Facing August: How Hoteliers Are Responding

With July drawing to a close, one can look a little further ahead and see what occupancy levels will be faced in the coming month of August.

I speak with many hotels every day and, naturally, each one has all manner of answers to this question.

• Some face the situation with resignation, knowing there is little or nothing they can do and, at this point, whatever comes will be welcome.
• Others face it with desperation, having exhausted every possibility based on what they have heard, read or simply what their instinct has advised them to do.
• A few are waiting for luck to strike, because in the end it always does. Some say that guests are waiting for a last-minute offer and will ultimately choose to come; they already have the corresponding discount prepared for them.
• A few others have already sold 80% of their capacity. Of course, in other years, by this point they would have sold 100% for the month of August, but they understand that, under the current circumstances, little more can be expected.

The truth is that very few believe they are in control and think that next month’s results depend, to a greater or lesser extent, on their own actions rather than on the success others have in bringing them guests.

The issue is that those others are also concerned with saving their own season; they do not care about the sales of this or any other hotel, but rather about the sales they themselves can generate, regardless of the hotel where the guest chooses to stay. This has unleashed an all-out war among online travel agencies to secure traffic—traffic at any cost, even if that means investing in television advertising.

We all know things are unsettled; it is no secret. As the wise man would say, “you could see it coming”, but that is no excuse for sitting back, waiting for the situation to return to normal and, above all, waiting for the intermediary market to recover and start bringing guests again.

The guest who is yet to come is not waiting, and no one is better equipped than hoteliers themselves with the tools needed to go out and find them wherever they may be. Hoteliers cannot and must not sit idly by, sheltered by economic stagnation, waiting for others to solve their problems.

I have repeatedly stressed the need for hotel properties to have a strategy for reaching guests. Everyone says they have one; many even claim to have innovative strategies because they have attended a seminar. But the sad reality is that there is still a long way to go.

• It pains me to see how many hotels waste their resources and the true potential they possess as a product.
• It pains me even more to see how some simply do what they see others doing, without any real purpose, or do what they have been told they must do.
• It pains me to see how many hotels lack market positioning.
• It pains me to see how many hotels depend on Booking to attract guests.
• It pains me to see how third parties take advantage of hotels’ good faith and brand to profit financially through commissions and fees.
• It pains me to see how smoke and mirrors sometimes become widespread, and how an aura of fine words surrounding a brand prevails over good service and expertise.

There are many things that pain me, but fortunately not everything is like this, and there are always exceptions. There are some things that simply do not matter to me at all.