Welcome to The Front Desk Sales Orientation Today’s Agenda Welcome and brief overview of sales efforts to date. 10 min Value Selling 20 Min. Value Who is our Comp Set STAR Report Open Discussion Your Roll in Sales. 30 Min. Review Slides Revenue management game Review lead sheets Open Discussion Market Segment Task Forces introduction. 30 min How it works Review Paper work Assignments Open Discussion

Our Current Sales Efforts

Understanding Value Value is not only associated with price, but quality for the price paid, with limited time and stress in buying and receiving the product. What items at your hotel represent value to the guest? Guests see value through friendly, efficient service and staff, clean comfortable surroundings, easy to understand & consistent pricing, ease of booking, 100% satisfaction guarantee, hotel location, breakfast, and room amenities.

Value Selling Creating value for the guest, includes experience, service, amenities, and room types – not rate. Help guest understand what is included in the rate before quoting. Selling the overall package is key to success!

Evaluating Potential Guests Just as guests evaluate our value to them, we need to evaluate what value they bring to us. Is every guest right for your property? Items to consider if guest or piece of business is right for your hotel. Volume, Method of Payment, Booking Channel, Time of Year, T/A Commission, Arrival/Departure pattern, No. of people in party, Length of stay, Cost of delivery.

REGRETS VS. DENIALS Regrets- potential reservations not booked when there is inventory available. Common regret reasons are rate, room type not available, location, and restriction policies. Denials- a reservation request not booked due to no inventory availability WE REGRET THEY DENY.

Competitive Advantage What separates you from your competitors? Remember many of your competitors have similar amenities. Intangibles, such as friendly and efficient service, give us a strategic advantage over the competition. Your competitive advantage is key in Value selling.

Competitive set A group of hotels chosen to serve as a standard set of suitable competitors against which performance is measured, specifically used in Starcast report.. Who’s in your competitive set? Why are they in your set? Competitors are usually chosen based on location, product similarities and / or price similarities

Competition  Do you really know them?  Have you visited and toured them lately?  Do you shop them often?  Are you looking at the score (star report)?

STAR Report A tool that allows a hotel to manage REVPAR and measure success against the hotel competitive set. Performance measured by rate, occupancy, and REVPAR.

ADR Average Daily Rate Determined by dividing the total room revenue by total rooms occupied. Ex. 125 room hotel sells 100 rooms and shows $8,250 in revenue. $8,250/100 rooms = $82.50 ADR

Occupancy Total Rooms Sold/Total Rooms Available. Ex. 125 Room hotel sells 100 rooms. 100/125 =.80 = 80% Occupancy

REVPAR REVPAR = Revenue Per Available Room. Amount of money a hotel earns for each Room/Suite they have available for sale. 2 Ways to Calculate: 1. Total room revenue / Number of total rooms available 2. ADR x OCC REVPAR is key in measuring hotel performance

Example of STAR Report Share most recent Property STAR report.

Open Discussion

THE REVENUE MANAGEMENT GAME

REVMAX GAME You are the Director of Revenue Management of a five bedroom hotel. Goal: To sell every room, every day, at the most profitable amount you can. Remember rooms are perishable and if they don’t sell there is still a cost attributed to having them! You will receive a series of 15 calls to book your hotel, your objective is to decide AT THAT MOMENT which calls/reservations to take and which to regret.

GAME DIRECTIONS After each call is provided, decide whether to take the call at that rate. If you ACCEPT, fill in the rate in the boxes that it corresponds to. If you REGRET, you do not fill anything in. YOU CAN NOT INSERT A RATE AFTER THE CALL IS OVER!

GAME RATE STRUCTURES Corporate $115 Advance Purchase $85 AT & T $90 Government $75 Travel Industry $70

Sample of the Game Sheet

YOUR ROLE IN SALES Key Areas of Performance & Results

Key Areas Build Relationships w/ guests (everyone) Make Outside Sales Calls (Sales/GM) Uncover NEW Business (everyone) Document Sales Activity (everyone) Always Remember “People do business with people they know, like and trust.”

Your Role Top Notch Service – a must!  Smile! Make every guest feel special.  Be courteous, helpful and genuine.  Ask them “How is your stay.”  Be professional at all times.  Remember you are the impression of the hotel.  YOU are what makes the difference if they come back.

Sales Role  Carry on casual conversation w/ guests.  Promote your hotel and the area.  Find leads. Observe! Listen!  Ask Questions – ?What company are you with? ?What brings you to the area? ?Are there other associates traveling as well? ?Do you use other hotels? ?Would you provide me a business card and a name of someone in your company who makes decision with travel and hotel coordination? Our DOS/GM would like to contact them to find out more details and possibly set up a corporate rate for your company.  Fill out HP Lead Sheet / attach business/give to GM.  Identify problems, communicate, resolve.  Care about your guests everyday!

TOP ACCOUNT MANAGMENT The 80/20 Rule: “80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers.”

TOP ACCOUNT QUESTIONS ?Do you know and track them? ?Do you visit them often? ?Do you watch for their guests daily? ?Do you protect them? ?Do you educate your property about them? ?Do you appreciate them every chance you get? “The measure of success is not whether you had a tough problem to deal with, but whether it’s the same problem you had last year.”- John Foster Dulles

Calling on Top Accounts My Top Accounts need to be contacted in person every month. 1. Review account production. 2. Discuss VIP, in house or recent guests or upcoming arrivals or meetings. 3. Review Rate Strategy and Future Rate Increases. 4. Introduce key department heads. 5. Update Direct Bill Information. 6. Learn about company changes / climate. 7. Take key contacts to lunch w/ GM to show appreciation.

More Top Accounts 8. Provide guest feedback from comment cards. 9. Get forecasts of rm nts for balance of yr. 10. Keep file current with key contact names, addresses, phone, and faxes. 11. Discuss recent property renovations or brand updates. 12. Secure property tour if they have not seen the hotel in awhile.

How Do Find Out Who your Comp Set Top Accounts are?  Reader Boards (assign Front Desk)  Be a lobby lizard  Drive Parking Lots (share duty)  Call Front Desk/Night Audit  Follow the vans in their parking lot  Brand Directories (company names)  Internet (google/put in their phone #’s)  Visit them at breakfast or Mgrs Reception

The Art of Stealing Business “The object in sales today is to win in the shortest possible time at the least expense. To win you must inflict damage on the competition before they have a chance to hit back.” - Become Strategic or Die The best way to steal business is to create a plan with 6-10 “Hits” or steps in the shortest possible time.

# 1 Reason The #1 Reason business is not taken from a competitor is: Lack of Follow up

Remember Shopping my competitors is FOREVER! 50% of our business is Priority Club Members. 80% of these people have another card (Marriott, Hhonors, Choice Privileges).

Property Tours Important minutes DO’s  Hotel clean/pristine!  Pre-select rooms, inspect, set lighting.  Communicate to all departments  Pre-brief Front Desk on arrival time/name  Verify appt day before  Send thank you same day  Ask Prospect what is most important to them. DON’TS  Keep them waiting.  Act like it’s just another day on the job.  Make noise (laundry cart on tile floor, vacuuming).  Forget to smile and introduce other staff  Complain  Leave out work materials  Forget uniform & name tag  Forget to be on your best – it’s show time!

How to Have “Yes, I can attitude” 1. Feed your soul Am I a winner? Or a whiner? Am I a victim? Or a victor? Am I bitter? Or better? Am I pitiful? Or powerful? 2. Treat people how you want to be treated. People will forget what you say. People will forget what you do. People will not forget the way you make them feel.

More “Yes I can Attitude” 3. Turn your dreams into goals. The Just Do It Principle 4. Focus on results, not just activity. 5. Always be up, never give up! Seven words that you predetermine your destiny! As you think so shall you be. Things are neither good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

Open Discussion

Quiz Part 1 Front Desk Training Quiz Helping guests to understand all that is in our rates, before quoting a rate, is called what?____________ ____________ How do you calculate Occupancy? Total rooms available/total rooms sold Total rooms sold/total rooms available Total room revenue/total rooms sold Total room revenue/total rooms available What tool allows a hotel to manage RevPar and measure its success against the hotel’s competitive set? __________ ___________ How do you calculate ADR? Total room available/total rooms sold Total room revenue/total rooms sold Total revenue/total rooms available Cost of line item/total The hotel’s room revenue for the month of October was $200,000. The hotel sold 2,500 rooms this month. What is the hotel’s ADR?

QUIZ Part 2 There are 2 ways to calculate RevPar. Show one. RevPar stands for __________ _________ __________ _________. A group of hotels chosen to serve as a standard set suitable competitors against which performance is measured, specifically used in the Star Report. _______________ ______________ List 3 items in which we evaluate guests on to determine if they are right for our property. List 3 items at your hotel that represent value to the consumer. A regret is recorded when: When a guest calls to book a reservation and the hotel is sold out. When a guest calls to book a reservation and the hotel has availability, but the guest decides not to book. ___________ is a reservation request not booked due to no inventory available.

Market Segment Task Force Led by the Sales Department, develop a task force utilizing the Front Desk Sales Team to target key market segments through various initiatives to drive revenue on shoulder days and weekends.

Setting up the Force 1. Pick the 3-4 segments you plan to target. These segments rotate every 60 days among the staff. Front Desk should rotate the segments to learn all of them and how they can benefit the hotel sales effort. 2. Set up binder for segments. Each segment leader should set up a binder for their segment they are managing. The binders should be divided with labeled dividers. First section should be the database of contacts for each segment that include the name, address, phone, fax number and addresses. 3. Set up a database of contacts. Go to Type in category. Example: type in churches and specify within 10 mile radius. All the churches will come up. Print out the list. Put it in the first section of the binder labeled "database/contacts." You can also utilize the phone book to get similar information. The switch board site can narrow down the mile radius or zip codes.

4. Phone each business (ex. church) and ask for the Office Manager or in the case of a church, the Pastor and Secretary. Get a fax number, address and verify address (If the organization has a website, sometimes you can get info off their web site example - sports organizations. 5. Plan two activities per month per segment from the following choices: 1) mail letter 2) mail post card (get one made/inexpensive) 3)blast 4) Telemarketing/follow up call. Promote the hotel and a special promotional offer or special rate. IF YOU DO TWO PER MONTH, YOU WILL COMPLETE ALL FOUR EVERY 60 DAYS FOR THIS SEGMENT. GM approves all OFFERS promoted. Example of promotional offer: 20% off your next meeting OR a church rate of $____. 6. Label the second section of the binder "Activities." Keep a record of your activities for your segment by filling out the (see attached) Activity Record for reference. The next segment leader will know what activities have been completed and the date. 7. The third section labeled "Example Forms" of the binder should have examples of the letter or flyers so that the market segment leader has record of what they flyers and letters have been used. Additionally, the next segment leader can see what the previous leader have done with previous activities. This avoids repeating the same activities. Encourage leaders to change and update their flyers with Director of Sales or GM approval before printing.

Script Examples With each example, go in with attitude that you are helping someone today. Don't assume you will get rejected. Be kind, courteous of their time. Always think about what we can do for them or assist their organization. You do not want it to be just about how the hotel can benefit. If they tell you they already use certain hotels, simply reply - "That is fine, we understand. The good news is your organization has needs and we would like to "earn" your business and be considered as an option.....

Segments Weddings Sports Funerals Churches Hospitals Retail What Segments do you think will most benefit this property?

Assignments Who wants what segments to get started? Pass out Market Segment Task Force Set up Sheet. Time frame?

Open Discussion

IMPROVE TO SUCCEED “To improve is to change, to succeed is to change often.” Churchhill