So you've got a beautiful hotel with great employees - the finest chef in town - but you are in the midst of the hotel corridor surrounded by others with similar outstanding services. How do you ensure that potential customers stay with you instead of your competitors?

There are several ways to accomplish this, there are simple, common sense ways, ways that take a little investigating, and some require creativity. Starting with common sense, let's take a look at things you should be doing already.

The internet is fast overtaking travel agents as the primary way people find hotels. Put simply, not only do you have to have a great informative website, but you also have to be listed with the discount hotel services online like Orbitz and hotels.com.

If you have confidence that you have the edge over your competitors, always have a couple of rooms available at a discounted rate, preferably lower than anyone else around you, that you can make available for these services. Remember that research has shown word of mouth advertising is also picking up and if you have the greatest hotel in town, it will become known, and even if they can't get a rock bottom price, people will stay with you because they know they will have a great time.

What else do you need to do? Your website has to be up to having cutting edge technology and should be very informative. The page should be able to load even with a dial up connection speed. People want to see what the room will look like. They want to know how big it is, how much space they will have to move around.

If you have suites with a living room, show it. Show it with the bed pulled out if there's a sofa bed. People like to know how many guests they can fit comfortably.  If there is a kitchen, show it with the cabinets open so potential guests can see what will be available for them to cook with.

Do you have a hotel with a view or a balcony, or both? Show that picture.  Take it when the sun is setting or rising to show it at its best. If you can put chairs on the balcony, show that, people would like to know that they can have breakfast on a balcony with a beautiful view. Show them what they can do at your hotel that they can't do at home.

Another way to scoop the competition is to stay at their hotel. Find out what the ambience is like, what the bar is like. What do people who stay there want that they can't have? What do you want that you can't have? 

If guests from other hotels visit your bar, have your bartender engage them in conversation. Find out why they are here and not there. Maybe they only offer bar drinks and these guests prefer blended drinks. Maybe they like beer from local micro-breweries. 

Small things will make all the difference when choosing a place to not only spend your vacation, but to recommend that hotel to your friends. Finally in these days of high gas prices, do something simple like giving your guests a list of the gas stations with the lowest prices, or where they can buy cheap cigarettes, or free maps of the local hotspots or shopping malls and when they call to inquire about room availability, make sure your reservationist tells them. On your internet site let them know that you offer services no one else does, encourage them to ask about them.

These are the things that will distinguish you from your competitors before they ever set foot on the premises. These are the little niceties that will make them come back and bring their friends. This is what makes a world class hotel.

Kison Patel is President of National Hotel Exchange. He is a specialist in hospitality transactions. He can be reached at kison@nationalhotelexchange.com

Robin C. Trehan is an industry consultant in the field of mergers and acquisitions. He is also a motivational speaker and knowledge management expert. He can be reached at robin@tafunds.com