The accommodation industry has not been spared from rising prices. The damage left by the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise in interest rates, the scarcity of labor, the price of food, insurance premiums… The list of factors which increase the costs of operation continues to lengthen while we cannot have recourse as easily to the same solutions as in grocery stores.
“Even if inflation affects everyone, the hotel industry is different from selling chocolate and chips,” says the CEO of the Association Hôtellerie du Québec (AHQ), Véronyque Tremblay. We cannot increase prices or reduce services mechanically. We sell an experience. People are on vacation. It is essential to think about what our customers are looking for above all. We cannot afford to see her leave disappointed. »
As the price shock is too great to be satisfied with small solutions at the margin, hotels quickly find themselves obliged to re-examine their entire business model, expense item by expense item, in order to fully understand the nature and customer expectations and, if necessary, reduce services, where it hurts less.
Long in first place, the scarcity of labor has now been replaced by inflation, rising interest rates and the economic slowdown at the top of the main difficulties that hoteliers say they face, according to a survey commissioned by the AHQ, the results of which have not yet been revealed. At the forefront of the solutions mentioned is the use of dynamic pricing – which consists of increasing prices during peak periods and lowering them in low season, for example -, special offers for targeted customers as well as adaptation of resources and staff according to the occupancy rate.
Everyone will have noticed that we generally no longer automatically clean our rooms every day. More and more establishments are also reducing the opening hours of their restaurants, when they are not closing them altogether on certain days. This reduction in the quantity of services offered without the price of rooms decreasing (reduflation) is sometimes also accompanied by a certain loss of quality (dequalification). Often too popular to simply be abolished, included lunches will no longer come, for example, with table service, but in buffet form.
“It even happens that we decide to keep rooms unoccupied certain evenings because the few extra guests would generate too many additional operating expenses,” explains Véronyque Tremblay.
Dogs and teleworkers
“The important thing is not to try to be secretive,” she continues. Customers are not crazy. They know which services they receive and which they no longer receive. It’s important to be frank, to be transparent and to listen even more to customers in order to continue to give them what they want most. »
This may lead to the conclusion that there is no point in trying to attract a certain type of clientele. But it also happens that we choose to increase certain relatively inexpensive expenses because they are likely to please current or new customers.
This can take, for example, the form of installing charging stations for electric cars, setting up a playroom for families with children or offering services adapted to teleworkers or owners. of domestic animals. More and more hoteliers are also looking to partner with local retailers, producers and other partners to expand the range of experiences their guests can enjoy during their stay.
“This sometimes results in offering packages that are a little more expensive, but with which customers feel they are getting even more for their money. Because, once again, in our field, it’s the experience we gain that counts,” says Véronyque Tremblay.