ktn
Hotel Sales Skills for Selling Remotely: Mastering Virtual Meetings, Screen Sharing, & Personalized Video Emails
Doug Kennedy | September 22, 2020
By Doug Kennedy As hotels bring their sales teams online, sales managers have plenty of work to keep them busy with managing date changes for previously booked groups and events, yet the most vital task is to bring in new business. Meanwhile, the previously reliable flood of inbound RFP’s has slowed to a trickle, so the hotel sales culture needs to make a major pivot from “sales fishing” to “sales hunting.” During the last 10+ years of growth in demand, most hotel sales teams could drop their digital “bait” into a river filled with hungry “fish” and then reel-in new business. Now it is time to strap-on orange vests and go...
The Profession of Hotel Sales Is at a Fork in the Road: Which Path Will You Follow?
Doug Kennedy | August 25, 2020
By Doug Kennedy Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted virtually every type of industry to one degree or another, and in different ways. While some industries such as the tech sector flourish, others such as retail, restaurant, hotel, and tourism languish. Yet one thing the pandemic economy has done for virtually all industries is to accelerate the pace of changes long underway. There are so many examples. Telemedicine has been around for a decade now, yet only now are patients and providers embracing it on a large scale. Distance learning became the latest thing in education over two decades ago, yet only now is it being deployed o...
These Times, More Than Ever, Call for Heartfelt Hospitality
Doug Kennedy | August 20, 2020
By Doug Kennedy Based on what I hear, working in the lodging industry during the current COVID-19 pandemic can be especially stressful. Not that it has ever been an easy profession. While today’s guests threaten to write a bad review, guests of yesteryear similarly threatened to write a letter to J.W. Marriott or Conrad Hilton. Admittedly though, the current pandemic has created unique stressors for those on both sides of the guest / employee relationship. Hospitality workers may be finding themselves short staffed and/or working outside of their usual job descriptions. Our frontline associates are having to explain why there are no m...
Advantage Reserve Announces Collaboration With Kennedy Training Network to Optimize Reservations Sales
Advantage Reserve | July 29, 2020
Fort Lauderdale, FL, July 29, 2020 — Advantage Reserve, the leading provider of high-quality central reservations services to the hospitality industry, has announced the launch of a new sales training partnership with Kennedy Training Network (KTN), the lodging industry’s best source for hotel training programs. This collaboration will enhance the guest experience, improve performance levels, and increase reservations conversions for Advantage Reserve’s diverse customer base of luxury hotels and resorts. During this unique period across the world in 2020, the hospitality industry faces a crucial time for reservations sales, and the v...
Train Your Hotel Staff to Show Hospitality When Enforcing Mask Requirements
Doug Kennedy | July 14, 2020
By Doug Kennedy With most hotels around the globe requiring guests to wear facemasks in all public areas these days, it has fallen upon the frontline hospitality staff to enforce this policy, which in many cases is also municipal ordinance or decree. Although most guests comply voluntarily, a small minority are voicing their displeasure but still complying. An even smaller, but very vocal minority of hotel guests are challenging our staff’s authority to require compliance in a way that is confrontational and often demeaning. From what I am hearing, it’s the front desk staff who are most often the receptors of a verbal barrage, as th...
Hotel Salespeople – Use Video Email for Personalized, Narrated, Virtual Hotel Tours
Doug Kennedy | July 8, 2020
By Doug Kennedy As those who read my hotel sales training articles or who attend my workshops know well, I am a huge advocate for using a “tech for touch” approach to stand out from the competition. I have long recommended that hotel group and event salespeople embrace the use of personalized video email in many ways, such as networking, prospecting, responding to inbound inquiries, and following-up with those you have spoken with. While this approach is relevant during all market conditions, it is especially important now during this time when COVID-19 has disrupted the meetings and events business and slowed the flood of inbound l...
How to Show the Welcoming Smiles Behind the Masks of Your Hotel Staff
Doug Kennedy | June 25, 2020
By Doug Kennedy As part of the hotel and lodging industry’s effort to help guests feel safe about traveling during the current COVID-19 pandemic era, nearly all are requiring hotel staff to wear facemasks. However, one down-side is of course the fact that our colleagues can no longer share their warm and welcoming smiles as they greet guests at the front entrance, pass by them in hallways and corridors or when serving them in dining and recreational outlets. Lately, as our KTN trainers have been conducting our “Heart of Hospitality” Certification webcam coaching sessions, many of our participating candidates are expressing that wh...
Train Your Hotel Reservations on What to Say When Their Phones Start Ringing Again
Doug Kennedy | May 4, 2020
By Doug Kennedy May 4, 2020 -- What a wild two months that hotel and resort reservations sales agents have endured, as agents were the first to feel the impact of the COVID19 pandemic, as suddenly a tsunami of cancellation calls and emails flooded the phone lines and inboxes. How painful it must have been to watch hard-fought bookings cancel and to see the flow of revenue change direction. Even more so, these staffers have endured difficult conversations about the fine print of cancellation terms, travel insurance, and the true implications of booking through third-party OTAs. Next, it was surely hard to watch as co-workers from operations...
1
Industry Happenings
2
All Things Independent
3
Market Reports
4
Technology
5
Operations
Today's News
Sojern Adds Metasearch to Multichannel Digital Marketing Platform Led by New Head of Product
U.S. Hotel Occupancy Falls Below 50% Mark
Golden Nugget Leverages Knowland to Prospect for New Business
174M Travel & Tourism Jobs Could Be Lost Due to COVID-19 and Travel Restrictions, Says WTTC
As the first news aggregate for the hotel industry, Hotel-Online is the industry’s must-read daily news source for everything hotel curated for busy professionals. Sign up today for industry news delivered to your inbox.