Investing: The secret to investing : E=mc2

What do good developers have to have in this market? (Besides a project with potential, of course.) Jonathan Worsley Chairman of London-based BENCH EVENTS, takes us into a very special dragon’s den and shares his observations there.

Through The Eyes Of A Hotel Butler: Home Away From Home Experiences, Five Levels To Reach It

Through The Eyes Of A Hotel Butler: Home Away From Home Experiences, Five Levels To Reach It

By Osvaldo Torres Cruz

We are about to close the first decade of the 21st century during which Hospitality Industry has grown and expanded so that its related offers have considerable increased. As a result, hotels nowadays are focused in a great battle to conquer the most important trophy the guest carries along: his power of choice.

New strategies for the recruitment, retention and loyalty of guests, targeted towards not only to the rational but also sensorial world of guests, began to be used. Accordingly the concept of Experience, starts to be used for the first time among the Hoteliers, giving way to the new world of Experience in the hotel business, which focuses on the increasingly growing psychic needs of guests in order to achieve their emotional satisfaction.

It has been well proved that the design of experiences is closely linked to the generation of positive emotions and feelings in the guests. To this end Hotels have a valuable tool: the services they offer. The great challenge they face is: how to make available those services as a function of the experiences they wish to offer to their guests?

The attributes of the services have to be generators of stimuli to act as triggers of positive emotions and feelings in the guest receiving the service; however, how can we know which stimuli we have to include in each service and how to achieve it? The answer to these two great questions resides in the most important luggage that the guest carries along when arriving to the Hotel: his emotional world.

As to my experience I could say that to decode the guest emotional world we need five basic tools that will be marking the levels of experience, levels that will complement each other, being impossible to upgrade to a higher level without having established or completed the previous one.

I propose to analyse each level and its base tool.

1. Experiential Organizational Culture.

Base Tool: The Human Resource as main experience maker .

Undoubtedly the basic levels to be taken into account by the Hotel, as it will define the basis for the success of the holistic experience. The staff motivation viewed as an element of personal motivation will make the human resources to be better aligned with the company objectives and displays the importance of their role as managers of the guest experience. The will and motivation of human resources will generate a high degree of empathy which is essential for the accomplishment in the achievement of each subsequent level.

2nd level: The Relationships.
Base Tool: The relational personalized service.

The personalized service becomes an act of providing service aimed to establish a system of relations and links with the guest, which will influence his behavior motivating him to open his emotional world and share with the experience maker his emotional needs. On the other hand, daily and personalized assistance will enable the establishment of solid and everlasting Guest-Hotel ties.

3rd Level: The Opportunity.

Base tool: Moments of truth

Moments of truth, according to its definition, are those when the guest is in direct contact with the service. However, there is another meaning in the hotel business Experience, these become per se Moments of Opportunity which will allow us to get in touch with the guest with the objective of deciphering that emotional world so coveted. This is when the guest offers the opportunity to get to know him, as his emotional reactions arise when stimulated by the service.

4th Level: Identification Points.

Base tool: Differential Information

This information is nothing more than the disclosure of the Identification Points between perceptions that the services generate in the guest and his emotional patterns, which are by definition standard models or patterns of emotional behavior. The more identification points, the greater meaning of emotion and hence of experience, since these emotional patterns are linked to the personality and way of life of the guest. They make the framework into which the various emotional experiences integrate, marking the emotional tone with what the guest gets perceptions of life, regulating the experience and giving real meaning to the state of being.

5th Level -Emotional Services.

Fundamental Tool: The services attribute.

The services should be intended to meet these three questions:

1.What hopes the guest the service will make him feel? –

2.What sparks off an emotion in him about each particular service? –

3.How can we generate perceptions consistent with his emotional patterns and lifestyle?

The design of services in a way that its attributes can be used as triggers of sensorial stimuli capable of inducing an emotion and positive feelings, enables us to adjust them to the guest emotional patterns, causing identifiable perceptions inducing to differential meanings.

Once these levels are established and also achieved, this fact enables us to create the largest number of identification points related to patterns according to the guest lifestyle, thus making the best use of the differential value of the experience that the guest is living.

This identification and differentiation will make the final meaning of the experience to be his own, i.e. it will make the guest to feel at home and this is nothing more than the fact of having experienced a real Home Away from Home Experience, leaving indelible imprints on the mind and heart of the guest.

Due diligence key to buying distressed hotel debt

The rewards of buying such loans are substantial, as they usually are sold at a discount—often steep—to the outstanding amount of the loan. The goal when purchasing a hotel loan is usually to obtain title to the hotel as quickly and inexpensively as possible, not to remain as the lender on the loan. However, too often buyers approach a note purchase like they are simply buying the underlying hotel—without adequately analyzing the numerous landmines along the path to hotel ownership. When you analyze whether to purchase a distressed hotel loan and what price to pay for it, it is important to assess all of those risks.

Contrasting boutique and chain hotel revenue management approaches

Boutique hotel properties and even boutique hotel chains have been enjoying a surge in popularity over the past few years. Consumers are increasingly seeking unique, tailored lodging experiences, and boutique hotels are well positioned to provide those experiences to them. Boutiques, not saddled with the same cost structures as chain-managed properties, present an attractive investment option for hotel owners.


Of course, the large chains still dominate the lodging landscape in the US. But the rise of boutiques and boutique chains affords an interesting opportunity to compare and contrast the revenue management strategies that work best for each class of hotel.

Any examination of contrasting revenue management strategies will highlight the differences between boutique and chain properties; in fact, the differences inherent to each of these types of hotel help determine which revenue management strategy is most effective.

Two differences, though, shine through. Let’s begin with one of the more glaring differences between a large chain property and a boutique: distribution.

GDS vs. OTA?

Inventory distribution and sales channel management are strikingly different in boutiques as compared to large chain hotels, hinging completely on the presence (or not) of a global distribution system, or GDS. Large chains have developed and employed these since the time before the internet, while boutique properties have typically not had the resources to develop a proprietary distribution system. In the age of the online travel agency and rampant internet bookings (more than 40% of all leisure hotel stays are booked online), the importance of a GDS is waning, but the difference in terms of the strategies behind distribution and channel management remain. Because boutiques rely more heavily on online distribution channels, their revenue management strategies have to be tightly focused on this area. This may mean using an automated revenue management system that can effectively maintain strong average daily rate and occupancy levels across multiple online channels, and paying close attention to the inventory allocated to each channel.

Chain hotels can also benefit from this kind of automated revenue management system- in fact, it can be argued that a GDS is simply another sales channel that must be managed along with all of the online sales channels- but the presence of a dedicated, proprietary GDS in chain hotels serves as insurance against the variability of online sales.

More Urgency

The lack of a GDS safety net is only one reason boutique hotels face more urgency than their chain counterparts. A large chain has the advantages of size and scope behind it: an established management company with group purchasing power, a long history of tried operating practices, the sales advantage of a recognized brand. Boutiques may share one or two of these advantages, but in general they have less room for error. Low RevPAR numbers for a week or a month at a large chain property may not be the end of the world, but for a boutique it could make the difference between profitability and insolvency. Boutiques face more pressure to maximize every financial metric, and that starts at the top line: maximizing RevPAR. By using sound revenue management strategy- which often includes leveraging advanced technology and software design to optimize ADR and occupancy-boutiques can stay ahead of their chain counterparts.

Unfortunately, just because boutiques face challenges and urgencies that chain hotels do not doesn’t necessarily mean that all boutique hotels are proactive in their revenue management strategies. Many boutiques simply employ ad-hoc methods of revenue management, to their detriment. (Many others do engage in forward-thinking strategies, including investments in automated revenue management systems, a trend which can account for the flourishing of boutiques in many markets.) If boutiques are going to make significant market share gains on their chain counterparts, they will have to embrace comprehensive revenue management strategies on a large scale.

Then, and only then, will it be the best of times for boutiques.

A Case Study In Customer-Centric Marketing

Here is the first: An overview of Intercontinental Hotel Group’s (IHG’s) use of data-driven marketing to improve communications with existing customers and prospects.


Lincoln Barrett, vice president for guest marketing and alliances, shared that, for IHG, building a customer-centric marketing strategy hinged on three different, but overlapping, initiatives:



1.Invest in technology

2.Expand into new frontiers

3.Build a centralized customer organization

Each of these initiatives is still a work in progress, but excellent progress has already been made in each one.

Train Your Hospitality Team To Say “YES!” To Guest Complaints

With the continued growth of online guest reviews, social media postings, and videos of customer rants on YouTube, it is obvious that a hotel’s level of guest service is increasingly transparent to the outside world. This is why in today’s world it is more important than ever to train your hotel hospitality staff to not only welcome guest complaints, but to actually encourage them.


Unfortunately too many hotel staffers still see the handling of complaints as an unpleasant but necessary task. What we need in the hotel industry today is a complete paradigm shift in how we view guest complaints. Instead, today’s hotel hospitality professionals should see guest complaints as opportunities and understand that the worst complaint is the one that is never mentioned. Certainly, some guests do complain on their own and in doing so actually offer the favor of a chance at resolution. Meanwhile, many other disgruntled guests depart the hotel without ever voicing their complaint, later venting their frustration online to their Facebook friends or TripAdvisor readers. This is why hotel associates should communicate their receptiveness to negative feedback and (figuratively) look at guests and say “Please complain!”

There are many ways in which hotels can encourage complaints, such offering guest service “hotlines,” but the best way is to simply train your staff to “read the guest.” By observing the guest’s body language and facial expressions when in person, and by listening for vocal inflection and tone when on the phone, it is easy to identify guests who are not completely satisfied. These are the guests who we can get to vocalize their complaint with just a little extra effort.

While some associates avoid asking for feedback at all, many others ask in such a way that the guest can sense they are not really receptive. So instead of saying a closed ended question such as “How was your stay, good?” which usually results in a one-word response, it is better to say something like “May I ask what you thought of our hotel?” or “May I just ask, is there anything we could have done to make your stay more enjoyable?”

Questions such as these, when asked with authentic sincerity and demonstrated by eye contact and a look of concern, usually elicit some frank and honest feedback encouraging those who had a problem to let us know.

Unfortunately too many frontline staffers treat un-expressed complaints as the proverbial “elephant in the room”; everyone sees it sitting right there taking up space but no one wants to acknowledge it. Yet by embracing complaints instead of avoiding them, hotels can gain an opportunity to resolve the complaint, to turn things around for the guest. Some complaints, when properly handled, can even help generate good will from the guest, especially if they are impressed with the way it was resolved.

As a hotel industry trainer who works with frontline staff every month, I recognize the challenges of creating this paradigm shift in attitude for complaints to be viewed as a “good thing.” This is why it is crucial for managers and leaders to support and reinforce the new perspective. One reinforcement tool is to celebrate guest complaints. Over the years I have worked with many hotels that have a fun way of celebrating other successes, such as ringing a bell in the group sales office when a new signed contract is returned. Maybe we should consider a bell or buzzer to ring in the back office when a complaint is received? Another way to encourage a new attitude about complaints is to measure and track them. Many hotels already keep a tally sheet in the reservations department and/or the front desk to record the number of reservations booked, the number of upsells, or the number of walk-ins captured. Why not implement a process for measuring and tracking the number of complaints received? Some of my clients over the years have called this the “Please Complain” list, whereby staffers record the guest name and room number, the nature of the incident causing the complaint, the action taken, and whether the guest was satisfied with the outcome.

In addition to tracking complaints, it is of course also important to train your staff on the tools they need to properly handle complaints. Here are some tips on handling complaints for your next meeting:

•Listen without interrupting. When guests are first voicing their complaint, it is important to listen interactively without interrupting. Most guests first need to vent some frustration by telling their “story” complete with some dramatic details.

•When in person, demonstrate your attentiveness by maintaining eye contact and having neutral facial expressions. Over the phone, be sure to add some “verbal nods” such as “I see,” “okay,” and “alright.”

•Once the guest starts to slow down after venting their story in full detail, it is time for a statement of empathy followed by an apology. Empathy statements show “I can understand how you must feel; I can imagine I might feel the same way given the circumstance.”

•To show empathy, paraphrase and re-state their complaint. This not only shows that we understand the details, but also provides validation for the speaker. “Ms. Young I can understand that this must have been frustrating for you. With such a big event planned for this evening I’m sure the last thing you needed was a hotel room without hot water.”

•Apologize. As simple as it is to apologize, far too often guest services associates offer no apology at all, or what’s worse, offer a trite, insincere comment such as “I’m sorry” without meaning it. When you read negative guest reviews or negative comment card postings, a common issue is that “No one seemed to care; no one even apologized.” An apology is not an admission of fault; it simply says that the intentions were good.


•Restate options. Guests who complain want results. Ideally we can just give them what they want or need. Yet in the real-world of hotels, sometimes it isn’t that easy. For example, if a guest wants a particular room type when absolutely none are available, try to offer at least two alternative choices to pick from. Here is an example:

◦“Unfortunately Mr. Perez all of our pool view double rooms are occupied this evening. What I can do for you is to put you in a poolside king room and send in a rollaway bed, or I can offer you a garden view double room for this evening.”

By training your staff to be on the lookout for un-voiced guest complaints, and helping then understand how to draw-out the details and properly resolve the issues, we can reduce the odds that the incident surfaces in an online posting. Instead of having a disgruntled guest becoming the hotel’s worst nightmare, we can possibly turn that same guest into an apostle to help spread the good news about the great service they received to turn things around

The Pros and Cons of a Hotel Blog: A Retrospective | By Daniel Edward Craig

(Daniel is a great writer and has keen industry insight and revelation)

In a recent article about social media for hotels, I argued that it doesn't make sense for most hotels to start a blog. Blogs are time-consuming and challenging to maintain, often starting in a flurry of enthusiasm and then fading over time. An abandoned blog is like frayed carpet in a hotel lobby: it speaks of apathy and neglect and can be off-putting when stumbled upon.


My comments prompted a minor outcry, though notably not from hotel managers but from third-party web marketers, who were quick to point out the benefits of blogs to search engine optimization. Last year, a Hubspot survey reported that small businesses with a blog receive 55% more website traffic and 97% more inbound links than small businesses without a blog.

If anyone understands the value of a hotel blog, I do. It was four years ago this month that I started the General Manager's Blog, a first in the industry. Our then-director of marketing, Katrina, came up with the idea, and I'm still mad at her. Nevertheless, I tackled my first posts with zeal, writing in a breezy style that suggested I had banged them out between check-ins. In fact, a great deal of effort went into making them sound effortless.

From the outset I promised to give an insider's look at the hotel business and to "leave out the boring parts". As the manager of an independent contemporary hotel, I could get away with being a bit edgy; writing things other hotel managers think but don't dare say. I covered taboo subjects like relocating, construction and guest complaints. I debated the pros and cons of offering sex toys in the mini-bar. And I vented about a challenging weekend in which a guest received a stream of "nieces" to his room and a drag queen gave her room a makeover ... with her makeup.

In many ways, hotels are an ideal platform for a blog. We welcome a stream of new guests each day, and they bring with them unique stories, inspiration and, occasionally, drama. But while reporting on guest antics might be great for attracting blog traffic, it can also frighten travelers away. So I've had to walk a fine line, providing enough intrigue to appeal to readers while respecting the privacy of guests. With such a narrow scope, I've often found myself staring hopelessly at a blank computer screen, feeling increasingly anxious about the other duties I'm neglecting. It's a lot more fun to swill cocktails with clients in the hotel lounge.

Given the challenges, it's no surprise that blogs written by hoteliers are still quite rare. Some of the best I've seen are published like an online magazine, rich in imagery and content, with enviable resources backing them. Others are simpler, maintained by the owner or manager of a small hotel or inn, with compelling, quirky stories and an intensely personal feel. Recently, I came across a new blog for a bed-and-breakfast whose author promised to post something every day so as "not to disappoint" her readers. All I could think was good luck. It's only a matter of time before she resorts to writing about kittens, what she had for breakfast, and why beige is her favourite colour. I try to avoid this fate by blogging infrequently and writing long posts, exploring topics from various angles.

In this age of social media, a blog provides a platform for hotels to engage with guests. But readers rarely leave comments, and I'm often convinced that no one is listening—and that if anyone is listening, they think I'm a moron. Then, just as I'm sinking into total despair, I'll receive a gushing comment about how great my blog is ... only to realize it's spam from a timeshare in Goa. Travelers tend to be more active in sharing content on Facebook, Twitter and, of course, TripAdvisor and other online travel communities. What readers probably don't know about the OPUS blog is that it's frequently quoted and republished across the web, has been lauded by publications from Condé Nast Traveler to USA Today, and is followed by travelers, hotel employees and students around the world.

At the end of 2007, I left OPUS to focus on writing. My successor as general manager, Nicholas, a clever fellow, opted to delegate the blog to Katrina. Suddenly Katrina wasn't so thrilled about her brilliant idea. Rechristening it OPUS Hotels' Blog, she explored meaningful issues like hotels and the environment and healthful drinking. Needless to say, readership plummeted. (Okay, I'm kidding.) In 2008, I returned as interim resident manager of OPUS Montreal and have been maintaining the blog since, along with working on various other projects.

There's no question, a blog can be great for SEO and can give personality to a hotel, helping to distinguish it from other hotels. If a property has the skills and commitment for the long haul, I say go for it; we need more hoteliers in the blogosphere. If not, the hotel's scarce resources might be better channeled elsewhere.

Why does OPUS persist? The blog has become a part of our culture, drawing people to our site who might not otherwise find us and giving our guests a flavour of what to expect before they arrive. Looking ahead, we plan to integrate it further into our marketing and social media activities and to bring back some of its original edge. Our marketing director, Chella, tells me I've softened of late. Apparently, I was getting dangerously close to writing about kittens.

OPUS Hotels' Top Ten Most Popular Blog Posts:

1.So You Want to Work in Hotels

2.Is Green the New Black?

3.Hotels in Space

4.Deconstructing the Hotel Mini-Bar

5.SOS from Island Paradise

6.The Tyranny of the Mistreated Traveler

7.What to Do When Things Go Wrong in a Hotel

8.Online Travel Reviewers to Watch Out For

9.Behind the Scenes Before the Winter Olympics

10.The Day the Earth Stood Still

About OPUS Hotels. Uniquely stylish and always fresh, OPUS Hotels redefine the boutique experience, blending contemporary design with warmth and intuitive service. www.opushotel.com

About Daniel Edward Craig. The former vice president and general manager of OPUS Hotels, Daniel Edward Craig is a hotel consultant and the author of the hotel-based Five-Star Mystery Series. www.danieledwardcraig.com