Hotel Sales Tips: Attracting Corporate Guests

Whether you are an experienced hotelier or just beginning your search for a hotel property for sale, hotel sales and earning income are always at the forefront of your mind.

One of the most lucrative segments of the hotel sales market is the corporate or business traveler. The desirability of corporate guests as income earners is well known in the hospitality industry, and competition for these guest dollars is high.

How can you maximize the business guest income of your hotel property? What sorts of perks do corporate guests look for from a hotel?

Techniques to Increase Corporate Hotel Sales

Business travelers spend a good amount of time away from home. This means when they travel they are looking for the comforts of home, a measure of familiarity, economy, and convenience while working.

Venkat Rajagopal of the Pacific International Hotel Management School has identified four major marketing strategies to attract and retain corporate traveler dollars.

Competitive Business Rates

Business travelers and their employers will look for corporate rates that are reasonable and look for a good value for their dollars. By implementing a corporate rewards program, business travelers will look forward to the perks and benefits you offer as a reward for their repeat business. Even in recession times, rewards programs can help ensure repeat business.

Home Away from Home Living

Corporate travelers who spend weeks on the road will look for lodging that provides some of the comforts of home. This includes recreational facilities such as pools, gyms and saunas, on-site restaurants, rooms with ample room to work, excellent wifi service, and even equipped kitchenettes, so the patron can prepare everything from snacks to simple meals.

Top Quality Service

First class hotel service is, in the eye of the client, an important perceived value. This perception begins with the very first contact a prospective business customer makes and ends with the departure of a satisfied guest at the end of a successful business trip. Quality service includes everything from overall hotel and room cleanliness to prompt service and the timely correction of any complaints or issues that the customer may have. Many hotels offer concierge service, which lends a personal touch to customer service. Reliable, quality service is important to the corporate client who would prefer to devote his/her time to business related issues and not hotel problems. Developing a reputation for top quality service is a key component to any hotel sales strategy.

Support Facilities

Having support facilities at your hotel site is another component of successful hotel sales marketing to corporate clients. This ranges from having an available laundry to an exercise room, pool, sauna, spa, salon, restaurant, and bar, as well as banquet services for the corporate guest needing to host a large gathering or conference. While not all hotels will have all of these facilities, it is important while constructing your hotel sales ephemera that your facilities and abilities are highlighted for the business traveler.

Southeast International

With our 50 years of hotel brokerage experience, Southeast International is ready to help you purchase the hotel of your dreams. Contact us today.