Don’t shoot the messengers!

American humorist Arnold Glasow once wrote that “expecting something for nothing is the most popular form of hope”.

The first few months of 2009 have shown that many of the region’s hoteliers are adhering to Glasow’s concept, with a wave of redundancies and restructurings showing a distinctly myopic and worrying trend.

While many positions were made redundant across the board, anecdotally it seems that staff in the marketing, PR and communications departments at both property and corporate level were often the first to be considered as areas to cut.

From an old-school hotelier’s viewpoint this is justified.

The business of hotels is ultimately to make money and while some positions have an immediate and empirical return on investment (ROI) such as sales or service roles, others are more intangible and generate a ROI that is not necessarily quantifiable.

It’s a counter-intuitive argument: don’t spend any money on marketing and PR but hope that people hear about the hotel anyway.

The problem is, however, that perception is everything in the travel and hospitality industry. There is no one reason for any guest to choose to stay in a particular hotel, despite years of research trying to find the ‘X Factor’ — sometimes it is the location, sometimes it is the price, sometimes it is a special package or a memory that will convince the paying customer to pick up the phone or click on the ‘buy’ button on a website.

At a base level, however, the hotel has to be accessible and presentable — the guest must want to stay there.

It helps if they have heard of the property or the brand.

Although removing the marketing and PR department personnel might have an immediate cost-saving benefit, in the long run if your property is out of sight and out of mind, then you will soon be out of pocket.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that costs cannot be saved within the department by going through budgets with a fine-toothed comb, but the emphasis must remain on ensuring that your property and your brand remain in the mindset of your target market.

Removing these messages from the marketplace is the equivalent of turning out the lights over the front door — no one will be sure if there is anyone at home.

Hoteliers must remember that simply running a brilliant property is only half of the battle; resources must be used to actually spread news of the hotel’s offer to the market.

Therein lies the corollary to Glasow’s edict that expecting something for nothing is also the most popular form of creating disappointment.

Chris Jackson is the senior editor of Hotelier Middle East.

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

READERS' COMMENTS

Don't shoot the soldiers
Posted by Jon, Dubai, UAE on Sunday 19 April 2009 at 08:19 UAE time


The first budget always cut in bad times at hotels is the training budget.
Levels of service in the UAE hotels has dropped below the woefully inept, and this has a far greater impact on revenue than the loss of marketing and any Director of Sales and Marketing (who will not be removed) that is worth their salt will do a good enough job anyway; if they're not then why were they hired in the first place?
Hotels in this region will get a bad name for one reason only, and that is the continuing poor level of service. Hoteliers need to realise that they cannot live off the Dubai moniker anymore, and must produce the real goods.
Travelers will still come, the goal of any hotel or restaurant is the return guest. Guests are now being put off due to the poor levels of service that are being received. Training and proper recruitment is key during downturns to ensure that the individual hotels stay at the forefront of their marketplace, and wow the guest on the ground.
The advent of the internet has made marketing cheap and easily marketable, most hotels are being booked through websites and are being booked because of brand recognition rather than quirky marketing. People are up for a good deal, not a gimmick. Revenue managers create the deals, not the PR people.

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Arabian Business would like to point out that only comments relevant to the story will be published. Any containing personal insults or inappropriate language will not be approved.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM