A hotel struggling can make it seem impossible to improve performance and stay afloat. You can turn your property’s strengths into a competitive advantage with a few creative strategies.

Learn how to make a failing hotel a success by learning key strategies, such as increasing group sales and improving customer experience.

Find your strengths and trouble spots.

This is a fast-paced SWOT Analysis. A SWOT analysis is a method that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a company, department, product or service. It was developed at Stanford Research Institute between 1960 and 1970. An extensive SWOT analysis is necessary when adding assets to your portfolio. It is also a useful way to prevent hotels from becoming distressed.

You can focus on the strengths and limitations of the property to prioritize changes without inadvertently undermining any existing strengths.

These are the most common problems for hotels in distress:

• Inadequacy of distinguishing factors. Hotels will be left behind if does not offer a competitive edge over hotels in the same region and market.
• Bad or outdated guest-facing technology can pose problems for business travelers, groups and meeting planners. Inefficient A/V setups or slow Wi-Fi can also cause problems. You can ensure seamless experiences with Wi-Fi, mobile check-in via the app, and concierge services via text and digital content. A small investment in the most recent technology can make a big difference in modernizing a hotel in dire need.
• A poor implementation of CRM software is a missed opportunity. Customer relationship management software is a powerful tool that can be used to drive group sales, improve interaction with guests, and even help event planners.
• Poor performance in direct bookings. Hotels are more profitable than bookings made through online travel agents (OTAs), which often include commissions.
• Location. Hotels are likely to face serious challenges if they are located in an area experiencing economic decline or close to a tourist area that is losing its popularity.
• Negative reviews and guest feedback without prompt responses are indicators that a hotel is not meeting customer service standards. This can happen even if the star or percentages remain high. Sometimes, reviews can highlight issues that are often easy to fix, such as slow response times at the front desk after hours or poor quality continental breakfasts. According to a 2018 study, responding consistently to reviews leads to higher ratings.

Smart tech can improve hotel performance.

Don’t let the details get in the way of your success. Even the most troubled hotels have strengths that need to be polished and hidden information to help guide the turnaround strategy.

Watch out for these strengths and potential opportunities:

• Profiles of customers. The hotelier(TM’s) CRM can provide useful data when you know where to look. Discover the history of hotelaEUR(TM), including customer segments and group bookings. Are you looking for business conferences? Weddings? Family vacationers? It’s possible that the hotelier (TM), a popular choice for local guests, draws fewer business travelers. However, this could help to optimize bookings for business conferences.
• Use data from your entire portfolio to help you develop your turnaround strategy. Determine the cost to acquire key segments of customers, as well as the data on return business and rates paid by those segments. This will help you determine your ideal customer profile and allow you to increase marketing outreach to those groups.
• Location. Hotels located near unique landmarks or booming economic development areas have an advantage. You can leverage these more effectively by marketing highlighting local attractions and reaching out to regional business planners.