Servicing the nightmare!

Are we on the same page with our sales team?

“They sell the dream; we have to service the nightmare?”  I hear this over and over from operating teams about how the sales and revenue management teams sell the hotel.

Always be sure to look at this from both sides. Of course, I know that you want the sales teams to be aggressive at your hotels as these keep everyone in business, “but if only……” you think.

Sales in the most important team in the hotel in many ways; they keep us all in business and taking home the bacon!

Imagine there was a group of 200 people that were looking for space in your hotel for five days, and they would need breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as other ancillary revenue. Now imagine that your hotel has the capacity to seat only 190 people--what would you do? Would you book the business, or would you walk away from potentially $350,000 of business? Or, would you find a way to make it work? I know what I would do! Yes, it will be tight, but as professionals that is our job to make this happen, and smile while we are doing it! These are the kind of questions the sales team have to answer every day.

Get involved in the solutions and help create your own destiny. So, how can we help? We can sit back and complain about what they're doing, or we can get involved. Work with your teams to create solutions that work for the guest and the group. Sometimes your input can help to work through a problem. Look for alternate times, venues, or creative ideas to solve these so you can help the team, and making your job easier in the long run, which keeps us all in business

Finding unique ways to solve the issues, suggesting alternatives that are realistic, and working up front so that we can manage the business and the guest expectations properly, is a win-win for everybody!