Future-proofing
The hospitality industry is one of the most competitive and dynamic industries out there. Constantly evolving with changing trends, making your hotel future-proof is a huge challenge. With each stage of transformation, your hotel has to face new challenges and has to adapt to them.
Merely adjusting to the trends in real-time is not enough. You need to have an adaptive mindset and be open to challenges. This is why future-proofing your hotel is important. Your property needs to be resilient to any technological shocks and adjust to changes seamlessly, without losing your edge.
Why Making Your Hotel Future-Proof Is Important
The biggest mistake competitors make is that they don't adapt to the situation on time Changes have a cascading effect, one change will always lead to a bigger change. For example, from manual registers, the hotels then started using Excel. From Excel, hotels started using PMS, RMS and other sophisticated hotel technology.
Imagine a hotel that did not go to Excel in the initial stages of the technological revolution. The hotel rigidly continued to use manual registers. For the time being, he was doing fine. But then the PMS system came along.
By now, even Excel had become obsolete. The hotelier then realized his mistake. But since he did not make even basic computer skills, adjusting to a PMS system would be harder. That hotel is now on verge of shutting down. This is why making your hotel future-proof is essential.
Ways To Make Your Hotel Future Proof
Future-proofing your hotel is the only way by which you can survive in the business. We have listed the best ways by which you can make your hotel popular and timeless.
1. Streamline Hotel Operations
The hospitality industry depends on the efficiency of hotel operations. In 2022, nobody has an excuse to not use technology. If you go around going things manually, you will lose out on speed and efficiency.
An automated and integrated system is the need of the hour. An integrated system will ensure that your room inventory gets updated automatically whenever a booking occurs. You can integrate your PMS system with other hotel technologies to streamline your operations.
2. Use A Cloud Based System
Cloud-based systems have played a crucial role in innovating the hotel business. Cloud-based technology is based on SaaS (Software As A Service) platform and provides an easy way to manage your operations, anytime and anywhere.
With a cloud-based system, all you require is a browser and an internet connection. You can access it anytime and anywhere on a subscription basis. You don’t have to maintain it yourself.
3. Be Pro-Guest and Pro-Employees
Hotels often focus on satisfying guests, however, satisfied employees are equally important. Happy employees will lead to happy guests. Yes, focus on the guests, but provide something for your employees other than training and salary. Implement technological changes and strategies to make employees' work easy and efficient.
If the guests behave unreasonably, you should take the side of your employees and make the unruly guest understand that misbehaviour will not get them anywhere. Work culture needs to be conducive to the growth and welfare of employees. This is one of the few ways to make your hotel future-proof.
4. Solidify Your Hotel Distribution Strategy
Getting revenue isn't just about managing calls, getting leads, emails, and direct bookings from the website. It is also about solidifying your distribution channel and identifying the sources of revenue.
These include the various OTA platforms, direct bookings, pricing strategy and rate parity. Your hotel distribution channels need to take the best of all the worlds and generate maximum revenue.
5. Budget Management
Budget is the heart and soul of any business. It determines the limits of your business. This is especially true for the hospitality industry. The profit margins are quite narrow since you have to spend on perishables, maintenance, toiletries, amenities and more.
That’s why before implementing any technology, one should determine whether or not one can afford it. If you have the budget to implement most of the technologies, great! If not, then choose which ones are the most important and then wait for the implementation of the rest. The budget for technology also depends on the size of the business.
6. Keep Track Of New Trends
For those who want to stay at the top of the game, keeping track of all the latest trends is essential. For example, a resort located near a river or a lake can capitalize on the glamping trend and set up tents near the scenic location within their property.
Hotels that are rigid in their approach will never be able to make their hotel future-proof because they will not adjust to new trends and demands of the hospitality industry.
7. Regular Performance Analysis
Regular performance analysis of your hotel is essential for making your hotel future-proof. Hotels can often get complacent and don’t evaluate their performance and find any errors which they can improve upon.
You need to analyze the important hotel reports that highlight the occupancy rate, maintenance records, and revenue generated. These reports also highlight the popularity of the property in the area. You need to analyze the performance of your competitor as well.
8. Revenue Management - The Key
For any hospitality business, revenue management is the key to success. Revenue Management involves strategies and practices to increase the revenue of the hotel. It gives the right room to the right guest, at the right price and right time.
Revenue management involves planning throughout the year and in future years as well. Future-proof hotels ensure that their pricing, cancellation policy, inventory distribution and channels are geared towards generating the most revenue for the hotel.
9. Data, Data and More Data
Trying to be future-proof without predicting future data is like scuba diving without the gear. Future demand data helps in predicting how your hotel will perform moving forward. Data regarding occupancy, revenue to be generated each day, week and month, and length of day can help hotels determine their future and way ahead.
With these, you will make your hotel future-proof and ahead of all the competitors. Time is brutal. To defeat it, we need to be future-oriented if we want to run a successful hotel business. Read our blogs to know more about the hospitality industry.
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