Occupancy Stimulus Plan

For the last several weeks I have heard about a Stimulus plan that is being considered which will help to stimulate our economy. This plan might or might not be approved and if it is approved it might or might not help our economy which in turn might or might not help our hotel occupancies. Frankly this this leaves too much to chance so I think it is time be more proactive and implement an Occupancy Stimulus Plan (OSP). This OSP is virtually guaranteed to put business in your hotel. The OSP consists of the following components:

1. Put a very aggressive monthly rate in place.
2. Allow customers to pay monthly rate by the week if they need to.
3. Convert some of your 4 night a week stays to a monthly rate & promote that taxes fall off after a while.
4. Maintain a daily Craig's List ad with an agressive rate.
5. Offer a 3 day rate to capture more short term business.
6. Establish a "no walk" policy & educate everyone on how to fade to a lower rate.
7. Empower GSR's to go as low as needed to make sure no one walks away.
8. Offer Choice privileges to people who book business for your hotel.
9. Offer a commission to anyone that books rooms for your hotel.
10. Maintain aggressive rates on web sites, 3rd party bookings, discount channels, etc.
11. Conduct parking lot shops on Tuesday or Wednesday nights at comp set hotels AND hotels a
"notch above" your hotel to look for trade down opportunities.
12. Conduct a mini sales blitz with a team of 2 or two teams of two.
13. Go to a competitor's laundry room on a Saturday or Sunday and wash clothes. These are
busiest days for washing clothes (especially construction workers). You might opt to pay
someone to to this for you and offer them commission on booked business.
14. Call on apartments this week as a lot of them are filling up and no longer are offering short
term leases. There are also more credit turn downs so great opportunity to get business.
15. Visit ALL job sites and also call the corporate office of companies you find. A lot of them
would love to know they could save $ by switching to your hotel even if workers don't want
to switch.

The OSP has already passed the house (Rick and I) and senate (Ron and Rick) and President O'Daley's has given the nod to this plan. Implementation should be immediate. It is crucial that you make sure you implement all 15 items of this plan to maximize you hotel's occupancy.

Shift your way of thinking in order to shift business

One definition of "shift" is to move from one place, position, direction, etc., to another. I can't think of a better way to describe what we want to do with customers staying at competitive hotels! In order to effectively do this you have to act like a detective and "snoop around" at your competitors as well as doing some reconnaissance (parking lot shops). Most everyone reading this email knows you go to hotels in your competitive set late at night or early in the morning (preferably on Tuesday or Wednesday) and record any information you find on vehicles that might help identify the company staying at your competitor. Then the next day you call the customer and try to get them to saty with you. While this method has proven quite successful over the years in gaining business for our hotels I think it is time to apply another definition of the word shift ...."to change gears". I think it is time to SHIFT the way we think about the hotels we shop and the way we follow up with the ones we find (the subject of another blog).

Typically most sales people "shop" the hotels in their STAR report and any they consider to be similar to their hotel in amenities, type of hotel, price point, etc. In the past there wasn't a lot of need to shop the parking lot of a full service hotel if you were a economy extended stay hotel. However, due to a lot of factors (namely the economy) that is no longer the case. Guests are more conscience than ever of the perceived value of what they are getting at hotels and a lot of guests are willing to trade down if they feel they are still getting a great value for their money.
We recently had a great example of this as one of our GM's (Cheryl) was able to SHIFT an account that was staying at a newly renovated ESA Deluxe into a Suburban and then shift someone the next day from ESA.

I challenge each of you to shop at least three hotels you don't normally shop for the next 4 weeks (you don't have to choose the same three each week) and I can guarantee you will put yourself in a better position to win some new accounts. Also, please email me your parking lot shops each week so I can look for common accounts that might be in more than one market.

Let's shine in 2009!