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!