OTAs and Effects on Hotels Profit

 

This week I wanted to write about 3rd party booking systems and OTAs and how they work.

To start off, a 3rd party system is basically a way for you to book a hotel room without having to speak to the hotel directly. OTA which are online travel agencies (Expedia, booking.com, hotels.com, Hotwire and so many more, are the most common ways people book hotel rooms these days. The main reason for that is they are so easy to use and they market themselves really well. They are actually very good at making people believe they are getting a great deal when really they are not.

 

Hotels use these platforms more than actual physical travel agents. OTAs is such a huge industry. Based on a research done by Allied Market Research “Online Travel Market is Estimated to Generate $1,091 Billion, Globally, by 2022”

 

The way OTA’s work is hotels will actually sell their rooms for a low price and then Expedia and booking.com … Will then go on to resell those rooms to the consumer. Obviously, these rooms will be resold at a much higher price. This is the way most bog hotels and chains will work. Many independent and small hotels will work in a different way. They will actually let OTAs sell the rooms for them but without buying them in advance. This works like real estate agents work. You’re as an agent can try and sell my rooms and I (The hotel) will give you a commission. What the average consumer does not know is that these commission rates can be quite high and this is money straight out the of the hotel’s profit.

 

Having said all that, Hotel employees know how much you paid for your room and we also know how much we have to pay the OTAs in commissions. Many times hotel employees will also get a small cut of the room sales if you book directly with them. This means that when it comes down to giving away free stuff: (Upgrades, bottles of wine, dinner, breakfast, late check out, parking) we will not give it to you, we will give it to the people who are booking directly with us either by phone or on our website.

 

This great blog I follow called travelandleisure.com spoke about this similar topic on one of their articles. “According to the forum, you’ll have better luck calling the hotel directly and asking for their “base” or “rack” rates. By doing this, you’re also forming a relationship with the hotel—and how knows what becoming a loyal visitor can do for you in the long run”

 

It is pretty much always a win-win situation to call a hotel directly instead of doing a booking on an app. This way you can also put in some personal request and get a more personalized service. Trust me, I always have way better stays when I call a hotel directly. Not too mention the extra points you get if you are a member and you are booking directly.

 

By: Ismail Abu Assi

 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/online-travel-market-is-estimated-to-generate-1091-billion-globally-by-2022—allied-market-research-611213315.html

 

http://www.travelandleisure.com/hotels-resorts/hotel-secrets

http://hotelrmc.com/how-otas-manipulate-hotel-search-results/

 

Benefits of working in a hotel

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Working in hotels definitely has pros and cons. As for many other industries, you have to love what you do because you will be working hard and taking in a lot of stress. Working with people will most probably come with a lot of abuse. Depending on the kind of hotel you work at, the kinds of clientele will vary. Working in a 5-star hotel means dealing with 5-star people which technically means really needy people. So first of all, you must love what you do. Second, it is really rewarding.

 

Working in hospitality opens so many doors, the large hotels will more than often so many different types of jobs, housekeeping, front desk, HR, PR, management jobs, waiters, valets, concierges, cooks, chefs, security… A hotel can employ hundreds of people to run their day to day operations.

 

If you work for a chain, the benefits and perks you get are insane, never have to worry about paying crazy hotel rates when staying at any other hotel of the same chain. Most hotels chains will allow their employees to stay at any other hotel in the world that carries the same name for very cheap. For example, if you work for a Sheraton which sell their rooms for over $200, you can pay $30-40 for that room. Just like airlines let their employees fly for free to anywhere their company flies too.

 

The tips you can make are unbelievable. People like to show off, it’s human nature. In my experience men in general love to show their girlfriends, friends, business partners how generous and “rich” they are. At my hotel, for example, we do not offer valet, however, the amount of times guests insist I park their car for a $50 bill is insane.

 

Restaurants and taxi companies want your recommendations and want you to send guests towards them. This means free meals and taxi commission. This is kind of an industry secret but taxi companies will give you up to $10 for every ride to the airport. These commissions can add up quickly.

 

The best part of my job is I never work a 9-5 schedule. Most hotel employees will work 1 of 3 shifts, 7am-3pm 3pm-11pm and 11pm – 7am. “If you’re the sort of person who likes getting up at the same time in the morning, having the same breakfast, putting on a suit and tie, and then catching the same train into the same office, day after day after day, then hospitality probably isn’t for you. It involves a great deal of variety, not only in terms of the hours you work but also the work you do during those hours.”(caterer.com)

 

These are just a few of the perks you get when working in a hotel or in the hospitality industry in general. But like I said before, it is not an industry for everyone.

 

“https://www.caterer.com/careers-advice/life-at-work/ten-reasons-why-hospitality-jobs-are-great”

“https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-5-reasons-work-hotel-industry-andrew-r-nedelcu/”

 

“https://www.hotelmanagement.net/operate/new-overtime-rule-to-reshape-hospitality-environment”

 

by: Ismail Abu Assi

 

We can make your stay a lot better

What people do not realize is that we have the power to make your stay so much better. However, are we do not have to do it. Give us the right amount of motivation and we can make your stay go from a regular stay at a hotel to a millionaire kind of stay.

We have a lot more freedom then people might think. Free upgrades, discounted stays, special rates, tickets to sports games, dinners, brunch, drinks at the bars. We have the freedom and discretion to give all this kind of stuff out for free.

It’s not rocket science, but being nice to people gets you the same back.

I used to think that working in a small hotel where personalized service is the only kind of places where the front office staff are able to offer small gifts and in general be able to have so much freedom in terms of giving away free things without approval. After looking into it, so many hotels allow their front office staff to have this liberty. “when people are nice to us. There’s plenty of things we aren’t required to do but are capable of doing if we’re given the motivation to do so. Being nice to us is the easiest way to get free stuff!” Stacy McClouse

Take into account that if you are staying in a normal 3 star hotel the likely hood that the front desk agent is the only one working in the hotel after 6pm is very likely. Be nice and do not  ask for too much. We have a lot of things to do and if you expect top service then book a 4 or 5 stars hotel. Do not expect too much. When we see that you are not expecting too much from us and you are being super nice, it makes us want to do more of you. “One person making 9 bucks an hour doing everything. Answering phones, making reservations, handling guest requests, checking in, cleaning, miscellaneous reports and more. We usually don’t tell people we’re alone for our own safety but if it’s taking some time for the front desk person to get you those 4 extra pillows just try to be patient, they might have a lot going on.” Justin Cooper

Having said all that, keep in mind that we do not have an easy job. If you do not make our job harder and do not ask too much and maybe even be a little extra nice to us, we can make your stay a whole lot better then what you paid for. When we have a low occupancy rate and a lot of empty rooms like suites and high class rooms, it does not take much for us to upgrade you. Just do not forget to tip.

 

 

 

https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-things-hotel-staff-wont-tell-you-Could-you-please-indicate-what-country-you-are-talking-about

 

https://www.revinate.com/blog/2015/01/four-vitals-front-desk-agent-take-check/

 

Front desk? No…

This week I decided to write about the increase of new technologies in the hospitality industry. We all know what they are and how useful they are. However, I wanted to let you all know how we, (the employees) are affected by this new trend of new technology and of course how we feel about it.

 

First of all, I just wanted to say how much I love technology and how much I appreciate it and how it has been such a great tool in our everyday lives. However, there is a part of the technology that scares me.

 

What are these new technologies you may ask?

 

The one that has everyone going crazy is the self-check-in. This is a system where the guests are able to check into their rooms online and even receive a virtual key card on their phone which they can then add to their iPhone “wallet”. They can also use this app/system to check out/ order room service/ make special requests…  They can do all of this without having to speak to a hotel employee once. Which you would think is great, however, if you really take a second tough on the idea, we have completely lost the idea of hospitality.

You no longer have anyone meeting you when you arrive at a new place, you no longer have to even speak to anyone at all. I thought hospitality was all about working with people face to face?

 

The New York Times says that apps are something very useful, it’s “putting the front desk in your pocket”. Guests can get customer service form their phone from the moment they book their stay.

 

At the front desk, we cannot complain. We have fewer long lines of people rushing to check in. the only thing it creates for us is less work. However, will it erase our job completely?

 

There are many hotels including the YOTEL and the citizenM that were built without front desks, they only have “self-check ins”. Basically, an Ipad/ computer where you walk up to and check yourself into your room. Just like at the airport, when you go up to the kiosk and get your tickets if you do not have to check any luggage.

 

An industry that revolved around service, is now being known for the “do it yourself factor”. In my opinion, if it’s what people want and people are buying into it, then so be it. Keep the technology coming and keep inventing new ways to make our jobs easier. Let’s just try not to erase our jobs.

 

And of course, it comes in handy for many people who are in a rush to check in. When you are corporate clients rushing into another city for a meeting, the last thing you want to do is wait in line to get the keys to your room. So pros and cons just like anything!

Going back to the beginning where I said technology scares me a bit, I’m talking about how we are being replaced by these apps and machines. In an industry where you would think we will never be replaced because it’s all about people, we are being replaced.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/business/putting-the-front-desk-in-the-hotel-guests-pocket.html

 

https://www.yotel.com/en?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIm7_b9Oj22QIVh7XACh0eFAB4EAAYASAAEgIhivD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

https://www.citizenm.com/

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Attacks on Housekeepers

This week I came across an article that really made me want to tear up. The article was about the kind of sexual abuse housekeepers are facing every day when they go to work. Reading that article made me want to look more into it.

What I found was crazy. There are so many reports of sexual abuse made by housekeepers every year that are posted on the internet. I realized we have a big problem in our industry, the safety of our staff. As a hotel employee, I work with the housekeeping department. We have many procedures set in place to avoid such attacks to occur, however, we cannot ever fully prevent these kinds of things from happening. What I am talking about is physical sexual assaults. housekeepers are physically assaulted while at work. Most of these attacks happen to woman housekeepers by male guests. They happen while the maids are in rooms cleaning them and will see by guests walking by in the halls. Although these are extreme events that do not happen everyday but often enough to raise awareness. What does happen more often then not is the verbal assault and the offering of sex for money made by male guests towards female hotel employees? Sometimes guests think they are funny, especially when they are drunk. As a hotel employee my self, I realize that the amount of drunken behaviors that take place every day is insane. However, that does not allow you to go up to housekeepers in just a towel and then drop it in front of her. This actually happened to a housekeeper working for the Hilton brand in California. reported by “https://www.revealnews.org/author/bernice-yeung”

I actually tested this out at the sheraton in Toronto last December. I called down to get some bathrobes and they actually sent a male staff member.

At our hotel, the one I work at, we have other kinds of policys set in place, for example leaving the door open when cleaning it and also never to be cleaning a room while the guest is inside.

Believe it or not, many guests believe that since they are not home or in another country, that anything can fly. Basically, this means that they are invincible and or above the law because they are not locals and the local laws do not apply to them. This was actually said to me by a guest when I tried to explain to him that he could not smoke in the lobby because it is against the law. He replied by telling me “I do not live here, why would I care what law is”.

What I am trying to say is, maybe guests who are from other parts of the world and or on vacation, might think that they can do anything. Maybe they even think that because they are paying the hotels hundreds of dollars a night, that this would give them the right to talk to the staff however they like. This is a bit true. In the service industry, we allow/ tolerate a lot of what guests do or say because of what they are paying. This is obviously very wrong, however, it is often the case. For example, In Montreal, we host the formula 1 every year on the first weekend of June. During this weekend, hotels will charge almost 10 times the price for a room. and during this time, we are told to be more lenient with the rules and with what guests do and say. Many times we do not mind because guests also tip us, and many hospitality employees are living off their tips, so often times they will tolerate things that are said and done to them for the tips. I mean it is done every day when you go to a bar or a nightclub or even a restaurant. The touching and the verbal abuse that waiters and waitresses tolerate… They tolerate it because they are getting tipped at the end of the day.

In the industry, we are aware of these incidents. We do set up procedures to try and prevent these kinds of things for occuring. Like for example is a male guests calls the guests services department for a bathrobe, we will most likely send up a male employee to deliver the robes. As reported by STEVEN GREENHOUSE in the New York Times: “some safety experts recommended that hotels send a male employee to deliver bathrobs or blankets when guests call for them” (Sexual affronts are a known hotel hazard).

Even if we are getting tipped for it, it still hurts us at the end of the day. Housekeepers should not have to tolerate such things to happen to them while at working trying to accomplish the heavy workload and meet the required 13 full rooms in 8 hours.

-Ismail Abu Assi

Sources:

https://www.revealnews.org/author/bernice-yeung

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/10/17/new-report-highlights-precarious-work-place-for-hotel-housekeepers.html

 

Welcome to my blog

 

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I would first of all like to thank you for visiting my blog.

If you are interested in hotels and the travel industry, then you will love hearing about what happens behind the scenes.

I am a 20 year old guy living in montreal. Most of my life revolves around hotels. I work in a hotel and I also study all about hotels and how to manage them. Having worked in a hotel in montreal for the past 14 months has opened my eyes to many things. There are sertain things that go on in hotels that we do not hear or know about. Expecialy behind the sceans. Working at the same place for a while now and working with the same people day in and day out, has made me see many different things. Givin the fact that I work in such a small boutique hotel, has given me the luxuary of being able to work in all the different departments. I will also like to focus on how hospitality students are treated by guests and managmnent. Consider this blog an awarness blog for the industry and it’s employees.

Thank you for following my blog for weekly posts.