How a
Hotel Sales Manager Does A Proper Site
Inspection
by Amber
Lee
One of the goals of a Hotel Sales Manager is to get clients
to come for Site Inspections and tour the hotel with you. Once
you get the commitment, get ready to do some work.
When I get a commitment to come for a tour - with a
date and time, the first thing I do is make a list of questions
and decide on what I want to get out of the appointment. From
there I Google their organization and surf through their pages
to get an idea who they are.
This knowledge is also good to get for when they do come so
you have something to talk about that is in their interest.
What are they coming for? Some will come to tour before they
sign a booking agreement. Others for future business. When I
get an inquiry, lets just say for a wedding block, I always
invite them out and I make time for them.
Most hotel sales people just won't ask them to come and meet
with them. They would rather quote a rate, hang up, then shoot
out an email. This is not "WOWING" the caller. When you are
sincere and welcome them to your "home" you will have a much
better chance to book them. Always invite them to take a site
inspection of your hotel. Not to mention that your General
Manager will keep seeing you on tours. This looks good for
you.
From there I route a Site Inspection Form noting their
information and how much I feel the client is worth. The day
before I always call to confirm the appointment. I do not email
them, I call. This shows that yes, I do have time for you. I
think the clients like it better.
On inspection day, I will then choose the rooms that I want
to show. To be sure I don't have any surprises, I walk the
route that I am going to take with them to pick up any trash or
to get something done before they arrive. And I take the time
to inspect my rooms. If I don't like them, I pick more and keep
checking until I find what I am looking for.
On a good day it may only take me 15 minutes to find a good
room, and I always find something that I don't like that must
be taken care of.
On a bad day I have taken over an hour to find the perfect
room and the perfect walk through path. Based on occupancy the
night before, I don't always get the best pickings of the
rooms.
I recommend getting show rooms if possible. A show room
should look perfect. As perfect as the room looked when it
first opened. It should smell good too.
I must say that if I'm not happy with the show rooms that my
Management Team picks out, I always bring it up at the next
Staff Meeting. We put the show rooms in an out of order status
but we sell them if we have to. We try to keep our show rooms
out of order but with the past hurricanes and bad weather, we
are running pretty good on occupancy so they have to use
them.
We are an Airport Property with many "distressed passengers"
and airline crews. If you do have show rooms, don't add a bunch
of extra items, flowers etc., that are not in all of the
guestrooms. Show them a clean, clean smelling and fresh room.
Don't fudge too much.
During the site inspection, I have a list ready for the
client with my questions and I tell the client that I have
questions for them. Then I ask approval to take notes. Once
they leave, I make it a priority to get the proposal or
contract done to get it to them as fast as possible.
Clients are impressed when they get their paperwork shortly
after they left the property. It shows that YOU the Hotel Sales
Manager is interested in a partnership and that you will be
committed to them and hopefully them to you.
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