Luxury Hoteliers Magazine 1st Quarter 2017 | Page 23

Even though there are some new trends out there , such as self-service hotels , we still need to remember that we work in the hospitality industry , which is a people ’ s industry - Personal experience and individual attention makes a huge difference . Therefore , good qualities are about closing the sale and properly maintaining all accounts . Sales teams bring the business in , so they need to be proactive and self-motivated . Going above and beyond is still one of the main qualities that I look for when selecting the team to work with . I have worked in sales , to get to know “ the other side ”. It is important to understand the reasoning behind certain decisions that your sales team makes . One way to learn this is to wear their shoes and understand how they are incentivized . Maintaining and monitoring each individual sales team member is one of the many hats that revenue people wear . When the numbers are below average , the head of revenue is the one being called into General Manager ’ s office , even though the performance is collective success or failure .
How do you stay ahead of the trends ? What do you expect for the next year ?
By year-end 2016 , New York hotels
are forecast to see a RevPAR decrease of 0.2 %. This is the result of an estimated decline in occupancy of 1.0 % and a 0.7 % gain in ADR . Looking towards 2017 , New York RevPAR is expected to grow 1.0 %, reversing the downward trend of 2016 . New York is going to have a hard time next year as supply trends continue to depress the market . The good times won ’ t return until the underlying metrics create an investment atmosphere that no longer supports hotel development . The earliest these trends will reverse are 2018 , as projects have already begun to face financing troubles in the face of depressed RevPAR growth .
ILHA 23