Behind the scenes of every hotel, there is a lot of work that goes into making it work. Aside from the booking and retention of guests, there are all sorts of other tasks to consider. Hotel owners often lean on hotel asset managers to optimise ratings and performance, and there are lots of benefits to a partnership such as this. For everything you need to know about hotel asset management, the guide below explores exactly what it is and why it matters.
What is Hotel Asset Management?
This professional role began in the early 1990s and has only thrived since its creation. Over 30 years on, the advantages it brings are plain to see, and the outputs have seen substantial development as time has progressed. It involves managing the trajectory of a hotel brand or chain and encompasses many things within. The main goal is to view the hotel or hotels as a viable source of revenue and search for ways to improve the income stream and maximise profit margins.
The Main Principles
There are four key areas of focus for hotel asset management services to develop during their time with a company.
Insight into the capital expenditure of the hotel asset.
Interpreting operational data.
Tracking the value of the building.
Boosting the brand.
Each area branches out into developing successful strategies for various sectors of impact, all of which are extremely advantageous in terms of the wider goals and potential outputs. This role calls for a certain level of expertise and experience, and it is best entrusted to established professionals with the required unique insight like the Upperkey hotel management service.
What Does a Hotel Asset Manager Do?
So, why hire a hotel asset manager? The simple answer is always because they have a developed insight as to what needs to happen and how to make it come to life. Below, there are five distinct areas where a partnership of this nature will improve ratings and nurture a positive ROI for owners.
Enhance the Guest Experience
What is a hotel without happy guests? With successful engagement actions, the bookings will flow. This will fall largely on the marketing direction, but it is also helped along by all the iterations that happen day in day out such as increasing staff training, boosting the interior design and optimising comfort and peace. It is not just getting people through the door, though; it is also about keeping people there and ensuring a positive experience above all else. An asset manager thinks about these factors in every single action they take.
Concentrate on Increasing Revenue
Increasing revenue is one of the main targets for an asset manager, and this can be achieved through various courses of action. Ultimately, this goal is reliant upon transparency and focus, and it may be prevalent to cut costs in areas where the asset is neglecting opportunities to become more efficient.
Food and Beverage
Food and beverage accounts for a relevant percentage of the profits in hotels that have a restaurant and bar service. There are a number of ways to boost this revenue chain and engage guests with in-house provisions, and doing so will be highly beneficial to both financial gain and brand reputation. It will likely focus on how to bring in external customers that are not staying as guests on the property as well, and therefore increase community engagement positively.
Special Events
Another key area where revenue can always be increased is through the introduction of special event facilities. Weddings are the biggest example here, and a hotel that provides a marital package is one that will instantly boost its revenue. Aside from weddings, there are also parties, conferences, and fundraiser opportunities too that will all establish rapport, connection, and boost community engagement too. These factors establish presence, brand, and support growth across the board.
Navigate Challenges Successfully
Asset management for hotels also means navigating any challenges that come along. Whether it is a negative review from a guest, or a maintenance mishap, these things must be dealt with in one way or another. When a challenge arises, the asset manager will tackle it directly through observing all the ways it can be resolved, if that is possible. It also means executing damage control if necessary, and re-establishing positive conduct where there is employee poor behaviour or similar. All of these things are only able to come to pass with someone at the helm who truly understands the ship.
Analyse Internal Operational Data
There is a lot of pressure for the internal operations of any hotel to be exemplary. This means efficient customer service and guest well-being training, programmes to enable education about the various technologies and software that enable the smooth running of daily tasks and bookings, and more. This internal operational data can tell an asset manager everything they need to know about the gaps in service that could be depleting the value of the property and therefore the brand.
Create Reports
An asset manager will also create reports and host meetings with the entire team so that the entire organisation can be kept up to speed with the proposed targets. These reports will be kept for future reference and provide invaluable insight into how far an asset has developed over the course of it being managed in this way. Reports serve a higher purpose in this sense, because without them there could be no introspection or celebration of what has been achieved.
Advise
With all the above information, the asset manager is in a prime position to provide advice to the owner or lower management team about what the optimum path is for the future of the hotel asset. Data is vital here, because it is hard to move forward without concrete facts to back the chosen direction, and this is exactly what the data will uncover. This will lead to conclusions about the major areas in need of intervention, and how to get the job done right. For example, there should always be an ongoing narrative around capital expenditure. This means creating a plan for all the required renovation and similar that make the asset retain value and stay relevant in the retail market. This requires input from all the areas above, and the asset manager is best placed to deliver the verdict.
Hotel asset management is a niche profession that focuses entirely on assessing hotels through the lens of what they could be as an asset. There are various ways to increase revenue and it all boils down to the individual profile, and a constant analysis of operational data to highlight strengths vs weaknesses. All of this contributes to a more efficient daily output which leads to better ROI figures and a stronger investment model all round.