Revenue generation is what keeps any business running and hospitality is definitely no exception. With OTA commissions becoming increasingly stifling and competition escalating rapidly, hotels are constantly looking for new ways to boost their bottom-line. While the primary source of revenue is room sales, properties need to find alternative methods to boost revenue for obvious reasons.
This isn’t bad news – on the contrary, there are always areas that need to be improved and by optimizing their resources, hotels can record significant savings. With the cloud environment tearing down all barriers to enterprise-level management tools, any hotelier today can access powerful software.
Zeroing in on Budget Management
Allocating budgets forms the foundation of a hotel’s expense management. However, how this is done can make all the difference to the property’s long-term plan. Historical data needs to be analyzed and managers have to account for a variety of overhead costs that may have been overlooked. Even while allocating the budget for something as simple as window sprays, the cost will need to include spillage, wastage, lost inventory – the list can get quite large. Every element of each department will need to be scrutinized from the perspective of lowering costs.
While this may sound complicated, unfavorable practices for individual items are usually simple to rectify. And the long-term benefits make it worthwhile.
Streamlining Inter-departmental Coordination
Managing the number of departments in a hotel is no small task and it can take a long time for processes to move from one area to the next. But that certainly doesn’t make it acceptable. It’s no secret that every minute spent waiting is costing the property money – saving even five to ten minutes can make a massive difference to the hotel’s bottom-line. Since most of the time being spent waiting is when tasks move from one department to the next, it makes sense to focus more on smoothening these seams. Washed linen can be folded and stacked at the end of the laundry cycle, saving housekeepers the time. Real-time communication between housekeepers and the front-desk could enable employees to strategically allot their time based on priority, as well as receive information about impromptu tasks. Even when it comes to cleaning rooms, scripting every step such as the order in which things should be cleaned can help save a minute or two – as insignificant as that sounds, a couple of minutes could save a hotel upwards of $10,000 a year!
Automating Repetitive Tasks
The cloud has become the dominant computing platform today and with good reason – independent hoteliers can now access powerful management tools that were once only within the reach of the industry giants. With modern property management systems, any property today can streamline a number of processes and automate tasks ranging from auto-population of reservations to night auditing. This saves time for employees, enabling them to get more done sooner and saves the hotel money.
When it comes to budget allocation, there must be no room for ‘excusable’ expenses – expenses that have no well-defined reason for being in place. Even the most insignificant of expenses can build up into an intimidating figure if left unchecked, and managers will have a much harder time rectifying the issue later!
