The Hospitality Sector

 

Avid Partners has a number of clients operating in the hotel and accommodation areas and have been working with these businesses to both streamline and grow their operations as greater opportunities present themselves. Avid Partners have helped our hotel clients cut controllable costs and keep their businesses streamlined so that they are in a position to offer stimulus to attract guests to their hotel. Waste and overruns have been cut out of their business and costs are also monitored closely to ensure that the business isn’t overpaying in any key area. We also have clients marketing their products and services directly to the hospitality sector including furnishings companies, trade providers, fit out organisations, catering and events companies.

 

Hotels must also remain price competitive and market their products in an effective way to the target audiences that will likely be most receptive to immediate business (established overseas markets and new/emerging foreign visitors). Continued investment in product infrastructure will also be important as customers move up the value chain, as well as finding the unique balance between hotel prices and operating costs.

 

 

Sector Issues

 

The industry still faces a number of challenges to growth including:

 

  • Static domestic demand for rooms and guesthouses
  • Despite the upturn in 2012 only a 1% increase in occupancy was reported
  • Room rates are still heavily discounted for off peak times
  • Rural hotels continue to find the operating market difficult through lack of domestic tourists and a difficulty in attracting overseas visitors outside of the traditional tourist hubs
  • Sluggishness in key overseas tourism markets (UK, US)
  • Legacy debt and over supply issues
  • NAMA operated hotels still keeping rates artificially low in certain local markets
  • A three speed system appears to be developing with hotels in Dublin City Centre doing very well, the tourist hubs doing well (Killarney, Galway, Cork) with the rural areas lagging behind the more established markets

 

Industry Stats

The hospitality sector has added some 23,000 jobs since 2011. The hotel sector in Ireland alone currently supports 54,000 jobs. The sector has recovered well since the 2008 downturn mainly attributed to reduced VAT rates, the Gathering 2013 and a general increase in Foreign Visitors. According to the Irish Hotel Federation the overall occupancy rate for 2013 was 61% with a regional variance of up to 24% (Dublin 70% – East & Midlands 46%).

Contact Us

 

Contact Avid Partners today 0818 303087 to see how we can assist you with your hotel or hospitality business. Make an appointment today to chat about your business with one of our expert Avid Partner staff. Email advice@avidpartners.ie and find out how we can help you.

 

Solutions Include:

Scenarios:

In the last number of years due to the abundance of hotels and guest houses in the market and with the impact of NAMA run hotels driving down prices to fulfil their remit of keep the doors open, we have reached a situation where prices have bottomed out for many operators. For many any further pressure on prices will mean offering room rate as lost leaders to get people into their premises. As the industry continues to sort itself out and as state owned hotels revert back to privately run business the situation should improve and an emphasis on value for money will return over the lowest market prices.
There has and will continue to be a divide in hotel occupancy between the popular tourist areas and the rural local hotels. Depending on where you are in the country you will need to adopt more of a "pull approach" to your hotels marketing activities to ensure that potential customers are reaching your shores. Specific areas that you can promote your hotel around include growth areas like: weddings, cultural tourism, festivals and events, food tourism, eco tourism, adventure tourism, short breaks, sports tourism, leisure pursuits, spa and wellness breaks, english language learning, developing markets (China), e tourism, business/corporate activity and the retirees market. Pick the targets that your hotel can cater the best for and be aggressive. Don't wait for your ship to come in, swim out to meet it!
In our experience there are a number of areas a hotel owner or manager must be competent at in order to run a successful business. These include: • Building & Leading a great team • Always be prepared to learn and improve • Greet your guests in person wherever possible • Be prepared for emergencies and learn to problem solve • Build strategic relations with other industry companies • Be good at Internet Marketing • Ensure the hotel is properly equipped and to modern standards • Set standards for all staff to follow • Accept if not always agreeing with the adage "the customer is always right" • Keep the hotel clean and tidy
  • Excel recruitment
  • Cartridge World Portlaoise
  • EBS SHOP
  • CRDS
  • Bank of Ireland logo
  • clelands supermarkets
  • cottage surgery
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