Principles for Success: No Nonsense Benchmarking for Hotels and Hospitality Businesses

(John Hogan writes of Benchmarking, I studied under John the is a great instructor)



Benchmarking1 is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and/or best practices from other industries. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost. Improvements from learning mean doing things better, faster, and cheaper.



Benchmarking involves management identifying the best firms in their industry, or any other industry where similar processes exist, and comparing the results and processes of those studied (the "targets") to one's own results and processes to learn how well the targets perform and, more importantly, how they do it.

In my career, I have had to prepare and provide reports over the years that have at times been meaningful. I also recall at other times reports that have been a total waste of time, as they had outlived their usefulness or were no longer relevant. As a consultant, one of the tasks I often recommend with a new client to allow me to work with select members of the team to establish the value of what is being measured and reported.

Some potential items for consideration, whether you are the "chief" officer in management, marketing, finances or human resources, might include:



1.When launching a new marketing program, how much research has been completed? By whom? Reviewed by whom? How will the success be evaluated?

2.How many hours (or days) does it take for you to orient effectively a new management person? How does that differ from hourly positions? Are your new staff members prepared to serve your guests at the end of the on-boarding? How does your process compare with your competitive set?

3.What is the review and evaluation process for considering renovations and their impact on guests loyalty, ongoing costs and ROI? By whom? Reviewed by whom? How will the success be evaluated?

4.How much time is given to evaluating the energy consumption at your facility? Does anyone consider all elements of sustainability, such as waster, recycling, energy practices by areas not in the guest areas, etc.? Gasoline is now over $4 US again - is anyone looking at how this affects staff, the local shuttle costs, guest accessibility to our location, etc.?

5.How much time is measurably traceable relating to staff learning? To organizational leadership development?

6.How would your staff respond to a fire? To a bomb-threat? To the new computer system? Does anyone consider skill sets or competencies in training?

7.How much time is given to focused guest service training and improvements?

8.When was the last time management proactively and specifically interacted with guests, other than dealing with a problem?

9.How much does your staff understand about the overall financial viability of your hotel or hospitality businesses? I am not speaking of specific numbers, but of the trends and ongoing likelihood of continuing success.

10.Who makes sales calls for your businesses? Is all of your marketing tied to the brand, to online web sites, or does anyone benchmark results by area?

I could probably identify several dozen areas worth considering for smaller, rooms-only hotels and more than one hundred potential issues in larger, full-service hotels with meeting and F&B service. This would not be a "make-work" project, but points of discussion that could very well address the long term viability of almost every hospitality business today.