Killarney was down by 12% – Galway 24% and Cork 31%

Irish Hotel prices drop by 21% in 2009 is a post from: hotelconsult.ie

Ireland now has one of the steepest declines worldwide in hotel prices.  Only Dubai shows a similar decline.

http://www.hrgworldwide.com/HRGreleases2009HotelSurvey/tabid/12135/Default.aspx

How long will this last?  2010 is expected to be a tough year for hotel in Ireland but there is only so far the prices can go down.  Enjoy it when you can.

Dublin Hotel prices drop again in 2009 is a post from: hotelconsult.ie

Irish Hotels use Twitter to build profiles.  There is nothing wrong with this.  I do it myself.  I have seen some Hotels do this well & some hotels I feel not so well (putting it mildly)   

Some Hotels just talk about their hotel & offers 100%.  I see others barley talk about the hotel.  As they say in politics you cannot get in power without winning the centre. 

My advice. 

Talk about the hotel, your area & whatever people discussing on Twitter that interests you.  

Engage with other Twitter users.  Don’t think that you are the only person on Twitter that has something interesting to say.  If you talk about you 100% & do not engage with other users they will see your Twitter posts for what they are.  Me me me. 

ReTweet 

You will see RT@ a lot on Twitter.  This is where Twitter users pass on a twitter post by someone else so that their own Twitter followers can see what you have said.  Why do people do this?  They may have found what you have said worth passing on.  If you have engaged overtime with other Twitter users they may just be using Twitter courtesy by RT your comments.  

Human nature being what it is if someone RTs your comments & you do not return the favour at times it will be only a matter of time before they say stuff you.  What ever people are saying on Twitter it is interesting to them.  This is probally the nbr1 error I think Irish hotels make on Twitter. 

Spam Followers 

Don’t get into look at how many followers I have trap.  Spam followers are useless.  They do not read your comments.  Other then give you a false sense of importance they do nothing for you.  They also will not make you look credible to genuine Twitter users.  Cleanup spam followers as often as you can (need to do myself) 

Follow other Twitter users. 

When someone followers me once they are not a spammer I don’t care if they are a scientist or a car park attendant I will look at their profile & follow if I feel they contribute to Twitter.  Maybe that is just me. 

Content

Twitter is all about what you are saying & not how many followers you have.  When I did some work for D4 Hotels I answered a post on Boards.ie.  I answered questions about the hotel and the post went on for 4 months before they kicked me off for hogging free advertising.  It was fun when lasted. 

Twitter offers 

Try to give real value offers to Twitter.  They way I look at it.  If you have rooms for €100 you pay some 3^rd party providers 25% commission.  Offer the room for €80 on Twitter & the guest and you win v the 3^rd party. 

As I have said I am not claiming to be an expert but most of what I say above is common sense.

Any comments as they say give it wellie.

Twitter for Hotels is a post from: hotelconsult.ie

Last Saturday Sept 26^th I joined 14 others on a Photawalk in Cork City.  I have to admit I was not sure if it would not be my thing so as I headed to meeting point at the Montenotte Hotel I saw the day more as work then a day out.

I was wrong.  It turned out to be a very enjoyable Sat morning of meet, greet, eat & chat. 

Before we started we chatted over tea/Coffee & scones at the hotel.  We then headed for the roof of the Montenotte Hotel & enjoyed a spectacular view of the Marina & the docklands.  I am a local boy originally from near the Docks.  The view from the hotel roof brought back a lot of memories as kids the docks was our playground.  How are we still alive I thought with all the stuff we got up to. 

We left the hotel and headed down Sumerhill.  It is amazing how much you can see when you are not in a car.  I had not walked around here since I lived in a manky bedsit back in the 1980s.  Lovely area, horrible bedsit.  We made a turn halfway down on the pedestrian bridge that brings you to the train station entrance.  Some good photo shots of trains & the new Cork/Swansea ferry. 

We eventually ended up at our finishing point the Boardwalk Bar & Grill on the quay near City Hall.  After a lot of pics outside we headed in for a really nice lunch.  It was only my 2^nd time in here and really like it.  It is a bit different to other restaurant bars around.  Good food also. 

Four lucky people got to round off the day by taking a speedboat trip down the harbour complements of the Boardwalk Bar & Grill. 

Overall it was a great fun but I wonder how my pictures don’t look as good as the others (mine on top)  Maybe size does matter. 

For Hotels 

When we try to come up with ways of getting more awareness for our businesses we tend to come up with the old tried & tested routines.  There are other ways by trying to engage with your community and running events that have mutual benefits & you don’t have to do the hard sell.  The Photo walkers took the shots they wanted to take. 

Finally I would like to thank the following. 

The Montenotte Hotel for the 3 free rooms, access to the roof & the tea/scones. 

John Gately & Neil Prendeville’ of the Boardwalk Bar & Grill for the complementary lunch and speedboat trip.   

Donncha O Caoimh who led the walk and all the gang who participated. 

Damian Mulley www.mulley.net & Eimer Walsh of webassist who helped come up with the event and helped publicize. 

Nigel Robertson of www.sixmiledesign.com for work on the Montenotte Hotel website & SEO work. 

For some great shots (not mine) of the day check links below. 

http://inphotos.org/cork-photowalk-gallery-montennot/ 

http://pix.ie/willknott/album/355954/page/4 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/omaniblog/sets/72157622463090158/

Cork Photowalk Sept 2009 is a post from: hotelconsult.ie

Your own website

Do you own your own website?  Are you sure?

You get a web developer to build a new website.  You pay the money so you own the site?  Not necessarily.  While most developers are great I am seeing more & more cases of hotels not owning their own sites after paying for the site build.  There are some big web companies that engage in this.  Not naming names.  Well not yet anyway. 

Make sure before any money is passed over that you agree that you own the site and the keys to the site are passed to you once the site is built.  What does this mean? 

 If you do not own the site then you will be 100% tied to the person who has built it.  Any changes will have to be done by them at a price you will have to agree with them.  If you own the site & have the keys you can move to another web developer if you are not happy with the service or price you are getting.  Hopefully you will have a good relationship with your site developer.  I am coming across to many cases where hotels are been held to ransom. 

Cost Per Click

Again I am seeing a massive amount of hotels that use Cost Per Click campaigns & don’t have access to the stats.  It is your money so your campaign so your stats. 

SEO

If you have someone doing SEO work make sure you get a regular report that you can see how your are moving up the pages (or not) 

Google Analytics

As a consultant I come across some weird stuff.  One of the weirdest is when I ask a hotel for Google analytics access.  Sometimes the person from outside the hotel that has to give access will ask why the hotels ask for this. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Why?  Because it is the hotels stats that’s why.  I always ask why you don’t you want to give it?

Hotels get in control of your information. If you get resistance to any of the above then you need to ask why.  The answer may be very easy to work out.

Irish Hotels be in control of your Website & stats is a post from: hotelconsult.ie

Ireland is now the least expensive country in W Europe for a Hotel room.  If you take all of Europe the Czech Republic (€71) is the lowest.  I am sure operating costs there are a lot lower then Ireland. 

Europe as a whole is price is down 16% and the U.S 17% 

Galway hotels seem to be holding on price €110 per room.   

Cork 2^nd €79 (down 33%) 

Dublin very affordable at €76 & Limerick least expensive city at €65 

26% overall.  There are very few industries in Ireland that have seen that kind of decline.  I keep saying I have not seen the price of my pint fall this year. Why is Ireland down more then another Country? Simple maths.  Too many rooms & not enough of guests.  Hotels are in one of the most competitive markets you have.  This was even true during the boom. Ok sometimes you get screwed for peak events but I do think this balances out if you take in the times you get a cheap room. 

Most Hotels in Ireland will lose money or breakeven in 2009. I don’t think this is good for hotels or in the long run for guests.  The more hotels close the less competition in the long-term. What is best for both?  Maybe not to go back to where we were but not go down to much?  In the meantime all I can say to bookers is enjoy.  You never had it so good.

Irish Hotel prices drop 26% is a post from: hotelconsult.ie

Bewleys Hotels.

Belvedere Hotel

Radisson Blue Royal Hotel

Maldron Hotels

Carlton Hotel Dublin Airport

Fitzwilliam Hotel

Louis Fitzgearld Hotel

The Academy Hotel Plaza

Arlington Hotel, O’Connell Bridge

The Gresham

Carlton Hotel Dublin Airport

The Dylan

The Morrison

Burlington

Grand Canal Hotel

The Clarence

Camden Court Hotel

——————–

Kildare

Lawlors Hotel  Naas

Keadeen Hotel Newbridge

Killashee House Hotel in Naas

———————————

Clare

———————————

Meath

Dunboyne Castle

—————————————

Waterford

Waterford Marina hotel Waterford City

————————————————

Limerick

Absolute Hotel Limerick City

South Court Hotel

Galway

Hotels in Dublin with free Internet is a post from: hotelconsult.ie

84 new hotels opened 2008.

Developers given tax breaks of 15% write off against cost of Hotel construction. This was changed to 4% per year for 25 years in until it phased out in 2006.  217 Hotel applications where lodged in the run up to Christmas 2005.

So a Hotel is not doing well why not close it?

If a Hotel closes down within 7 years of been built the revenue is entitled to get tax breaks back.  So I close down my Hotel and owe even more money.

It is very easy to be wise afterwards.  The amount of Hotels in Ireland is more then is needed. Tax breaks were great to improve the quality of our Hotels.  Ireland now has a great Hotel product.

If we are to be honest some hotels that opened did not make money even in the boom. Location, Location, Location. It may be the case that that some developers where doing so well on other projects they could absorb the hotel losses.  This has changed.

The IHF has called on the Government to allow Hotels to close and not have to pay back the tax breaks.

Maybe it would have been better to call for an end of the tax breaks earlier. 150% more rooms v 70% more tourists even during the boom.   Then again as I said it is easy to be wise later.

Irish Hotels over supply made easy is a post from: hotelconsult.ie

Hotel speak

Occupancy – How full a hotel is.  A 100 bedroom hotel has 70 rooms sold so it has reached 70% occupancy.

ARR – Average Room Rate.  A 100 bedroom hotels has sold 50 rooms at €100 each.  The average room rate achieved for this date is €100.  ARR should always be calculated less VAT.  13.5% in Ireland.

RevPar – Revenue Per Available Room.  This is a key number for hotels.  A 100 bedroom hotel has sold 50 rooms for a night at €100 per room.  The revenue achieved for all the available rooms is €50 per room.  RevPar includes sold and unsold rooms.  A room unsold for a night can never be sold again.

Budget – The budget is set before the year starts

Forecast - Forecast can be changed througout the year.

3rd party sites – Websites such as hotels.com that generate bookings for a hotel.

Allocations – An agreement with usually a wholesaler to give then a set amount of rooms each night.

Wholesalers – Traditionally these would get a price from a hotel and the package it up with say an airline journey.  GTA would be an example.

Tour Series -  A regular agreement for a period of time with for example C.I.E tours to provide rooms.

G.D.S – Global Distribution Systems.  Used by Travel Agents to make bookings.  The main 4 are Sabre, Gallleo, Amadeus & Worldspan.

Corporate Rate - An agreement with a business to give them a preferential price.

Commercial Rate- Term used to describe a special price given to an individual business person.

Leisure business -  Individual people that stay in the Hotel for leisure.

Market Segments – This is how categorize their business.  Corporate, Leisure, Tour would be in a separate segments.  This enables Hotels to see how each segment grows or declines each year.

Know some more?  Drop me a comment.

Hotel Speak is a post from: hotelconsult.ie

The Montenotte Hotel will provide refreshments and give access to the roof.  The Hotel has one of the best views in Cork City.  Later the crew can enjoy Corks newest place to meet & eat.  The Boardwalk Bar & Grill.  The Bar & Grill will also have use of a speedboat so 4 lucky people can take some shots of the Harbor. 

The Hotel is offering 3 free rooms and 17 discounted rooms.

Why is the Hotel & Restaurant involved?

I play a small role at the Montenotte Hotel as a Consultant.  When I worked for D4 hotels I was amazed at the power of social networks during the €20.09 sale.  I feel they way Hotels market their offerings has become very stale.  We seem to always fall back on the same old tricks.  Bland Radio ads.  Pay for Click & the old reliable box ad on the Indo. 

I spoke to Damian Mulley and asked him how we could be different.  Both the Montenotte Hotel & the Boardwalk Bar & Grill feel they have something worth seeing.   Damian spoke to Donncha and the Photowalk day was planned.

We also would like to pick the best shot of the day and add it to the Hotels website?

We are sure we will look at out best on the day.  If we are not then I am sure the crew will let you know.  That is the way this works.  Upfront and honest.

For more info on the walk go to http://inphotos.org/towering-over-our-heads/ 

For more about the Hotel & the Boardwalk www.themontenottehotel.com & www.theboardwalkbarandgrill.com

Photowalk Cork 26th Sept is a post from: hotelconsult.ie