Luxury Hotels: Here’s What’s Impacting Your Bottom Line
Luxury hotels must maintain high standards of guest satisfaction, but like any business, their operations must be profitable. This is why the best Hotel Managers are able to identify and address the most pressing challenges impacting the bottom line.
Here are three of the top issues that can influence the bottom line for luxury hotels and how to combat them.
3 Top Issues Impacting the Bottom Line for Luxury Hotels
Changing Guest Expectations
Post-pandemic luxury travelers are looking for more than just a beautiful room; they want increased cleanliness and seamless technology integration.
Tips for How to Boost Guest Satisfaction
Invest in Technology: As technology advances rapidly, luxury hotels must embrace digital innovation to stay competitive and enhance guest satisfaction by offering convenience. When looking at technology, don’t just consider the upfront cost but also the indirect savings, such as reduced energy bills in the case of smart thermostats or reduced staffing in the case of contactless automated check-in.
Keep Rooms Clean and Safe: Beyond contactless transactions and smart technology, guests expect spotless and germ-free rooms without harsh chemicals. Maintaining higher cleanliness and safety standards is an investment in guest satisfaction, which can improve your hotel’s reputation over time through positive guest reviews.
Rising Operational Costs
The relentless climb of operational costs is squeezing profits for luxury hotels. From soaring energy bills and supply chain hiccups to wage inflation and property taxes, expenses seem to be climbing faster than ever.
Tips for How to Help Keep Costs Down
Saving on Energy and Water: Efficient linen management is essential for reducing utility costs due to the significant energy and water expenses associated with laundry. To balance sustainability with guest satisfaction, consider developing programs that offer guests the option to reuse towels during their stay.
Off-Peak Laundry Operations: Running laundry operations during off-peak hours, when energy demand is lower, is another option. Hotel Managers can take advantage of lower utility rates and lessen the strain on their energy infrastructure.
Room Turnover Efficiency
Luxury hotels are under enormous pressure to increase room turnover speed without sacrificing impeccable housekeeping standards to increase profitability.
Tips for How to Boost Turnover Efficiency
Keeping the Right Periodic Automatic Replacement (PAR) Level: Maintaining the correct linen PAR levels is critical to maximizing efficiency. With a proper linen PAR level, room turnover requires fewer trips back and forth to restock the cart, resulting in faster room turnover AND lower staffing costs.
Optimizing Linen Tracking: Technology like RFID tracking for real-time linen tracking, while a major investment, can help coordinate linen availability with room readiness and reduce inventory loss. These benefits could increase turnover efficiency and drive down operational costs in the long run.
Protecting the Bottom Line
Effectively managing shifting guest expectations, rising operational costs, and room turnover efficiency is vital for the long-term success of luxury hotels. Hotel Managers who prioritize meeting these challenges not only help their hotels stay competitive in the marketplace but also keep the hotel’s profitability in the green.