Helpful Tips To Run A Successful Hotel Chain

Helpful Tips To Run A Successful Hotel Chain

KEY POINTS

Hotels are an essential part of the travel industry. Despite new forms of accommodation like Airbnb coming in to take over the industry, hotels are still the go-to option that is reliable and provides a service that helps customers kick back their feet and relax.

Running a successful chain of hotels can prove challenging, and a lot of acknowledgment should be given to those who have managed to create more than one hotel successfully. It’s hard enough to run a successful business, let alone have multiple sites.

With that being said, here are some helpful tips to run a successful hotel chain and hopefully continue its expansion moving forward.

Define a growth plan for the hotel

A growth plan or business plan is a great way to help drive success for your hotel chain. When creating a growth plan, it’s a good idea to look at how you want to transform the hotel to perform better going forward.

You might already be making great progress already but there’s always room for improvement available with any business that a business owner runs.

Whether that’s changing its marketing strategy to hit the right audience to hiring more staff to provide a better customer service experience.

Defining a growth plan for the hotel is essential, so if you’ve not already created a business or growth plan for the purpose of taking your hotel to bigger and better things, now is the time to do it.

Provide superb customer service

Customer service is something that you should be aware of when it comes to running a successful hotel chain. The level of customer service you might already be providing could be a cut above the rest when comparing other hotel chains and independent boutique hotels.

However, like any facet of business, leveling up your customer service experience is something you want to do proactively at every point of the organization’s journey.

When you’re looking to improve the customer service of your hotel, consider the following tips to level up customer service:

• Early check-in options free of charge
• Free and spontaneous upgrades
• Greet every guest at their arrival and departure
• Ensure all employees smile and interact with guests
• Make it easy for guests to get help
• Build partnerships with vendors and attractions local to the area 

Listen to customer feedback

Customer feedback can be some of the most valuable feedback for your business. You can learn a lot about how satisfied your customers are, which is why it’s important to listen to your customers when they’re willing to give their feedback.

You’ll find that lots of customers will want to give their feedback, even when you don’t ask for it. There’s a lot of knowledge and information to be gained from customer feedback, especially when you’re looking to improve the chain of hotels you own.

You may also find that customer satisfaction and feedback vary between hotel venues. For example, one hotel might greatly outperform and receive better feedback than the others.

For that reason alone, it’s important to get that customer feedback to see what that hotel in particular might be doing differently from the next.

By getting this information, you can then hopefully make the best choices and decisions when it comes to taking the hotels that need attention to the proper level required.

Ensure regular maintenance is conducted

You want to do regular maintenance for your hotels because, without it, a hotel can fall into disarray. From the rooms to the communal areas, attention to detail is important when it comes to fixing all aspects of the hotel interiors and exteriors.

Regular maintenance makes it important to find the right people for the job. A good operations team to manage the building is the best way to keep your hotel looking the best it can be at all times.

Consider what maintenance has slipped under the radar for each of your hotels and how you might better improve your efforts to keep the hotel’s conditions, the best it can possibly be. 

Be sure to train your employees and encourage them to spot problems around the workplace. It’s a great way to have eyes and ears everywhere so that you can identify and fix issues as soon as they crop up.

Invest in the right cleaning equipment for cleanliness

Cleanliness is an absolute must for hotels and, for the most part, contributes greatly to the success of a hotel of any kind or size. If you’re not staying on top of cleanliness then you can guarantee it’s going to get reviewed by any customers who stay at the hotel.

Investing in the right cleaning equipment and maintaining this equipment to keep everything clean is a must. Therefore, it’s essential that you’ve got a good cleaning schedule in place where possible. Try to ensure all of the cleaning is done productively and efficiently.

You might want to look at the quality and standard of cleaning throughout the hotel to see what might be lacking. While your room cleaning quality might be to the highest standard, some of your communal areas, such as the bathrooms and reception, might be lacking in the same standard.

Be aware of how effective your cleaning schedule is and how you might be able to improve upon this when it comes to your hotels. Every hotel will likely fall under scrutiny, so it’s important to be aware of where the quality might be lacking before you become notorious for your lack of cleanliness. It’s a reputation that can be hard to come back from in some cases.

When replacing or maintaining equipment, go through the right suppliers for laundry and washing equipment replacement. For example, if you’re looking for GT2A parts, then looking at online sites that specialize in parts like this is crucial. 

Offer competitive pricing

Competitive pricing is crucial when reeling in new customers and existing customers who have stayed in one of your hotels before.

With the hotel industry, there are a lot of great deals through both hotel sites directly and third-party sellers. Therefore, you want to offer a range of competitive prices depending on the time of year that customers book.

At the same time, you might want to vary the prices the closer you get to certain dates. You want to sell as many of your rooms as possible so that you’re always at almost or full capacity where possible.

That means getting creative with pricing your rooms and what deals you offer to those who book last minute or months in advance.

Take a look at what your competitors are offering and try to price match or do better when setting prices for your own.

Deliver a loyalty reward scheme

A loyalty reward scheme is something to be mindful of when it comes to attracting customers to a repeat stay at one of your hotels. It’s also a good way of helping draw in customers to stay in different locations depending on where they might be at any given time.

With a loyalty reward scheme in place, you’re able to give back to your customers by offering big discounts for collecting points during their stays. This could also result in a free stay depending on what you’re able to afford in freebies or discounts for your customers both old and new.

Use modern technology and software

Modern technology is a wonderful thing and it’s something that you should certainly look to do more with when it comes to your business. There are plenty of tools and software available nowadays that you can use across multiple venue sites. 

Whether that’s payment systems for helping process sales within the bar and restaurant, to accounting systems that ensure fluidity throughout each hotel venue.

Being able to use tools and software like this, you can streamline all the efforts made within the hotel and with all of your staff members. It not only saves time but also brings your employees more satisfaction in the workplace.

Motivate and train your staff

Training your staff is a great way to provide them with the motivation and productivity they need. Every employee deserves an opportunity for growth within the business, and when it comes to hotel management and talented employees in general, offering them perks like this one will keep them in the job for longer.

Look at allocating a budget that will help to grow and develop all of your team members internally.

Think about the bigger picture

Finally, always have your eye on the bigger picture. There is a lot of potential to be found within your business and your hotel chain. Continue striving for bigger and better things so that your hotel can thrive and be successful this year and beyond.

Running a successful hotel chain takes significant time, effort, and investment, so use these tips to get started.