Ive been connected with the hospitality industry for nearly 10 years. Throughout this time, Ive seen and dealt with many difficulties. Of those, there is one I definitely keep in mind. I was working as an organization development supervisor (BDM) for a track record management company. As a part of my function, I was expected to fulfill the key decision-makers at the hotel.Once I was pitching the credibility management software application to the owner of a distinguished hotel in a remote place. And this is what he said:”All these software are nearly the exact same. We took a PMS nearly a year back and investing in a software to manage review is not something we require. My hotels personnel responds to the feedback we receive. Plus, I dont feel these reviews have much effect on our business.”I was surprised at the action and began to wonder how individuals can have such notions. In reality, when I met a few more hoteliers, I realised that they are plunged into a deep sea of misunderstandings. And its not just about the reviews, there are various myths in the hotel market that develop hurdles for hotels.In this blog, Ill unmask a few of those infamous hospitality market misconceptions and share the truth behind them.Widely Believed Myths in the Hotel IndustryTalking about the frequently believed myths in the hotel market, the majority of them are relating to technological elements and marketing techniques. The factor could be lack of understanding, word of mouth, or reading and understanding half-baked details from the web. Lets have a look at some of the commonly accepted misconceptions in the hotel industry that need to be busted right now.1. Misconception: Technology will eliminate jobsTheres no doubt that innovation has made our lives much easier. Nevertheless, among the typical misconceptions about technology in hotels is that it will remove hoteliers tasks. For instance, many hoteliers believe that robots will change human staff in hotels, leading to a shortage of tasks in the hospitality industry.Truth:- First of all, you require to comprehend that technology is simply a tool that makes our lives much easier. Let me explain it with an example.PMS is a tool that is helpful in successfully handling hotel operations. One of the essential tasks in any home is maintaining guest records. Now, before PMS came into existence, this task was done manually.The automation brought by PMS has actually made this task easier. There are numerous software application that can catch information simply by scanning OCR code. This assisted in saving a lot of time for hotel personnel and they can focus more on enhancing visitor experience. Plus it didnt eliminate the tasks of the front office staff.Similarly, by adopting different technological solutions at your residential or commercial property, you can make your procedures effective and easy. 2. Misconception: Investing in income management is expensive and futileTalking about revenue management systems (RMS) and income supervisors, its no doubt that they help in enhancing hotels service. There are certain misconceptions about income management. Among them the common ones are: RMS or hiring revenue managers is an expensive matter.It is only essential for high-end and high budget plan hotels. Let me inform you the reality about them.Truth: See, the accurate truth is that earnings management is a MUST for hotels. Be it having a system, employing an earnings manager, or both. Earnings management not just help in improving a residential or commercial propertys bottom line however likewise helps in discovering the loopholes. Not to mention, there are various RMS providers with flexible pricing strategies that help you go lighter on your wallet. They develop personalized strategies as per your requirements, property size, average tariff, and other such aspects. This suggests that even if you are a budget plan home, you can invest in RMS without burning a hole in your pocket. 3. Misconception: Giving maximum discount rate can increase bookingsI have seen lots of hoteliers stating that guests book residential or commercial properties with slashed up tariffs or ones that provide exceptionally low rates. Thats since of the heavy discounts offered by OTAs and aggregators.Truth: I would state this is partly true. I indicate, giving discount rates is definitely an excellent technique to bring in visitors. The question is up to what extent?For example, OTAs normally tend to provide a discount rate of 50-60%. This, when clubbed with bank deals, the amount paid by the visitors is slashed drastically.Now for hotels, offering such offers and discount rates is literally not possible. There are 2 factors: It would incur a horrible loss.Guests will require such discount rates while reserving the residential or commercial property again.If you desire to give discount rates, I d suggest doing it in the type of plans. Thats because when you club specific additional things like a meal plan, discount on paid services, or activities, the rates seem better to guests.Thus, when they compare direct rates and the ones on OTAs, the weightage of packages would be more. Alternatively, if you wish to provide discount rates on bookings, you can use the commission quantity or portion of tariff which is charged by the 3rd party platforms.4. Misconception: OTAs are better than direct bookingsIts clear that OTAs drive a good quantity of bookings. This point has actually made many hoteliers think visitors book just from OTAs, and the scope of direct booking is negligible.Truth: To be sincere, OTAs do drive optimum bookings. They act as an arbitrator in between guests and hotels. And nowadays, hotels are more worried about their relationship with visitors. So, the visitors require to contact the particular OTA if they have any issues with the home. Since of this elongated interaction process, the resolution of the same does take time.Due to this, the visitor experience is hindered. Before booking any property, travelers connect with that hotels reception to see if they can get much better rates, upgrades, extra centers, or for generic queries. Believe me, I likewise do this.Heres a fact shared by Guest Centric in their Hotelier Pulse Report that will act as a cherry on the cake, Direct bookings have actually grown significantly by 78% in 2021 compared to 2019. You see that direct reservations are absolutely winning over OTAs. All you require to do is keep the best balance while distributing your hotels room stock. 5. Myth: Do what your competitors are doingOften hoteliers believe that copying what their compset is offering is the best thing to do. They think it would help in attracting the guests of the competitors. And this is not simply limited to deals, it applies to marketing methods as well.Truth: I understand, you might be questioning that Ive composed in most of the blog sites to gain from your compset. What I indicated was TAKING A CUE; not blindly following what they are doing.See, every hotel has its own uniqueness. Be it in terms of room interior, centers, offerings, services, and other such elements. Based upon these factors, they have different tariff structures along with yearly profits goals. Hence, the techniques or deals used by them may or may not work for you.As a matter of reality, nowadays guests look for hotels supplying a special experience. So, Im not asking you to avoid competitors, all Im saying is to utilize your specialties to get an edge over your compset.6. Myth: Reviews and reputation management are not important As I said at first in this blog, numerous hoteliers assume that evaluations do not hold adequate importance in regards to increasing a homes booking flow. They think evaluating websites are partial when it comes to guests feedback.Many of them even believe that replying to evaluations is futile, as audiences having a look at the property think in the feedback rather than comprehending the real situation behind it. Likewise, there is another misconception in the hotel industry that reputation management tools help just in responding to reviews.Truth: Feedback in hotels is as essential as critic evaluates about any motion picture. Everyone has different experiences about a property (positive and unfavorable). Now, these reviews imitate a mirror to guests who are anticipating scheduling that hotel. Here are some stats by TripAdvisor for supporting my statement, Around 96% of travelers believe that reviews are a crucial factor while looking into a hotel.91% millennials trust online evaluations, simply like they consider a personal recommendation.Up to 85% tourists concur that a rational and truthful action on evaluations denotes hotels thoughtfulness and enhances the total impression of the property.Now, discussing the reputation management software, it does assist in collecting and showing the reviews from every online booking portal. Nevertheless, there are numerous other essential tasks it can help you with. This includes, Review analysisOnline reputation score calculatorReview flaggingHotels online efficiency reportAnalysing and supplying locations with the scope of improvement7. Myth: One marketing campaign can deal with all visitor segmentsI do not know who started this, but Ive heard hoteliers saying to digital marketing firms, “Create one marketing template and share with us. We will promote it among all the visitors with the data we have.”As a matter of reality, Ive gotten calls from many individuals asking me to produce a marketing design template for their guests. Since I understood how marketing works, I tried to encourage them that the same design template will not work for all the guests. To which their reply was, and I quote,”All the visitors are the same. You just develop one attractive ad/template/content for our residential or commercial property. Mention all the advantages, offers, and facilities. Well take care of the rest.”Well, in the end, I did as asked. Ill inform you what took place next, after discovering the truth behind this myth.Truth: Firstly, not all visitors are the same. Every traveler has a various comfort zone, requirements, purpose of travel, budget, and other such elements. Before you buy a marketing campaign, you need to find out about comprehending your guest segment. As soon as you do that, you must be purchasing vibrant marketing campaigns, either customised or mass marketing.Secondly, every project has to be special and MUST highlight the points that can deal with the particular visitor section. If you have an influx of organization visitors, guarantee that you focus on services like Wi-Fi, half board meal plan, and conference room centers. Now, lets discuss the story I informed previously. I got a callback from those hoteliers mentioning that the project didnt provide the anticipated outcomes. And they consented to proceed with my tip with needed tweaks.8. Myth: All software application are sameTheres another typical myth in the hotel market that all the software application is one and the exact same. Like I stated in the start of the blog site, hoteliers feel that every software application has the comparable benefits and usage. And purchasing a single one can deal with all the elements of a hotel.Truth: How? I suggest, how is it possible? Heres a simple referral of PMS and channel supervisor for everyones understanding.As I said previously in this blog, PMS is residential or commercial property management software that helps in managing operations of your residential or commercial property, such as payment updates, costs publishing, accepting reservations, settling guest folios, and so on. On the other hand, the channel supervisor immediately updates your room stock in real-time on all sites.I hope you got the distinction. I know there are countless hospitality items in the market, and one might believe that they are all the very same. But in truth all are different and service specific purposes in the hotels.9. Misconception: Building a website is pricey and time-consumingI would have believed in this if we were living in the early 20s. Since at that time, having a web center was no less than a high-end in hotels. During those days, building a site was a tough job as it required a great deal of knowledge in coding and graphic designing. However thinking that developing a website nowadays is lengthy and expensive is just among the typical misconceptions in the hotel industry. Let me tell you why.Truth: Nowadays, there are several self-help software that can assist you in building a site easily. They even use customisable themes that can make your website appearance attractive. In fact, the websites are pre optimised for essential functions like white spacing, website map, CTA (Call to action) buttons and so on. In addition, numerous website home builders have a choice of simple updates, where the admin can directly publish any marketing project, blog site, short articles, or deal through WhatsApp and email. As far as the costing is concerned, there are site contractors that have versatile payment policies. And the majority of them even provide a free trial. Its time that you stop believing in this myth and construct your hotels site, RIGHT NOW.10. Misconception: Star classification can be updated based on guest ratingsWhen I used to operate in an OTA, I had an argument with a hotelier over star rankings. According to him, the home was a 4 star, since visitors had actually provided it a typical rating of 4 star on every portal.This is among the common myths in the hotel industry that the star classification can be upgraded according to visitor ratings.Truth: First of all, ratings and star categorisation are 2 different things. They are offered by the guests to your hotel and the services as per their experience when you say ratings. And it does not license the stay classification of your property.The star categorisation of hotels is done by the governing bodies of the hospitality market in each nation. It depends on certain factors, like room facilities, services, room inventory, location, and so on. This star categorisation likewise decides the rack rate of a home. So, if you have upgraded an inaccurate star ranking based on user/guests reviews, you need to change it now.11. Misconception: Working with hotel aggregators is not feasibleIve kept this myth for the last face-off. Working with hotel aggregators pays or not, is one of the trending subjects in the hospitality industry.Some say its excellent, while others state its a loss. However the concern is, what is the truth?Truth: Ive already done a detailed post on hotel aggregators and because, Ive discussed the advantages and disadvantages of dealing with them.Theres no doubt that aggregators pay since they obtain hotels by providing them a repaired monthly profits for the rented out stock. In case they take the entire home on lease, they do remodel it according to their requirements at their own costs. They take care of training the staff as well, to improve the visitor experience. As they state, every coin has 2 sides. This applies to aggregators. Lots of hotels have reported cases of delayed payments and the market being altered significantly, owing to the weak tariffs provided by 3rd party property managers.So, whilst you chose your side, its important that you brush aside the misconception that working with aggregators is not feasible.ConclusionThe hospitality market is filled with a great deal of mistaken beliefs. The majority of them are because of a lack of knowledge and clearness about those topics.By thinking in such myths, lots of hoteliers avoid taking an action that can be actually productive for their business. Sometimes they wind up purchasing the wrong locations, which leads to loss. Which experience provides birth to various myths in the hotel market. Gradually, these mistaken beliefs magnify as they spread.In this blog, Ive debunked some of the top misconceptions in the hotel market. Its time for you to gain from these, discover facts and help hoteliers who are still thinking such misconceptions.If theres any other myth you desire me to add, do mention it in the comments. I d be grateful to share the reality with you. Till then, delighted hoteliering.
And its not just about the evaluations, there are numerous myths in the hotel market that develop obstacles for hotels.In this blog, Ill debunk some of those notorious hospitality market myths and share the truth behind them.Widely Believed Myths in the Hotel IndustryTalking about the frequently thought myths in the hotel market, most of them are pertaining to technological aspects and marketing techniques. There is another myth in the hotel market that reputation management tools help only in responding to reviews.Truth: Feedback in hotels is as crucial as critic reviews about any movie. Here are some stats by TripAdvisor for backing up my statement, Around 96% of tourists believe that evaluations are an important aspect while looking into a hotel.91% millennials trust online reviews, just like they think about a personal recommendation.Up to 85% tourists agree that a sincere and sensible action on evaluations represents hotels consideration and enhances the general impression of the property.Now, talking about the reputation management software, it does help in collecting and showing the evaluations from every online scheduling website. According to him, the property was a 4 star, since visitors had provided it an average score of 4 star on every portal.This is one of the common misconceptions in the hotel market that the star category can be upgraded according to guest ratings.Truth: First of all, scores and star categorisation are two various things. The question is, what is the truth?Truth: Ive already done a comprehensive post on hotel aggregators and in that, Ive pointed out the pros and cons of working with them.Theres no doubt that aggregators are profitable since they get hotels by offering them a fixed month-to-month revenue for the rented out stock.
