5 Promotional Rate Strategies to Boost Hotel Revenue
As travel picks up with the warming weather, it’s that time of year your hotel may be thinking about running special packages and promos to stand out from the competition. Promotional rates are not only good for maximizing occupancy and revenue, but they’re fun too! While your guests get great value, you get the opportunity […]
Building Blocks for a Stronger Hotel Business
Did you know that modern buildings constructed within earthquake zones are built to sway during an earthquake? While the foundation is firm, there’s enough flexibility to allow the wave of the earthquake to move through it. Does your hotel need to be seismically upgraded, metaphorically speaking? With the right kind of foundation, you’ll have a […]
Revenge Travel Trends Your Hotel Needs to Prepare for Now
The novelty of perfecting the art of baking sourdough bread and binge watching everything on Netflix is long since over. Cocooning, while essential, was a novelty. But now, as travel opens up, we’re ready to travel again—this time with a vengeance! It’s called revenge travel. And in spite of not being able to travel much […]
Client Spotlight: Mediterranean Inn + Belltown Inn
Mediterranean Inn and Belltown Inn are sister properties located in the heart of Seattle. With 345 rooms between them, this top-rated boutique hotel group offers timeless urban ambiance and warm hospitality, providing guests with high-quality comfort, excellent service and panoramic city views from acclaimed roof-top terraces. In 2019, Brian Zaugg, the investors’ local agent for […]
PMS and POS Integration for Smoother Sales & Happier Guests
Integration of core hotel systems is key to streamlining daily operations and enhancing the guest experience. Thanks to cloud technology, system integration is easier, faster and more effective than ever, empowering hotels to automate processes for improved efficiency, better customer service, and a deeper understanding of guests. Two important hotel systems that work better together […]
5 Hotel Website Design Tips to Boost Bookings
Your website is the hub for all information and content regarding your property and is often the first thing people see when they search for and interact with your business. For these reasons, it’s important for your site to not only be aesthetically pleasing but also intuitive and user-friendly. While it’s important to adapt and […]
Why do you need an RMS, and why is it more important than ever?
As the travel industry goes through a tremendous upheaval, most of our customers are making big changes to their hotel operations, including optimizing their hotel technology through data integration to help cut costs, increase revenue, and streamline operations during these challenging times and beyond. Integrating your property management system (PMS) with revenue management software (RMS) […]
7 Considerations for Reopening Your Hotel Restaurant in a Post-COVID World
As many regions around the world move into new phases of their COVID-19 response plan, restaurants are beginning – or at least planning – to open their doors to on-site dining once again. The continuing need for social distancing and sanitization means running a restaurant (just like running a hotel) in this new era is […]
Cleanliness and Communication Key to Guest Satisfaction
While the latest J.D. Power North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index (NAGSI) Study (2020) was cut a little short due to COVID-19, the results (released in July) clearly support a focus on hotel cleanliness and proactive guest communications to drive guest satisfaction during the pandemic and beyond. The annual study measures guest satisfaction with the […]
Futuristic Hotel Tech for Future Hoteliers
The world has been a strange and scary place lately as we battle COVID-19, but as our combined efforts to beat the virus are starting to prove effective, we can look ahead with optimism and prepare for a more positive future. When it comes to hotel tech innovations, there’s much to be excited about. It […]
Hotel Guest Expectations in a Post-COVID-19 World
It’s hard to know exactly how fast hotel occupancy levels will bounce back as COVID-19 cases drop and travel restrictions lift around the globe. Will travel consumers, confined at home for so long, burst out of the gates as soon as borders reopen? Or will they cautiously hang back, waiting to be sure that it’s […]
How Hotels Can Come Out Stronger from COVID-19
COVID-19 and the travel restrictions and lockdowns required to reduce the spread of the virus have brought about an unprecedented drop in occupancy for hotels and other lodging operations all over the world. Some properties have had to close out floors, suspend certain services such as dining and event services, or temporarily shut their doors. […]
An Independent Hotelier’s Guide to Upselling & Cross-Selling
If you’ve only ever thought of upselling as a way to increase revenue, think again. First and foremost, upselling and cross-selling are effective ways to enhance the guest experience. Done right, upselling offers more value to your guests, increasing guest satisfaction and loyalty. A rise in revenue will follow naturally. Technically, there’s a difference between […]
Best E-Commerce Practices for Independent Hotels
When you think of “e-commerce,” online retail sites like Amazon, eBay and Etsy probably first come to mind. But have you ever thought of your property’s website as an e-commerce site too? E-commerce refers to commercial transactions that are conducted electronically over the internet, so if your hotel website processes bookings through an online booking […]
8 Key Performance Indicators Hoteliers Should Be Tracking
Running a hotel is a complicated job with a never-ending list of responsibilities. It can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks that keep your property running smoothly and forget about taking time to assess your business’s performance. But, as they say, you can’t improve what you don’t measure – so start […]
Bizarre Hotel Guest Requests (and How to Handle Them)
From demanding a meal after the kitchen is closed to requesting a room change because the feng shui isn’t quite right, most hotels deal with challenging guest requests on a daily basis. But we bet most requests pale in comparison to the following real-life examples… We’ve scoured the internet for some truly bizarre guest requests […]
Boost Off-Season Occupancy with Staycation Bookings
As we leave the peak travel season behind us, it’s time for hoteliers to implement strategies to maintain occupancy as best as possible. Beyond dropping room rates there are more resourceful ways to boost reservations—marketing your property to staycationers is one of them. A staycation is a vacation taken close to home, normally within a […]
A Quick Guide to EMV for Independent Hotels
It has been a while now since U.S. consumers switched from swipe-and-sign to chip-and-sign (or chip-and-PIN) credit cards back in 2015. And there’s no looking back. EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, and is a global standard for debit and credit card security. Designed to make card-present transactions more secure, EMV cards feature a […]
A Good Sleep and a Quick Check-in Most Important Drivers of Guest Satisfaction
Pillow mints and chatbots are all well and good, but when it comes to satisfying guests it pays to focus on the basics. A good night’s sleep and a swift check-in are two of the most important elements of the guest experience, according to the recently released J.D. Power 2019 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction […]
Go Greener with a Cloud Hotel Property Management System
Increased global average temperatures, rising sea levels and changing weather patterns prove the time is now to step up and take action for a more environmentally friendly way of life. This beautiful planet of ours is the only home we’ve got, and we’ve got to take care of it. We need to make greener decisions […]
3 Ways to Win Guests with Hotel Tech You Already Have
Winning guest loyalty in today’s extremely competitive market is more challenging than ever, but hotel technology is always evolving to meet that challenge. From mobile keys to chatbots to room control apps, technology that once seemed futuristic is being used by guests in hotels today—albeit mostly at big-brand properties. While such technology will become more […]
Going Desk-less: The New Hotel “Front Desk”
Traditionally an indispensable point of contact between a hotel and in-house guests, the front desk has always been the place where guests check in, make requests, stop to chat, and check out. But not anymore. From mobile concierges to chatbots, today’s hospitality technology makes it possible for hotels to dispense with their physical front desk. […]
7 Tips to Reduce Booking Abandonment on Your Hotel Website
From redesigning your website to rolling out new marketing campaigns, you spend plenty of resources boosting online traffic. And you should—your property’s website is your store-front to the world. But just getting traffic isn’t enough. It might feel like the battle is won, but you need visitors to make a booking for it to matter. […]
Top Tips for Getting More Online Hotel Reviews
Despite the constant evolution of online marketing and distribution platforms and social media, online reviews remain so important. According to recent research, a total of 92 percent of leisure travelers in the U.S. consider online hotel reviews “somewhat important” or “very important” when choosing a hotel. Recent changes to how Google reviews are displayed on […]