5 Tips to Help Your New Hotel's Success

Buying a hotel is an exciting and involved endeavor. You are opening a business where people come to relax and get away from their every day to day lives. Or others who are stuck in a different city away from home on a business trip. Whichever guest walks through your door, it is your job to make your hotel feel like a home away from home. This article discusses a few tips to help make that a reality.

1. Consider Valet For Your Guests

The first impression your guest gets is upon arriving at your hotel. Why not have a smiling face greet them before they even step foot in the lobby. Implementing hotel valet services will ensure your guests have help with their luggage and the ease of being able to walk right in and not have to worry about parking.

Ease Traveler’s Stress

There are a lot of things that can go wrong when traveling leading to stressed travelers. Ease a little of that tension by having parking services for your guests. In inclement weather or if your hotel is located in an area where parking is difficult, your lodgers are sure to appreciate a warm smile and an umbrella upon exiting their vehicles.

2. Should I Build or Buy an Existing Hotel?

Most advice on purchasing a new hotel will be around the location. Before deciding where to locate your new hotel, considering purchasing an existing one. You will want to do research on the previous hotel to know exactly what you are getting yourself into. If that last hotel had a terrible reputation, it may be hard to step into that location and turn it around.

You Know What To Expect

Buying an existing hotel can provide the benefit of knowing what the day to day is like inside the hotel. You can know exactly what you are getting yourself into as the owner and what tasks you may have ahead of your after purchasing. You may acquire some of the staff that is already working for the hotel, minimizing the amount of training they will need. You can also find out what their cash flow is like and how it fluctuates during peak and off-seasons.

3. Hire the Right People

If you are acquiring a hotel that is already established, do not just assume that you can hire all the existing employees. You may want to perform your own round of interviews to make sure the current employees align with what you are envisioning for the hotel.

Work With a Recruiter

When having to hire an entire team of people, it is probably best to work with a recruiter. You will have so much to do with acquiring the new hotel and you can’t afford to hire an entire staff of the wrong employees. A recruiter will help you perfect your job descriptions, do the research for you, and bring the ideal candidates to you. Sometimes the ideal candidates are ones that are not even looking for a job but may be interested in your offer if it was brought to their attention.

4. Market As Effectively As Possible

You will naturally bring traffic to your hotel’s website for people to book through. This being said, you want to make sure every page of your website is optimized for SEO. If people can’t find your website online in a google search, you are losing a lot of potential lodgers. You are also losing customers by not optimizing and getting your website to rank higher in google.

Market on Every Travel Platform

Set up your website on every travel search platform possible to market as effectively as possible. There are countless ways to book a trip these days and you want to make sure you are available on as many of the websites as possible. Most of the travel websites also offer sponsorships. This may prove to be invaluable as you are starting out to get yourself some travelers and reviews.

5. Make Your Hotel Unique

Many themed hotels get famous, just because they are different than the standard stays at most hotels. You don’t have to change your entire design for the hotel and turn it into an indoor water park, although that isn’t a bad idea. If the next water park hotel isn’t your dream, there are plenty of simpler ways to make your guests talk about their stay with their friends and family.

Make An Impression That Lasts

If you are able to refurbish or if you are building the hotel from the ground up, think of the most memorable hotels you have stayed at. Was it the charming Austrian boutique hotel with an actual key and the spiral staircase that left those fond memories? Or perhaps it was the hotel with the walls of fish tanks and ocean-themed rooms that caught your eye. Whatever the theme was, it left a lasting impression and that is exactly what you want to accomplish with your guests.

You Want Success, They Want Hospitality

Most people spend a lot of time planning their vacations as well as spending a lot of money. Create a warm, inviting hotel that they will not only enjoy their stay in but will force them to tell their coworkers to stay at your hotel on their next business trip. Create that space the family can’t wait to return to for years to come.