Dr Philip Alford
An indispensable tool for small hotel and accommodation business owners who want an accessible guide to both traditional and online marketing.
This book plugs a large gap and helps to bridge the ‘digital divide’ between those small accommodation businesses and the larger players. The former are struggling to keep up with the pace of technological change and the ‘Hotel Success Handbook’ helps to address that challenge.
The book is written in plain English with actionable analysis, tips and recommendations. It really is a handbook (as distinct from a textbook) which a B&B or small hotel owner could pick up in order to get some ideas on how they can, for example, improve their web site or build relationships with existing customers.
The book includes practical exercises, which readers can complete in order to apply the ideas to their business. Chapter 1 stresses the importance of identifying your best customer – a crucial first step upon which almost everything else depends. Chapter 2 provides some practical questions and ideas for differentiating your product offering.
The chapter on the website has some great detail and advice on creating engaging content, for example explaining the types of kids’ toys and games consoles you have and that you clean your bathroom taps with a toothbrush!
Now that you’ve got these building blocks in place, the following chapters describe in easy-to-digest detail how you can move forward and communicate your unique product offering through both online and offline channels.
Chapter 8 covers the oft-neglected topic of ‘customer relationship management’ – building on your existing customer list rather than allocating all resource to acquiring new customers.
Chapter 10 reminds us that it you don’t have to do it all yourself and that there are good arguments for collaborating to enhance the product offer, access expertise and, in the long run, save time and costs. The final chapter concludes the book with recommended marketing objectives and steps in achieving them.
Indispensable for small hotel & accommodation business owners who want an accessible guide