5 Things Your Competitors Can Teach You About Your Hotel Business

Business strategies is all you need for your business when its newly opened. Does it start from the day it is opened? NO. Business strategy starts at the point of creating a business analysis, at the point when you start to make a business plan. Foundation of your hotel business is paramount; competition is fierce out there, A number of good hotels out there to satisfy customers by all means possible keep springing up over there.

As a company you wouldn't like to be left behind, struggling, picking up the crumbs left by your competitors. The hotel business is a strategic one. WHY. It's lucrative, it's interesting, It's social impact is high, the benefits are high when the business is well grounded. There are a couple of things to keep in mind while creating your business plan, "Don't run from your competitors, keep a very close eye on them, familiarize with them, keep them very close to you."

There are 5 things your competitors can teach you about your hotel business

1. Websites
 Check your competitor's websites, what makes them sell more, why do they have so much traffic to their site for online bookings and so on. Check the layout of their site, do they have a blog for customer interaction, how do they run it. How did they lay their gallery, compare them to your site picture quality, you will definitely see one of the reasons why they sell more.

2. Social Media

We are at the peak of technology where social media is used for every business, it strikes me when some hotel business don't understand how the social media works. Check your competitors activities on social media, hoe do people respond to them, how do they make use of it to advertise their business without spending a penny. learn how to drive traffic to your hotel business through social media, communicate with people around the world through it, post everyday on this platform by instructing a trained personnel to run it effectively, train your staff on how to share posts made on your hotel with friends on their social media. Is your hotel business on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, tumblr, Pinterest, Quora, Flipboard? Check what your competitors are doing with them and how they are getting more guests than you are.

3. Learn From Competitors Mistakes

There will always be a loophole somewhere. What are the mistakes your competitors are making, why do they loose a few guests. Once you find out what it is, improve on it and implement it into your facility. You already have other tools in place such as the functional website and social media to get your business out there and the big name you have created for yourself. Be a better contributor to your community with your hotel business, when people here about your good image, they help you advertise your business with word of mouth.

4. Search Engines

What keywords do you type to see your competitors at the top of the google page, type a keyword to search for your own hotel, if it's not at the top or among those at the top, then it's time for you to work on the SEO. Run adverts on the google ad sense, use google business to optimize your business,  send your hotel details to online hotel booking platforms which your competitors are obviously doing. Update your local pages to drive your hotel business worldwide.

5. Optimise Response Rate

Their are lots of customers out there searching for hotels to book into or make use of their services, most times they do random visits to the hotel or calls to their phone desk, they would rather call back the hotel that responded to them faster and in a very polite way. Customers like to be identified with, they love to be well attended to. How does your staff respond to customer enquiries and how fast, so that they won't end up in your competitors hotel. How fast do your competitors respond to online hotel reviews compared to your hotel. How fast do you respond to customer emails and submissions, online bookings, phone call reservation follow up. Don't make them change their minds or loose interest in your hotel because your competitor is on the look out for them.

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Thoughts on Hotels

I always wish the hotels were like they are in the movies and TV shows, where if you are in Paris, right outside your window is the Eiffel Tower. In Egypt, the pyramids are right there. In the movies, every hotel has a monument right outside your window. My hotel rooms overlook the garbage dumpster in the back alley - Gilbert Gottfried.

I always worked in institutions , I  never had a restaurant of my own before, but I have opened over 30 hotels, restaurants and casinos. I understand what it takes to keep them running- Robert Irvine.

All good hotels tend to lead people to do things they wouldn't necessarily do at home - Andre Balazs.

I had a very difficult relationship with my Mother. She used to wake me up in the middle of the night if I wasn't sleeping straight and was messing up the sheets. Now when I stay in hotels I sleep so straight they don't even think I've used the bed - Mabrina Abramovic.

Africa is really a place for the wealthy traveler. It's got some nice hotels, but they are very expensive hotels. It doesn't really cater to the back packer to the overland traveler- Paul Theroux

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Unregistered Hotels in Nigeria to be Sanctioned by Lagos State

The Lagos State Government has advised operators of hotels, hospitality centers and other recreational facilities to register them or face sanction.

The State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, who gave the advice, said the registration would afford the state government to monitor activities at such places.

The ministry's spokesperson told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that hotels and facility centers must comply before the end of the year or face sanctions.

He said the registration was part of the ministry's efforts to upgrade the present standards of hotels and hospitality groups in the state to an internationally accepted standard.

He said the exercise would also serve as security-assurance for tourists and users that might want to lodge in them.

The spokesman said that the ministry would invoke the Hotel Licensing Law of Lagos State to ensure that all hotel groups and hospitality complied.

"A number of hotels and hospitality groups had refused to comply with the directive before now.
"Sequel to that, the commissioner, Mr Folorunso Folarin-Coker, had directed that defaulters be fished out," he said.

According to NAN he said that there had been an increase in the number of registered hotels and hospitality groups from the 450 recorded in May.

"We still have some miles to cover, with the current number of unregistered hotels; but we shall continue to appeal to them to comply before the year runs out," he said.

NAN
Image Source: Informationng.com

Reasons Why Hotels are Expensive in Nigeria

There has been lots of skepticism relating to the reasons why hotels are expensive in Nigeria.Lots of foreigners come into the country and make the same complaints, Nigerians travel out of the country and come back to give the same complaints. The question is why?

According to Vanguard Newspaper, it reported that An hotel consultant, Gbnenga Oladele in a chat said hotels rely on diesel powered generators which costs fortunes, coupled with the fact that there is a major issue with electricity supply in Nigeria.

According to reports, he said, " if i have one guest in my hotel, I need to supply electricity. Some hotels prepared their budget for this year on N135 per litre for diesel, but today diesel is being sold in the range of N245. The question is where do you put the extra cost? Is it on rooms or food?

He also said, the issue of multiple taxes ia also another problem, which needs to be resolved before the cost of hotel in the country can be addressed.

"The government that is supposed to be helping hotel business is killing the sector with excess taxes. In Lagos, you have the consumption tax after the VAT. How do you expect business to survive when one has to pay different taxes?

He also added, "but with the way things are going, businesses are finding it tough to cope, while unemployment is increasing."

From my perspective, hotel business in Nigeria is lucrative but within the last couple of months to a year now, it's getting tougher, hotels are being shut down because they can't afford to pay this so called TAX, some can't meet up to the competition, others can't afford to pay staff. Everything boils down to ridiculous tax demand, high cost of energy, poor customer service from staff; simply because hotels can't hire personnel with good work experience, they would rather go for the poorly educated ones that will accept the poor salary they are offering, lack of good infrastructures in the country, high NEPA bill.....

There has to be a solution for us to enjoy the hotel business and for the job to get into the hands of those truly qualified to handle it.

Image Credit: Pixabay

6 Common Misconceptions About Hotels

Generally in every continent, there has been various perspectives from people about hotels which have been classified as misconceptions. Here they are below:

Bed Bugs in Budget Hotels: Bed bugs are not only found in budget hotels, simply because they are affordable doesn't necessarily indic

ate that they are dirty or breed bed bugs, this can be found as well as in high end hotels, resorts or luxurious hotels if the hotel is not well fumigated.

Expensive weekend rates: It isn't a confirmed fact that hotels are expensive during weekends, it depends largely on the type of hotel, there bookings for the weekend and charging rates. For further explanation, hotels with high clientele would generally want to charge higher during the weekend when their sales are usually high but a hotel with low one would rather charge lower to pull in guests which would boost their sales for that weekend. Some would even take up idea of weekend promo.

Hotel staff are available to guests: Hotel staff aren't for rent or available to satisfy the desires or demands of guests, customer service is paramount but not that type of service.guests are responsible for their personal care in that aspect, hotel staff are their to provide official services which the hotel has publicly offered to the populace.

Spy cameras in rooms: Have you had situations where guests feel vulnerable about rooms, having this weird feeling that their are spy cameras in their rooms to view all their activities? Well this isn't true, it's against the laws and principles of hotels and is never done. CCTV's are only present in hotel where they are visible for guests to see and are for security purposes which hotels need to have for their own safety as well as that of the guests.

Cheap Hotels are bad: Hotels that offer low rates aren't necessarily bad are unkept, high end hotel can also be badly kept depending on the management. If staffs aren't well trained, services offered by hotel will be substandard. Hotels that offer cheap rates do so to increase traffic into their hotel which isn't a bad idea for generating high profit.

Hotels meet all demands: Their is a general belief that all hotels give out complimentary items such as towels, pajamas and so on. Giving out complimentary items is determined by the hotel management which is usually done by luxurious or high end hotels. All the hotels cannot afford to give out such items due to their rates and profit margin. Guests are not permitted to walk out of the hotel premises with hotel items without prior information by the hotel. Hotels don't offer all services.

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