Search

×

Three things hoteliers should stop doing

Intent versus outcome, judgment versus experimentation: HOTELS gathered industry leaders recently for a roundtable hosted by The Wall Street Journal and asked them questions on a variety of topics. In this segment, HOTELS asked roundtable participants what hoteliers should stop doing. Here’s what the heads of Atelier Ace and Viceroy Hotel Group told us. And read today’s story about trends this group is watching (and catch up on how they are competing with disruption and addressing the wellness trend).

Bill Walshe, CEO, Viceroy Hotel Group: "We also need to stop hating on the OTAs just because they're OTAs."
Bill Walshe, CEO, Viceroy Hotel Group: “We also need to stop hating on the OTAs just because they’re OTAs.”

Brad Wilson, president, Atelier Ace: Stop observing other hotels, and start observing their customer as that would lead to authenticity. There’s too much ‘this other hotel did that, so we have to start saying we do that.’ Observing the customer is the true answer to authenticity, and the experiential economy.

Also, stop being everything to everyone and focus in on your mission, on that guest. Whether it’s by brand or overall, execute on it. I think again, you muddle everything if you’re trying to do everything for everyone. That’s where it gets sloppy in the delivery of what you’re doing.

Bill Walshe, CEO, Viceroy Hotel Group: Stop judging an initiative based on its outcome, and start celebrating the intent of the action. So have the courage to fail. I think we’ve become very safe. So when I talk about finding a few things to do brilliantly, particularly if it’s in an innovative space, promote the people who failed gloriously because life got in the way of what was a genius idea, and it wasn’t their fault. I think we’ve become so success focused in that success is everything. If it didn’t work, it wasn’t worth doing. We need to be open to tripping over our shoelaces a little bit, and allow content to evolve. Stop trying to script content for our guests. They’ll find what they love.

We also need to stop hating on the OTAs just because they’re OTAs. As a small company we need to recognize that the distribution platform has changed forever, and we need to change with it, embrace it, and try to manipulate it to our favor, or get left out. I’m a small company and will never have a sales office in Sydney. If I get a booking.com booking for 10 nights for Viceroy Santa Monica in a suite, because they have invested millions of Australian dollars creating visibility for my product, and I begrudge that reservation, shame on me for being who I am. Now I should be annoyed if OTAs are giving me business from my key home source markets where I have 10 people in a sales office. But they’re a fabric of distribution and they’re a part of our life.

Comment