Are Your Parking Lot Shops Parking Cars in YOUR Parking Lot?

All of you have heard me say “parking lot shops are your BEST source to find immediate business that you can shift to your hotel”. If you weren’t sure of it before I think you will have to agree the proof is in the pudding! As you know from my recent emails several hotels are having success shifting business from competitor hotels. The question I have for you is "are your parking lot shops putting cars in YOUR parking lot?" The ones that are having the most success are the ones that are being proactive with their parking lot shops and that are FOLLOWING UP on them in a timely manner.

Below is an updated version of "Parking Lot Thoughts and Tips". If you follow the steps below or at least use them as a guide you will GREATLY increase your the number of cars in YOUR parking lot and lessen the ones at your competitors. If you have any tips to add please post them on this BLOG.


Parking Lot Shops (updated 3/2/09-updates in blue)

Definition - A parking lot shop is when you go to a hotel that is a competitor of yours to “shop” to see what type of guests they have staying with them, what companies are staying with them and to see how their hotel is doing compared to yours. Parking lot shops give you a snap shot at a point in time how you are doing verses your competitors. The purpose of doing them is to identify & shift business from their hotel to yours.

Thoughts and Tips for conduction effective parking lot shops:

1. Keep in mind parking lot shops are our BEST source to identify and shift business. Even though they are not convenient they are worth doing as they usually yield IMMEDIATE business opportunities.

2. Parking lot shops should be done at hotels listed on your STAR report comp set AND any other hotel that doesn’t report to Smith travel but is a true competitor or your. For example, Value Place hotel may be a true competitor of yours but doesn’t report data to Smith Travel/STAR. You should also shop hotels that are a classification above your hotel or one with a few more amenities since you might have some “trade down” opportunities. Lately (as of 2/09) we are getting more companies shifting from these type of hotels than ones in our traditional comp set.

3. Parking lot shops should be done late at night or early in the morning before guests leave for work. Ideal times are after 10:00 p.m. and before 6:00 a.m. While these times are inconvenient they will give you the best opportunity to identify business that can be shifted since more cars will be in the parking lot.

4. Shops at different times are ok but a shop at 5:30 p.m. is not going to put you in a real position to win the share shift war (If you have to do them for Rewarding Greatness you might as well do them at the times/days to give you the most benefit J). Don’t take short cuts. Paying the higher price of inconvenience should yield you to greater rewards.

5. For best results shops should be done on Tuesday or Wednesday. Next best days would be on Monday and then Thursday. Tuesday and Wednesday typically will have the most travelers in the market.

6. Anyone can do parking lot shops. If you don’t have a sales person that can do your shops each week you might consider rotating these duties or getting your second shift person do them when they get off work. Richard (Sterling Sub. GM) has secured over $75,000 worth of business from parking lot shops.

7. If you don’t have a full time sales person (or they live a long way from the hotel) consider splitting parking lot duties. For example, the Gm does the shop one time a month, the sales person one time a month, the audit or security person one night a month and a GSR another night a month. Another option is to consider offering money for business generated from the shops. I’m sure you will have some volunteers to help out when there is money on the line.

8. Drive to competitors on REAL rainy days as workers might be back at their hotel. This shouldn’t be a substitute for your regular nightly (or early morning) parking lot shops.

9. If possible use a digital voice recorder (this is not a necessity). This is much more efficient than writing and allows you to record information in tracks. This is useful when you are counting cars and have to stop counting to record a company name/phone number. I usually say “34 cars so far & ABC Construction at 407-111-1111”. If I forget how many cars I was at I simply go the last track & hear that I was at 34 cars and continue (call me if this doesn’t make since). Digital recorders are $30 - $40.

10. When conducting shops record the number of cars at each competitor AND the number of cars in your hotel’s lot. This gives us a comparison of how you are doing that particular day verses your competitors. Also, you will often find a company in YOUR parking lot you didn’t know was staying with you and you can penetrate the account to find more potential business.

11. Be sure to record ALL information you see on vehicles with company names (all phone #’s, web site, type of company, other offices/cities listed, etc.). If the vehicle has a company name but no phone number try to find out which state it is from. This may help you narrow your Google search.

12. Be smart and safe when doing shops. It is not recommended you get out of your vehicle and start talking to guests. Also, please do not put your hotel’s literature on vehicles at your competitors. Remember “you reap what you sew” and we don’t want others doing this at our hotels.

13. Make parking lot shops fun. When we had a hotel near my house I used to take my whole family after church on Wednesday nights to do parking lot shops. My kids would take turns counting while I recorded the company names.

14. Make parking lot shops work with your schedule. You might want to plan to go grocery shopping at 10:00 at night instead of on your way home from work (you will also have less shoppers :).

15. Take the information obtained and IMMEDIATELY pass along to your sales person.

16. IMMEDIATELY call on companies the NEXT morning after you do your parking lot shops. This will give you the BEST chance to gain the business and the maximum revenue from the account.

17. My preference is to type up the shops the same night I do them into a spread sheet which has the hotel they were at, any pertinent information I obtained (phone 3, web site, etc) and have a column for contact person and notes. The next morning I do research if I have to find a phone number and then start calling around 8:30 (as a general rule I call ALL companies by noon the next morning after I do a shop (most of the time by 10:00 a.m.). I then take the next step (emailing, faxing, calling someone else, setting up tour, go to job site, etc.). FOLLOWING UP ON THESE NEXT STEPS THEN BECOMES THE KEY.

18. NOTE: One of the most common mistakes I see people making is waiting too long to follow up on their shops. The other mistake that is commonly made is that there isn’t a lot of effort put into following up on these leads or they aren’t followed up at all. Minimum effort will result in minimum results.

19. Call (or visit) the people working in the market AND call the key contacts at their corporate office. Sometimes the actual travelers are satisfied but the company contacts would love to save money on their travel and have a better value proposition to consider. I have had workers tell me they weren’t’ moving and then had the company tell them they had to move. Initially the workers weren’t happy with me but we eventually won them over and the company was happy they were saving money.

20. Make a parking lot plan that works for your property, execute it, make it fun, shift business and call Michael Fortner if you have questions at 919-740-7219. I will be glad to forward you sample parking lot shops, work with you to improve your shops and asssit any way to help you SHIFT business to your hotel. I have leterally done HUNDREDS of parking lot shops and shifted HUNDREDS of accounts and THOUSANDS of room nights over the years.