Case Study

A 300 room luxury hotel found itself 22% behind plan booking pace after six months in 2003, and was forecasting to slip to 25% for the year ending December 31, 2003.

As a result of a comprehensive sales review conducted by Advoco in July, and the actions taken by the property, at the close of the third quarter the hotel was on track to exceed plan booking pace by 14%.

Significant review findings and property actions taken contributing to this improvement included:

Sales team members direct selling time improving from 38% to 47% after identifying the root causes as shown in the following illustration

A sales associate working a seven hour day who devotes 38% of his/her time to direct sales frequently produces $1 million in annual revenue. Increasing selling time from 38% to 47% can potentially generate an additional $230,000.

Software improvements to increase desktop productivity
Identification of sales team training needs, and remedies
General Manager’s participation in weekly sales meeting; the emphasis is on how the GM can reduce any barriers to the sales team achieving its objectives; an action matrix is maintained and reviewed at subsequent meetings
Customer feedback received by Operations team from Sales as information for improvement, rather than criticism, increasing the sales team’s confidence that the “promise keepers” will fulfill more consistently what the “promise makers” tell their customers
Selected corporate accounts and LRA are booking directly over the hotel’s proprietary Web site
Hotel guarantees that the best available rate through any source at any given time will be found on the property’s Web site
Sales meeting focus is on accountability, training and further professional development needs of the team
Incentives were introduced to reward the “A” players both as individuals and as part of the team

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