Are Group Sales at Your Hotel Slipping Through the Cracks? Here’s Why.

There’s no question—when it comes to returning to “normal,” group business and sales have been the most challenging for many hotels. Continued skepticism around when conferences and events will return to pre-pandemic levels, coupled with an influx of unqualified leads and skeletal sales teams, have resulted in hotels missing out on lucrative group business—simply because they couldn’t manage the incoming inquiries.

So, as in-person conferences and events (and their revenue) finally resurface, what can hotels hamstrung by limited resources do to recapture group sales? They can start by filling in the gaps.

How effective is your website?

Once you’ve optimized your property’s site for converting direct bookings, it’s time to look at your property’s group sales portal. To captivate the attention of meeting planners on the hunt for the perfect hotel for their next program, start finding where the holes are on your site.

• How thorough are your property details compared to other hotels in your market?
• Are you presenting your hotel in the best light for groups and planners to make a well-informed decision, fast?
• Is your hotel showcasing its details in the right places?
• Are you asking the right questions in your group RFP form fill?

The key to standing out is to showcase high-quality, relevant content that positions your hotel as the perfect option for groups. (Hint: Repurposing the same room shot from ten angles or a photo of kids splashing in the hotel pool probably won’t cut it.) It also helps to ensure that your information and resources are current to reduce the back-and-forth between your team and the planner.

What’s your response time?

Revamping your group sales website content is an excellent start, but it's not enough to convert group sales if you don't respond promptly. As most hoteliers know, planners have choices when booking a hotel for a large group or event. Event organizers typically work with a tight schedule and a fixed budget—they need immediate responses from hotels, or they’re going elsewhere.

Putting hotels to the test—how would your hotel compare?

Shift Digital's hospitality group recently launched a pilot project to find ways to improve the business conversion rates of hotels. The goal was to uncover why some properties struggled to convert more group sales. So, Shift worked with 16 hotels to gauge the effectiveness of their group sales process. After submitting RFPs through each property’s website, hotels were scored based on how quickly a person (not an automated email) responded to their inquiry.

Of those 16 properties, eight responded on the same day, three responded on the following day, five took more than 48 hours to respond, and of those same five, three of them didn’t respond at all. The findings aligned with Shift’s initial assumption: many hotels react quickly and have a team in place to capitalize on group sales. However, others face staffing shortages or insufficient resources that hinder their ability to prioritize group business.

In addition to response time, Shift's team discovered that by asking relevant questions on the RFP and offering more resources on the group sales site, hotels could achieve additional gains in group business conversions. That is, of course, if they respond in time.

Win more group business today.

Shift Digital works with hotels and hotel groups worldwide to optimize their digital marketing efforts. By providing non-biased subject matter expertise, supported by robust data and analytics, we help hotels maximize their digital efforts.

Shift’s hospitality team recently launched a new product designed to revolutionize how hotels manage group business and sales more effectively. From analyzing the effectiveness of your property’s website to providing people to supplement your group sales capabilities, Shift’s team is your solution to securing more group business. Contact us today to learn more about our group conversion product.