"Fish where the fish are" is an old sales proverb -

Too often we exhaust our time and money trying to find that one new market which will fill our hotel and solve all our business ills.

That very rarely ever happens. "Fishing where the fish are" is meant to bring us back to the reality that business begets more business; market segments, which are already using your hotel, should be exploited to develop new and repeat business.

Creating new markets can be much too costly in terms of time and money; with little or no return. There is new business right under your nose, lurking within your existing client data base; the trick is to recognize it, determine where the fish are, and begin fishing. If your hotel does business with one or two high-tech companies, why not contact all high-tech companies? You get the picture.

Start with your filing system, manual or electronic, to wean business from old contacts. Losing accounts to the competition is common; getting them back is sweet. Why spend time "beating the bushes", before you exhaust your resources of people who already know your hotel and already have room business.

Many hoteliers are under the delusion that a major feeder account is producing a good amount of room business; without really knowing how much business that account is capable of producing. Mapping that account could reveal additional contacts, within that account, which currently produce business for your competitors.

Account Mapping

If you are fortunate enough to have some mid-sized to large company room generators in your area, account mapping can be very useful to determine and maximize your share of their business; it's the contact game. It's very simple; write down the names and positions of your current contacts with a particular company. Once this is done, take-on the mission to find other source contacts within that company.

A simple way to do this is to "map" the account by listing known contacts and then adding the people who report to them and the people they report to and so-on. Of course you will need to contact them to do this; it's a great exercise.

Create Partnerships

All hotels, small and large, can benefit from creating partnerships with key competitors. There is really nothing secret in this business; just about the only thing you can't discuss is room rate; that's against anti-trust laws. Everything else is fair game.

If you haven't already, create an overflow partner and a walk partner. You never know when this could be helpful. Creating a dialogue with other hoteliers in your area can provide a lot of insight into the marketplace. Know your own hotel, but know your competition better. The competition is not just brick and mortar; knowing how they think and act is important too.

Manage Your Web Site

Does your web site reflect the various market segments which you have already developed? The old 80/20 rule still works; 80 percent of your business will be generated by 20 percent of your clients. The types of business, market segments which make-up your total business, should be reflected on your web site.

One client revealed that weddings reflect about 20 percent of his food & beverage business and about 6 percent of his room business; yet, he had no "weddings' page on his web site. Does your site reflect distances to/from major company room generators in your market?

Try this experiment: Take your largest market segment or attraction and then do a search for it. E.g. perform a search for "hotels near Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL". Where does your hotel rank in that search; page one or page ten?

Does your site highlight other room generators such as attractions or recreation in your area; does it highlight distances to/from your hotel? This is one of the factors which define your hotel's location. Location is still number one in the hotel selection process. 

When was the last time that you reviewed your key search terms for your web site? Using the most popular search terms can make a huge difference to increase the popularity of your site. Are these search terms used properly within the text of your site?

It is always a good idea to periodically make a reservation from your web site to view the entire procedure; does it work effortlessly and efficiently? If your booking engine is not interfaced with your front office, check periodically to see if your inventory and rates, which reside on your booking engine, are correct and accurate.

If your hotel is in the group market, do you have a group RFP attached to your site, so, your site can feed your sales department with timely leads?

Your web site should be producing a substantial portion of your total business; some hotels receive 35% or more of their total room business from their web sites. Make sure it truly reflects the types of business which your hotel attracts.

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got.

www.hotelmarketingcoach.com