Congratulations, you just finished RFP season and landed 14 major national accounts.  You’re excited, and your corporate office is impressed as well.  But now the real work begins, you have to get these new accounts to actually produce room nights.

It used to be a lot easier for hotel sales manager to get national accounts to produce room nights.  They would simply identify 20-50 or more travel agents, meet the agents, build relationships, stay in touch with them, ensure they were servicing their travelers, and the reservations would start rolling in.  If reservations started to decline, or better yet, increase, they would simply call the lead agent and have a conversation.

Times have changed.  These days, 3-5 or more hotels are selected to be the preferred hotel for any given city or geographic region.  These hotels are then listed on a company intranet web site for individual travelers to decide which hotel they want to stay at when they visit that destination.  The travelers are told they can select to stay with any of the hotels on the site – it’s their choice.

The question then becomes…

How do you reach each traveler and get them to stay at their hotel?   How do you develop relationships with 100 -500 or more individuals?

Below are some suggestions that will help ensure your success.

1.  Host a nightly or weekly reception where you can network with IBT Accounts and build new contacts and relationships.
2.  Ask your guests for referrals.  Reward the customer for their referrals.
3.  Ask your guests to email fellow travelers and recommend your hotel.
4. Develop a “live” customer newsletter for each National IBT Account.  Update the “live’ newsletter with promotions, contests, and prize winner announcements.  Make it fun and lively so that customers will save your newsletter to their favorites list.  Visit   http://www.aprinda.com/aprinda-pdq-promos to develop your “live newsletter.”  You can update the newsletter with just a few keystrokes.  Note:  This same concept works well to keep hundreds of Central Reservations Offices informed and updated about your hotel’s promotions and offers.
5. Include a link to your “live newsletter” at the bottom of your email signature line.  This will enhance awareness effortlessly.
6. Send a note with cookies/gift/amenity to the guest room of  National IBT guests.  Thank them for staying with you.  Offer to meet them for coffee to discuss their travel needs, and reward them for referrals.
7. Although travel agents are declining in numbers. (Most companies have 80% or more of their travel go through their intranet and individuals make their own travel arrangements) There are still agents to connect with so you can ensure you are maximizing your market share.  Ask these reservation agents to escalate information about your hotel to their travelers and fellow travel associates.  Use the “live newsletter” to keep your information update to date and current without having to continuously re-send information.

Implement the above suggestions, and you will be sure to see results from those National Contracts you worked so hard for during RFP season.