Any ideas for increasing business and cutting expenditure for a hotel?

Question

i was asked by my property manager to come up with ideas to increase business and cut costs at my work.

i work in a 3 star inn in Edgecliff, Sydney. 3 km from the sydney city centre.

any ideas people? it'd be REALLY helpful!

Answer 1

One method to increasing business is to partner with other businesses and develop promotions together that create win/win situations.  For example, arrange with local businesses to receive a 10% referral fee and discounts for their customers when they to stay at your hotel.  Then, if possible create a similar arrangement in reverse.

Another way to increase business is to actually give away rooms to local charities or fund raisers to spread goodwill.  Eventually this goodwill will result in some revenue or positive advertising.  Plus, the people that receive your free rooms may even extend their stay one or two nights and buy other services that the hotel has to offer.

Cutting expenses can be tricky without knowing the current expenses.  But if you can focus on your largest vendors and renegotiate their pricing or get discounts for volume purchases or early payment.  If not, then find the vendor's top 3 competitors and ask them for a proposal for the same products and services.  You may find a cheaper vendor to work with or have another offer to negotiate with your current vendors.

Payroll is probably your highest expense so you may want to evaluate the staff performance and weed out the lower performing individuals.  This may sound cold hearted, but remember it's a business and you need to focus on the bottom line.  Besides there are ways to compassionately steer people to other careers without devistating their self esteem.  Work with a professional in this area to avoid any legal pitfalls.

Good luck!