Great expectations
The quandary budget hotels in the region face is the challenge of meeting the high expectations of guests with the desire to provide rooms at rates which are ‘budget’ and can offer customers value for money.
But although a swimming pool and a gym have become de rigueur in many budget hotels in the region, along with complimentary breakfast and free Wi-Fi (something which many five-star properties do not offer),mid-scale operators say that they are managing to keep rates low through reducing staff costs and getting rid of services they perceive as unnecessary.
“Basically we offer the guests what they would like to have,” explains el Khoury.
| Advertisement |
“Guests coming and staying in a mid-market hotel would like to pay for the services they are utilising. For example, when it comes to offering a concierge — many of the guests, considering that we are around the airport and have lots of business travellers, come with small luggage and they come to the reception and go straight to the room, so they are not using the bellboy or the concierge or valet parking.
So there are some services that guests staying in the hotels do not utilise, so why would they pay for it? This is the concept of the mid-market segment — guests only want to pay for the services they use,” he adds.
Cutting out additional staff is something of a theme for budget hotels, who insist that given the choice, guests would rather have a swimming pool and a gym at a low price, than pay more and have additional staff (or forfeit the pool).
“We don’t have valet parking, luggage assistants or bellboys so guests can carry their own luggage but of course we can assist if it is required,” says Madkour.
“We are not so fancy, we don’t have extra bits and pieces because guests want to pay less and get quality. Three-star brands have always been seen as a lower quality… but now it is the opposite,” he adds.
“It’s important to focus on what really matters to the guest,” agrees Premier Inn Hotels managing director Darroch Crawford, “A really comfortable bed, a nice bathroom, a good TV and more and more importantly these days a good Wi-Fi connection.
Most budget hotels don’t offer valet parking or concierge services, but if they are like Premier Inn, they have fantastic receptionists instead, who are trained to fill any gaps that the lack of such services might create.”
Having a multi-tasking staff is, it seems, an essential element to running a mid-scale property , but although there are less staff at budget hotels, operators insist that this does not compromise on the service offered — merely that there are less services available.
Room service, for example, is something which most budget hotels have cut out altogether, along with the concierge, bellboy, and parking attendant.
The budget hotel model in the region knows its market well and fully understands the services it needs to provide to appeal to customers — who value their affordable rate as well as their comforts.
Bridger explains: “When we looked at what the expectations are, what stacks up for us is as soon as we put in porters, concierge, and 24-hour room service, we need a lot more people in operations, which obviously puts the rate up”.
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
