Everything You Need To Know About The Sales & Marketing Of Your Hotel in 2021

I always wanted to ask you handle such a large portfolio of different hotels, right? And there is business coming from the business community and leisure now and market is dynamic people. There are some forecasts from forecasting that you do and there is some based on prehistoric data that you have. So how do you plan? You have marketing and sales for so many hotels. When you're doing a budget, what's the, what's, what's your strategy?

Typically, of course, as you rightly said, when you do a forecasting of a budget and an annual budget, you typically depend a lot on the past of the hotel, how it has done, the locational advantages and disadvantages. But parallel what many people do and which I also do is you look at the overall geodynamic situations of the country and what is happening overall in the country, in the state and what do you predict? Like when you look at a steady government in central, you look at a steady government in your state, right? There are things which are progressing. Then you know, okay, these are the future standards which I expect out of this government. Parallel even you see a study government like today we see a metro happening in this place coming up, you know, over another five years because we generally only typically will not forecast one year. I would look at a five year, 10 year business, okay, plan. So when I'm looking at a five year plan, I can say next three years time. The metro coming into Whitefield will be a big boon for Whitefield. So when I'm talking of this Whitefield property, maybe in next six months I might, you know, see a debacle because of the workload over here on the road, the streets being future, I look at a bright prospect. So if I am talking to my owners, I will say hold on bus.

This is the future, right?

You're getting the metro coming in and automatically when metro comes in, lot of new offices. Whitefield is a space which has lot of, you know, empty areas. So yeah, opportunity here there is a large opportunity for the future. The second thing which if I am doing a budget, I, I, as you rightly said, I handle portfolios not only of this hotel but other hotels which are leisure hotels, leisure markets. Like this year I was mentioning Saudi, there is an up and down happening, right? Not going into the political area of it. I would rather be careful next year when I am planning my budget. If I budget say international segments this year and next year also and I know that it is not going to happen, but I still put it there. What happens, my boys who is looking into international CD says I Have to get international. He runs after that. International business which I personally know won't come right. The same thing happened with us in Goa a few years back. If you know Goa market, Russian charters were a big, you know, block which used to come in these months. They had done a forecast me not alone or did show that Russian charters may not work. So what happened? We didn't. We didn't do our segmentation on Russian chapters that year. And we rather focused on weddings. Weddings in Goa has picked up over last three, four years. And we are really, really successful.

Is that right?

Okay, so you got to plan. You want to look at a lot of areas and then plan and then go behind you. So that's how we do the budgeting in various segments, various areas, in fact, OTAs, right? Though we pay a commission. But that is a big channel today. I'll tell you why. In places like Goa and Kerala, both places today, thanks to the government, the roads are very good. So when the roads are good, you have people traveling very easily driving down. Say it's Goa then Pune or Bombay, Bangalore and there are other Mangalore. There are a lot of cities from where somebody can drive in to Goa. Same with Kumarakum. You can drive in from Coimbatore, you can drive from Chennai, Madurai. So people book a day in advance, seven days in advance. They plan, they book and then they drive down. They don't need a travel agent for that matter. So thereby my segmentation on OTAS is a prime concern. Accordingly, when I do a segmentation on ota, my revenue manager starts working with the channel managers of OTAs, the market managers. He says, hey boss, I have to achieve X amount. My boss has put it there. So how do I do that? What are the promotions? What are the activities that we could work on? And then that segment starts, right?

So how much? So there is OTAs, then there is your direct website. Then there is your loyal customers who know you from a brand and said, last year we did a wedding with you and you want to come back. So do you slot all these segments into saying direct? Last year was 12%, let's make it 14. OTA was 20%. Let's make it 18 or so. How do you direct referral business was 30% walk in, I don't know, walk in hot. But so how do you do? So what percentage do you put? And you come increase, decrease all the time.

See, typically increase and decrease happens as I said on various factors. And OTA, as I mentioned, if I have to plan from 14 to 18 then I have to see my past and I have to see the growth which I have seen in the last three years. And what is the OTA market doing? Are they consolidating like go Ivo and MMT has consolidated. What do I gain out of it? Do I have a relationship which is very strong and what do they think of me?

Right.

So all these things matter for me to be sure that I can grow from a 14 to an 18.

Right.

Referral businesses again for weddings especially. I also work on the Mohrak deals, right?

Oh yeah, yeah, right.

So if I have seen, I know my reference are very strong wrong for my products. But last year we had 40 days of mode, for example. This year we have say 35 or 30 days.

Right.

So I can occupy as many rooms as I have. I cannot because the number of mode of dates have gone down or more will not make any difference to my understanding. So that comes into, into a big consideration. So we find out all these things well in advance.

Okay, so, so you're saying there's a lot of research done, done in advance. So to make sure that the facts that you have, based on which your decision you're making, the facts are correct.

Correct.

Right.

Okay. So when it comes to direct website and social media, because mice is such a big segment like you said, you know, in some cases your Saudi business was going down, you were able to more than make, make up for it by doing weddings. So when it comes to mice business, mice doesn't come from OTAs yet there's no OTA which is giving you mice business. So mice business, you depend on your website or local salespeople or sometimes social media also gives queries for mice.

Sure enough, it's a mixed bag, but we have a very strong sales team across the country.

So Even today in 2017, you feel that manual relationships, foot soldiers shaking hands, making a relationship, having a drink with the travel agent is still as relevant.

Yes.

It's not gone.

I will tell you why, Avi. You know, many people might say that I am from a little old school, but hospitality still a big chunk, say about 60%, 65% of hospitality is still human, right?

Yeah.

Which is good actually.

Yep. It is not really gone into technology. I keep meeting every day a lot of technology people who come to give us ideas about how we could try transform hospitality through the help of technology. I appreciate that we can do it and we have definitely done so. But to an extent today still, you and I would walk into a hotel, we still feel comfortable and you know, it is Soothing when we meet somebody.

Yeah.

Who's human being.

Yeah.

And who knows they have a relationship, recognizes you by name. Sir, madam didn't come with you today. You know, personally, think of it, the.

Credit card companies, the banking companies, now that they have gone to, you know, you keep on dialing once a 1, 1, a 3, once a 9 and then you finally reach a person. Whereas in this kind of a situation where we have, you know, a human touch, you just walk in and you talk to the person.

Can I have a green tea as well too? With honey.

So that is the, you know, bonding which I feel the hospitality industry still has and my sales people, when they go out. Yeah, probably lead can come in through a social media. Somebody would have seen it.

Yeah.

I have seen Zuri and I want to book a Zuri hotel in Coa. But he still could may not be as comfortable to go online and do it he wants, especially for weddings and conferences.

Yeah.

So it will be a lead.

Yeah, it'll be a lead generator and then you close it.

And we've seen amazing results when it comes to mice queries coming up from social media.

Right.

Targeted campaigns for Indians and NRIS and is doing very well. My last question is that revenue managers today a lot of front office people are becoming revenue managers. Everybody wants to become a revenue manager. So because, you know revenue, you're close to the management, you're close to the owners, you're making a better impact on the business. So some, there are some training schools, some people come untrained, nobody knows revenue. So if you were to hire, if there was a, if a revenue manager who was watching our YouTube show today and they wanted to join Zuri, what is the kind of person that you feel should come into a revenue management field who will be hired by hotels like yours?

Revenue management today is a very vast topic. It is. And especially for a group like ours where we have a corporate hotel as well as we have leisure hotels, a revenue manager indeed needs to know much more than just a relationship with OTAs, which used to be one point in time. But you got to know the gds, you got to know the GDS marketing channels, you got to know what you could do with a saber with Amelias, with Galileo, World Span, you got to know how to manage them. There are quite a few, quite a few companies which are today having soft marketing tires like we, we do with Preferred. So you got to know how to channelize your resources with preferred and get.

Business out of it. So that means that you would look for all these things Require somebody who's very experienced. But what about these new, I mean 30 year old, 32 year, 33 year old guys coming in? What do they need to know before they can start and approach you for a job in as a revenue manager or assistant revenue manager. What are the basics?

Yeah, as an assistant revenue manager provided.

Like are you looking at analytics and you should have analytic skills.

See, a revenue manager's analytic skills are required. They should be the guide for the management or the sales team to decide, okay, which channel is working for us or which corporate account is working for us and from which city are they booking us. In a city hotel, they got to tell me which university code is working and from where it is coming. But as you said, it is a seasoned revenue manager who can do that. Probably a newcomer may not have all these things which I am talking of, but you can at least know what a channel manager is, how to put on the rates, why you are putting on a rate. You should know that the analogy behind that, today I want to put us a 5,500 rate, but tomorrow I want a 6,500. Why do I do that?

Right.

So that statistics and that knowledge of a revenue manager to start off as manager should be there.

So basically you're saying that he needs to have analytical skills, he needs to know why he's doing. He needs to know about the city, he needs to know what, what rates and why, competitor settings and all of that. So those basics, he should be able to be basically somebody with good common sense and analytical skills can start in a hotel as a revenue manager. And then obviously he learns the ropes.

And he many manager today I see come back with a reservations background. Yeah, so they basically learn all these things when they are doing reservations because they are handling the same, you know, tools and then they start, you know, developing their own skills on how to really use these skills and come better on the revenue.

Right, that's an interesting point. So before we wind up this episode we wanted to talk about. Reservations is still a major part reservation team. The call center is still a major part of procuring business.

Of course, yes. Reservations, you know, is not only an area where they book the rooms, but they make a lot of difference in converting business and as well as upselling rooms.

Right.

Because a call comes in and if you are on an automated platform, all that you could do is show the room.

Right.

But on a call, reservation assistant can upsell the room.

Right.

Next category by telling what are the features and make money out of it.

Right.

So reservation team Although they're human beings and there's a manpower cost and all of that, reservation teams will stay. You said that the revenue manager has to be analytical. You're saying that when it comes to managing rates in inventory for different hotels, you are, you're looking at the geopolitical situation of the whole country. You're looking at data and analytics. And so all of these things come and put together and help you, you know, run these hotels so successfully.

Like you're doing it. Great.

So this, this is going to make a good video for everybody who's watching to learn the, you know, some of the basics that you spoke about. I know it's not an easy thing and it cannot be encompassed in 10 minutes.

Yes. It isn't, you know what, Avi? It isn't process driven thing. It is not that. I have a list of things that I do. These all are part and parcel mix of a good recipe of a good, probably a mutton curry.

So it's not, it's not free form. It's got a lot of moving parts, many, many variables to it. I like the fact that you said that even in today, in 2017, as we approaching 2018, you're still saying that human beings play an important role and human relations play an important role in running a hotel successfully. That is why people, that's why if a sales and marketing person leaves the relationships leave with them. That's why relationships are so important. Okay, great. Thank you very much for this.

Thank you.

And for everybody who's watching, we're going to tag your LinkedIn ID. If they have more guidance that they need from you, they can reach out to you.

Anyway. Great, thank you.

Thank you.

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