SKILLS FOR ROOM SELLING

In this presentation on the front office we will show you the im-portance of effecve selling to your guest ,to your property and to you. You will learn the importance of knowing the product and the guest ,so that you can best match your yuest’s needs with your finer accommodations . We’ll show you techniques to control encounters and ask for the sale. Finally, we’ll demonstrate three methods for up-selling rooms and explain how you can promote all the facilities of your property through suggestive selling.

The main function of front office is to sell rooms because the guest rooms are the biggest products in hotel ,which is the important source of revenue.

According to the arrangement ,the guest rooms can be divided into the following types: single room ,double room, twin room, tri-ple room, suite (junior suite, duplex suite ,deluxe suite ,presiden-tial suite).According to the location , the rooms can be classified into the following kinds : inside room, outside room ,corner room, adjoining room and connecting room..

The task of selling rooms includes :accept the recervation, receive guests without resevation , make check-in procedure ,arrange the guest room and confirm room rate .The buesiness income from guest rooms depends on the price and the numbers of the rooms on sale . It’s one of the most important criteria to evaluate the mange-ment ability and operation in front office ,as well as the a-chievements of a successful reception to grasp. We can sell guest rooms by the following 5 steps :grasp charac-teristics, intro-duce rooms, negotiate price ,show guest room, make a deal.

In order to make guests live more happily and comfortably, to make clerks win more satisfaction from working, to raise the average room rate and to bring more income, the receptionist should know well all the products of a hotel, know the price and features of each room, including the room type, room location, room shape, direction, room area, color, decoration and furniture, etc. Only after grasping above-mentioned thoroughly, can the receptionist introduce the room features to guests in detail. Besides, the receptionist should be up to date on room status in the hotel in the high season. Moreover, the receptionist should have an overall understanding of the hotel and be familiar with what are introduced in the “service guide” of the hotel, including conference, banquet, dining hall, bar, teahouse, business center, laundry, swimming pool, entertainment, department, parking lot and some other service facilities. Meanwhile, receptionists should also know the entertainment activities, local activities, way of payment. Especially, he or she should know the spcial service items or other special programs offered by the hotel. The special services can be considerd as products that can be sold to guests. The receptionists can present guests the hotel’s operation objective, various convenient conditions, e.g. special services for the old, the young and the disabled, or other additional services for guests and so on. They help guests to form a whole impression on hotel through giving information. As qualified receptionists, they should know their rivals well and ways of communication with guests so that they can make a good introduction to the hotel.

So the receptionist should learn about guests’ characteristics, their age, profession, nationality, purpose of traveling and means of traveling. Then according to the information, employ sales strategies and techniques flexibly. See the following examples.

Situation 1 A: Ok, we have two kinds of rooms to choose from. We

have the deluxe rooms and standard rooms. G: Can you describe them for me? A: Well, the deluxe room is, you know, deluxe and a

standard room is well, standard.

Situation 2 A: Hello. May I help you? G: Yes, we’d like a room for the night. A: There are several rooms you can choose from. We have a

Trass suite for $125, a deluxe king room for 95 dollars a night and a twin room for $75.

G: Which do you recommend? A: I don’t know, sir. I just work here. I have never actually seen

the rooms. G: Well, the $75 room sounds fine. Selling, it’s one of the most important skills of a successful from

office employee. In each of the situations you’ve just seen, the front desk person missed the clear opportunity to upgrade the guest to a better, more expensive room. To really be a service to your guest and to be a front office professional, front office employees must consider themselves part of the property’s totally marketing efforts.

Whether taking a reservation, selling a room to a walk-in or registering a guest who has already reserved the room, the front office is often the first contact the guest has with the property and its employees. That contact can be used for more than reserving a room or registering a guest. From here you can explain the features, then value of your rooms and help your guest make an appropriate choice. By using a selling approach, you can have positive influence on the financial success of your property, while at the same time enhancing the guest’s satisfaction.

Consider for a moment all the features and services the property can offer, the restaurant, the cocktail lunch, room service, perhaps there is a health club, gift shop, valet service, meeting and convention services or some form of entertainment. All of these attractions can play an important part in the success and profitability of a hotel or motel, as well as enhance the guest’s experience. However, whether the guest stays one night or one week, on business or vacation, whether the property is a high-rise hotel or a roadside motel or a luxurious resort, the guest will usually spend show the most money on one item, the guest room. Industry’s statistics show that room sales, by far, generate the greatest revenue in the lodging industry. Of course, properties with no food and beverage services rely on room sales for nearly all revenue. Bur even those hotels and motels which include restaurant and other services find that room sales most always contribute more income than other rest ot the property’s features combined.

“ In order to be a professional in every sense of the word, whether rhe professional sales person, professional person in terms of guest service, you need to know your product, you need to be able to explain it, you’ll be able to know all the different features, the benefits why the guest would make best use of this room.”

In order to provide your guest with the best possible accommodations that fit their needs, you must be fully familiar with the products you’re selling and be fully able to describe the products to the guest. The product we’re talking about is the guest room.

When you tour your property, look at the rooms from the perspective of your guest. Remember they will peobably be unfamiliar with the features of your guest rooms and will rely on you as the front office professional to help them make the appropriate choice. In order for you to help make that choice, it’s equally important for you to know the guest. Common sense would tell you that there’re certain rooming situations you would want to avoid. If you have two business people who’re sharing expenses, you would not offer one room with the king-size bed. You would not recommend one standard room to a family with children. But beyond the more obvious situations, there’re other factors you can use to help you recommend the better room.

Observing the guest or asking the right questions can provide you with the information you can use to recommend the better room. Factors such as whether the guest has an expense account, size of party, purpose of visit and special needs,, should be matched with the special features of your rooms. Those features may include location, view, the call, furnishings, room size, size of the bed and amenities and a higher daily rate, then so much the better for you, the hotel and the guest.

That bring us to the second factor we want to explore, your own perspective on your property. Renmenber that room choices are made to meet needs and desires of the guest and you must suspend your own personal opinion of what choice should be. Keep in mind that the guest’s impression of what ia adequate and affordable could be quite different from your own. Often the guest who is traveling on business on an expense account may not hesitate to spend a little more for a higher quality room. A couple or family traveling on their money and may be happy with a larger room and more amenities.

Controlling the encounter to upgrade the guest to a better, more expensive room involves all of the concepts we’re discussed up to this point, plus two new ones: being enthusiastie and for the sale.

Using this method will serve everybody’s interests in the hotel. The guest will be staying in some of the finest accommodations your property has to offer. The hotel will benefit from having one with a low room rate. And you’ll have demonstrated your ability as the front office professional and a member of the sales ream at your hotel.

Now that we’re discussed some assumptions about the front office and given you some tools to communicate effectively with the guest. Let’s advance to more sophisticated selling techniques, up-selling rooms.

The three methods of non-pressure upselling are: offering the guest a set of rate category alternatives, offering the guest choices from the top-down and selling more expensive rooms by starting at the bottom, obtaining the guest’s compliance and moving up.

A: Welcome to the Seabris Motel. May I help you? G: Yes, we need a room for tonight and tomorrow night. A: How many in your party? G: Four: me, my wife and two chidren. A: Oh, several options for you to consider. There is the captain

suite, which includes two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen, at $425. All our suites face the water. We can also arrange for teo adjoining rooms, each with two double beds and a connecting door in between. The two rooms together would be $90. Oh, we have a very nice rooms available with 2 double beds for $45 and we can arrange to have a roller-away brought up, if you like. Which one would you prefer?

G: Ah, I think that middle one you mentioned. A: The two adjoining rooms. G: Yeah, that sounds fine. A: Oh, good choice. That’s a cery nice room. Would you please fill

out the guest registration card and we’ll be all set.

Notice in this method of upselling, the front office person has given the guest the set of rate category alternatives. She then asks:

A: Which one would you prefer? When given a set of our alternatives, people have a natural

tendency to choose the middle one. Notice: no outside pressure is placed on a guest. If your guest feels any pressure at all, it probably comes from his desire to appear reasonable and compromising.

G: I think that middle one you mentioned. A choice of alternatives is an easy and effective way to upsell your

guest to the middle rate, when they might otherwise choose the minimum rate and are unlikely to decide a deluxe accommodation.

Selling your room from the top-down can be in an effective way to place your guests in deluxe or medium price accommodations. There is always the chance the guest will comply with your first offer, the room in a highest rate category. After all, some guests have a large expense account, others simply want the best rooms available. But for those who turn down the most expensive accommodations, there is a good chance of selling them the nest best thing.

G: But, I don’t need anything that elaborate. Having rejected the highest rate suggested, the guest will

likely feel a middle-rate room is a reasonable compromise. Economy-minded guests on a restricted budget probably will

still choose a room with a low rate, buy many guests will choose accommodations in the middle and upper ranges. But even if a guest has reserved the room at a minimum rate, he or she can be convinced to upgrade their choice with our third technique: bottom up.

The bottom –up technique works because you have already obtained some agreement even before the guest walks in door.

G: Yes, I have a reservation. The very act of making a reservation may indicate that the

guest is inclined to be agreeable and the front office person can use this tendency to upgrade the guest during registration.

A: As for another $25, we can put you into a deluxe room with the king-size bed and a continental breakfast.

The large request you are making of the guest doesn’t appear to be a total outlet for a more expensive room, but rather a small incremental increase.

If combined with the skills we talked about earlier, knowing the guest and your product and controlling the encounter, upselling can be a powerful, non-pressure tool that you can use to contribute to the financial success of your property, while enhancing your guest’s experience. You, as a front office professional, should feel good about providing your guest with above-average accommodations and helping them to make a reasonable choice which best meets their needs.

We’ve been talking about selling rooms and more sophisticated art of upselling. Let’s take this topic one step further now to include the whole property. Remember: we said the room sales is the No.1 revenue source of most lodging operations, but the other features and services of your property also play a substantial part in the overall financial picture.

Front office personnel can help those other departments through the technique known as suggestive selling. Think of this way: the restaurant, room service, recreation and other services are there for the convenience and entertainment of the guest. If guest are unaware of these features, they may not make use of them or they may use similar ones outside the property. Since you have a close personal contact with guests, you and other members of the front office team have the ideal opportunity to sell suggestively these other services in the hotel and motel.

The front office plays a key role in the success of any hotel or motel. At the front desk you and your colleagues interact with all the guests your property serves. Every guest, every encounter is a little bit different that the one before and each one offers a new opportunity to effectively sell the rooms and services your property has to offer. Suspend any inhibitions you may have to recommending your finest accommodations. Instead, look at the rooming process from the guest’s perspective. Remember the concepts we’ve discussed: we should help you control your encounter, the guest; know the product and be able to articulate the features and attractions of your room; know the guest and guide the guest’s choice to fully meet their needs and expectation; be enthusiastic and stress the benefits the guest can enjoy from the rooms you recommend; and most importantly, ask for the sale. Once you have mastered these skills, consider using the upselling techniques we demonstrated for you earlier. Finally, in order to become a complete effective member of your sales team, use suggestive selling to promote the other features and services your property has to offer.

Your job in the front office is one of the most important and exciting in the lodging industry. Selling, whether be suggested selling of your property’s services or upselling rooms, it’s one way to make your job more interesting, more challenging, more fun. By doing so, you’ll be contributing in a very positive way to the financial well-being of your hotel and motel. You’ll more fully serve your guest’s needs and provide them with a more memorable stay at your property. And you’ll know the satisfaction comes from your contribution to your porperty’s sales effort and pride in being a true front office professional.