The key objective
behind such a digital tool, is to enable better efficiencies within the hotel chain as
a whole, by focusing on better value proposition for three key constituencies –
employees, guests, and vendors/business partners, which in turn would
facilitate a better brand-value for such a hotel chain. That it would
ultimately result in improved top-lines and bottom-lines is obvious.
Some features of
such a digital tool, conceptualized for a leading hotel chain could include:
Quality Initiatives:
- Standard checklists with regard to each process
department-wise and property-wise to be posted. Basic philosophy of “Doing
it right the first time” to be adopted for each process. Besides
facilitating learning across group properties, this would also motivate
the respective department heads to constantly raise the performance
standards of their respective teams,
- Deviations from agreed upon parameters as
specified in the checklists with root-cause analysis to be incorporated,
for easy reference by other department heads in various group properties.
This would facilitate proactive measures to avoid unnecessary repetition/s
of the same,
- Inputting each guest feedback product-wise and
property-wise, to be shared with all the other group properties to enable
proactive measures on any negative feedback in other group properties,
besides serving as an inspiration for more positive feedbacks,
- Input the findings of process audits conducted
department-wise in each property, along with suggested measures to plug the
gaps so identified. This would facilitate proactive measures in the group
as a whole, leading to non –repetition of any deviations in the said
processes in other group properties in turn leading to better service
levels to guests,
- For each property, all allowances made due to
disputes in the invoices generated, with their respective root-cause
analysis to be posted. Commonly occurring root-causes to be identified and
fixed at the process level itself, to prevent such disputes from
re-occurring. Such root –cause analysis to be accessed by other group
properties as well to enable them take corrective measures on a pro-active
basis,
Profitability:
- Highlighting market-wise, product-wise, and
segment-wise gross revenues and net profitability for each property.
Cross-learning for respective department heads could follow,
- Identification of key accounts, individual
guests, Travel Agencies, online sources etc who are patronizing more than
one or more group properties, along-with their respective business volumes
product –wise and contribution to each property’s bottom line. This would
facilitate a holistic view of top revenue generators for the group as a
whole,
- Posting of complete details account-wise and
guest–wise, such as: total number of room nights given, banquets and other
F&B revenue, weighted average of the number of days taken to get the
payments, number of allowances passed, commissions given to solicit the
business (if any) and the net profitability of the said account. This
could be on a year-to-date basis with the flexibility to do a comparison
on two different periods as per the requirements of the respective Account
Managers. Furthermore, a tailored MIS with respect to above can be
generated from the system on a periodic basis, which could be shared with
the relevant decision-makers of the respective accounts,
- Generate reports/MIS
through the system, based on varying sort criteria for e.g. descending
order of profitability account-wise, or guest-wise, descending order of
revenue account-wise or account-wise, delays in the receipt of
payments in descending order account-wise or guest-wise, number of
allowances passed in descending order etc. Such reports/MIS need to be
generated property-wise as well as for the group as a whole, for business
decisions at different levels,
- Monitoring of total account
receivables outstanding end of each month as a percentage of say
three-month moving average of total billings, along-with ageing of the
same. Specifically, in case any particular account has reached higher than
threshold exposure in any single group property, then other group
properties need to exercise caution while extending any further credit to
this particular account,
- ‘What if analysis’ to facilitate an impact on
the profit numbers under different scenarios. For e.g. what if the room
rate is negotiated higher by ‘X’ amount, what if the account is convinced
to pay at the time of check out instead of availing BTC (bill to company),
what if there are no allowances to be passed, what if the room nights are
increased by this account by a well defined number, what if the
commissions paid are reduced to a well defined amount or eliminated etc.
Furthermore, the various outcomes by combining two more of such
hypothetical scenarios, to enable informed decisions guest-wise, account-
wise, property-wise and group as a whole,
- For all delays in receipt of payments
pertaining to BTC cases, identifying causes for delays in realizing
payments beyond the credit period as agreed upon, and post the same
guest-wise, as well as property-wise. Further working out action plans for
commonly occurring causes, which could again be posted for the benefit of
other group properties.
Market penetration:
- Pro-actively managing dormant accounts
property-wise by pre-programmed alerts to highlight extraordinary time
gaps in repeat business from an account or a regular guest. Furthermore,
reasons behind such gaps and corrective measures taken to revive business
from such dormant accounts be also posted, for the benefit of other group properties. Typically, if the office of one of the key accounts of one of
the group properties, has relocated far away thereby turning it into
a dormant account for that property, then another group property which is
now relatively close to this account can offer the same facilities at the
same price which it had enjoyed earlier before relocating,
- Gauging the efficacy of loyalty program, by
monitoring spending patterns of each guest so enrolled in such program,
and his/her spends property-wise, department-wise, and furthermore
item-wise. This in turn can be used for tailored offerings to each guest,
- Creating guest life-cycle and making tailored
offerings. E.g. for couple married in any group property, a tailored offer
to host their first wedding anniversary, first birthday of their first
child in any group property at a special rate with customized menu etc,
- Leads generated through multiple sources for
each property to be posted, along-with follow-ups done and offerings made
to elicit business from such leads. Unsuccessful attempts at a property
along with specific reasons, could be a lead for other group properties to
work out tailored offerings to such leads, thereby attempting to elicit
business from such leads.
Cost Optimization:
- Collating total purchases item wise in both
quantitative and monetary terms for each group property, to work out
potential business volumes from the group as a whole, which can be
used as bargaining tool with respective vendors,
- Monitoring food costs as a percentage to sale revenues
outlet-wise in each property, by comparing the data regarding cost of
various items supplied from the food stores to respective F&B outlets
viz-a-viz net sale revenues booked from such outlets in pre-specified
periods. Such comparisons across identical outlets in other group
properties, could lead to ideas for realizing better food costs as a
percentage to sale revenues for respective F&B outlets,
- Monitoring F&B related promotions with
specific reference to the strategy deployed and costs incurred to promote
the same viz-a-viz revenues realized. Details of the same could be viewed
by other group properties for necessary fine-tuning of strategies while
undertaking such F&B related promotions in future,
- Sharing key maintenance related information
from property management modules of various group properties, with the
objective of inculcating shared learning and inculcating proactive and
preemptive practices to significantly reduce if not completely eliminate
down-time of key machinery and equipment, besides reduction of energy
related expenses,
- Sharing details regarding slow moving items in
stores of various group properties to ensure that the same are not
purchased in excess by material management teams of other properties, and
if there exists a possibility of transfer of such items from one group
property to another.
Vendor Management:
- Business volumes generated for each vendor with
respect to his/her product/service offerings,
- Extent
of adherence to the deadlines specified in the Purchase Orders
by the vendors,
- Extent
to adherence to exact specifications of items as mentioned in
the Purchase Orders by the vendors,
- Time lags involved in the receipt of invoices
from the date of receipt of items/services,
- Quality checks and defects identified if any in
such invoices,
- Extent of adherence to the committed credit
periods for each vendor where payments are concerned, and any unacceptable
delays in such payments to be identified and acted upon,
- Short supplies/delays in the receipt of product/services
from each vendor,
- Feedbacks from the user departments with regard
to the quality of each product/service
- Average delays in receipt of items/service from
respective vendors from the date of issue of the Purchase Order.
Talent Management:
- Key feedback from employee surveys and
suggested corrective actions as decided by the concerned authorities in
each group property be listed, for the benefit of key decision-makers
at other group properties,
- Job vacancies in any group property could be
notified to facilitate job-rotation and career development within the
group as a whole, thereby reducing voluntary attrition,
- Extraordinary achievements by any team member
at a group property to be highlighted so as to extend the required
recognition for the team member, besides to serve as a source of
inspiration to other team members within the group as a whole,
- Results of exit interviews property-wise
along-with suggested corrective actions to be highlighted, for the benefit
of key decision-makers other group properties to reduce voluntary
attrition.
Above
all, in every module pertaining to each of the functional areas as highlighted
above, the right Artificial Intelligence related software and algorithms could
be built in, so that this integrated digital tool enables prompt and correct
decisions by the respective users.
While
it is appreciated that any integrated digital tool may not be able to immediately
support some of the features as mentioned above, yet incorporating all such features
in the integrated digital tool, besides several other features related to back-end
operations, could form part of future action plans for any hotel chain. And of
course, such a digital tool can be improved consistently, based on user
feedbacks and business related needs.
