According to the Global Travel Staffing Barometer, due to the pandemic, travel companies around the world have laid off or furloughed over half a million people, and the number of LinkedIn users in the hospitality space applying the #opentowork hashtag to their profiles grows day after day. Most hotels are struggling to run operations with skeleton crews only, yet they do not have any real alternative. In some countries, in fact, the financial help coming from governments is close to zero, so the only option for these hotels is to get rid of "superfluous" staff and try to run their businesses with a fraction of their employees. This forced most properties to heavily concentrate and focus on productivity, trying to get the best out of dire circumstances.

Here are the six key findings from the 4th episode of "The RevenueManager," Focus on Productivity, organized by HospitalityNet and FunnelTV. The show is a live event, where the best revenue managers and hospitality personalities of the world discuss the famous HospitalityNet World Panels.

The event starred Pablo Torres, Lead Consultant Europe at TSA Solutions, Claire Hemphill, Head of Revenue & Systems Management at AHOSPA, Julien Barré, Director of Revenue and Reservations at Hôtel de Crillon, A Rosewood Hotel, Guy Gaash, VP Business Development & Strategic Accounts at Fornova, Angelo Directo, Vice President of Design at Sceptre Hospitality Resources, Florian Augustin, CCO at HotelPartner Yield Management, Len Wasserman, VP, Customer Services & Support at Cendyn.

This episode has been sponsored by Fornova, SHR, Cendyn, and HotelPartner Yield Management.

  1. Hotels are meant to do more with less, but working with skeleton crews means that service may be heavily affected, creating friction with the guests and compromised reputation.
  2. Hospitality is historically slow in tech adoption, but COVID accelerated the trend of implementing new tools such as robotic hoovers, self-check-in/out, touchless tech, etc. This can create a better work/life balance for the human staff, as technology can support employees and free them from repetitive, boring tasks.
  3. Hotel staff is changing. Some people have not been working for 15 months, and they may need some confidence boost and retraining. Hotel employment is unlikely to reach pre-pandemic employment level until, at least, 2023. Keeping one’ staff motivated can be challenging during COVID. According to a McKinsey survey, the respondents view noncash motivators as “no less or even more effective” motivators than financial incentives. It’s all about treating individuals differently, based on their needs and motivations.
  4. Strategic planning is also central in increasing productivity. Make sure to have a strategic blueprint to guide your decisions, ensure that you include targets and key focus areas in your planning, focus on total profit optimization, and analyze and optimize your revenue strategy.
  5. Cross-department collaboration is also crucial. Hoteliers should allow group teams to take responsibility and work more autonomously to avoid silos and friction. Not only collaboration between teams, but between people and technology as well. Advanced reporting can help you save time and be more efficient and productive: imagine what you can do with just 20 extra minutes every day.
  6. Implementing an RMS is another way to increase productivity. A revenue management system can help saving time on manual processes, optimizing rates, and making informed, science-based decisions.

You can watch the full episode here:

Do not miss the next episode of The Revenuemanager, titled "Cost Optimization and Profitability" on June the 10th. Register here.

Simone Puorto
Travel Singularity

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