WASHINGTON— The performance of the lodging industry has never been scrutinized so much, with all kinds of statistics and real time information at the fingertips of hotel owners and operators.
Those on hand at the HOTEL BUSINESS® Owners Roundtable here have certainly tried to turn that enhanced information into positive results. From troubleshooting at the property level to finding out more about their guests, most owners seem to agree that more information can only help.
“To a large extent, from the corporate office it changes it for the better. [It provides] the ability to identify problems of properties much quicker,” said Kevin Urgo, senior vp, development, Urgo Hotels.
“More information is definitely good. We get more information than our operating people can process, but we’d always rather have more. I’m not sure the daily reports are helpful, but more information is better,” said Paul Whetsell, chairman and CEO of MeriStar. However, he did note that there are some shortcomings.
“Even though we get them on a weekly or monthly basis, we still don’t have the ability to project [the performance of a]Tuesday during a certain month. The lead time is very short. You have to make sure [your]operations get past projections and don’t open up the flood gates,” he said, regarding Internet distribution.
“Everyone has become more sophisticated, particularly with the new RES [reservations]systems,” said Thomas Smith, senior vp, real estate group, Starwood, referencing reservation systems.
However, Greg Miller, president and CEO of PM Hospitality Strategies and executive vp and director of hospitality projects for The Buccini/ Pollin Group, maintained that if no one could determine what was causing the results, they don’t mean a whole lot.
“My biggest challenge is not sophistication. If they don’t know why it happens [what is the point?]. I want my competitors to be smart. The last thing I want them to do is start dropping their rates,” he said. “Things have changed because of e-distribution. I want my competitors and lenders to be sophisticated.”
Doug Artusio, president of Dellisart Lodging, discussed some of the other benefits of comprehensive stats. “It allows me to compare on a portfolio basis. I can challenge management companies to lay out the performance of their portfolio. I can take the RevPAR for a given market [and compare]. We will use statistics going forward,” he said.
“You’re better off with all of the info than not. But how do brands report on all that info. Things have fundamentally changed and that’s probably why more capital is coming in,” said Thomas Arasi, president of Portman Holdings.
— Dennis Nessler
