May 2024 Newsletter
May 2024 Newsletter
Presenting the May 2024 issue of the GuestPoint Newsletter! We invite you to dive into the recent industry news the increasing demand for hotel managers and the benefits hiring a manager could have for your property. Gain valuable insight into investing strategically in your accommodation with this month’s blog, which dives into ROI. Raise the full potential of your PMS with this month’s how-to on quickly changing bookings and simply listing a room as ‘out of service’. Tips and tricks for this month, utilising tools within GuestPoint to help with your day-to-day. Can you solve this month’s trivia?
Industry News
Increasing Demand for Hotel Managers
Finding high-quality hotel managers is hard to come by whether it is relief or permanent, the value for good quality managers is high. With tourism and travel now back to industry standard post-pandemic the need for a hotel manager is now at a high. Whether you are looking at training for a manager or a highly trained manager this can come at a cost and can be a difficult head-hunting process.
What skills to look for
A manager requires a diverse range of skills that allow them to understand the business from a staff and guest perspective. Experience within the industry is vital as hospitality and accommodation have a rare nature. Not only are their skills important, but finding the right fit should be a top priority. Your manager sets the vibe of your property and finding a manager who embodies your property’s values is key. Additionally being able to organise people who may possess a range of personalities is important.
Worthy Expense
Considering the substantial investment this option entails for the business, what justifies this expense? A manager who wholeheartedly embraces your property and is genuinely invested in its success can yield far superior results compared to one with similar skills but lacking that crucial connection to the property. Furthermore, research has shown that when a manager feels undervalued in terms of compensation, regardless of the validity of their perception, their performance notably declines, posing a potential risk to your business’s reputation.
Selecting a manager who resonates with your property can lead to a significant boost in output. This entails finding someone whose values align closely with yours and whose vision for the property mirrors your own. While this search may be arduous and time-consuming, employing a skilled manager affords you the luxury of more personal time or proves invaluable for managing multiple properties.
Finding Good Help
Whether you require training or recruitment for your manager some companies can assist you with this. GuestPoint has worked closely with MotelSOS.com and they are a trusted partner recommended by GuestPoint. Whether you’re seeking to enhance the skills of your staff to elevate your operations or seeking assistance in finding the ideal fit for your company through recruitment, they are equipped to assist you. If this service aligns with your needs, we encourage you to visit their website, listed below, for more information:
Additionally, if you require a relief manager for when you need time away from your property Richard Temple and RMT Solutions offer flexible and customised relief management solutions specifically designed for the rural and remote hotel/motel sector. RMT Solutions is a renowned hospitality company known for providing top-quality relief services to the Tourism and Hospitality Industry across Australia. They have a stellar reputation as suppliers of short-term, semi-permanent, and long-term relief options.
Blog Article
Maximizing Returns: Investing Strategically in Accommodation
What is the Act of Investing in a hotel?
The main goal of any business is to make money. However, this is easier said than done in a lot of cases. To begin making money as a business requires an initial investment, and you strive for a return on that investment (ROI). This can then be reinvested into the business or taken as profit.
More specifically within the hotel business, there are a plethora of areas that require investment. This spans employee training, property marketing and hotel software. As with every decision made, there are positives and negatives. An ‘investment’ extends to any spend that is made to create profit, whether direct or indirect.
What is Considered a Good ROI For Hotels
It’s important to consider that you may not see the initial return on your investment within the short term. However, due to the nature of the industry, your initial investment may not see a return for a formidable amount of time. For instance, if you invest in more comfortable bedding. The return on investment won’t be seen until you start gaining more visitors due to positive reviews about bedding and comfortable sleeping. But don’t be disheartened by this, as guest experience should be at the forefront of all managers’ priorities, and the inverse effect of a more positive experience is more guests staying at your property.
If we are talking purely numbers based on return on investment, it is widely considered that a 5-7% ROI is a good return. Many in the hotel industry have a similar understanding with the industry believing 6-12% ROI yearly is a strong return.
Potential Strategies to Increase ROI
Adapting to industry standards and going above certain expectations is crucial in the hotel industry. Prioritising investments for your property correctly will help ensure your budget spend is contributing towards an increased bottom line and occupancy rates.
Here are some potential investment areas that could be beneficial for your property:
1. Using OTAs
Utilising the large reach and connectivity of OTAs is a valuable resource that has so much potential upside for little investment. This cost-effective investment has the potential to increase your bookings tenfold. These platforms take a small commission fee from every booking you receive through their service. This commission-based investment is both worth the advertising and sales you gain from that service.
Not only does this service increase sales it has the potential to increase direct bookings as well as superseding the commission aspect of an OTA. As many travellers understand, it’s cheaper to book directly than through an OTA. The OTA will help them find your property and then if you have your property’s website linked to your profile they can easily access your direct booking.
Additionally intertwined with the use of OTAs is the use of a Channel Manager. With the use of a channel manager, this allows for bookings on your OTAs to be automatically updated within your PMS. With real-time capabilities, this eliminates the risk of over-booking your rooms. Also allows you to utilise more OTAs and increase your property’s online presence.
Explore GuestPoints Channel Manager options here:
2. Staff and Housekeeping
Studies show that 30-40% of hoteliers don’t employ any staff. Which may work for many smaller bed properties 1-5 rooms. But, when the room count starts exceeding 7-10 then this is when a staff investment should be considered. Employing someone to help around your property allows you to focus on the business and growth side of your business.
These opportunities to free yourself some time can go towards a variety of things. For example, it could give you time to go over your property’s accounts finding ways you could save money or produce more revenue. Another example could be with your property’s marketing, allowing yourself time to set up a property social media or track your website analytics and enhance your SEO (search engine optimisation).
Additionally, finding someone with experience in housekeeping and cleaning can be highly beneficial. An initial thought of a consumer is about the cleanliness of a property, spanning from the front desk to the rooms. So if you hire someone with experience within the space they can utilise their skills to enhance your guests’ experience.
GuestPoint Guide to:
How to Quickly Adjust Bookings
Due to the nature of the accommodation industry, we understand that service faults can go unnoticed. If a guest finds a fault within their rooms that requires them to change rooms, the process to change their room and out of service the other rooms can be done quickly through the PMS.
- Within the ‘Reservations’ tab find the booking that needs to be moved.
- Right-click the booking
- The ‘Express Actions’ pop-up should appear
- Click the ‘Move Room’ option
- A list of available rooms will appear by clicking any one of these your booking will move to the selected option.
Out of Service
- In the ‘Reservations’ tab find the rooms that has the fault.
- Right Click on the current day space
- Under ‘Express Action’ click ‘New Out of Service’
- Enter the date range it will be out of service for and you can add a description for why it’s out of service”
Management Tips & Tricks
Utilizing the Today tab
Located at the bottom right of your PMS is an effective management tool that is under-utilised by many of our customers. The Today tab has a plethora of uses that are designed to help focus on the current needs of your property, what is available within the tab:
Booking information:
- New Bookings
- Cancelled Bookings
- Unallocated bookings
- Non-guaranteed Bookings
- Best Rate
Revenue and Occupancy
- Next 7 days Revenue
- Next 7 days of occupancy
- The next 4 weeks occupancy
Management tasks
- Clean Rooms
- Rooms to Clean
- Guests Checking-in today, you can print arrival forms easily through this button
- No shows
- How many guests are In-house
- Guests checking out that day
- Guests who have already checked out
- Vehicles
- VIPS
- Groups arriving
- And Groups currently in-house
Updates
GuestPoint Pay Terminals For Australia
GuestPoint is excited to announce the pilot phase of the long-awaited GuestPoint Pay terminals. Meaning we are getting closer to the official release. Payment terminals are game changers when it comes to increasing your front desk efficiency. Connecting directly to your PMS allows for a seamless check-in process and boasts many more benefits. If you are interested in integrating terminals into your day-to-day please contact the email below:
Properties of the Month
Crows Nest Motel
Nestled in the Queensland high country, Crows Nest motel understands the importance of variety within their property. They offer a diverse range of rooms that appeal to the broad audience that Crows Nest attracts.
Crows Nest is country beauty personified, this spectacular landscape appeals to a diverse range of people. With beautiful cycling and walking tracks the town gives off a relaxed rural atmosphere, with natural attractions. Crows Nest is littered with a vibrant art scene and boutique businesses. It has something for everyone.
The Crows Nest Motel offers spacious, beautifully presented and very comfortable rooms. It has rooms designed for families or their exclusive spa room that plays host to a modern bathroom with a large spa bath as the mantle piece. It understands the importance of relaxing and has achieved that with its room design.
The property grounds are breathtaking, embracing the true nature of the high country. Additionally on offer is an outdoor BBQ area that allows you to be immersed within the natural beauty.
The team at Crows Nest Motel utilise the all-in-one solution on offer from GuestPoint, and stated that “any property owner currently using GuestPoint should be using all solutions available.” Within the all-in-one solution, they highlighted the benefits of GuestPoint Pay, identifying their payment processes’ simplicity. Creating management efficiency through this simplification makes the entire digital payment process smooth. Additionally, management promoted the use of the channel manager seeing an increase in bookings. The new-found time with the channel manager allowed them to join more channels to promote their property.
GuestPoint Did You Know
Russ Cook
Russ Cook recently ran the entire length of Africa to raise money for the ‘Running Charity, which uses running to help young people suffering from homelessness. During his run, he faced many hardships such as being kidnapped in The Congo by a local gang. How many days did it take Russ to run the entire length of the content:
A) 352
B) 300
C) 365
D) 400
Answer – A it took him 352 days to run the full length of Africa
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