10 Step Guide to Opening and Managing a Hotel
We have prepared 10 tips for you to open and manage your own hotel. If you have various questions such as how to manage a hotel or how to open a hotel, this article is for you.
1. Selection of Region and Location In order to be successful in the field of hospitality, the region you choose, that is the location, is of great importance. When you open a hotel with a high service quality in a meticulously selected location, where competitors cannot reach, your success will be faster and more certain. On the other hand, opening a hotel in places where competition is high carries a great risk, or to put it differently, you may need to make more effort to stand out from your competitors and be visible. For this reason, you should be very meticulous in your location choices and it will be beneficial to observe your competitors in that area.
2. Capital When building a hotel out of nothing or buying and renovating an existing hotel, it is imperative that you make a substantial financial investment. For this reason, it is necessary to reduce the margin of error to zero when making a capital plan and to be prepared for any crisis that may occur.
3. Business Plan Preparing a simple and useful draft will help you to act more comfortably in the decisions you will make in the future, and if there is a situation that requires you to use a bank loan, you will have a visible investment project.
4. Service The key word of successful hotels is the quality of the service they provide. The competence and motivation of the hotel staff, paying close attention to the guests but not intimidating, and the service you offer one level higher than the hotel's competitors at the same price level will ensure the success of your investment.
5. E-Commerce Strategy The internet age has affected the tourism sector as much as it has deeply affected every sector. Therefore, your hotel must have a website. Whether your business has four rooms or four hundred rooms, having your own website increases your chances of standing out from your competitors. However, you need to pay attention to the number of visits to your website, the rate of booking from your website and the campaigns you declare here. It is important to have a website, but you should not skip the step of signing up with other online booking sites.
6. Price Strategy Your price planning should be done in such a way that your business can make a profit. On the other hand, the same price planning should make your hotel preferred by customers. The service quality offered by the hotel and the price plan should be in balance. Your guests aim to buy better service at a more affordable price, while the biggest goal is to provide the highest profit for a certain service quality by the operators. You can use this tactic if your hotel is famous and can already reach a certain target audience, but if you are a new hotel that is still in the process of promoting itself, this plan will not suit you. The fact that the price of the hotel is less than the service it provides is the most accurate planning for a newly opened hotel. The variables you need to use in the cost and price study when determining room prices are personnel wages, room category, length of stay, fixed expenses and prices of competing businesses.
7. Flexibility Guests' expectations from a hotel can vary, so it's imperative that you and your team meet those expectations by taking responsibility when necessary. Decisions made by a manager working at your hotel at the right time can make your hotel famous in terms of customer satisfaction, and measures that are not taken on time will be written into your household as a bad reputation.
8. Differentiation Being advantageous in hospitality competition keeps you one step ahead of your competitors. Be visibly better than all your other competitors on any service. This could be internet speed, food quality or the attention of employees to your guests. Offer a service your competitors never offer.
9. Quality Management By looking at your entire hotel, your application of quality management systems will be noticed by your guests. Working with a highly motivated team will enable you to provide high quality service to your guests. This will put you one step ahead of your competitors.
10. Strategic Marketing The main goal of a hotel is to achieve long-term success and profit. Marketing strategies that appeal to your target customer group, can set your hotel apart from its competitors, and manage successful public relations may come across as a great necessity.
