Over this Easter, especially for Victorian Australians, please be careful because it is really hot out there!
Wishing you good rabbit rabbit rabbit fortune on this April 1st, which also means we've now completed 25% of 2021. I mean, yikes. Have 25% of your 2021 objectives been completed? Mine are not in alignment tbh and I shall be utilizing some of this long weekend to recalibrate the roadmap!
If training is one of your objectives, consider securing one of the few remaining spots in our next KNow Revenue™ workshop in Sydney on 23 April. It is designed for Hospitality supervisors, managers and corporate staff new to our industry or seeking to:
✅ Return to profit
✅ Return to market
✅ Increase revenue acumen among team members and across the business
✅ Distribute hospitality product to the most cost effective & profitable channels
Meanwhile, when Qantas recently brought back the mystery flights, my first thought was “enough with the mysteries already!”. Haven’t we had enough mystery and unplanned events for the last 14 months? I’m more comfortable with certainty and knowing exactly where I’m going. But I am told these excursions are wildly popular! And any travel is good travel, so we’ll take it.
Recently I had my own travel experience (yes! really! actual travel!). It was a work trip and I did take the opportunity along the way to check another Aussie big thing off my list, mission accomplished.
Graduates of KNow Revenue™ or KNow Reservations™ training workshops will be able to appreciate the revenue tragedy I witnessed on my journey:
Since my accommodation requirement was for cheap and cheerful work travel, my CEJ buying decision was based only on 3 things:
3) a location that did not take us too far off the road map to our destination 🧭
I searched on Expedia, then called the property direct to book. It’s what I do. I was patient enough to let the phone ring 17 times before I hung up. Nevertheless, I persisted with this particular property because it perfectly met my criteria. Booked it on Expedia, didn’t I. I’ll conceal the name of the property in order to protect the untrained and poorly designed.
I checked in. I had a satisfactory stay on a bargain $88 rate. During check out I mentioned “We’ll be passing by this way again on our way back home in three days…”. To which the manager politely and ineffectually said “Oh great! Hope to see you then!”. Then, crickets. 🦗
I could see my profile, on the slightly-tilted monitor at the reception desk, noting the PMS they use which has the ‘copy reservation’ function right there on the Check Out button. With one question and two clicks they could have had a commission-free return reservation.
Then at departure from Toowoomba toward Sydney, on my phone call to the same property, the same reception man who looked after us on the previous stay says: "I'm sorry, but it is really busy this weekend, I had to put the price up. Tonight's rate is $89.00. Wanna still book it anyway?”
I booked it. We stayed. It was a clean, safe, sufficient accommodation experience. I wrote a good review. It’s what I do.
There are at least 6 things this hotelier did wrong in this scenario.
If you would like to play my Where Did This Hotelier Go Wrong game, comment below or replywith your answers! (*major prizes may apply)
Meanwhile the real victim in this tale is the property’s owner and his/her plummeting profits. I’ve literally written to them to offer a complimentary KNow Reservations training session. Otherwise they’ll ultimately have no reservations. See what I did there?
