Digg it UP - Business

The Power of Knowing Your Customer
Often times we believe the depth of our customer does not extend beyond that of the business they do with us.In fact, it goes way beyond that. People love to talk about themselves, and if you take the time to talk to your customers about non-business topics, you will find that, more often than not, they are more than happy to engage you in conversation.By getting to know your customers, you can find a whole lot of valuable information from them. Such as where they live, do they have a family, what their hobbies are, do they have pets, etc.By finding out this type of information, you can determine what their needs are, than proceed to tell them about the products you have, that you believe would be ideal for their needs.Another plus when it comes to getting to know your customers, is that every time you speak with one another, you are strengthening the business relationship you already have with them.When I talk about getting to know your customer, I don’

annot count on their brand's reservation system to produce high volume of room nights or the brand's identity to pull guests off the street. Good market conditions will not put extended stay guests in the beds. Even though extended stay hotels can look, and in many ways feel, like any other hotel, the operational differences behind the scenes are vast. The most difficult philosophical change involves letting go of the bird-in-the-hand theory that is the basis of most hotels' yield management principles. This advance booking mentality is not conducive to the long-term guests' booking and travel patterns. Not only must operators abandon previous ideas about yield management, they must embrace and enact the upside down yield management principles that often make an extended stay hotel successful, including holding a certain number of r

Online Entrepreneur Basics
Today more and more often we hear about the overnight riches being made online. However when attempting to locate opportunities you can find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer number of sites offering you the chance to make incredible profits without ever leaving your home. Let’s face the facts anyone who would not be intrigued by these offers, in my humble opinion are either not being honest or just don’t understand the incredible potential an internet business can offer.What can be the most discouraging is the number of “offer in your face” type advertising that we see a lot of in the work at home category. This is in no way a new concept, just take a look at your local newspaper in the automotive section, every dealer within 200 miles is stating a better deal than the next just to get you in the door. The same holds true on the internet, however if you take your time and research the type of business that most interests you there is no doubt that your odds for success will grea

While extended stay guests have long been part of the hotel industry, the purpose-built segment has exploded in North America and particularly in the US within the last ten years. This has been a hotel developer's nirvana. Who wouldn't have been attracted to the segment?

Depending on whose figures you rely on, extended stay guests make up about six to ten percent of the overall traveling public and a greater percentage of the industry's sold room nights. Yet even today, extended stay rooms make up about less than ten percent of the North American total hotel room count. Even though this segment of the industry has experienced great growth by the adding of new brands and creating new price/quality tiers it still can not be ignored. Higher occupancies than any industry segment; and the highest profit margins in the industry are likely factors for this continuing trend.

Jack DeBoer is generally credited with creating the extended stay concept in the 1970s with the Residence Inn brand (sold several times over and now part of Marriott International). He has since created several other successful extended stay brands and is now on his fourth. Residence Inn by Marriott is now the largest extended stay brand boasting over 350 properties.

Several factors are important to the extended stay lodging product. Suites should include cooking facilities at least a microwave oven and two-burner stovetop and outfitted with related kitchen service ware (pots, pans glasses, dishes, etc.). Restaurants are out and hospitality centers for guests to enjoy complimentary breakfasts and evening social hours along with the social interaction highly prized by extended stay guests. Meeting rooms are out and exercise facilities, business centers and new office spaces for a beefed-up sales team are in. Unique direct selling methods are employed to reach extended stay guests and their decision-makers. Visit the author on-line at www.shgonline.com

Staffing models and operational procedures from the front of the house to the heart of the house are changed to meet the needs of long-term guests. Media advertising is stopped. Staff is energized for the new high levels of guest contact. Bus tours, conference and group business is put on the back burner to focus on guests staying at least five nights.

The lure of higher occupancies and better bottom lines brought about by these extended stay guests has created a rush by some transient, full-service and select-service hotel owners and operators to get on the extended stay bandwagon. However, these hotels, adding a small refrigerator here and a 30-night rate there are not usually fully prepared to meet the needs of the segment's guests and may not ultimately create satisfied customers. A complete commitment to the philosophical, physical plant and long-term guest focus is necessary for success. Success can be achieved through a dedicated purpose-built product or by converting a facility designed for long-term living, such as apartments and condominiums, into extended stay hotels. Hotel operators that jump into the fray without the know-how or physical plant to support them will find themselves up against several problems.

Owners' and operators' knowledge of the extended stay segment is crucial to their success. Unlike transient hotels, extended stay operations cannot count on their brand's reservation system to produce high volume of room nights or the brand's identity to pull guests off the street. Good market conditions will not put extended stay guests in the beds. Even though extended stay hotels can look, and in many ways feel, like any other hotel, the operational differences behind the scenes are vast. The most difficult philosophical change involves letting go of the bird-in-the-hand theory that is the basis of most hotels' yield management principles. This advance booking mentality is not conducive to the long-term guests' booking and travel patterns. Not only must operators abandon previous ideas about yield management, they must embrace and enact the upside down yield management principles that often make an extended stay hotel successful, including holding a certain number of r

Job Interviews -- How to Follow Up Effectively
Getting a job is not just about your performance in an interview. The post-interview follow up you do has a critical role in a successful job hunt. Here’s how to do it effectively.On the day of the interview or at most the next day, send a thank you note to each of the interviewers. Apart from saying that you’re keen to take up the job, mention two or three of your key strengths or skills that are directly useful for the position.During the interview, you should find out how soon they plan to have a person in place. Ask “In what timeframe do you expect to make a decision?” That’ll give you an idea about how much time is involved.Schedule your follow-up depending on this information. If the interviewer says they’ll make a decision in two to three months’ time, it makes no sense to follow up daily or even weekly.Keep common sense in mind. If you were the interviewer, would you like to receive three calls a day from a candidate? You certainly won’t. On the other h

e likely factors for this continuing trend.

Have You Considered Apprenticeship Training?
What do George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere have in common? Apprenticeship training, of course!Apprenticeship training is the oldest kind of job skills learning and has been used for centuries to train blacksmiths, silversmiths, printers and the like. In fact, Congress enacted the National Apprenticeship Act I n1937 to recognize the importance of apprenticeship in developing highly skilled workers in various trades. Apprenticeship is important in manufacturing, public utilities, fire, police, safety and of course in becoming a real estate mogul like Donald Trump!Learning any highly skilled profession takes more than classroom training. You need hands on experience with someone who is an expert in the field. This is where an apprenticeship can give you what you need to excel at your profession. Apprenticeship fills in the gaps from books to real life and gives you a solid understanding of how a specific process works. Apprenticeship is one of the best w

d stay guests. Meeting rooms are out and exercise facilities, business centers and new office spaces for a beefed-up sales team are in. Unique direct selling methods are employed to reach extended stay guests and their decision-makers. Visit the author on-line at www.shgonline.com

Open a Dollar Store - Empower Your Employees
A great deal of time and money is spent on locating, interviewing, hiring, and training employees when you open a dollar store. One of the ways to minimize the ongoing expense is to retain employees who are performing well. In addition to the savings associated with the staffing process, there is also a savings in the costs associated with training. Finally, employees who are trained and performing contribute much more than new employees who are struggling to learn their jobs and become assimilated into the organization.There are several key steps that business owners and managers can take after they open a dollar store. Those steps include:• Empower employees – As employees learn and demonstrate that they can correctly and successfully perform tasks, allow them to assume responsibility for those tasks. Step slowly away further and further as both you and the employee gain confidence in their work.• Provide timely feedback – Positive feedback gains much more than neg

ors to get on the extended stay bandwagon. However, these hotels, adding a small refrigerator here and a 30-night rate there are not usually fully prepared to meet the needs of the segment's guests and may not ultimately create satisfied customers. A complete commitment to the philosophical, physical plant and long-term guest focus is necessary for success. Success can be achieved through a dedicated purpose-built product or by converting a facility designed for long-term living, such as apartments and condominiums, into extended stay hotels. Hotel operators that jump into the fray without the know-how or physical plant to support them will find themselves up against several problems.

Buy-in to Performance Measurement - How to Get People Involved in Measuring Performance
Getting people involved in measuring and improving performance is one of the greatest challenges (and greatest enablers) in designing measures that lead to improvement. But just inviting them to a workshop, or telling them to come up with measures, rarely works. Here are my favourite ways to authentically involve people, in a way that has meaning for them.Idea #1: ask them what their biggest obstacles are to doing their job wellWhat will get people's attention more than talking about what bugs them the most? And what better a place to start involving them in performance improvement than in helping them improve what matters to them? Even if what bugs them isn't strategically important right now, it's a valuable exercise that will lead to them thinking more easily on what 'bugs the organisation' (the biggest obstacles to the organising performing well).Idea #2: ask them to give feedback on someone else's measuresAside from the obvious value that comes from gettin

In addition, managing an extended stay hotel's inventory restrictions and sell-through availability is vital to remove the usual market conditions of the daily occupancy peeks and valleys that could hinder an extended stay hotel's success. Complete knowledge of the extended stay guest's travel patterns is necessary to make these critical and profit impacting decisions.

The most important area of expertise is perhaps the most central to the success of extended stay hotels. It is the very unglamorous, specialized and tedious selling process practiced to attract guests and the decision-makers. No national trade shows to attend; no glamorous FAM trips; and very few three-hour lunches with reservation makers attempting to curry the favor of their phone calls.

It is also important for an operator to understand which operational procedures must change to better accommodate the extended stay guest. Operators who are not prepared to dedicate their facilities to the segment may find themselves dealing with unhappy guests and lost revenue. Purpose-built facilities are designed around guests' needs for separate and divided spaces in which to be productive, sleep and relax. The guests require a high degree of contact with all the hotel associates. They require contact with both hourly and managerial associates at early breakfasts and late social hours each day. The hotel's service levels have to be geared toward the guest's need for home-like services. Room attendants must treat the space as someone's home and act as the guest's personal housekeeper. That attendant must take on added responsibilities like folding clothes neatly and putting them away. Extended stay guests also require that the physical property be maintained at a very high level. Long-term guests spot guest room flaws easily. The small tear in the wall vinyl in room 302 eats away at the guests’ quality perception each and every day of their 30 night stay. A lack of an operator's complete attention to these and other such details will create dissatisfied guests.

The extended stay segment is not one that a hotel owner and/or operator can be in part-time without heading toward lost revenue. A dedication to the principles of extended stay yield management is needed so property managers can maintain the industry occupancy premiums that make this segment so successful. Long-term guests expect facilities designed to provide the living spaces of home at rates lower than corporate hotels in exchange for their long-term reservations. They do not use hotel profit centers such as lounges, restaurants, pay-per-view movies and banquet facilities like a typical transient or other type of lodging business. The unique direct selling methods needed for the extended stay segment are costly on a per-booked-room basis and the selling process requires constant management guidance for what is a very long sales cycle. A single extended stay booking can take months to develop from initial research to an in-house guest.

The lodging industry has experienced some very positive economic times and no segment has seen more attention and growth than the extended stay market. It provides great rewards to owners and oper

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It is beneficial that you give a legal structure for any business venture that you may start as it helps establish credibility to your business and offers benefits such as limited liability protection. Incorporation is one of the options that new business ventures may choose.

Each day, customers are leaving relationships with companies at rates that rival the national divorce rate. So what can companies learn from divorcing couples that will help them retain customers?

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Digg it UP - Extended Stay Lodging-Satisfying the Long-Term Guest

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