HSMAI Europe will host virtual Executive Roundtables for our Organizational hotelier members on the following disciplines on Tuesday January 26th:
- Chief Marketing & Branding Officers
- Chief Loyalty Officers
- Brand Chief Digital Officers
- Chief Customer & Distribution Officers
- Chief Innovation Officers
- Brand Chief Revenue Officers
- Chief Sales Officers
- Chief Human Resources Officers (CHRO)
“HSMAI Executive Roundtables are networks of like-minded senior hotel leaders that meet face-to-face and virtually. They are a unique opportunity for executive-level peer groups to have meaningful dialogue in a confidential environment. A separate invitation will be sent those that will be invited and we are working on updating the list as we speak due to many changes” , says Ingunn Hofseth, President & CEO, HSMAI Europe
Furthermore, she adds that each agenda is designed based on extensive input from invitees around the topics that are most important for them to discuss with their peers. The Roundtables will be part of the HSMAI Europe Day and the HSMAI Europe ROC.
HSMAI Europe Chief Revenue Officer Executive Roundtable 24th November 2020
On November 24th 2020, HSMAI Europe hosted a round table event inviting professionals all over Europe to discuss current challenges within their field of expertise. This time, it was the turn for revenue executives to share their insights on current trends and crucial steps to take to navigate through these uncertain times. They were joined by Sheryl E. Kimes, Professor and Revenue Management Expert, who provided valuable insights on how things are going with hotels and regions around the world.
Sharing experiences has never been more important
Frederic Toitot, VP Learning & Development at Accor, has been the chair to the HSMAI Europe Revenue Optimization Advisory Board for more than one year. As a warm-up to this session, he executed a temperature check with the revenue professionals to their perception of the current status of our industry.
«I was very proud to moderate this great meeting with these incredible talents around the table. Chief Revenue Officers from the major Hospitality brands in Europe need a special place, a “safe zone” to meet, share and network. And we, at HSMAI Europe, are providing them with such a platform. I look forward to our next CROs roundtables on January 26th to discuss with them the new and hot topics of Revenue Optimization in Hospitality”, says Frederic Toitot.
Many of the participants mentioned the positive reveal of remote working, digital advancements, and an increase in flexibility as a result of the covid19 crisis. We also asked those executives what elements were most important to working towards recovery within their team. Education & training, together with maintaining an excellent moral, are on top of these leaders’ agendas. The one thing that is keeping these revenue professionals awake is the uncertainty that comes with the pandemic: the threat of a third wave, another lockdown, and changing governmental restrictions.
Nine months of covid: Advice from the global hotel industry
Professor and Revenue Management Expert, Sheryl E. Kimes has conducted a Covid-related survey to see how things are going with hotels and regions around the world. HSMAI Region Europe helped out with the distribution. The intent with the survey was to learn more about how this has impacted your hotel business, what sort of tactics you have deployed to get through this, how well they have worked, and your advice for the future.
Eventually, one thousand respondents spread over one hundred different countries. Contributed to this survey. She presented the following conclusions:
- Most frequent demand generation tactics were the creation of special rates and staycation packages. Outside Europe, attempts to revenue generation from quarantine services were considerably higher;
- Most frequent cost-saving tactics were the closure of hotels’ facilities, reduced hours, and layoffs. Choosing for reducing salaries as a solution, was much less frequent in Europe than in the rest of the world;
- 70% of the European respondents believe the recovery will last over a year. This number is significantly higher than in other regions (e.g. MEA, APAC, AMER);
- The number one thing to avoid according to hotel professionals is to prevent a price war at any cost and to make rash, impulsive decisions.
International discussions from international brands’ perspectives
Within the second part of the event, attendants had the opportunity to discuss critical topics to revenue management in subgroups and share findings from these conversations with each other. Three questions were discussed, as elaborated upon below.
What are the best practices for driving demand next year, when the economy will rebound? Answers included:
- Understand new requirements from guests to increase the level of the guest experience, and communicate accordingly
- Work close with Sales & Marketing, agility and closeness to markets
- Flexibility, being ready, anticipating the current willingness to travel, have the hotels open to be ready to welcome clients when the demand is back
- Maintain flexible, semi-flexible rates while progressively going back to our regular pricing
- Adding value to a trip, even though it’s difficult currently, by boosting the quality of service and comparing your services with those of your competitors
What are the top key performance indicators in the landscape?
- Profitability, bottom line maximization, net revenue, GOP per room sold and GOPPAR, Break-even
- Heartbeat: net booking line (e.g. new reservations, trends), ROI on marketing spend
- Shifting back to market share once business is recovering (to measure the speed of recovery)
- Guest satisfaction, referrals
- Customer Lifetime Value: spending money on making people to commit to the brand (but not focusing on « pure loyalty » as we understand it today).
What is a best practice (or assumption model) for forecasting/budget planning for 2021?
- Focus on what you know (a shorter horizon)
- Zero-based budgeting – start from scratch, as if you were opening a new hotel
- Be flexible, trial and error is more critical than ever
- Baseline 2019 to base the assumptions/geo base
- Forecast by nationality depending on the restrictions
Attendance Eligibility
All Roundtables are by invitation only. Individuals are invited based on their specific role at a specific company (determined by company type and number of hotels in the company’s portfolio). Invitations are non-transferable.Roundtables are hosted by HSMAI Europe. While there is no cost to attend, all attendees are expected to be members of HSMAI Europe.
Please let us know what Roundtables you and your company are interested to join included your position at the company, by sending an email to postbox@hsmai.eu
