RM at Work 8.1 - Revenue Management for the Hospitality Industry by David K Hayes

"So how is it working, Anthony?" asked Sandra, the RM at the Holiday Inn Express.

Sandra and Anthony were old classmates. They were chatting after a monthly meeting of the local hotel association. Anthony was the FOM at another hotel in the area. He was telling Sandra how he had solved the problem of dealing with telephone call reservations at his property when his front desk staff was too busy to handle the calls effectively.

"It's great," replied Anthony. "When we get busy I just have our employee tell the caller they will be transferred to Reservations. We have our franchisor's reservation center number on speed dial, so the call is transferred to that extension. Presto, the call is forwarded to the res center. Somewhere in Coloradoor maybe IndiaI think. Anyway, they handle it. We don't."

"Any negative feedback?" asked Sandra.

"None at all," replied Anthony. "No guest complaints, and our staff just love it."

RM Considerations

1.How should Anthony compute the cost of implementing this specific solution to his "we're too busy to take the call" problem? What is your assessment of it?

2.Do you think most hotel franchisors would encourage, or discourage, the call strategy implemented at Anthony's hotel? Why?

3.If you were Sandra, how might you solve the "we're too busy to take the call" problem if it were one that was frequently experienced by your own front office staff?

Overview:

This question addresses a very common but somewhat controversial approach to selling hotel guest rooms.