5 Challenges Facing Hotel Management Company CROs

As we continue to highlight the insightful discussion from the recent HSMAI meetings held last month in Toronto, we turn our attention to the Hotel Management Company Chief Revenue Officers (CRO) roundtable.  This unique peer group from 28 different management companies identified five key themes that were challenging them and their organizations:

1. How do we find ways to improve team efficiency and effectiveness – especially given company portfolio diversity, expansion, and contraction? The recommendations included keeping reps trained and relevant, ensuring meaningful discussions, and solving problems effectively.

2. How do we better collaborate and communicate as they are key to success? Participants emphasized the need for more guidance, regular meetings, and collaboration between different departments like sales, marketing, and distribution. Collaboration was seen as a way to drive meaningful change and improve overall performance.

3. How do we continue to retain good talent? Retaining team members and ensuring their well-being were highlighted as essential. Providing guidance to employees in a non-intimidating manner was emphasized as a critical way to overcome burnout. The importance of empathy, managing workloads, and balancing responsibilities were also highlighted.

4. How do we manage volatility and forecasting? Managing volatility and forecasting were identified as significant challenges particularly relating to managing unique demand shifts like migrant business asylum blocks, and market specific anomalies.

5. How do we improve customer satisfaction and experience? There remains a constant need to improve the quality of services through cleanliness, food and beverage services, and customer acquisition costs.

The management company peer group also focused on the future of the industry by identifying ongoing or new challenges that lie ahead.

• There will be ongoing difficulty in recruitment and hiring.
• There will be ongoing struggles with managing the workload of employees, potentially leading to burnout and decreased productivity.
• There is ongoing grappling with issues related to communication as we must provide feedback effectively, especially when managing different generations and communication styles.
• There is a need to invest in retention to create an environment where employees feel proud of the industry they represent.

The CROs emphasized the importance of continuous improvement and staying proactive in managing the complexities of forecasting in the hospitality industry and their diverse portfolios of hotels.

Companies represented at the roundtable included Aimbridge Hospitality; Atlantis Paradise Island; Atrium Hospitality; Charlestowne Hotels; CoHo Services; CoralTree Hospitality; Crescent Hotels & Resorts; Davidson Hotels & Resorts; Ennismore (formerly SBE); Highgate Hotels; Hospitality Ventures Management Group (HVMG); HRI Hospitality; InnVentures; InterMountain Management; Island Hospitality Management; Lodging Dynamics Hospitality Group; Marcus Hotels & Resorts; McNeill Hotel Company; NCG Hotels; Palisociety Management; Peachtree Hospitality Management; Playa Hotels and Resorts; Pyramid Global; Remington Hotel Corporation; Sage Hotel Management; Schulte Hospitality Group; Stonebridge Companies; Wurzak Hotel Group, representing nearly 4,000 managed hotels. Roundtable partners were OTA Insight; Revenue Analytics; and ZS.