B Sales and intermediaries
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Assignments
Name of assignment
Organizing Sales and intermediaries
Situation
In the past, see history, the hotel relied heavily on its own sales. They were just occasionally working with agents or other intermediaries. The market has changed dramatically by disruptive online like Bookings.com
Until you take over, the hotel did not spend any money on [[marketing] nor on distribution. The hotel was run in a family hotel style and many leisure customers were regulars or booked because of word-of-mouth.
For the business market the same goes: the relations to the companies in the city always have been good, and there was no real need to profile the hotel at all.
Now, with the upcoming of platforms like TripAdvisor and Bookings.com campaigning is needed. So, a distribution strategy is needed.
Goal
Jill Jandal wants to have concrete information that could help in deciding whether taking on more sales channels and intermediaries contributes to the occupancy rate over the years and the continuity of the hotel. She needs insides in the advantages of spreading the risks by having a number of distribution channels, and other intermediaries (platforms, booking agents etc.).
Task, deliverable
Develop a strategic distribution (sales) plan for the next five years: be specific in all details and look at both markets.
- Analyse your hotel’s background and the operating review
- Which type of channels will you choose and which brands within?
- Put the planned costs (commissions) into perspective using benchmarks from the real hotel industry.
- How will your plan affect the occupancy rate?
- Make concrete what will be the role (percentage) of the new intermediaries in all of the bookings? Be specific.
Use the available data on sales (occupancy), make a plan for the next four year which involves distributions via several types of intermediaries.
Make this plan concrete: so (maybe in an spreadsheet) makes calculations which part of the total of the reservations will come via which channels. Have a look at the costs (commissions, cost per sales etc.) of using these channels as well.
Do so in combination with a plan how to boost your sales: via these new channels or maybe also still directly to your target groups.
Assessed elements
- Are all choices made and within the boundaries set?
- Is there a clear link to the strategy?
- Are the arguments valid?
- Are the costs and revenues planned realistic for a hotel mof this size?
- Is the plan well calculated?
- Is the plan realistic?
- Are the links between distributions, sales, revenues and costs okay?
- Are all of the sources accounted for?
Additional information
- Distribution
- Operating review
- Aggregator
- Affiliate
- What is commission?
- Vertical Search Engines in hospitality
- Analysis of commission
- A new hotel sales commission model?
- Tips to lower distribution costs
- Example information commission system Bookings.com
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