Business management & development
Hotels thrive on good planning.
Your market research and marketing strategies linked to that SWOT analysis
Your personnel, including management Financial plan and document
■ Creating a marketing strategy: Your marketing strategy is at the core of how your hotel project is going to grow and be successful. Good market research will set you on the right path, as you will be able to tailor your advertising to those who are going to be interested in what you offer. For example, if you advertise to customers who are looking for boutique hotels, you will need to ensure you emphasise the features that make it special.
■ Establishing a financial plan: Every business needs a robust financial plan. Your financial plan will give you information about where you are now and what you need in terms of profit to get where you want to go. It will illustrate any savings you could make, and it will help you determine an accurate and profitable pricing model.
■ Structuring your management team: The “management” portion of a business plan provides details about the company’s leadership, personnel, resources and ownership structure. Management team members and their specific contributions to the company’s success should be detailed here.
■ Common mistakes to avoid when creating a hotel business plan: One of the biggest errors when it comes to your hotel business plan is not being realistic with your financial projections. Whether you hedge your bets or are too optimistic, seasoned lenders and investors will be able to tell if something isn’t right, and they won’t want to work with a hotelier who doesn’t understand their figures. Another mistake is guessing rather than doing research. Your market analysis will give you important information that you can use to your advantage and skipping this task because it is time-consuming or difficult will only harm your business in the end.
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Implementing and monitoring your hotel business plan
Once you have your hotel business plan in place, you should make sure that it is monitored and revised as needed: ■ Executing your hotel business plan: To execute your hotel business plan well, it must be accurate – this is the most important thing to remember when you are writing each part of the plan. The hotel business plan should also be flexible to accommodate the ever-changing guest experience needs. Although you will want to follow the plan as much as you can, you need to be able to adapt it when necessary. Work through each step that you have identified in the order that it needs to be accomplished, and slowly but surely, your hotel business will emerge.
■ Tracking and analysing your progress: You must take stock of your current situation and analyse your progress regularly. To do this, you will need to have goals in place. These might be financial, for example, or they might relate to the number of staff or clients you have. Unless you have specific goals to work towards in a certain time frame, progress could be challenging to track.
■ Adjusting where necessary: With the right monitoring, you can make changes where necessary and adapt your plan to ensure modifications are taken into account before you move too far from the correct path. If a business owner is too fixated on sticking to their original plan, business growth could become stagnant.
On to business
If you want to run a hotel business, a business plan is essential and should be the first task you undertake, especially if you want to obtain funding. Start with your mission statement and vision statement and keep these in mind as you work through the other important sections of the business plan. This will help you to stay focused and keep the goal in sight. ●
Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
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