Hraba Hospitality Consulting

LEED compliancy is often an expensive, and frustrating, process.   Many hoteliers feel it just means a sterile, ugly building; others think it is imperative – not for the good of the earth – but the marketability of their brand. Whatever reason people use, one thing is for certain – it is relevant, it is part of the standardization of the green movement, and it is something that is here to stay.  In what form, I am not too sure, but the need to abide environmentally aware construction and renovation is paramount in our eco-hungry clients’ eyes.  The Green Movement isn’t a movement anymore, it’s just the way business should be done.  This isn’t just about guests, nor industry trends.   This is just about smart business.

After two decades of slowly getting there, the practice of being ecological in the hotel industry has gripped us at every angle.  One of the reasons green has finally been benchmarked into the hotel industry is that people caught on that “green” can often mean “saving money”.  Many aspects of being green are really just about being conscious about how you use your resources, and how you conserve.  That is what a good GM is doing all the time! Many of these things significantly increase savings, and general managers seem to be (more…)

If I had to carry a torch for an environmental issue (and I am sure I do), it would have to be getting people to see the problem of plastic water bottles. Or more directly, helping hoteliers and the ENTIRE travel and hospitality industry rid of this needlessly expensive problem.

SO!

My one, isolated, professional recommendation to EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE ENTIRETY OF HOSPITALITY – all hoteliers, general managers, managing groups, executive committees, DOS, DOM, Banquets and more – needs to say *NO MORE* to water bottles at property level. If you don’t think you can, breathe deep and just figure it out. Sell them in the gift shop if you have to (along side metal or reusable containers), keep some in case of an emergency…

…but get them out of guest rooms, restaurants, bars, and meeting rooms. They are one of the most pervasive and damaging environmental (more…)

Update! Here we have the Cisco Innovator Forum podcast that goes along with the article – How to sell to hotels.  Jess’ article appears *here*.

Also, and interesting article since the publishing of this post: Loew’s to source from local farmers for inventory

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As we sit and hope and pray for the economy to be bolstered by these stimulus packages, bailouts, plans, and overwhelming fray… it is always good to realize that some of the best times to start or grow your business is during a recession. One way to grow is to (more…)

The answer is simple. It is, unfortunately, all of them.

You need to respond to every single review that goes up in regards to your property.

You can’t reply to just one, because you will look defensive.   You can’t reply to negative ones only, because you will look more defensive and possibly just imbue a dower, negative image.

So the only real answer is that you reply to all of them. Don’t think of them as some task, or problem. The Trip Advisor ones are a fantastic opportunity to speak to *potential* guests. We are of course mitigating the experience with our less than pleased guests, but it is truly about creating a personality and existence online. For one, by existing online you create empathy for your business as an obvious human is reading and responding to the reviews, instead of it being a faceless brick and mortar business to hurl anger at. It also helps you to learn, grow, and change management or service. It is vital as a real time temperature gauge of your services and offerings, and if you look closely you can spot trends and react to them before they become bigger issues.

But you are also speaking to the voyeurs reading the reviews, and searching for hotels in your specific area. Every word you say, and how you react, is to be scrutinized by future (potential) guests. It is an amazing way to speak about your property, to reinforce your brand, and to really get your hooks into guests.

The happy guest reviews are easiest, because you simply celebrate what they loved about the property… a pastry chef, the Sommelier, the spa director, the property dog… it is a great way to take people’s offhanded comment and help market what you offer, and help prospective guests get a better idea about all the value that they might be missing. The negative guest reviews are great because you simply say “sorry” and then use it as a springboard to talk to potential guests about making sure they are clear about requests, needs, etc. If the room was noisy, remind potential bookers that the cheapest rooms are near a road that trucks come by in the morning. I have been able to sound professional, engaging, and breezy in responding to an unhappy guest, all the while really focusing writing the review for a prospective booker.

There are other tricks you can use that I daren’t get into. I can’t give you all my secrets.

Here is something incredibly important, and widely overlooked, by businesses big and small.

It is great to be sailing, right?  Lovely 13 knots, gliding along water that looks like glass. But where are you going?  What is your destination?  I know, as it is so often stated, that it is about the journey, not the destination. Sometimes, however, you need to prepare for the course and what provisions are necessary to get where you are going.

These are questions I don’t ask myself very often, and are something I think many of us overlook in our panic to check 3 voicemails and 5 email accounts, twitter, facebook, ad naseoum.

So…. Where are *YOU* going? Where is your company — from a business of thousands to a (more…)

The Economist bolstered Hulu’s incredible success, and their ad model that seems to be catching on.

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13059735

I adore Hulu’s real TV spots… Alec Baldwin deriding us (more…)

I couldn’t post a comment for some odd javascript reason… from this article here:
http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/facebook-for-hotel-marketing/

I think it is a great thought, and well done for saying so.

Personally, I think you *need* to be there… set up a page, add some nice content, and let people chit chat about how they wistfully remember their time, or look forward to their next stay.  I don’t see much activity, but it is there.  What’s more your link is out there a bit more on a high pageranked site, so it helps a bit with SEO.  Equally if not more important, you end up having a way for guests or fans or general public to reach you…. at least there’s that.

But I ran some low level ad experiments with some fairly (more…)

Direct ROI from social media, such as tracking someone from a review page to your booking engine is only one small component of the overall ROI.  Your analytic program can find the dollar amount in those conversions incredibly efficiently.  You can even have a graph.  I like graphs, and charts. and lots and lots of data… great stuff.

But frankly, I am nearly done with the ROI conversation (except that my clients are not there yet, so here we go again). It is IMPOSSIBLE to measure EVERY aspect of how valuable it is, at least so far.  We can provide relevant insight into what we are doing from time to time, sort of like taking a snapshot of an electron.  What we show you now might not be what we are working on in the next nanosecond, but you can see one scintillating aspect of how we build your brand, create business, and return on your investment with us “hired gun” online concierges.  I am (more…)

Remember being a young buck in the industry?  Remember when they didn’t have solitaire, or even windows based PMS?  Standing at the desk in an empty lobby gazing into nowhere, or on the overnight sneaking away from the desk to create a makeshift sandwich from the walk in?  Remember thinking you always did more work than managers?  I consider myself a pretty nice guy; amicable, easy, and good at communicating with almost everyone.  But there was a manager or two… I would find myself muttering things under my breath.  Bad things.

But as a manager, my ears became bionic.  I think they would *actually* curve towards the direction of the whispers or furtive eyes having a (more…)

My friend Marc inspired me to post the links and lessons so we can learn from the @ryanaironline spoof.  My blog article is a few posts down, but here is the fun stuff with the Telegraph, Times Online, etc.  I am including Marc’s comments too.  It was really fun, and I think I feel mighty comfortable sharing this on a professional level.  No it won’t be on my resume, but I will have a (more…)