HME.COM: How have you tackled this incredibly challenging year for hoteliers?
Half of the economic crisis was for real, but half was psychological and if you get the confidence back in the market things will improve.
It’s been a really crazy year — I’ve never known so much volatility in terms of rates.
What we have tried to is pre-agree contracted rates with travel partners and corporate contracted rates.
We had a review in the summer and basically our strategy has been to really come in from a value point of view.
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Yes, we’ve had a tough year, but let’s not be greedy and instead look at our price policy and really come in and be competitive.
That policy is starting to pay off and we are winning our percentage share of the market.
However, we had to have a rethink about how we looked at our sales strategy, before being a sales manager for a hotel was one of the easiest jobs around, but now it’s all changed.
We just want people to be streetwise and up with the times and be competitive — not to lose a deal, whereas before people would say ‘no I don’t need you’.
HME.COM: But where does the line get drawn in letting a sale go?
We’ve agreed our corporate rates until May next year and we have priced them in such a way that we don’t think that we will have to review them again on the downside.
What was happening when we kept on reviewing the rates earlier this year was we kept thinking ‘this will be the last one’. Well blow me down if the whole market crumbles and everyone had to continuously review rates.
During the summer the five-star properties and to a certain extent the four-star properties dominated the market because they came with some excellent deals.
The mid-market sector, the three-star guys, had a real tough time of it. People were saying ‘my budget is reduced, but not as much as the hotel rates and now I can afford to stay in a five-star hotel’ — they were giving some fantastic offers and deals.
The pricing points between the star-rated hotels have come back and there is now differentiation, which is good and what the market needs.
From a group point of view we would be willing to negotiate on certain rates, but that is dependent on the size of the group, the length of stay and the time of year.
We are confident that we will not be changing rates until May — it will be easier for our travel partners to get business.
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