Hoteliers know that upselling guests is a great way to create additional revenue for their hotel. However, there’s a right way and a wrong way to offer your guests add-on products and services. If you come across as too “salesy,” you risk the chance of damaging your relationship with your guest. However, if you approach them with the right offers, a hotel upsell can actually improve guest experience. Here are the best strategies for successfully upselling your hotel guests.

Make it Personal

It is possible to improve a guest’s experience at your hotel by offering them supplementary services. The most important thing to remember is that the more personal the offer, the better. When upselling your hotel guests, you want to present them with offers that align with their preferences and travel circumstances. This is where your front desk staff and concierge team will play a vital role.

The more data they can collect about a guest during their initial interaction with them, the better. For example, if you find out your guest is traveling with their small children, they likely won’t be interested in a wine tasting experience. However, that guest may be interested in tickets to a local children’s museum or in the child-friendly menu items available through room service. Your primary goal is to forge a relationship with your guests so they learn to trust your recommendations.

Use Discounts Wisely

One way to entice a guest to take you up on an upsell is through a special discount. There are many guests who don’t take advantage of extra services such as room service, spa services, childcare, tours, etc. at a regular price. However, they may be more than willing to do so if they know they’re getting a good deal. This is especially true with young millennial parents who are keen on experiences but also very guarded with their finances. Again, it’s important that you offer your guests discounts only on items that are relevant to them.

Returning Guests

Returning guests are often much easier to upsell. They have a previous relationship with your hotel and have already experienced some of what you have to offer. Use any data you have from their previous stay to make personalized offers that can help make their return visit that much more special. Some popular hotel upsells for return guests can include:

• Room upgrades
• In-room extras such as bottles of wine
• Meal packages

A great customer experience starts with a stable supply chain. Source1 Purchasing can help you manage your suppliers and service providers while saving you money at the same time. Contact us today for a free cost savings analysis.

Hospitality professionals know how important it is to keep up with the latest trends in travel and lodging. Understanding shifts in travel behaviors can help you better serve your guests and increase future bookings. Here are some emerging travel trends that all hoteliers should be aware of:

Multigenerational Travel

Hotels are seeing more guests traveling with their extended family. Not only are young millennial parents traveling with their small children, but they are also bringing along grandparents and, in some cases, great grandparents. The multigenerational travel trend is a great opportunity for hotels to fill more rooms. The key to attracting these larger groups is to create accommodations that allow each member of the group to have enough space to be comfortable, but also stay within close proximity to the rest of their group. Adjoining rooms are a popular solution, but there are other amenities hotels can have on hand to accommodate multigenerational travelers. Work with your trusted furniture supplier to source high-quality pull-out sofas for larger suites. Rollaway beds and cribs will also be in high demand for guests traveling with small children.

More Millennials are Making Reservations

When it comes to multigenerational groups, it’s not uncommon for the grandparents to be the ones covering the hotel bill. However, it is their millennial children who are doing most of the planning and booking. Even when they are not traveling with their children, parents of millennials will often look to them for help with choosing a hotel and making reservations. This is largely due to the increasing popularity of online booking systems. Millennials are savvy when it comes to researching hotels and finding the best deals online, so their parents trust them to make travel decisions for them.

Activities

More than ever, travelers are looking to partake in authentic local experiences when they travel. Today, travelers don’t want to spend as much of their free time checking out typical tourist attractions. Instead, they want to explore the parts of the city that the locals love. Hotels should work with their local activities partners to offer guests some unique local experiences. Is your town known for making great craft beer? Consider offering tickets for a local brewery tour. Your guests will appreciate you recommending activities that they might not otherwise have found themselves.

From furniture to food, Source1 Purchasing can help you stabilize your supply chain and secure all of your hospitality supplies at the best prices. Contact us today for a free cost savings analysis.

The lighting choices throughout your hotel will have a big impact on how your guests perceive your establishment. The wrong lighting choices can make your hotel feel uninviting and your interior design look dated. Avoid a bad first impression by following these lighting best practices.

Lighting Choices in Common Areas

Use lighting to separate the major public spaces in your hotel. Lobbies, restaurants, and foyers all require different levels of brightness and warmth. This is something that many managers don’t consider when updating lighting fixtures in their hotel. A lighting specialist can help you make sure that all of your public spaces are setting the right tone.

In certain areas of your hotel, such as in a restaurant or lounge area, you want to make sure that your lighting is flexible so that it can be adjusted during the day. During breakfast hours, you will want the lighting in your dining areas to be bright and inviting, while in the evening the lights should be dimmer and warmer to help set a relaxing tone.

Lighting Choices In Guest Rooms

Like in the common areas of your hotel, the lighting in your guest rooms should also be flexible. Consider all of the activities that guests do in their room and set up your lighting accordingly. For instance, there should be adequate lighting for reading near the bed and appropriate lighting for shaving or applying makeup in the bathrooms.

Part of what makes your in-room lighting set up functional is ease of use. Make sure that guests don’t have to struggle to figure out how to turn on the various lights in their room by being strategic about where switches are located. Above all, you always want to invest in high-quality lighting fixtures for your guest rooms. In-room lighting fixtures should be attractive and hold up to regular use.

Think Sustainable

There are many benefits to switching to energy-saving lighting options such as LED bulbs. Not only will they save you money in the long run, but they can also help you expand on your lighting design. LED lights offer flexible sizes with adjustable brightness that allow lighting designers to illuminate rooms and common areas in ways that are not possible with larger, traditional fixtures. For that reason, they can be a useful addition to your current lighting design if completely replacing fixtures isn’t an option.

Source1 Purchasing can help you make the best lighting choices find the best lighting suppliers while saving you money on all of your hospitality supplies. Contact us today for a free cost savings analysis.

The maintenance staff are some of the most important team members at a hotel. The hotel maintenance staff makes sure that issues are handled quickly and efficiently. This ensures that hotel guests can enjoy their stay with minimal disruptions. It’s important that your maintenance team is equipped to quickly react to any situation. However, taking preventative measures to avoid as many issues as possible is even more crucial.

How Preventative Maintenance Improves Customer Experience

Hoteliers are committed to providing their guests with a comfortable, worry-free stay at their hotel. Part of ensuring that guests have a positive experience at your hotel is sparing them from any sort of inconveniences. This is where preventative maintenance comes into play. By taking regular steps to mitigate issues throughout your hotel and maintaining its appearance, you can rest assured that your guests will have the opportunity to experience your hotel at its best. Here are some of our top preventative maintenance tips for hotel operators.

Be Proactive

Your support staff should spend a significant amount of their time inspecting every area of your hotel for signs of wear or other issues. This includes identifying paint, carpet, tile, and other finishes that may be in need of repair. Although these may seem like minor details, guests do take notice of them. Additionally, make sure the rest of your staff is trained to communicate any issues they see with the maintenance team.

Regularly Scheduled Service Providers

For systems and equipment that your internal staff isn’t able to maintain themselves, don’t wait until there’s a problem to request a visit from your outside service providers. Your preventative maintenance plan should include them as well. For example, equipment such as HVAC units, irrigation systems, and major kitchen appliances should be inspected on a regular basis. Work with your service providers to create a maintenance schedule that will keep all of your equipment running properly.

Keep Track of Incidents

Therefore, it can be very beneficial to have a system in place for tracking data pertaining to maintenance issues. Tracking incidents over a period of time can help you pinpoint areas where problems are most likely to occur in the future. For example, you may find that you receive a disproportionate amount of complaints about the air conditioner in a particular room. This could point to a faulty system or an electrical issue. Recording incidents will prompt staff to investigate the root of the recurring problem.

Source1 Purchasing can help you lower the costs of your maintenance supplies and services needs. We help you manage your suppliers and service providers while saving you money at the same time. Contact us today for a free cost savings analysis.

Attracting families is an important priority for many hotels. While traveling families has always been a lucrative demographic for the hospitality industry, there is more opportunity than ever for hotels who are committed to being “family-friendly”. Studies show that younger parents are traveling with their children at a growing rate. Millennial parents specifically will often travel with their young children three or more times a year. By taking a few simple steps to make sure that parents with small children feel comfortable and welcomed, a hotel can easily build a reputation for themselves as a family-friendly establishment.

Child-Friendly Amenities & Activities

Most traveling families will include some downtime in their itinerary. Even when they’re not out exploring the city, parents will still need to have some activities lined up for their children while they’re relaxing at their hotel. Hotels can help parents keep their children entertained by offering special amenities they can enjoy during their stay. Some popular choices include kid-friendly DVD’s or video gaming systems that parents can barrow during their stay. Other family-friendly hotels go a step further and offer organized activities for children such as arts and crafts classes.

The Comforts of Home

For many parents, traveling with small children can be enjoyable but also stressful at times. Chances are, especially if they have a small baby in tow, parents will not be able to pack all the comforts of home with them when they travel. Family-friendly hotels can help create a safe and comfortable stay for their youngest guests by offering special accommodations just for small children. Most importantly, small babies need a safe place to sleep. Hotels should source quality cribs from their trusted furnishing supplier for parents to use during their stay. Some other popular offerings include:

• Play Yards
• Strollers
• Childproofing Items (such as outlet covers)
• Night Lights
• Food & Beverage Programs for Kids

It’s not uncommon for children to be picky about what they eat. Hotels should make it a point to add child-friendly menu items to their food and beverage program. Another thing to consider is that parents will need to have healthy snacks on hand for their children while they are out sightseeing. It’s a good idea for child-friendly hotels to offer grab-and-go items that parents can easily purchase before they set out to enjoy their activities for the day.

From furnishings to grab-and-go food items, Source1 Purchasing’s network of quality suppliers have everything your hotel needs to make your guests feel at home. Contact us today to learn how we can save you upwards of 9% on all of your hospitality supplies.

It’s imperative that hotels have an effective water management plan in place. Not only is important to protect this natural resource, excess water use can also be detrimental to your operating budget. Water conservation in hotels can be tricky, but many have found creative ways to decrease daily water usage. For example, enlisting guests’ help in water reduction efforts by asking them to do things like reuse towels can be very helpful in reducing a hotel’s day to day water use. However, it is outside of your hotel where the most water waste can occur.

Outdoor green spaces on a hotel property can be huge drains on your monthly water budget. Landscaping, swimming pools, and onsite golf-courses require an immense amount of water to maintain. For that reason, hotels must be very diligent about their water management plan when it comes to these outdoor areas. It’s easy for your maintenance team to unknowingly use more water than necessary without a proper water conservation and management plan in place.

Water Management for Landscaping

The truth is, landscaping is very important to your hotel’s image. Beautiful outdoor green spaces have a huge effect on a guest’s impression of your establishment. Lush landscaping can increase your property’s value in the eyes of your customers. The challenge for property managers comes in finding a balance between maintaining the aesthetic of their green spaces while conserving water.

An effective water maintenance plan should include a strategic irrigation schedule that changes season by season, as well as regular inspection of any sprinklers, pumps, and other irrigation equipment. Being proactive about spotting problems before they become too large can go a long way in avoiding water waste.

Get Professional Help

Enlisting the help of a water management professional can be extremely beneficial for a hotel. A qualified service provider will be able to conduct a thorough audit of your outdoor water usage. From there, they can offer you some water saving solutions such as water recycling, rainwater collection, and more. Further, they will be able to pinpoint any leaks or other sources of water waste that are cutting into your water budget.

Source1 Purchasing has a comprehensive network of service providers that can help you with hotel water management and other areas of property maintenance. In addition, we can save you upwards of 9% on all of your other hospitality supply needs including food, linens, cleaning supplies, and more. Contact us today for a free market basket.

Success in the hospitality industry is all about cultivating relationships. It isn’t enough to simply get a guest to walk through your doors. You want to provide them with such a great experience that they can’t wait to book their next visit. In order for hotels and resorts to build strong, long-term relationships with their customers, they must constantly look for opportunities to add value to their guests’ experience. Paying special attention to even the smallest details can help improve customer satisfaction and increase repeat business.

Building Guest Relationships

Reliability

If you study the most successful hospitality brands, you will see that they are all very committed to consistency. Guests like to know that they can count on consistent service, pricing, and amenities when they book their favorite hotel. Being able to rely on a hotel for a consistently positive experience makes booking their stay a stress-free experience for your loyal customers.

Personized Experience

Any good relationship is a two-way street. You’ve taken steps to help your guests get to know you. In turn, you should take the time to get to know your guests. Put systems in place to record guests’ preferences so you can offer them a more personalized experience during future stays. This is where even the smallest boutique hotel can compete with a large chain. The importance of experience often surpasses facilities when it comes to customer satisfaction.

Avoid Complacency

Even if you’re incredibly committed to creating a great customer experience, there will always be room for improvement. You can embrace innovation without moving away from your brand’s identity that your customers already know and trust. Therefore, try to look for small ways you can enhance your repeat guest’s experience like upgraded linens or exciting new menu choices. If you can make a repeat guest feel like they’re getting more for their money with each stay, you will have a customer for life.

Keep in Touch

Even if a repeat guest only travels once a year, it’s still very important to keep in constant contact with them. Company newsletters are a great way to keep past guests up-to-date on what’s happening at your hotel. Remember, your past guests are often your best advertisers.

Consistent guest experiences are essential to building trust with your guests, and great customer experiences start with a stable supply chain. Make sure that your hotel is sourcing your hospitality supplies at the best prices. Source1 Purchasing can help you save more than 9% on all of your hospitality needs. Contact us for a free supply chain analysis.

The purchasing manager plays a vital role in the success of any hotel. A stable supply chain affects everything from customer satisfaction to the overall profitability of a hotel. For that reason, it’s incredibly important that hotels fill this role with the right person. Your purchasing manager should possess a good mix of experience and skills that are central to their position.

Qualities of a Great Purchasing Manager

Experienced

When hiring a purchasing manager for your hotel, you should strive to find a candidate that has past experience working in hotel supply procurement. Many hotels will hire someone who has done purchasing for a business outside of the hospitality industry. However, the intricacies of hospitality procurement require someone who is familiar with hotels and the way they operate.

Analytical

A purchasing manager must be very analytical and possess the ability to think on their feet. At the core of their position, a purchasing manager must ensure that their hotel has all the supplies needed for daily operations. They must also project how demands for certain supplies will fluctuate throughout the year. In addition, a purchasing manager is responsible for managing a large portion of their hotel’s budget. However, they must be able to make purchasing decisions that are not solely based on price alone. There are times when it’s best to choose quality over quantity.

Trend Spotter

Seasoned hospitality purchasing managers are typically able to spot emerging trends in the hotel industry. This is especially true when it comes to food and beverage programs. When a particular item is gaining popularity among hotel customers, such as Greek yogurt or “Grab and Go” food items, a savvy purchasing manager will discover these trends and make these items available to their hotel guests.

Integrity

The entire team should be filled with people of great integrity; however, this is especially true when it comes to your purchasing manager. It is not uncommon for suppliers to try to woo purchasing managers with gifts and other incentives in an effort to get them to buy their products. However, a purchasing manager must be able to resist these temptations and make decisions based on what is best for their hotel.

Partnership Building

Relationships play an important role in a successful purchasing program. A purchasing manager must be good at forming strategic partnerships with the right suppliers. Source1 Purchasing can give your purchasing manager the tools they need to form these relationships and stabilize your supply chain. Contact Source1 Purchasing today to learn about our strategic supplier program.

 

 

Airbnb and other short-term rental websites have been big disruptors in the hospitality industry. Many millennial travelers have come to prefer this alternative style of lodging for its value and convenience. Hotels risk the chance of losing valuable market share to short-term rentals if they don’t find ways to regain the favor of young consumers. So how can hotels compete with Airbnb? In order to complete with Airbnb hotels must do two things. First, understand what makes short-term rentals so attractive and second, highlight the benefits of choosing a hotel.

Focus On Community

Travelers are typically attracted to short-term rentals because they are less expensive than a traditional hotel. In addition, guests feel they offer a more authentic experience while they’re visiting a new city. Young travelers are looking to experience a city more as a local than as a tourist. To get the attention of these consumers, hotels should try to present themselves as an extension of their community. Local restaurant concepts are a great way to attract neighborhood residents to a hotel. A hotel restaurant or bar frequented by locals helps guests feel like they’re part of an authentic neighborhood experience. Meanwhile, guests can still enjoy the comforts that come with staying at a hotel.

Highlight Amenities

A hotel’s staff is its most valuable asset when it comes to completing with Airbnb. When marketing to millennials, hotels should highlight the service and amenities Airbnb can’t offer. On-site recreation, dining options, and round-the-clock service are all benefits that short-term rentals simply can’t offer. Hotels can also provide guests with a far more secure stay than Airbnb. There is no risk of being faced with an unscrupulous host when guests choose to stay at a hotel. Meanwhile, there are plenty of documented cases of Airbnb stays that have gone wrong due to bad hosts and misrepresented properties.

Find Ways to Add Value

One of the biggest draws of a short-term rental is pricing. Hotels can attract first time guests with promotional pricing, but it’s important to also lay the foundation to gain that customer’s repeat business. Providing an excellent customer experience is a great start, however, price will likely still be a factor when that guest is ready to book another hotel. Loyalty programs that offer preferred pricing and other incentives are a great way to keep guests coming back for years to come.

Great customer experiences start with a stable supply chain. Contact Source1 Purchasing to learn about their strategic supplier program.

 

Many hotels have committed to reducing their impact on the environment. Striving for “greener” business practices in not only good for the planet, it can also translate to increased profits for a hotel. Here are four simple ways hotels can improve sustainability in the hospitality industry.

Enlist Guests Help

Consumers are becoming increasingly environmentally conscious and are actively looking to support businesses whose values mirror their own. For that reason, hotels should look to enlist their guests to help in their conversation efforts. A good example is asking guests to maximize their towel and linen usage. Encouraging guests to re-use bath towels during their stay has become a common practice in the hotel industry. Hotels can dramatically reduce their water and energy consumption by cutting down on the amount of laundry that needs to be processed daily.

Sustainability Through Maintenance

Hotels lose a great deal of money to water and energy waste each year. A hotel’s maintenance team can play a large roll in reducing these losses. Ensuring that sinks, toilets, and irrigation systems are properly maintained is imperative to keeping water waste at a minimum. Additionally, HVAC systems should be inspected regularly to ensure they are working efficiently to help keep energy expenses down. When it’s time to upgrade items like faucets or light fixtures, hotels should opt for more efficient options. Products like low-flow toilets and LED lighting will help minimize water and energy waste.

Reduce Postconsumer Waste

Part of an operator’s hospitality sustainability efforts should include minimizing landfill contributions. There are many areas where hotels can cut down on the amount of postconsumer waste they generate. First, hotels should perform an audit of their recycling program. Most hotels have systems in place for staff members to recycle glass, paper and plastic products, but there are typically fewer opportunities for guests to do the same. The addition of dedicated recycling receptacles in guest rooms and common areas can help reduce the number of recyclable products that end up in the trash.

Choose Strategic Suppliers

Strategic suppliers can help hotels identify the most environmentally friendly choices for commonly used hospitality supplies. This can include everything from cleaning products to linens and lightbulbs. Hotels should also choose food vendors that can source regional products that require less fuel to deliver. By regularly taking small steps towards becoming more sustainable, hotels can significantly cut down on waste, minimizing their environmental impact while saving money in the process.

Find out how Source1 Purchasing can help you with supplier relationship management while saving you more than 9% on the cost of your hospitality supplies. Request your free Market Basket today.