The Lodging Revenue Game of Poker
July 22nd, 2011Usually you wouldn’t think “poker” in relation to your reservation team, however, there are many parallels that can be drawn between the two. Here’s the executive summary:
- “I’m all in”. A scary but frequent approach I notice reservation agents using. Basically, this can be defined as immediately fading on rate, or offering that 10% discount within the first 2 minutes of the call. Agents often fall back on this technique when they don’t understand the real value added of your property(s). If your agents are doing this it’s highly likely that they will run into price related objections and guess what? Now they have no wiggle room on rate. What mindset do you want agents setting right off the bat?
- “Reading their tells”. Your agents need to quickly identify what’s important to the guest. Not to be confused with what YOU think is important to the guest. Sell the experience.
- “Hold your cards”. Don’t lay all your cards on the table or feature flood. The guest doesn’t need to know every little detail about the garbage disposal and locking doors. In fact, feature flooding confuses the guest and delays the buying decision. Share only what relates to what’s important to the guest.
It’s your bet.
Brise Carpenter
Client Advocate
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