Regardless of the state of the economy , every financial strategy and solution should be considered to maximize occupancy , revenue and profitability during high and low demand periods . A recent STR Global Performance Report * on Luxury Properties in major cities worldwide reported that average occupancy was 75.7 %. along with an average daily room rate of $ 302 per night . The report was based on 319 Luxury Hotels in major cities around the world with a total of 108,297 rooms ( average 339 rooms per property ). With an average occupancy of 75.7 % and an average of 339 total rooms per property that means that on average 24.3 % of the rooms are going unsold or roughly 82 rooms per night per property going unsold - multiply those 82 rooms per night by $ 302 in lost revenue and the result is $ 24,764 per night in lost revenue or roughly $ 742,290 per month ($ 8,915,040.00 in lost revenue per year ) per property . Based on these averages reported by STR - a typical luxury property could take just 10 % of its average rooms going unsold nightly and use those unsold rooms to pay for almost $ 1 million dollars in new strategic advertising campaigns to increase brand visibility , gain market share and new incremental cash bookings .
The importance of profit to owners and investors demands a critical look at an underused marketing tool – barter . Hotel executives have a fiduciary responsibility to capitalize on the value of their inventory . Using unsold rooms as a currency through professional intermediaries such as Barter Advertising Solutions , hotels can position their brands to reach desirable consumer demos as well as corporate , group and leisure accounts . Many hospitality companies successfully use barter to strengthen brand image and boost demand for their properties while conserving cash to improve profits .
Barter – an intelligent way to monetize unsold rooms . Using barter provides hotels & resorts with a system for selling available room inventory in a way that is consistent with their particular their image and goals . Since the typical barter client is a corporate traveler , or incentive group that is not a current customer , hotels can reach entirely new types of clients and sources of future cash business . Exchanging a percentage of your average daily unsold hotel inventory is an effective means of purchasing advertising , promotions and other marketing services when funds are not available or are too costly . It is a viable option that can provide a valuable , competitive edge .
Barter can help your luxury property achieve maximum profit . Since hotels have perishable inventory , bartering complements the hotels operating systems in many ways . Due to the brief tenancy of guests , hotels must continually advertise in order to achieve , maintain and grow branding and awareness . Therefore , bartering rooms for advertising is an intelligent attractive solution since ad placements , like guest rooms , are perishable inventory . Hotels strive to attract clients that fit their target markets and build long-term relationships to attract customers who represent future cash-paying customers and will help spread the word to their friends and associates . Barter stays typically still provide incremental cash revenue from the barter customer while he / she is staying at the property as such guests still typically pay cash for food , beverage and incidentals , creating incremental revenues . In addition - newly opened hotels , which typically need to conserve cash and build customer relationships can strongly benefit from using barter . Their generally low occupancy rates and profitability make barter an optimal financial and marketing strategy .
The revenue of a lost room night can never be recovered . Rather than taking a loss , luxury resorts can use unsold rooms as currency for strategic advertising that reaches key markets / demos . Even just a small percentage of a property ’ s unsold rooms can be converted into substantial media campaigns .
* Source STR Global Luxury Performance report – YTD 2014
To learn more about this opportunity , please request more information by visiting www . BarterAdvertisingSolutions . com or contacting Barter Advertising Solutions - A division of Advantis International Inc . www . AdvantisInternational . com
About the author Jay Greenlees is President of Barter Advertising Solutions a division of Advantis International Inc . - a multifaceted media and financial services company that provides unique advertising , marketing and finance solutions that help businesses increase sales , open new sales channels , conserve cash , leverage resources and reduce expenses . Jay has over 30 years of experience in areas of consulting , alternative finance , trading and bartering , media planning and buying , sales and marketing . Barter Advertising Solutions is one of the leading providers of media to the Barter Industry worldwide and is one of the leading trade exchanges of the International Reciprocal Trade Association ( IRTA ) - – the industry association of all of the of the leading trade exchanges around the world representing almost 1 million businesses worldwide . Jay serves as one of the few voting members of the IRTA Universal Currency ( UC ) committee that controls worldwide monetary policy on their Universal Digital Trade Currency that used by all member trade exchanges Jay has over 30 years of experience in the Advertising , Barter and Private Currency Industries and has helped hundreds of companies leverage their resources and improve their businesses . Over his career Jay has structured and implemented over $ 100 million dollars in barter advertising media plans and alternative finance transactions . For example - Barter Advertising Solutions has provided over $ 1,000,000 in television advertising on barter to a large hospitality company that traded out their excess capacity in exchange for the TV Advertising . Another example is Jay ’ s company provided a Major Daily Newspaper with over 7 figures in barter transactions including re-carpeting their entire offices with high grade commercial carpeting in exchange for unsold newspaper space . Receive full market value or premium to market for your hotels empty room nights . Barter Advertising Solutions can help you turn your Hotel or Resorts empty room nights into strategic ad campaigns and guaranteed bookings . Conserve your cash and use your excess capacity to finance and pay for major advertising campaigns . For additional information on how Barter Advertising Solutions can help you grow your business please contact Jay Greenlees at 702-997-6577 ext . 101 or email jay @ barteradvertisingsolutions . com
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