2. Objectives
• Explain the role of sales and marketing professionals in a hotel and
within the hotel’s market area.
• Analyze the manner in which hotel segments their markets.
• List primary tasks that must be addressed within a hotel’s sales and
marketing efforts.
• Describe three main activities hotels currently undertake to optimize
their sales and marketing effectiveness.
3. The Role of Sales and Marketing
• Very few hotels operate in a non-competitive environment. In most
cases, a guest who chooses a hotel does so after evaluating several
alternative properties. Also, not all hotels will appeal equally to all
guests.
4. Director of Sales and Marketing (DOSM)
• The DOSM not only identifies and cultivates clients, he or she also
effectively manages the hotel’s marketing efforts, helps set room rates to
optimize revenue, negotiate sales contracts on behalf of the hotel, and
serves as a leader of the hotel’s sales and marketing team.
5. Hotel Sales and Marketing
• Marketing – all the activities designed to
increase consumer awareness and demand
by promoting and advertising the hotel.
• Sales – specific activities related directly to
servicing consumer demand and booking
clients.
• Marketing also includes: product design,
marketing development, package
development, products’ and services’
pricing, revenue management, development
of internet based presence, maintenance of
positive social media presence, advertising
development and placement, and evaluation
of the marketing effort.
6. Group Sales
• The efforts of the sales and marketing
department affect the entire hotel.
Although the front office is a major
selling force for transient rooms, an
additional and very important effort
of most sales departments involve
group sales.
• Group sales – large sale of the hotel’s
rooms and services. The S&M
department usually book sales of this
type.
7. Site Tours
• Site Tours – physical trips (tour)
around the hotel, usually hosted by a
sales and marketing staff member. Its
purpose is to introduce potential
clients and other interested parties to
the hotel’s products, services and
features.
8. Segmentation of the Sales and
Marketing Department
• Traditionally, the department is organized or segmented based on:
• The products (and services) sold by sales and marketing staff members
• The market (client) type served
• The source of reservation
9. By Product (or Service) Sold
• Typically, product designations that become sales specialty are:
• Group guest rooms
• Weekend get away or other special packages
• Conferences
• Catered events
• Meetings
• Conventions
• Wedding and special events
10. By Market
• Guests with common characteristics are referred to as a market or
market segment.
11. Corporate
• This segment consists primarily of the
business traveler.
• It is a very important segment because
the room rates paid by business
travelers are among the highest many
hotels will achieve.
• Business travelers have special needs,
and those in the sales and marketing
that sell to them must be keenly aware
of both the source of these travelers
and the hotel services they desire.
12. Leisure Travelers
• Leisure travelers come to the hotel for a
variety of reasons. These include
vacations, weddings, visiting family and
friends, or any of a number of non
work-related reasons.
• Unlike the corporate traveler who may
return to the same geographic area
frequently, leisure travelers tend to visit
a specific area or hotel less often.
• Leisure travelers have traditionally
relied heavily on travel agents.
13. SMERF and Others
• Groups consisting of social, military, educational, religious, or fraternal
organization members are known as SMERF.
• The SMERF market can also be of significant size.
• Additional market groups:
• Sports teams
• Government workers
• Tour buses
• Any other defined group
14. By Source
• Some hotels structure their S&M Department based on how the hotel’s
sale is made rather than who made it.
• The specific sources or distribution channels important to a hotel will
vary based on the hotel’s type and its market.
15. Drop-ins
• A drop-in is a potential buyer (guest) who arrives at the hotel without an
appointment.
• This potential guest simply arrives on the property and requests an
immediate site tour that may include viewing sleeping rooms, meeting
rooms, or banquet facilities.
16. Meeting Planners
• Professional meeting planners
annually buy large numbers of
sleeping rooms. They also reserve
significant amounts of meeting and
catering space.
17. Travel Agents
• Hoteliers classify travel agents into two types: the first and oldest type is
known as the brick and mortar agency, and the second one is the online
travel agency (OTA)
• Despite recent declines in their numbers, brick and mortar TA are still a
significant factor in the hotel industry. They may be retailers,
wholesalers, or both.
• Wholesale travel agencies purchase hotel, airline and other services in
bulk from hotels and other businesses, and then offer them for resale
through retail TAs.
• In many cases, the wholesaler will package the hospitality services it has
purchased before offering them for resale.
• OTA – travel agency that interacts with its customers only primarily over
the internet.
18. Consortia
• Consortia are the largest customers of
many hotels.
• Consortia are simply multiple large
buyers of hotel (or other hospitality)
services who affiliate for the purpose of
obtaining lower prices for their
organizations or members.
19. Internet
• The internet is actually a fairly recently
developed distribution channel.
• It is both its own distribution channel
and a way for other channels to
communicate with the hotel.
• Individual buyers can purchase via the
internet, meeting planners can view the
hotel’s rooms and meeting space though
the hotel’s website.
• The total percentage of room nights
booked exclusively over the internet
makes it a fast growing distribution
channel.
21. Marketing Plan Development
• Effective Marketing begins with the
development of a marketing plan.
• Activities often included in a
marketing plan involve analysis of
your competition, analysis of your
own hotel, establishing your prices,
and publicizing your offerings
through continued advertising,
promotions, and public relations
efforts.
22. Advertising
• Hotel advertising is typically done using the following:
• Exterior signage
• In-hotel and in-room signage and materials
• Brochures
• Radio or television commercials
• Direct mailings
• Internet
• Email
• Social networks
• Franchisor-supplied advertising tools
• Billboards
• Personal contact
23. Advertising
• Effective advertising can be costly.
• Tips:
• Should be eye- or ear-catching
• Memorable
• Sell the hotel’s features
• Are cost-effective
• Do not become quickly outdated
• Reflect positively on the hotel’s image
• Can be easily directed to the hotel’s core client groups
25. Publicity
• Refers to information about the hotel that is distributed, free of charge,
by the media.
• Publicity costs the hotel nothing. But the publicity may be good or bad.
26. Public Relations
• Public relations or PR include those activities designed to ensure that the
hotel has positive public image.
• PR activities enable potential clients to know the property is a good
community citizen.
• PR includes among many other activities, hosting fund-raising events,
contributing cash or in-kind services to charity, or the donation of hotel’s
community can, depending on the hotel, be viewed as affecting local,
state, national, and even international inhabitants.
