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A Closer Look at the Hospitality Business (3)

Published Sunday, August 3, 2008 by bloggerblognet84084 | E-mail this post

Reservations are used in industries where capacity is at stake and where the distribution of capacity needs to be organized as efficiently as possible. Examples are: the airline industry, hotels and other recreational services like (Movie) Theaters, and also hospitals, although the reservation there is based on a previous screening. In all these cases the supply of capacity is offered by a differentiation of price which controls the stream of clients.

Business Intelligence can be used in this area to examine patterns of demand. In most cases every business of this kind is dealing with a seasonal pattern, but there are other patterns too.

To attract additional customers in low-season-periods, management can organize special campaigns beside the normal reservation process. But also a campaign on itself is not enough, there must be something to draw the attention to. This can either be an existing event or an event that is organized especially to attract customers.

One example is the Olympic Games. It shows on its side that it is participating in the organization of the Games. This will increase the traffic to the hotels during that event. The effort to enter the Olympic Games will pay itself back easily. Internally, these different campaigns and the normal operational business should always be coordinated well. It is possible that the current business gets negatively affected by a mayor event.

Other events are more autonomous, with the single purpose to attract more traffic. These should be arranged during the low-season. The Short Story Award of NH Hotels is an examples of the last. Such an event generates more visitors and if it is organized during a low-season the hotel business becomes more stable, and with an increased REVPAR.

Another FAQ in the hospitality business architecture is: how do all the individual hotels coordinate their work in a way that different hotels have the same image? This is about style and culture.

2008 Hans Bool

Hans Bool