Archive for July, 2009
I have been learning, networking, gaining new skills, meeting old friends, making new friends and generally receiving a huge benefit over this weekend by attending the 2009 Motel Association of New Zealand conference.
This annual event is a highlight on many a motelier’s calendar and this year was no exception. Held in the Marlborough convention centre the conference hosted delegates and trades people from throughout New Zealand. As usual the C.E.O., the board and the administration staff at the Motel Association created a great event which was enjoyed by all and held great educational and networking opportunities. Those moteliers who attend the event learn about working on their business rather than in it and gain skills which give them a distinct advantage.
Amongst a host of great speakers this year Craig Rust gave an insight in to the financial statistics you need to monitor and how these affect your business. Details of how to anlayse your business and create growth rather than just assuming you are doing okay. Debra Bell spoke on relationships and how to work together in a husband and wife business. Mathew Mayne gave advice on making life easier in the technical world with tips on easier e-mail among other things. Melissa Clark-Reynolds spoke on the recession and looking at the sustainability of your business. Can it continue forever? And to wrap it up Gary McCormack ended with a hilarious commentary on small business and motels.
On top of the education and business building information there were the social events. Plenty of opportunities to network, gain further knowledge from experienced moteliers and also have a good time. The Friday night Marlborough markets function provided good food and entertainment from the Irish duo who managed to show us all a bit of Irish dancing and a lot of laughter. The Saturday gala dinner was a formal event with the presentation of the AA host award which went to The Edgewater Motel Te Anau. Congratulations. The evening was rounded off with fantastic music by The Beat Girls.
The Motel Association announced three new initiatives at conference being a new logo and branding, a change to the duty motel system to make it accessible to all motel association members as part of their membership and the establishment of the Norm Barry trust.
All in all the conference was another event which those moteliers who attended will have gained a huge benefit from. Congratulations to The Motel Association and the Marlborough conference committee on the planning and running of a great conference. I look forward to next year’s event.
July 28 2009 | Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
I attended the Waikato Motel Association AGM on Sunday night and was thrilled to see my Principal John Griffin and wife Anne presented with life membership of the association. Last year John was made an Honorary life member of the Motel Association of New Zealand and this year was presented with the local association life membership as well. It is certainly a mark of respect for him and Anne.
John has been in Real Estate for over 40 years and specializing solely in Motels for the last 30 years. The life membership awards are a reflection of the commitment that both he and Anne have to the Motel industry and all its people. They are mentors to many a new motelier, give advice and assistance to current moteliers, and provide genuine guidance for people entering the industry. On top of this they provide sponsorship and support for many motel industry events and organizations.
From my personal point of view I feel very privileged to have such good people as mentors for my motel brokering career. They are genuine, honest and caring people whom it is an honor to work with and learn from. The ethics within the business make it a very easy and enjoyable place to be.
Congratulations to John and Anne for a very well deserved Waikato Motel Association Life Membership.
July 22 2009 | Articles for current moteliers and Entering the Motel Industry and Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
I recently attended a Debbie Mayo- Smith of www.successis.co.nz workshop on data bases and part of the discussion focused on Monday Lists. OK I thought this must be where we sit down and plan how we are going to spend our week so we don’t waste all our time trying to remember what it was we had planned to do!!!
Well no that wasn’t the idea. Basically the discussion evolved around choosing a day which was the quiet day of the week. (Often difficult to decide if there is one in the Motel Industry). But anyway on the quiet day rather than mucking around you should use the time to gain traction from existing information you have about your customers. If you employ reception staff this works as a double benefit as you are paying them to be there over the quiet day so by increasing their productivity you are hopefully increasing sales and turnover without any increase in staff costs. These lists are also not specific to any one industry and can work in any business but just need to be modified to suit the type of business.
So to get to the nitty gritty what are these lists? Basically it is capturing the information you have about your customers and putting it to use. Firstly we have a “Raising the Dead List” This doesn’t mean turning units in to cemetery plots but rather finding our long lost customers. Most front desk programmes have a good record system which will record the information of your client’s last visit. The raising the dead list means that anyone who hasn’t visited you for say 2 months gets contacted to ask why and if there is anything you could do to make them come back. The contact can be made in a variety of ways such as phone, e-mail or letter but in order to have a discussion and get the person to tell you why they have not returned you really need to talk to them so phone is the best method. You must see what the problem is and work out how to resolve it. This contact makes people believe that they are not just a dollar producing number but that they are important to you and you want to make them happy. It also gives you a method to find out the faults within your business and rectify things which are harmful to the business by causing people not to return to you.
The second list is a 300/500 list. This conjured up images of an intense 300 exercise I do in the gym to strengthen abs but luckily it wasn’t very physical at all. This list is where you pick a number of clients. In this case the number was 500, and offer them a voucher for a service they use which they can keep or give to a friend. A trial was undertaken with 500 clients from a hairdressing business. The hairdresser also had beauty products such as facials etc. The offer was that if the client came and paid for a make up treatment they would receive a voucher for the same value to either use themselves or gift to a friend. Of the 500 clients 300 of them took up the offer and a large proportion of these gifted the voucher to a friend. This meant an instant injection from the 300 people paying for extra services, the possibility that these people would continue to use these services and so their average spend would increase and also on top of this all the friends who were gifted the voucher were potentially new customers to win over on their first visit.
The concept would need to be thought through with a motel. What extra service can you offer to your existing customers? For instance you may choose 100 people whom you will offer a voucher to the same value as the second night if they stay two nights instead of one on their next visit. Isn’t this a great way to increase the number of customers you have just by using your existing information. Also it is easy to track. You can measure the results far more accurately than with the dollars you spend on print or internet advertising.
These are two great but easily implemented ideas to improve your business in a cost effective way.
July 15 2009 | Articles for current moteliers and Changes in Motel Trends and Entering the Motel Industry and Uncategorized | No Comments »