News & Insights

SEASON 2 - EPISODES 6-9: SHORT-TERM RENTALS VS. TRADITIONAL HOTELS

Short-term rentals have surged in popularity over recent years. Now, we’re seeing traditional hotel companies venture into this market to diversify their portfolios and meet the evolving needs of consumers. However, managing a short-term rental is no easy feat. Watch this four-part series with top experts in the short-term rental market and discuss how advancements in this evolving space have revolutionized the industry, specifically with technology.

Season 2 - EpisodeS 2-5: Unleash your hotel’s revenue potential beyond the guest room

with Scott Pusillo, VP & Head of Sales, North America at Sabre Hospitality Solutions

Travel experiences, services and merchandising offers hotels limitless revenue potential outside the room. Attribute-based selling has been a hot topic in the travel industry focusing on guest room related attributes. While ancillary sales and product attachments are not necessarily a new concept, what if you could go well beyond selling the traditional hotel room within the guest booking path? Well, now you can!

Season 2 - Episode 1: what does the future hold for corporate meetings & events?

with Kristi White, Chief Product Officer at Knowland

As corporate travel restrictions continue to ease and more and more companies realize the importance of gathering together in person, there is an overwhelming amount of optimism that corporate meetings and events is set to finish the year strong and forge ahead into 2023 with much promise.

#19: SERIES FINALE: Thanks & Giving for St. Jude Children’s Hospital

with Melanee Hannock, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer from St Jude Children’s Research Hospital - ALSAC

This week we devoted our time to our cause, St. Jude Children's Hospital. Dragonfly donates a percentage of its revenue each year to St. Jude. Our Founder & CEO, Caryl Helsel, Melanee Hannock, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital - ALSAC join together for this series finale to talk about the impact St. Jude has.

#18: Building a Legacy of Boutique Leadership

with Frances & Ariela Kiradjian from BLLA and StayBoutique

Top 5 ways boutique hotels can deliver service right now?

1. Give a choice for upgrades experiences

2. Give a choice for contactless and contact experiences

3. Give full disclosure on what hotel amenities are available and what is not available

4. Give attention to digital marketing to make more personal experiences for your guests

5. Give attention to small details that can make an experience exceptional during recovery phases

#17: Finding a New Role During a Pandemic

with Grace Migliaccio, Co-Founder & Managing Principal at Pipeline Human Capital

How to network during a pandemic?

• Start with a number less than 10

• Make 3 connections with 3 ppl in 3 days

• Find the 9 ppl and have interaction with them

• Text, email or live chat on zoom

#16: Leveraging Your Digital Agency for Recovery

with Lindley Cotton, President of GCommerce

Why should hotels partner with local, attractions, restaurants, and small businesses?

• Recognize: Get Creative and Collaborate with the team to identify local business partnerships in your market

• Experience: Make the partnership part of your guest experience

• Connection: People are craving connection now more than ever. Fostering the local community is going to go a long way. Trends of engagement show that people are looking for a community and feel like they are part of something. The more you can tie that into your marketing strategy the more success and engagement you will see in that from guests.

#15: The Power of Commercial Strategy

With Kathleen Cullen, Senior Vice President of PHG Consulting

See Blog Post Article that accompanies this video

ACTIONS

To optimize for recovery:

1. Decide what you need (not what you already have)

2. Decide who is on your team & can help you get there

3. Align everyone to your vision

What skills are needed to move into a commercial strategy leader?

1. The ability to think and act multidimensionally 

2. Agility - you have to be able to pivot quickly the landscape moves

3. Change makers mindset will be very successful 

#14: How Attribute-Based Selling can help Hotels Recover Part 2

With George Roukas, Partner, Hudson Crossing & Alise Deeb,VP of Revenue Strategy, Dragonfly Strategists

Actions:

Advice to get ABS started in the current environment? 

1. Start now and get ahead of the pack  

2. Start by getting informed and test your strategy

3. Soft attributes or bundle while the technology progresses

4. Start talking to CRS vendors about what they offer and future of ABS development 

#13: Call Centers: A focal point for the Hotel recovery equation

with Stacie Bushaw, Director of Enterprise Sales at Navis

What approach should hotels use in their call centers during recovery?

• Now more than ever it is the strategies that work need to be in place

• Don’t pull back on the strategies that you have always deployed and executed successfully

• Communication with agents is key to make certain they have the information they need to communicate with guests and to do it confidently

#12: Hotel Marketing in a Post-COVID World

with Maresa Thompson, Executive Marketing Consultant

See our blog post:
Hotel’s Marketing Strategies Checklist
or
Download a PDF

#11: How Can You Effectively Partner with OTAs? How can you use analytics from OTAs to deploy successful strategies in recovery?

with Nicole Tomasso, Dragonfly’s Director of Revenue and Ryan Goldberg - Senior Market Manager NYC for Booking.com

• Transient Demand Trends - OTAs have a tremendous amount of data based on consumer behavior pattern using this data can guide direct selling strategies to win transient business

• Market Trends - Utilize OTA data to understand what is happening in your market at a higher level - most important metrics to review are lead time, rate, length of stay, and demographics

• Fair share performance - Evaluate your hotel performance against your hotels compset, the entire market, or peer group of like hotels to evaluate performance in today's environment

#11: Reinventing for the Return vs. Waiting for the Return

with Kate Burda, CEO & Founder of Kate Burda & Co.

1. How to position selling teams and strategies in recovery?

2. Break the status quo of traditional selling strategies inside the hospitality industry

3. Learn selling practices of pharma, tech, or other emerging industries

4. Position the sales, marketing, and revenue trifecta to be collaborative

#9: Attribute-Based Selling to Help Hotels Recover

See our Blog for an more in-depth look at this topic also published on HotelRecovery2020.com

with George Roukas, Partner, Hudson Crossing & Alise Deeb,VP of Revenue Strategy, Dragonfly Strategists

1. What are the steps to take to get ready for attribute based selling in hotels?

2. Collaborate with guest facing teams & marketing

3. Understand what your guests are saying on voice, social and through other guests listening tools

4. Test and learn on your book direct channels online and via the call center

#8: Pre-Opening and Opening Revenue and Distribution Strategies

with Shalina Daswani, Corporate Director, Revenue Strategy, Makeready

#7: Distribution & Recovery

with our VP of Distribution and Operations Erica Penley-Claycomb

#6: Driving Revenue with Targeted CRM Strategy

with Jenna Villalobos, Vice President of Revenue Strategy for Outrigger Hotels & Resorts

#5: The Power of Partnerships and Networking

with Kathleen Cullen, SVP PHG Consulting and Flo Lugli, Founder & Principal, Navesink Advisory Group

#4: Becoming Allies in a World of Racial Injustice

with Vela McClam Mitchell, Founder and CEO of Vimm Global LLC

Actions:  - See our Blog for additional resources

1.      Hire Differently
2.      Change your recruiting process 
3.      Bring in Black people from other industries 
4.      Become Allies in the workplace
5.      Be an advocate for Opportunity for your Black Colleagues 
6.      Be active in speaking up in racism in your workplace 

#3: Are Revenue Management Systems Relevant for Recovery?

with Jamieson Asselta, IDeaS Area Manager, Americas

Actions: 

1.      Let's avoid the knee jerk reactions 
2.      Let's not abandon our process and strategy
3.      Let's remember it's ok to be uncomfortable

#2: Sales in a New Frontier

with Paige Dunn, our Executive Consultant and Sales Strategist

Actions:

1.      Look at BLLA for the boutique hotel recovery standards
2.      Lean into their smaller scale - fewer number of rooms and people checking in and out
3.      Describe what the guest Journey is going to be like

#1: Revenue Strategies in a Changed Landscape

with Alise Deeb, our VP of Revenue Strategy

Actions:

1.      Don't Drop your Rates 
2.      Dropping Rate does not drive demand
3.      If you afraid you are going to get sick deep discounts are not going to change your mind