HIT Club
The topic of the breakfast was “Hotel promotion today: reevaluating the effectiveness of sales channels”. Club organizers – top managers from IFK Hotel Management, HVS Executive Search and Frontdesk.ru note a significant increase in the event popularity and the event participants note a necessity to search for new sales channels.
During the event, club members paid a lot of attention to changes currently happening in the structure and hierarchy of sales channels and a strategy of dealing with general distributors. Alexey Akindinov – one of the speakers and an Assistant General Manager at Savoy Hotel Moscow in his structured and informative speech indicated the increasing importance of e-channels. According to him, 35% of all Savoy’s reservations currently come from e-channels. Generally such a situation can be a result of current changing conditions of hotel market. These make a revenue manager’s role all the more necessary and important.
Lada Samodumskaya, Director of Sales and Marketing at the Ritz-Carlton Moscow, made a note of the need for opening up new sales channels, as well as the importance of sales team. In her presentation Lada also made an accent on the marketing aspects of redistribution of sales channels. An optimist by nature (by her own words), Lada recommended the market players to be wise and consider first the current situation before using any channel, understanding “where we stand”.
According to Lada’s words, the past (pre-crisis)
During the discussions and informal networking, attendees of business breakfast came to the conclusion that the best strategy for any hotel in the current situation is one of simplicity, transparency and quick service. The main difference between the past and present strategies should be the speed of response (Lada Samodumskaya suggested a decrease in response time to any request to 4 hours from the former 24-hour turnaround). According to the exit poll results, 60% of members plan both to develop new sales channels and to restructure the existing ones.
“Such a wonderful event! Thanks to the club organizers, who undertake an effort to organize this. To my mind, HIT’s business breakfasts provide highly experienced industry professionals with an opportunity to exchange opinions and knowledge without any negative effects of a “healthy” competition. Current conditions dictate a need to avoid stereotypes, re-evaluate our resources and take a critical view on our experience. There is no use of past methods and strategies. Many professionals realize this, but are not able to accept it and most don’t understand what to do with it. Business breakfast participants were provided not only a review of current situation, but were also able to take a critical look at their own business and probably to find new methods of solving the issues they face” – comments Anastassia Beliakova, General Manager, ProMark Agency.
A friendly atmosphere of the events, active discussions and a number of registrations for participation in our 3rd business breakfast all tell about the increasing necessity and popularity of the Club among hotel professionals. A record of sorts was set at this event: all seats were sold in three days after the registration began. “We are planning to continue this initiative and expand our contribution to the creation of a pleasant and informal environment for communication between hotel industry professionals. HIT Club meetings will take place regularly and each market player has a chance to become a club member”, - says the moderator of HIT Club’s 3rd meeting and one of Club organizers, Polina Frolova, Director of Sales and Marketing, IFK Hotel Management.
HIT Club founders – IFK Hotel Management (http://ifk-hm.com), HVS Executive Search (http://www.hvs-
For additional information about HIT Club and future events please refer to http://hit.frontdesk.ru/
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
