Despite tightened budgets, the smartest hotels and hotel groups have concluded that there is an opportunity to re-think the commercial organization. Fewer employees combined with a system that encourages collaboration.
Fewer employees but still the same job
Hotels are now in a situation where they do not have the same number of employees to drive commercial work as they had before the pandemic outbreak. Marketing, sales, and revenue used to work in silos and had systems that were so difficult to manage that no one else had that specific knowledge. When many of these specialists are laid off or furloughed, no one can use these complex systems. If there is still a commercial team at the hotel, all team members are most likely working from home for the time being. Access to systems and access to collaboration tools is an essential requirement for productive remote work. Hotels have relied on all employees being on-premises, so hotels had no experience and no support of remote work before the outbreak.
Already adopted in other industries
In other industries, the acceleration of remote work has been a massive driver of collaboration tools. Employees need to organize themselves and communicate around projects without face to face interaction. Remote work is here to stay even in the hotel industry. Marketing, sales, and revenue roles have already been remote (at the headquarters instead of at the hotel) for some time. The main reason has been to save on costs by letting people handle more than one hotel and increasing productivity. Collaboration tools have not yet had a broad adoption in hotel companies. One reason has been that these modern technologies have problems connecting to old legacy systems used in hotels.
Cross-functional work
Without these collaboration tools, it will be challenging to manage the work with fewer people than before. The fortunate employees who retained their jobs have to wear multiple hats and perform tasks they have never done before. The commercial team in hotels need to work cross-functionally and be prepared to perform work outside their comfort zone.
Despite tightened budgets, the smartest hotels and hotel groups have concluded that there is an opportunity to re-think the commercial organization. Instead of re-hiring, which is not an option for the next year, a better option is to implement a system that will collect all vital data in one place and encourage collaboration between all commercial roles. The right system support will increase the chances of survival in the short term and build a long-term sustainable business.
Demand Calendar benefits include
Sales CRM
Manage all contracted business and track the performance. The automatic data feed from the hotel PMS keeps track of the production. Overview to see the trends and detailed information to analyze individual accounts.
Forecasting and pick-up tracking
All data in one place needed for an easy forecasting process and improved accuracy. Pick-up tracking to understand how the business build up. Detailed information to analyze individual days.
Marketing campaign management
Track the pick-up and production for each campaign. Detailed information of how each rate code performs with a number of variables to track consumer behavior.
Consolidated reporting
Speed is essential when making decisions. Consolidated reporting for all hotels in a group in a few minutes instead of the manual Excel produced reports that might take days. Overview to see the early warning trends as well as the details needed to explain the trends.
