News for the Hospitality Executive |
"If you know the enemy (Hotel Competition) and know
yourself
you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.�
Sun Tzu (Chinese General and Author, b.500 BC)
.
August 11, 2008 � I have recently read a number of articles written by hotel sales and marketing experts extolling the virtues of knowing your competition better during these depressed economic times. While I agree with this thought, it has also been my experience that hotels must know themselves as well or better than they know their competition. Of even greater importance, hotels must embrace the idea that the competition is their enemy. Hotels may feel using the word enemy to describe their competition is harsh, but I do not believe this to be so if you consider the following definition recently found on the Internet. The �enemy� is �one who is hostile to or opposes the purposes or interests of another (a foe, opponent)�. This definition perfectly describes a hotel�s competition. It has been my experience that the Hotel Industry tends to think in
relatively narrow terms when implementing a Mystery Shopping program.
Hotels primarily apply Mystery Shopping to insure Quality Assurance for
training programs they have previously put into place. Another use
of Mystery Shopping is for hotels to understand themselves, the competition
and how they compare to their competition.
Jay Delerno, President of Revenue Source One, founded the company in 1987 and has over 35 years of experience in hotel sales and marketing including the Executive Vice President positions for two hotel companies. Revenue Source One provides Mystery Shopping and sales and marketing consultation. A complete list of services can be viewed at the company�s web site. |
Contact:
Jay Delerno
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