Last week, I addressed the need of evaluating your hospitality business strategies to outpace your competition.  This article was very well read and generated reader inquiries seeking specific action steps.

As I wrote in that earlier article, I regularly observe that many individuals and groups tend to look everywhere but at their own business practices when trying to gain market share.  They do not reassess their marketing or changes in their environment but either hope or expect that their brand or CVB will come to the rescue.

“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”

 John Wooden

 For example, I had a phone call from a general manager recently.  She did not want to identify herself or her property, but was reaching out for some ideas after reading a number of my columns over the years. I try to help when I get calls like this, as I could sense her incredible frustration.  This GM  explained her general geographic location, the size and general description of her independent hotel and her competition.

• the owner of the hotel never shared any operational financial results with her.
• the owner's other hotel in a nearby town (which was branded) operated at a lower occupancy than the caller's property, but this manager was consistently criticized for her results.  Now I do not know the details of this particular caller, but I do know from my 35 years in the industry that far too many managers are left in the dark.  I also have found that many owners that act this way wonder why things do not improve or why they have a high turnover in managers and staff.

Owners have the financial obligation for their hotel overall, but if they expect things to be able to improve that these owners must modify some of their practices if they want their hotel to move forward.

• Each month, the income statement should be compared to budget for last month. To many readers, this is done now but to many others it is not and should be.
• After the comparisons are made in a formal meeting, variations should be noted and action steps noted in writing to continue the positive and correct the negative.  This written documentation builds a road map to improvement and  strengthens relationships.
• After the monthly review, prepare an occupancy forecast for the next year for the month just completed.  You will remember the specifics of holidays, special events and other factors very clearly now and you can easily update this draft when creating the annual budget.
• Quarterly, review the cumulative financial results and discuss them openly.  Look at the balance of the year's budget and ascertain how the numbers were created and how realistic they are.  Are they still reasonable?  Has the market shown tremendous growth or has a major client relocated?  Ignoring the facts do not mean they will be addressed.

• Many branded and independent hotels create annual marketing plans and some of them are outstanding.  Many of them are "worked" the first month, or until the advertising orders are placed for the year.   The next time many of them are really looked at occurs when next year's plan needs to be submitted or if there is a change of sales staff. 
• Living marketing plans need to be just that - ALIVE! As with the financials, there needs to be monthly and quarterly reviews and updates
• These updates should include numbers of calls, booking pace, reviews of booking sources, social media results, review of all sales and marketing activities, results from brand affiliations and many more specific items that are part of the plan.