Hotel Job Resource - Fields & Company News

What has happened to direct sales in the hospitality industry? Once a discipline of an enviable combination of great social skills, good business judgment, and powers of persuasion, direct sales was many times the starting point for learning the business of hotels.

Is direct sales in the hospitality industry going down the path of lost arts such as letter-writing, sewing, and even newspapers? The application of social media, mobile marketing, and technology, in all of their forms, has created an over-emphasis on its importance, and many times replaces good 'ol fashioned personal interaction. Certainly, anyone with a teenager knows this.

Mobile has truly gone global on several fronts, and within the U.S., the rapid ascendancy of today’s mobile audience has hit critical mass and in particular, with the ever-consuming 'high touch, high gloss' usage smart phones that deliver to nearly 60MM owners.

Now more than ever, most hoteliers are searching for demand generators and are relying on direct sales to impact revenues to fill the significant void left by the ailing economy. Depending on the type of property i.e. transient vs. group-based, direct sales could be responsible for as much as 50%-90% of the occupancy. But many times, the sales person or sales leader is at a loss as to find new prospects.

Almost overnight, group business disappeared when the worst economic times of our life time coincided with the public exposure of AIG and other companies spending lavishly on group business while accepting government bail-outs.

Unless we have been living under a rock for the past year, we would know that the world's economy has plummeted and that the hospitality industry worldwide has experienced an unprecedented drop in RevPAR, the primary indicator of profitability. As the world is adjusting to this new economy, the hospitality industry is searching for ways to recover.

The concept of revenue management has been around for quite awhile, with the airline industry first formalizing it with its computerized Yield Management system. The hotel industry, although late in the game, has now made a 'revenue management' position as part of its standard staffing.

The past decade has been unprecedented in the hotel industry. All success indicators (occupancy, average rate, and RevPAR) have climbed steadily year after year and owners have enjoyed record profits. So what were your sales people doing? During those 'feast' periods in full service hotels, it is likely that the sales person was turning away more business than was booked. And in limited service hotels, is it likely that the sales person was filling in at the front desk and had little or no, direct sales activity.

Brenda Fields, hospitality sales, marketing, and rooms consultant and founder of Fields & Company, recently became a member of the invitation-only International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC).

Key markets, world wide have experience unprecedented occupancies, average rates, and RevPAR for over a decade. New York City and London in particular have experienced average occupancies well over 80% for the past several years, driving record average rates and RevPARs.