Feb
19
You know
everything about your business.
You know what things cost. You know what your profit margins are. You know what you want to achieve.
So that's alright then. As long as you know what's going on, everything is going to be just tickety-boo.
It gets even better when it comes to your marketing:
You know what your logo means; you know what your headlines mean; you know what every paragraph in your website means...
...to you.
And that's when things start to go wrong. Because everybody else isn't you - and we often have no idea what you're talking about.
Continue reading "Who knows what you know?"
Posted by HotelBlogger
Feb
17
A couple of weeks ago I bored you with the story of my poor brother in law and his efforts to get a double room for his Valentine break.
He got his room - a nice outbreak of common sense on the part of the hotel. Fair play.
However, it didn't take long for the operations lunacy to start again...
Continue reading "Your romantic Valentine dinner - where the kitchen shuts at 8..."
Posted by HotelBlogger
Feb
8
This is - as you might imagine - a rather sweeping generalisation, but in most businesses somebody, somewhere will answer the telephone when it rings.
Sometimes it can take a while. If your switchboard has more than one incoming line, for example, and you expect the person who answers calls at the switchboard to take reservations and handle enquiries. In this case a queue can build up very quickly and callers can let the phone ring, and ring, and ring, and ring,...
Continue reading "If the phone rings, you answer it - what about email?"
Posted by HotelBlogger
Feb
3
Imitation is supposed to be the most sincere form of flattery.
Sitting in HotelSphere towers, looking at the behaviour of the businesses I can see, it's clear that there's a lot of imitation going on.
Times are hard. When times are hard different people respond in different ways. As such, we should be seeing lots of different ways of responding to the challenges 2010 will bring.
Today, I want to talk about just one of them...
Continue reading "When I grow up I want to be just like you..."
Posted by HotelBlogger
Feb
1
"Valentines weekend is going to be a disaster this year!"
Exclaimed the hotel manager.
"It was rubbish last year and we've got no bookings this year." He moaned...
So what's going wrong?
- Has the recession led to a reduction in romantic interludes?
- Has libido reduced in line with bank assets?
No. Love and romance are both alive and well. Couples all over the country are looking for an opportunity to spend some time together.
The problem is twofold - (1) hotels aren't designing Valentine packages people want to buy and then (2) they fail to reach out to people to tell them what's going on.
It's a self fulfilling prophecy. It'll be rubbish because you're not producing what people want, and even if you do hit on a winning formula you'll keep it a secret. Just because your target market is in love doesn't make them clairvoyant...
Continue reading "I hear Valentines weekend is going to be a disaster this year"
Posted by HotelBlogger
