Holiday season, or as independent hoteliers call it “shoulder season”, provides properties with a great opportunity to build upon a busy summer by gearing up their operations to ensure a successful holiday travel period and strong start to the New Year. Below are a few ways properties can utilize holiday season/shoulder season to enhance daily operations.
1. Check Your Numbers
Some hoteliers rely on their “eyes and gut” to tell them when business is going well and when times are tough. Having a feel for your hotel’s operations is always helpful, but analyzing your numbers is the only true way to gauge your hotel’s performance. Shoulder season is the perfect time to analyze year-to-date metrics and forecast year-end performance. Analyzing performance metrics, such as ADR, RevPAR and occupancy, fixed and variable costs, and historical data will provide an honest assessment of a hotel’s financial health. With this information, hoteliers can better forecast how their property will perform through the holidays and into the New Year.
2. Engage Your Team
Keeping team members engaged is critical to maintaining a productive work environment, so hoteliers should look to utilize shoulder season for all-team and one-on-one meetings. These meetings should be used to communicate the overall state of the business, including summer successes and opportunities for future improvement, and individual plans to improve team member performance. Keeping hotel team members engaged and in-tune with the business helps create the cohesion and focus independent hotels need to drive long-term success.
3. Plan For The Years Ahead
Where will this hotel be in 5-10 years?
Will it need extensive renovations and repairs in the coming years?
Does it have the tools and technology in-place to grow over the long-term?
These are the type of questions that properties with long-term vision regularly ask themselves and work towards answering. If you haven’t spent much time thinking about the long-term future of your hotel, this shoulder season is a great time to start.
Get Solutions to your hotels needs with a PMS.
In regards to hotel technology, innRoad is always available to help properties drive their business forward. innRoad is a property management software that has features that will help you save time, increase efficiency, increase bookings and revenue, and give guests an easy booking experience; all while streamlining your operations. When getting a cloud-based property management software, you’ll be able to manage your property on the go, get insight into your property’s performance with reporting features, easily modify reservations, and make your business visible on the top online travel agent sites.
Ready to get a property management software that does it all? Join the thousands of properties around the globe who choose innRoad’s software to streamline their hospitality business.
Learn more about how our software and extra features can help your property by scheduling a demo with our property advisors today!
