this can save you a lot of time and money in the long run and provides you the opportunity to ask questions about your own specific situation. There is no such thing as a silly question, and the likelihood is that someone else has either asked it before or is thinking the same thing as you!

We hope you find the above courses and guides valuable; don’t forget to check out our very own guides and resources on our blog. We’re also happy to answer any questions regarding financing your B&B, so contact us today!

Source: https://www.stewarthindley.co.uk/the-best-bb-courses-available-for-prospective-owners/

The Pink Book updated with card charges legislation

Posted on by Carol Jones

The Pink Book is one of the most valuable resources available to all within the hospitality accommodation sector. It provides regularly updated information regarding legislation that affects businesses operating in the hospitality industry. A recent update has looked at the implications of changes to debit and credit card charges. In this article we are raising awareness of the legislation change. This will also show what vital reading The Pink Book is for all business owners and operators.

Here at Stewart Hindley & Partners we are renowned for our specialist financing work. Our ability to give you the best service means we are always up to date with changes in the industry.   We trust The Pink Book to deliver important information on developments such as the coming card charges legislation.

The Card Charges Legislation

Firstly, let’s look at the legislation. As of 13th January 2018 all businesses may no longer add extra charges when customers pay with a debit or credit card. This is in compliance with the EU Payments Service Directive II. The ban extends to other forms of payment, including the increasingly popular PayPal.

This legislation change poses a challenge to owners of guest houses, hotels and bed & breakfast businesses across the UK. All owners need to balance competitive pricing against factors such as banking charges. The changes made need to help sustain profitability for the business.

In looking at the changes to debit and card charges The Pink Book gives some vital guidance. A key priority is ensuing your booking system complies with the legislation. This applies to both website bookings as well as on site payments.

How to Address the Card Charges Legislation

Accommodation businesses need to focus on how best to address the change for their own circumstances.  The Pink Book provides possible solutions for all to consider. An example of this is absorbing all potential banking costs into the overall pricing strategy you have in place. Detailed planning and modelling to ensure the best strategy is adopted for your specific business is always the right approach. It would be beneficial to consult with trusted and qualified business planners.

Here at Stewart Hindley & Partners we appreciate being able to take a “to and through” approach to our clients. Our specialist financial experts for the hotel and leisure industry build strong relationships with the businesses we serve. Our team will always point our clients in the right direction for advice. When it comes to this, first of all we would always recommend owners consult The Pink Book frequently for important information affecting their business.

For more information on The Pink Book please visit their website. This can be found on the Visit Britain site – https://www.visitbritain.org/pink-book. To discuss your funding and financing requirements please give us a call on 01488 684834. You can also reach us through our contact page. We’re here to help you in reaching your aspirations for success.

 

Are hotels missing some obvious tricks to boost dining sales?

Posted on by Carol Jones

Yes – according to new research by CGA and Zonal Retail Data Systems’ GO Technology report – which found that Hotels are missing out on F&B sales by not offering customers an incentive at the time of booking, or a facility to order food from their smart device during their stay.

Their report surveyed 5,000 adults in the UK and found that:

  • 54% of leisure customers (and 45% of business users) cite price as a barrier to dining at a hotel’s in-house restaurant during their stay.
  • guests’ preconceptions of the expense of eating in hotels can be overcome by offering advance booking discounts on dining. 50% of leisure customers (and 43% of business guests) would consider making a reservation if they were offered an incentive at the time of booking.
  • A further 45% of 18 to 34 year olds would also be more likely to order room service from the hotel restaurant if they could use their smartphone,
  • 62% of those would be more likely to book lunch on-site, if they could do so from their mobiles

The mobile booking facility demand echoes a growing trend in the general hospitality sector, where 67% of consumers have said they would spend more and buy more drinks if they could order from a mobile device.

Rhys Swinburn, managing director of hotel management system, High Level Software, part of the Zonal Group, said: “Our research indicates that consumers prefer a more personal approach when it comes choosing where to stay, giving hoteliers a real opportunity to capitalise on this captive market.

“Hoteliers need to think how they can pitch themselves against high street operations and incentivise guests to stay for lunch, dinner or even enjoy a drink before heading out.”

He added: “Giving guests the chance to reserve a table, coupled with an offer at the point of booking their stay is likely to have a positive impact on trade.”

How to find hotel finance for tech investments

If you are looking to make any investments to grow your hotel business – like investing in marketing software to facilitate initiatives like mobile reservations and pre-booking discounts – you may well need hotel finance.

At Stewart Hindley and Partners, we are in an ideal position to help you as we understand the hospitality business through and through. We are long-established specialists in securing hotel mortgages. Our experienced team will be able to offer you friendly and informative advice to help you build and improve your business. Browse our site for case histories and more information about the process involved in securing hotel finance or call us now to speak to our team of experts.

Source:  https://www.hotelowner.co.uk/11306-go-technology-report/

How Important Are Your Reviews?

Posted on by Carol Jones

With the increasing prominence of online holiday and travel search/booking engines and the rising power of the customer review across all industries, just how important are reviews and how can proprietors respond to them?

Our hospitality finance team of experts at Stewart Hindley and Partners take a look at the current trends and have put together their thoughts, to help proprietors get into the heads of their potential customers.

  • With so many hotels to choose from, trying to make a decision about where to stay can be daunting for people. Hotel reviews are therefore a valuable way to determine if a particular hotel is a good option and should not be under estimated.
  • The hotel’s rating score – astute customers will look at the rating score and sort their options to show them the highest ones at the top. A higher score means past hotel guests generally liked the hotel and enjoyed their stay with few, if any, problems. If you limit yourself to these hotels, you have a better chance of enjoying your stay as well.
  • But a few extreme reviews may not be as significant as people think. The number of reviews of the hotel on the booking site will be listed and it stands to reason that a hotel’s overview will be more accurate, the higher number of reviews it has.
  • Remember, what might be essential for one guest is completely different from that of another. Your potential guests will almost certainly look at both the positive and the negative things people comment on in their reviews, and look for things that might bother them.
  • People are now getting used to ignoring those that protest too much. If 30 people are raving about the hotel and one person says it was horrible for whatever reason, it was probably just a fluke. For genuinely good establishments, these days, one negative review is likely to be outweighed by a sea of positive reviews.

The common sense conclusion is for 21st century hoteliers to be mindful, but not dictated to, by their reviews.  It is worth monitoring them and responding in just a few cases – where relevant and in brief – to overly negative comments.  This is perhaps particularly the case, when it was perhaps a genuine issue for the customer, that has since been rectified your end.

That being said, it is definitely worth promoting and encouraging customers to leave feedback, but  there is a fine balance between encouragement and overplaying your hand.

Once guests have researched their shortlists they will more than likely visit your hotel website for further information which is why it’s also worth investing in a professional website and keeping it up to date.

If you are looking to invest in upgrading your facilities in response to reviews, or need to boost your marketing spend, you may need hospitality finance to fund your initiatives. Contact our friendly team of specialist advisors now for advice and information on the latest hotel finance and other hospitality finance packages available today.

Source:
http://travel-made-simple.com/how-to-read-hotel-reviews/

Top 10 English Hotel locations

Posted on by Carol Jones

Last month a panel of experts for the Daily Telegraph put together a guide to 10 of the best places and cities to visit in England, highlighting their attractions for family holidays and couples, providing a host of learnings for anyone looking at taking over, or starting/locating, a hotel business in the UK:
Continue reading “Top 10 English Hotel locations”

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