Strategizing and more

Today was a pretty good day, James and I spent most of the day looking at our upcoming pricing with our most direct competitor, Grand Hyatt in Koloa. Since the Grand Hyatt and us are the only two 4 star properties on the island, it makes for sometimes tough competition. Hyatt has more rooms than we do and therefore can afford to offer sometimes lower rates than us, but they don't have the great location that we have. Fall is hard for hotels in Hawaii and that's why James and I are looking ahead to prepare for the tougher season.

Most of our rates we control through the hotel's information system, but for certain channels like expedia.com we have to use a specific website system set up by expedia.com. You also have to be careful when you fluctuate you rates because Starwood and all of your travel sites (expedia.com, travelocity.com, orbitz.com, etc) constantly shop your best available rates (BAR). Most of the big hotel corporations, like Starwood, have created a policy that if a guest finds a rate cheaper than their branded website, then the hotel will match the lower price and also give an additional discount. Same with competing travel sites, for example if you offer a lower rate at orbitz than expedia, expedia will call you up and accuse you of letting them lose market share to one of their competitors. All very interesting and again, playing with rates is where strategy fun comes in.

James had to go to a meeting without me and he left me to finish up fixing our prices to be more competitive with Hyatt. It was a little scary to know that I had complete access to the hotel's information system, reservation system, and expedia.com. Potentially I could have really screwed things up, but so things have continued smoothly :)

At our weekly staff meeting, Kelly Hoen announced that this Monday there will be a manager's short retreat/meeting/celebration. The theme of the meeting was to continue to pursue one's strengths in order to further help the hotel. Earlier in the year everyone had participated in a training based on a book called "NOW, Discover Your Strengths," where it focuses improvement based on your strengths rather than always looking at your weaknesses. The meeting on Monday sounded fun and was focused around some quiz in the book, but I wasn't sure if I was allowed to go since I didn't participate in the prior training (nor did I have a book). While I was working at my desk finishing up fixing our prices, I ended up staying later than usual and Kelly was walking to her office and saw me. She walked over and gave me a copy of the book! I was excited and thanked her. After talking to her about the book a little more I also asked if could go to the meeting on Monday and she said sure! She called up the HR director and told her to add me to the list. She instructed me what to read and do in order to catch up with everyone else. All of the other managers were also instructed in preparation of Monday to create a 3 minute presentation on their biggest achievement with the hotel in the last six months. Kelly told me since I was going to the meeting, I should also give a presentation. I told her I wasn't sure what to present on in my 6 weeks here, but she encourage me and said with a smile "Oh I'm sure you'll be able to come up with something. You seem to be a pretty good speaker."

I'm not sure what I'll present, but I have a few ideas and have a little time to think about it

Right before I finished, James got news of someone who booked the royal suite in August for 13 nights! Our Royal Suite is our biggest and most expensive suite, so we always get excited when we sell it. That one booking made the hotel over $36,000 (and that doesn't even include food, ametities, internet, parking, etc.)! Sheesh . . . well that's life in the hotel biz and definitely one of the reasons I like it :)