All sales departments are similar, whether it is a hotel complex with thousands of rooms, a hostel with 40 beds or a pie shop, you will find common points everywhere. Let's focus on them.

What components does a hotel sales department consist of?

The first and most important component of the hotel sales department- this is your sales department, i.e. People who answer incoming calls, requests for e-mail and by reservation systems. These are the most key links, because without specially designated people for sales, you will not be able to sell anything. If you have a small hotel or hostel, then the position of sales manager can be combined with the position of administrator or director, but for hotels with more than 20 rooms, at least one employee is already required, who will be involved only in sales.

Once you have determined who will be in charge of sales in your hotel, you can smoothly move on to second stage— this is the search and conclusion of corporate contracts, I’m talking about the B2B segment. You need to start with reservation systems (booking, etc.) and travel agencies/tour operators (if you have a large hotel, then the operators can take dozens or even hundreds of rooms), after all the reservation systems and operators in your region have concluded a contract with you to make a reservation, then your sales department will proceed to the third stage - searching for corporate clients.

Search for corporate clients- this process is never-ending and most labor-intensive. It all depends on your hotel and what additional services it offers. For example, a hotel has a spa and a restaurant, then you can safely call event agencies with an offer to organize anniversaries, weddings, etc.

The cold (outgoing) calling technology is as follows:, you form a basis for calling (your permanent, working document), before the first call to a potential client, you send a personal email, then call and ask to find this letter among those hundreds of letters that go to the mailboxes of any company. The purpose of the call is to arrange a meeting to which your “sales people” will go to sign a contract. All paperwork and agreement on the contract must be completed before the meeting; at the meeting itself, you only need to get to know each other and sign on both sides. If the manager has signed a contract with a company that subsequently books you, then the entire process of accepting the order should be conducted by the manager who signed the contract for a percentage of the transaction.

I would like to emphasize that your The sales department can work effectively even without advertising, but only on cold calls! But I believe that in the 21st century it is necessary to strengthen sales using effective advertising methods, because it is always more pleasant when the client calls you, rather than you calling him.
Important point that you need not only to form a base for your sales department, but to continue to work with it constantly, making adjustments for each potential partner, because each contact must end with either a motivated refusal to sign an agreement (“we are a car service, we are not interested in your hotel”), or a signed contract on the basis of which the movement Money between your organizations.

If you are interested in this approach, we can audit your existing sales department or build one for you from scratch.

Contact us for a consultation!

A hotel company needs to have people capable of conducting market analysis, planning marketing activities, their implementation and control. When the hotel is small, all the marketing work can be done by one person. In large hotels, many specialists work in the marketing departments, including specialists in sales of services, market research, advertising, public relations, etc.

Marketing activities in modern hotels are organized in different ways. The most common form is the functional organization, when at the head various directions marketing specialists specific types activities - sales managers, advertising managers, marketing research experts, quality and new types of services managers. Hotel chains that sell their services nationally and internationally often use a geographic organization, with sales and marketing employees assigned to specific countries, regions, and areas. Organizing by geography allows sales professionals to work directly in their assigned territory, get to know their customers better, and reduce travel costs.

Depending on the size of the hotel enterprise and the tasks facing it, the marketing department can be organized as follows:

• Simple sales department. Small hotels, as a rule, create the position of deputy sales manager, whose task is to increase the hotel's occupancy. The deputy manager is directly involved in the sale of rooms. To conduct marketing research or an advertising campaign, contracts are concluded with consulting firms and advertising agencies.
• The sales department, which performs marketing functions, is typical for the work of medium-sized hotels. As the hotel expands its operations, it must pursue other segments of the tourism market or enter new geographic markets. To study the needs of local buyers and market potential, she needs to conduct market research and implement advertising campaign in the selected area - introduce yourself and your products. To carry out these tasks, the hotel hires specialists in marketing research and advertising, possibly in staffing table will appear new position marketing manager who will manage the execution of marketing functions.
• An independent marketing department is created when the hotel management comes to the understanding that, from the point of view of increasing profits, it is advisable to concentrate the coordination of marketing functions in an independent division. A large hotel company can afford additional investments in marketing research, development of new services, advertising and sales promotion, service improvement. Sales personnel are involved in sales work in such hotels. The head of the marketing department is usually allocated the necessary budget. At this stage, sales and marketing are two different functions that should be closely linked.

This balance of power allows management to take a more balanced approach to assessing the opportunities and problems of their hotel.

Let's assume that hotel room sales are declining and management is looking for a solution to the problem. The head of the number sales service proposes to increase the staff of the service, increase wages its employees, hold a competition like “who can sell the most,” send sales representatives to refresher courses, or reduce the price of rooms to stimulate sales. The hotel's deputy marketing manager must analyze the current market situation. Are the right segments served by the hotel? Has target consumers' assessment of the services provided by the hotel and its competitors changed? Are changes in service standards, style, related services, their distribution and promotion justified?

Modern marketing department. The heads of sales and marketing departments should work together, but too often there are strained relations between them, distrust of each other. The sales manager is dissatisfied with the place that his department is given in the marketing mix, and the marketing manager demands more and more funds for activities that are not directly related to the sale of rooms.

The marketing manager's job is to identify targeted growth opportunities and develop marketing strategies and programs that the sales team is responsible for implementing. Marketers, based on data obtained through research, try to identify and understand market segments, engage in planning, and always keep a long-term perspective in mind. Their goal is to increase the hotel's profits and expand its market share. Sales specialists, on the contrary, rely on their work experience and try to reach each specific buyer. The bulk of the working time of sales employees is spent on personal communication with clients and customers. They live for today and try to fulfill their sales plan.

If tensions arise between sales and marketing, then hotel management needs to sort out the conflict and either return marketing under the leadership of the sales manager, or combine services under the leadership of the head of the marketing department, giving him responsibility for the sales staff. Latest solution and lies at the heart of the modern marketing department - a department headed by the Marketing and Sales Director, who reports to everyone who performs any marketing functions, including sales.

However, even an actively working marketing department cannot always protect a hotel from failures in the market. It all depends on how other departments of the enterprise relate to the needs and requirements of customers, how they perceive their marketing responsibility.

If, during a discussion about the hotel's performance, functional managers simply point fingers at the marketing department and say, "That's their business," the marketing effort is not effective. Only when all employees understand that they owe their jobs, first of all, to the hotel’s clients who prefer to use its services, can we talk about an effective marketing policy at the enterprise.

The paradox is that when a hotel company begins to cut costs and change its organizational structure, the marketing and sales departments bear the brunt. At the same time, no one removes the task facing them - ensuring the maximum possible income.

Currently, more and more hotels are changing organizational structure, fixing it on key processes, and not on departments. Organization by departments greatly hinders the implementation of basic tasks, such as providing additional service, attracting and retaining clients, processing requests for room reservations, organizing services for mass arrivals, holding conferences. For these purposes, mixed teams or rapid response groups are increasingly being created from among employees constantly working in other departments of the hotel. The marketing department trains these workers, assigns them to teams, and evaluates their performance.

Issues for discussion

• 1. What is the purpose of the marketing plan?
• 2. What place does the marketing plan take in planning the activities of a hotel enterprise?
• 3. What are the main stages of marketing planning at an enterprise?
• 4. What are your main marketing plans?
• 5. How to organize control over the implementation of the marketing plan?

Building a sales system in a hotel

Polina Berezhnaya

The success of any business lies not only in the quality of the product sold, the amount of capital investment in its creation and development. Services or goods must be salable, and this to a large extent depends on the correct structure of the sales department, its goals, objectives and structure, the professionalism of employees and managers. What should be the optimal sales department in a hotel in terms of quality indicators? Let’s try to figure it out together with specialists and market experts.

The role of effective sales in any business cannot be overestimated. In a highly competitive environment and with a variety of offers, the number of customers directly depends on how well the sales department works, be it a manufacturing company or an enterprise operating in the service sector.

Any company must have guaranteed sales of goods or services that pay for its work and make a profit. The hotel business is no exception. Taking into account the fact that competitors, as they say, do not sit still, without professional sales managers the business will lose stability, and, turning a blind eye to the sales problem today, after a while it will become much more difficult to solve it, so master new products in the field of sales management necessary constantly.

Building a hotel sales service always begins with defining clear goals and work strategy. As explains director department sales, marketing And development Vertex Hotel Group Olesya Protsenko In order to effectively organize the work of a hotel sales service, first of all it is necessary to find clear answers to several important questions: what the hotel sells, what is the competitive range in the market, what are the advantages of the hotel and who its client is. “By qualitatively studying your product and the capabilities of competitors, you will be able to highlight your own strengths, which you will operate on the market. Having clear answers to the above questions makes setting up a sales department and building a sales strategy much easier. There are different schemes for building a sales department.

For example, if your hotel is a monopolist in the city according to some criteria (either due to its location, or due to the level of service, infrastructure, etc.), it will be enough to build a sales department following the so-called lightweight model. It's about about the structure, when there is one head of service and a reservation department that works with incoming orders and contracts. This model is used if there is no need to produce any new business, and the main task is only to maintain the operation of the hotel,” says the expert.

At the same time, if a hotel operates in an environment with a high level of competition, which in Ukraine is already present not only in the capital, but also in cities with a population of over a million, the Carpathian region, which is attractive for tourists, and on the Southern Coast of Crimea (SC), then the formation of a sales strategy needs to be given Special attention. IN in this case will have to do active sales through our own efforts and extensive stimulation of partners to promote the hotel among their clients. Selected features in sales management are inherent in hotels in the southern region, which are characterized by “fluctuations” in the flow of guests: from maximum occupancy of rooms during the holiday period to minimum occupancy during the cold season. That is why hoteliers have to come up with more sophisticated sales approaches to maintain the average annual occupancy rate at least at 60%. Loyalty programs and tough economic sanctions for partners are also used.

Go through all channels
Creating a sales system for any hotel first begins with segmentation potential clients and determining which ones have priority. This is exactly the approach he follows in his work. general director hotel "Aivazovsky" Julia Labunskaya. "In order for sales channels hotel services worked effectively, first of all it is necessary to correctly determine target audience hotel. In general, sales channels can be divided into internal and external.

Internal sales include direct sales of the hotel, in particular, through the reservation department, the hotel website, interaction with corporate clients, regular and potential hotel guests. External channels are characterized by agency sales (tour operators and agencies) and global distribution systems (GDS),” says the expert.

According to Head of Sales and Marketing Department of the Opera Hotel Elena Drozd, the main task hotel sales department - making a profit from the sale of hotel rooms, conference rooms, banquets and conferences. “By and large, the sales department is responsible for the entire revenue side of the hotel budget. In addition, this department is responsible for setting prices for rooms and tariff schedule depending on seasonality, demand and supply in the market, as well as establishing relationships and concluding corporate and agency contracts. In addition, the direct responsibilities of the sales department include writing an annual business plan, which provides a detailed analysis of the market, competitors, strengths and weaknesses the hotel itself, existing and potential customers, as well as developing a strategy and action plan for next year", says the expert.

Despite the fact that each hotel, as a rule, has its own preferences in working with certain sales channels, basically, almost all hoteliers believe that only an effective mix of different sales channels can ensure constant high hotel occupancy. So, let's take a closer look at the specifics of each sales channel.

The effectiveness of internal sales directly depends on the professionalism of hotel sales managers. The activities of a hotel's own sales department often extend primarily to corporate clients. Moreover, if small hotels have the opportunity to attract only business guests, then larger hotels with a wide range of additional services for business are focused on finding clients who organize various events.

As explains Olesya Protsenko, if the hotel has conference rooms and can simultaneously accommodate a large number of guests, then the focus of sales will be on complex events, the profitability of which is higher than from accommodating individual clients. “In order to attract corporate clients to hold conferences and seminars at the hotel, first of all it is necessary to find out who in the market lives for such events. That is why monitoring of business activity in Ukraine and in the world as a whole, knowledge of the specifics of the work of various business segments, plays an important role for this sales channel. A sales manager must live in the segment he is leading and constantly study his potential client in order to fully understand what product he is working with,” says the hotelier.

Another important internal sales channel for any hotel is its Internet resource. The hotel business is one of the few where a website can not only be the main source of information, but also attract real customers. Unfortunately, many hoteliers do not think about this and do not pay due attention to their online presence. At the same time, for a hotel, the website continues to be the cheapest electronic distribution channel and can potentially provide up to 10% of sales.
“The hotel website should be as simple as possible and at the same time informative, correctly presenting the “mood” of the hotel. An effective booking module plays an important role, thanks to which the guest can quickly select a room category, book it and pay in a way convenient for him,” believes Olesya Protsenko.

When filling out the site, it is worth taking into account the needs for information about the hotel of all contractors who will use it, be it a travel company or a potential client. Information should be conveyed in simple, accessible and preferably official language. The visual component of the web page will also play a particularly important role in the formation of sympathy (and subsequently loyalty) to the hotel. The picture that a client or partner sees when visiting your web resource should make a pleasant impression on him. After all, creation positive mood the guest has an important mission of any hotel, which should be fulfilled already at the stage of the client’s first acquaintance with the hotel’s representative office on the Internet. The visitor should not experience any difficulties in using the site. Even a few heavy images can leave a dark stain on the hotel’s image, which will take several minutes to load. The booking section always leaves a special impression on the potential client. Guest irritation received from long wait procedures for booking a room will certainly affect his future attitude towards the hotel, of course - not for the better. One more important point There will be transparent pricing. If the initial price indicated on the website does not take into account, for example, any tax, as a result of which, when booking, the cost of hotel accommodation may increase significantly, which, of course, is unpleasant to surprise a potential client, in this case, count on further customer loyalty no longer worth it.

Among external sales channels, travel companies are also one of the most important for most hotels. The peculiarity of working with such partners is the complex sales of hotel services together with transfers, excursions, etc. "In order to interact effectively with travel companies, it is necessary to study their clients and the segments in which they operate, says Olesya Protsenko. - After all, there are many national characteristics of the client. For example, for guests from Japan, you must provide maximum amount double rooms with separate beds, identical in size and interior. Therefore, the sales manager, in addition to knowing his tour operator partner, must also have a good understanding of the needs of the end client in order to competently formulate a product that will be in demand.”

Since, when working with travel agents and tour operators, the hotel does not have the opportunity to directly influence the formation of end-consumer loyalty, this category of counterparties should be considered primarily as a way to attract new customers, and not as the main source of profitability. In addition, many travel agencies work with a pronounced seasonality, therefore, focusing on this sales channel, there is always a risk of a significant drop in hotel income during the “stagnant” season.

However, this sales channel should not be underestimated. Travel companies, like no other, are involved in creating a hotel’s image among its potential clients, so building their loyalty to the hotel should be a fundamental guideline in your relationship. You should not neglect the timely payment of commissions, since even the most insignificant financial debt to a partner can open the doors of a competing hotel wide open to the clients of the travel company. Moreover, it is advisable not to forget about the encouragement and additional remuneration of agents who regularly refer their clients to the hotel. Such bonus programs may include the possibility of free hotel accommodation for partners, free information tours, as well as additional discounts, adjusted taking into account the sales volumes of a particular partner. An important aspect communications with agents are commercial brochures, electronic lists and a hotel advertising directory. These materials will provide agents with detailed information about the facilities and services at the hotels offered. In addition, the supporting materials must contain detailed information about the room reservation procedure and the commission payment procedure. Educational seminars for travel companies will also be useful.

As for global distribution systems (GDS), although they are the most established channel for booking hotels around the world, for many Ukrainian small hotels this is a very expensive pleasure. Nevertheless, global distribution systems are quite developed sales channels in their structure, which provide a large number of ways to present information to a potential client and work with him. When forming its sales strategy, a hotel can consider each GDS as an independent full-fledged channel or as a component of the total number of sales.

However, all external sales channels have one important drawback. According to Julia Labunskaya, despite the fact that they are a very effective method of sales, in any case they remain only intermediaries between the guest and the hotel and in any case will not be able to present information about the hotel in the same way as a reservation manager or the hotel's own website.

Avoiding duplication
For small hotels, the problem of separating functions between marketing, sales and reservation services does not exist at all. Often they are concentrated in one structure. “In our hotel, the sales and marketing department (this is a single service) works closely with the reservation service. At the same time, employees of each department have their own clear responsibilities. “Bronists” maintain daily records, control and customer base with their clear segmentation. This information processed by the sales and marketing service and used for various marketing activities, notifying customers about additional hotel services, new promotions, etc.,” says managerhotel "Flowerbed"(Odessa) InnaSekuler.

However, not everything is so simple for hotels with a substantial number of rooms. Large hotels always try to separate the functions of marketing, sales and reservations. To prevent duplication of functions of employees of different departments, first of all, clear job descriptions should be in place. Here's what she said about it Marketing Manager hotel "Ukraine"(Lutsk) Liliya Ivashchuk: “The efficiency of our hotel is determined by the principle of team work. Despite the fact that there is a clear division of responsibilities according to job descriptions, each employee is familiar with the work of his colleagues at the level of interchangeability,” says the expert.

However, not everyone manages to achieve the result of coordinated team actions, when the functions of different departments are not duplicated and, at the same time, each of them can effectively complement the work of the other. To achieve such a result, it is worth clearly dividing the scope of activity and tasks that should be faced by each of the listed services. According to Olesya Protsenko, the main task of the hotel marketing department is to put together a product that sales managers can effectively sell. To do this, the marketing department needs to clearly understand what kind of client they are working with and what competitive range exists in the market. In turn, the sales department is people who, thanks to their sociability, psychotype and temperament, find a new client, and the reservation department is a team of employees who need to retain an already attracted client with the level of service. “Bronists” work with the finished product and with the already referred client (guest, corporate client, tour operator, etc.). Therefore, their task is to have information on current tariffs, the validity of the contract (from the French valide - legal, valid; in relation to the original statistical information, used in economic research: reliability of information, absence of errors in it due to the inaccuracy of the chosen data collection technique. - Approx. ed.). Also, one should not forget about the characteristics of the client that the sales managers told them (for example, a particular client should always have half board, or guests of a particular company should never be offered the 13th floor). The sales department is obliged to convey the most detailed information about the client to the “bookers”, and they, in turn, must follow all instructions and develop a new level of communication with the client, forming his loyalty to the hotel.

Extraordinary employees
The effectiveness of the sales department of any hotel first of all always depends on its manager. As explains Catherine Chernous, consultant By selection specialists higher link recruiting agencies Golden Staff, the head of the sales department is a person who himself works “for results” and knows how to stimulate others to do such work. Therefore, when hiring for the position of head of a given department, the candidate is asked to talk about how effective his activities were at previous places: what was it like financial results, what was the growth in sales volumes, etc. Such a manager must also know the specifics of the business “from the inside” and be well versed in any situation that arises among his subordinates. In a word, the main task of the head of the hotel sales department is to competently maintain communications with subordinates, top management and, if necessary, clients.

Slightly different requirements apply to the rest of the sales department. "For efficient work With clients, as a rule, communication skills are very important - the ability to communicate, to win people over, as well as the ability to be assertive, but not arrogant. In order to qualitatively argue his point of view and be convincing, the “sales person” must have a fairly high level of intelligence and be able to hide the weaknesses and highlight the strengths of the product. In general, the seller is always a good negotiator, a kind of politician. In my opinion, in sales, as in any other line of work, it is important that a person really likes what he does. Work should be fun,” explains Catherine Chernous.

Today, finding a specialist who would meet all the above requirements is not so easy. Both representatives of recruiting companies and hoteliers themselves speak about this. According to Catherine Chernous, this situation is connected, on the one hand, with the fact that a sales manager is one of the most sought-after professions on the Ukrainian labor market. On the other hand, a good seller is always a person who has such outstanding skills as independence, the ability to take responsibility, communication skills, intelligence, energy, activity, etc. And to find a person who both likes to sell and knows how to do it is a challenge. the task is not easy.

Don't forget about employee development. Professional trainings, seminars, as well as long-term training programs for sales managers always have not only a positive effect on sales performance, but are also an additional motivational factor for employees.

It is generally accepted that the main indicator for assessing the effectiveness of a sales department is the level of income. It is not difficult to calculate the income generated by the sale of one or another employee. To do this, you just need to do a few mathematical calculations. However, as hoteliers explain, in the hotel business this approach is not entirely correct. A clear picture of the activities of the sales department can only be obtained with a more in-depth examination. key indicators efficiency. As a criterion for assessing the work of hotel sales managers, it is more justified to use a combination of indicators, and it can differ significantly in different hotels. For example, for many hotels, especially in the southern region, maintaining an adequate level of hotel occupancy during the so-called “low” season is of great importance.

For other hotels the most important indicator effectiveness may be the number of attracted clients of a certain category. All these indicators can be lost by following a primitive method of assessing performance based on annual income. In addition, changes in income may have nothing to do with the achievements of the sales department, but be only the result of a non-standard marketing campaign or downtime in the work of competitors due to some force majeure circumstances. Determining the parameters for assessing the effectiveness of the sales department is purely individual and should directly correlate with the main goals and objectives that a particular hotel sets for itself. “In my absolutely clear conviction, the sales department is the heart of the hotel, which generates energy for the entire business,” he shares his beliefs Olesya Protsenko. - If the hotel is occupied with the correct yield ratio, average price and workload, and all services operate in normal high load mode without stalemates and failed dates - this is an indicator of the effective work of the sales department, when all the segments that the hotel is focused on are correctly defined and compiled together. That is, the understanding that the guest is satisfied should be correlated with the high level of profitability and occupancy of the hotel and the normal operation of all services.”
The purpose of personal selling has traditionally been viewed as a special type of contract with the client.

However, ideally, which, by the way, was recommended by marketing gurus Philip Kotler and James Makens, the hotel should not be looking for a banal one-time sale. the main objective- a clientele that must be won once and services provided to them for a long time. To do this, the establishment must demonstrate to guests its ability to meet their needs. the best way today, tomorrow and in five years, constantly improving the quality of service. This type of selling, where the goal is a long-term collaborative relationship, is much more complex than a short-term, one-off approach to sales. Purchasing a long-term commitment involves more agreements than simply closing a sale.

That's all today more companies focus their attention not on transaction marketing, but on relationship marketing. Yes, it is an order of magnitude more difficult, but the result is worth it.

The success of any business lies not only in the quality of the product sold and the amount of capital investment in its creation and development. Services or goods must be salable, and this to a large extent depends on the correct structure of the sales department, its goals, objectives and structure, the professionalism of employees and managers. Let’s try to figure out what an optimal sales department in a hotel should be in terms of quality indicators.

Taking into account the fact that competitors, as they say, do not sit still, without professional sales managers the business will lose stability, and, turning a blind eye to the sales problem today, after a while it will become much more difficult to solve it. It is necessary to constantly master new developments in the field of sales management, and all efforts must have a return. If it is not there, then you should reconsider the issue of organizing a sales system. Building a hotel sales service always begins with defining goals and work strategy. In order to effectively organize its activities, first of all it is necessary to find answers to several important questions: what does the hotel sell, what is the competitive range in the market, what are the advantages of the hotel and who is its client? Having thoroughly studied your product and the capabilities of your competitors, you will be able to identify your own strengths that you will use in the market. Having clear answers to the above questions, assembling a sales department and building a strategy becomes much easier.

There are different schemes for building a sales department. For example, if a hotel is a monopolist in the city according to some criteria (either due to its location, or due to the level of service, infrastructure, etc.), it will be enough to build a sales department following the so-called lightweight model. We are talking about a structure when there is one head of service and a reservation department that works with incoming orders and contracts. This model is used if there is no need to generate any new business, and the main task is only to maintain the operation of the hotel. At the same time, if the hotel operates in an environment with a high level of competition, then special attention must be paid to the formation of a sales strategy. In this case, you will have to engage in active sales through your own efforts and extensive stimulation of partners to promote the hotel among clients. Loyalty programs and harsh economic sanctions for non-paying partners are also used.

Creating a sales system for any hotel first begins with segmenting potential customers and determining which of them are a priority. In order for sales channels for hotel services to work effectively, it is necessary to correctly determine the target audience of the hotel.

In general, sales channels can be divided into internal and external. Internal sales include direct sales of the hotel, in particular, through the reservation department, the hotel website, interaction with corporate clients, regular and potential hotel guests. External channels are characterized by agency sales (tour operators and agencies) and global distribution systems (GDS).

The main task of the hotel sales department is to make a profit from the sale of hotel rooms, conference rooms and banquets. By and large, the sales department is responsible for the entire revenue side of the budget. In addition, this department is responsible for setting room prices and tariff schedules depending on seasonality, market supply and demand, as well as establishing relationships and concluding corporate and agency contracts. The direct responsibilities of the sales department include writing an annual business plan, which provides a detailed analysis of the market, competitors, the strengths and weaknesses of the hotel itself, existing and potential customers, and, of course, developing a strategy and action plan for the next year.

Despite the fact that each hotel, as a rule, has its own preferences in working with certain sales channels, hoteliers generally believe that only an effective mix of them can ensure constant high hotel occupancy.

The marketing and sales department appeared relatively recently in the hotel structure, but its role is rapidly increasing.

The main task of the department is to increase the occupancy of the hotel. The number of employees is usually up to 10 people, of which 1-2 employees are engaged marketing research, and the rest are sales managers who spend up to 90% of their working time outside the hotel in search of “wholesale” buyers of hotel services (travel agencies, large companies, to which many clients come, congress organizers, etc.)

To tasks marketing service includes determining the segment in which the hotel can be most successful, creating a customer profile and determining methods for attracting customers. A client’s profile (portrait) is a list of characteristics that characterizes some “average” typical client (age, income, nationality, occupation, reason for arrival, when he arrives and leaves, what he values ​​in hotel service, habits, etc.) in function this service also includes: organization advertising companies, making recommendations to management on where investments should be directed. The same service prepares daily load forecasts for the reception department.

The marketing service also analyzes the degree of customer satisfaction with hotel services. To do this, questionnaires are placed in hotel rooms in which the client is asked to rate (for example, on a five-point scale) the level of service provided by different departments of the hotel (quality of room cleaning, Front office work, quality of food and level of service in hotel restaurants, etc.) .

Based on the results of processing the questionnaires, proposals are developed for the hotel management to improve the quality of service, which should help increase occupancy and, consequently, the hotel’s income.

It should, however, be noted that the percentage of questionnaires returned is very low - about 5% is the definition pricing policy hotels (basic rate and various discounts to attract customers).

In the hotel business, discount is one of the main tools marketing strategy. The price that the hotel announces in its brochures (the so-called Rack rate) is, in practice, applied only to a very small number of clients, i.e. to those who pass “from the street”.

All other clients enjoy discounts. For example, a discount is provided: for pre-booking a room (if the room is booked by a travel agency, up to 40%); in the off-season, pensioners, children, students - up to 25%; professional colleagues, regular clients - up to 40%, etc.

After a year, the manager looks at how many clients this or that company has “placed” and makes appropriate changes to the next contract (the more guests represented, the greater the discount provided).