Business travelers are probably the most valuable guests for your hotel as on average they spend more than then the typical leisure guests. The key to attract and retain these valuable guests is by providing them with the business services that they need.
According to a survey done in 2006 by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), only 18% of travelers carry a portable computer with them while traveling. And although these figures includes both leisure and business guests, you can bet that among the 82% traveling without a laptop, there are many workaholics kidnapped by their family to a vacation without their computer.
These business guests still need a way to keep in touch with their business and both the family and the workaholics know this (just guess who is paying for the vacation). That is why your hotel's business center (shame on you if you still don't have one) is the ideal bait to attract these high profile guests to your hotel.
Now, one oversight that I noticed at some properties is that sometimes management treats their hotel's business center as nothing more than a bait to attract traveling workaholics to their hotel and that's it. And while it is certainly OK to use any feature of your hotel as bait (hey, this is what marketing is all about), it becomes a concern when the bait becomes the end in itself, instead of a means to an end. It is a fact that your business center is a very attractive bait that can sell the promise of a 'business connected' vacation experience at your hotel to business-minded guests.
But your business center should not be used just to attract business travelers to your hotel, but also to retain them as repeat guests by delivering a superb business center experience.
You have probable heard Elmer Wheeler's famous saying: 'Sell the sizzle, not the steak.' Well your business center (and all other features of your hotel) forms the sizzle that you must use to sell the steak (which in this case is your hotel) to hungry business travelers. So more than just bait, your business center is an amenity for your business travelers. Dictionary.com defines an amenity as 'any feature that provides comfort, convenience, or pleasure'.
Your guests experience your business center as an amenity to the degree that it delivers a comfortable, convenient and pleasurable experience. And you know that you are delivering a quality business amenity when your business center assists you in converting your business guests into lifelong clients instead of constantly repelling them away from your hotel as a result of bad service experiences.
Now, how do you convert a hotel business center that is currently primarily serving as bait into an amenity that attracts and retains more business guests for your hotel? Well, as you know, we are currently living in an experience economy, were people are hungrier than ever for positive experiences that makes them feel satisfied. Most of your guests, if not all of them, are attracted to sizzles that promise to spice up their stress-full life even just little bit.
If you are able to deliver a stress-relieving lodging experience for your business guests in general and within your business center in particular, you are well on your way to converting your business guest (your most valuable guests) into customers for life. Keep on using your business center as bait and continue promoting its sizzle, but remember that at due time you must also deliver the steak. The loyalty of your valuable business guests maybe at steak (pun intended).
Sergio Laurant is a Hotel Business Center Profitability Consultant with over 14 years of experience providing service to the lodging industry. Sergio is also the founder of SuiteKiosks, a seven-year-old venture specialized in consulting and implementing automated business centers, Internet cafés, guestroom kiosks and lobby Internet kiosks for international hotels and resort. Sergio has successfully consulted with both independent and brand properties, including market leading hotels such as Hilton, Marriott, and Sandals Resorts. Sergio can be reached at sergiolaurant@suitekiosks.com or through www.suitekiosks.com.
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