It is imperative that the hotel industry in Asia invests in educating the next generation of revenue managers – this is necessary for its own survival, said Patrick Bosworth, CEO and co-founder of Duetto.
Patrick Bosworth:“Hotels don’t have the talent they need right now.”
Speaking at the Duetto Revenue Strategy Forum which it ran in partnership with Hotel ICON, he said, “Hotels don’t have the talent they need right now. They are under-investing in growing exceptional good talent in revenue management and strategic marketing.”
He said hotels needed more sophisticated recruiting strategies to reach out to universities in order to be competitive with other industries. “The ROI on paying someone good a higher salary is higher than anything, just a 3% move in RevPAR index which flows through to the bottomline, will be more than the salary.”
Warning the audience that “a global downturn is coming”, he said, “Winning means taking market share, growing RevPAR. You have to learn how data helps you hold rate and manage the complex distribution landscape today. Don’t wait for the next hotel recession to act.
“The global economy is estimated to enter a recession soon, it’s a seven year cycle, we cannot predict when the cycle will peak and given that Hong Kong is in a resurgence now, you should prepare for the peak when it comes.”
This means “stealing market share and protecting market share from intermediaries”.
Hotels, he said, cannot afford to make the same mistakes such as over-discounting and relying on discount intermediaries, adding that “commissions are skyrocketing”.
“You need to change your type of marketing, personalise offers and assure customers they are getting value.”
He said that over a six-day period, travellers visit up to 38 websites, including 10 hotel websites across 6.5 digital points.
“The biggest opportunity is to personalise the experience in the booking engine so that you can make a private offer,” said Bosworth, who noted that “vendors have let down hotels – they build things they know you will buy and hotels have not demanded this”.
In a subsequent panel, Richard Hatter, general manager of Hotel ICON, said the industry was drowning in too much data, and felt there was too much emphasis on operational efficiency and not enough attention was being paid to the “human experience”.
He said “a different level of recognition was needed” for customers and that “more exclusivity perks” should be held back so as to reward the truly loyal customers.
But most important for hoteliers is to not get carried away with the new emerging channels out there but to go back to basics. “Find out what works on what channel and get that right. Test and learn,” he said.
