Vendor Views compiles insight and expertise from the hotel industry vendor community. Advertisers have paid to have content appear in this category. This is the only section on HotelNewsNow.com where advertisers can pay to place or influence content. To learn more about having your content appear in Vendor Views, contact Lynsie Chamberlain, director of business development, at chamberlain@hotelnewsnow.com.
If you are sitting at your computer, typing yesterday’s performance numbers into an Excel spreadsheet, you’re doing it wrong. Tracking performance is an integral part of running a successful hotel. It’s essential to know how you’re doing versus this time last year, if your marketing is actually driving revenue, and how you fit into your market. Of course, given unlimited time and resources, you are perfectly capable of tracking and managing this information yourself. But how can you benchmark your hotel’s performance against your competitors? Do you know what they charge per night? Are you doing a quick Internet search to find out or maybe picking up a phone and calling them? By spending an extensive amount of time searching, you might be able to get an idea, but how will you know how many heads are in their beds at their current rate? With the STR STAR (Smith Travel Accommodations Report) you are able to see wher e exactly you stand. Below are a few key performance questions that can be answered by the STAR Report.
What is my market share?
Armed with only the Internet and your phone, do you or your employees have the extra free time to shop the rates of your biggest rivals? By taking your competitive set (a minimum of three competitors) and comparing their Occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR directly with your numbers, you are able to accurately track and manage performance against competitors according to the real conditions in your marketplace. By keeping a close eye on the competition, you will be able to determine what you need to do to drive revenue to your business.
Is my marketing working?
Have you developed a great new idea to promote your hotel, but you have no idea if it has made a difference in your numbers? You might think there has been an increase in traffic, but do you know for sure? With benchmarking you are able to challenge assumptions with facts and monitor the effect of business decisions you make with a clear financial picture. The STAR not only looks at this month versus last month or this year versus last year, but you also have the ability to drill down to daily comparisons.
How does my group, transient and contract business compare?
Have you decided you want to focus on a particular segment of your business but are unsure of what opportunities are out there? Segmentation can be a bit tricky to gauge, especially when you are trying to figure out what your competitors are doing. Segmentation is a free add-on to the STAR and takes a look at your group, transient and contract Occupancy, ADR and RevPAR.
Summary
Asking yourself the key questions above will enable you to determine whether or not you are getting all of the information you need. In order to continue to grow your business it is imperative that you provide yourself with the tools necessary to help you spot opportunities. STR has more than 44,000 hotels participating, which represents more than 5.8 million rooms. Are your competitors among that group?
To help you understand the benefits of the STAR Report, please check out the "How To: STAR Report" video. It will walk you through the standard report and point out key measurements.
Contact
STR Business Development
info@STR.com
(615) 824-8664
About STR
For more than 25 years, STR has worked hand in hand with the hospitality industry to provide complete, confidential, comprehensive and customized data. STR is the global leader for hotel industry performance, forecasts, annual profitability, pipeline and census information.
