Hotel Chains Need An Enable The Customer To Buy Strategy, Not A Moribund Sales Strategy

The future threat is not the Online Travel Agents, it is the power of the consumer

London, England— 12th November, 2013

Hotel chains' marketing budget is now in the hands of their customers. Yet hotel management executives' continue to trade brickbats with online travel agents over “unsustainable revenue leakage” and invest in more sales people and skills.

The customer today can see the hotel's cards. The abundance of information freely available to the consumer means a leisure traveller can check the best available rate for 149 hotels in Shanghai within the next minute, the wedding planner can readily benchmark the cost of a reception at five of Manhattan's best properties in less than sixty minutes, the Investment Bank's Procurement Team can analyse preferred deals with upscale hotels in Hong Kong within 24 hours.

James Berkeley, Managing Director of Ellice Consulting Ltd, who assists hotel chains profitably grow asserts, “Selling hotel rooms is no longer a black box. Hotels need a mindset change. The focus must be on enabling the customer to buy. Create excitement, provide value and make it easy to purchase the hotel's offering. Stop trying to take something from the customer to justify your self-worth. Hire and train people with the skills and volition to enable the customer to buy.”

His strong anecdotal evidence is that many hotel chain executives are expanding way too much time and energy in an adversarial relationship with online travel agents such as Booking.com, Expedia and others. He argues powerfully that if they focused their attention on an “Enable the Customer To Buy” strategy rather than a traditional sales strategy , they would dramatically out-perform their peers, and provide significant increased value for the managed hotel's other customer, the owner.

Berkeley has created market-leading strategies for businesses outside the sector in insurance, wealth management, gaming and quick service restaurants, all of whom face similar highly disruptive changes. He is now actively translating those same results to hotel operators, who aspire to dominate their target market:

20% plus increased average customer expenditure per stay
Cost neutral investment (dollars shifted from push marketing to pull marketing)
Near instant positive impact on operating margins, irrespective of geography
Dramatic reduction in customer acquisition overhead upto 20% of total budget
Stronger and more powerful relationships with high-potential leisure, group and business customers
Exponential increase in repeat business and referral opportunities
Significant peripheral opportunities (alliances with business, cultural institutions, exclusive and intimate offerings unique to the individual property or brand and so on)

While Berkeley must keep the names of clients confidential, he is happy to discuss the impact of “Enabling The Customer To Buy Strategies” and other trends in operational performance.