Hibernation? NO! Winter is a time for scrutiny, contemplation, planning and decisions.

Hibernation? NO!  Winter is a time for scrutiny, contemplation, planning and decisions.

The crazy budget season is over, the year’s results are almost history, and next year is looming fast upon hotels everywhere, whether luxury or simple, full service or not, and located the length and breadth of Canada.

Hibernation is definitely not an option in today’s high speed world and changing trends.

I would like to suggest that winter is one of the most important times for in depth scrutiny and reflection on the past year and the successes and failures it brought to your property.

Start with the performance against budget of the past year. Highlight the red areas where the differences are considerable, both in revenues and expenses. If results are studied monthly you will be able to see these red areas developing over the year, and comments appearing regarding the worrisome items.

Do not leave any line item out, check them all. No item is too small to ignore, especially for the smaller independent properties where resources are scarce and every penny saved can be used in more important areas.

Going back over the year and studying the year end red items will lead you to seeing a trend in those items, and any action taken to avoid them going forward. You will learn a lot about the actions taken and reaction time. Did you do enough and learn from the shortfalls, and did you try and improve?

On the expenses take a deep look at the department HR costs against budget. Did the departments perform as expected, and if not why not? It is your single largest cost and therefore of utmost importance.

One of the most important if not the most important aspect of your winter deliberations is the rooms’ revenues, the main source of your profits. How did your sales and marketing team perform?

It is wise to dissect the monthly results and performance of each segment and sub segment to see the details of performance and discuss why they performed well or underperformed. With all costs going up every year, you need to have a plan to improve your ADR’s and occupancy from the segments that provide you with the best revenues and ADR. Many hotels have a five year plan and I suggest that if not a five year plan, at the least a two year plan should be formulated for the smaller independents. This will get the sales and marketing staff used to thinking all the time about the improvement plan and working towards targets.

It is not enough to rely on OTA’s, or undersell the competition in the scrum to get business. Its fine to rake in OTA business during lean times, but more rewarding traffic is out there and must be brought in with careful planning, especially when busy. It may look like an uphill battle but if you run a clean, well maintained property with good friendly service and with a clear identity, the business is there.

Imaginative and creative thinking play a large part in the process of self improvement, and yes, maybe some resources must be set aside to achieve the goals. It will be money well spent.  It is not an option to sit back and decide that there are no funds to spend on S&M; business will not just walk in your door at better rates. It needs a reason to come to you, and it is you that needs to provide that reason. The reasons could be anything from touting a renovation, community actions, a ‘revamp and change’ in the identity of your property to give it a USP (unique selling point), the addition of a gym or spa area, upgrade in product, F&B deals, there are myriad ways to improve and get the message out there.

Winter must be the time to scrutinize, draw conclusions, make decisions and plan for the coming year in all areas. Set benchmarks and as the year progresses you will be able to gauge the efficacy of your plan, and make corrections along the way.

Finally, make sure to present your plan to the management team, along with the goals, and agree with them on the attainable targets after a frank discussion. That way all the team will all be on board and working to the same goals. It will make for a healthier hotel and one working with common purpose and rejuvenated for the future!.