How Hotels Prepare for the Holidays

The holiday season is often the busiest time of the year for the hospitality industry. Hotels often invest hundreds of hours to outfit their premises in elaborate décor. Reservations are likely to increase during one of the most-traveled periods of the year. And their in-house restaurants do big business accommodating office holiday parties as well as travelers. In order to be ready for this boost in business, hotel owners, managers and staff must begin preparing their establishments months in advance. Tracking and managing all of the details can be daunting, and the stakes are high. The lifeblood of the hospitality industry, after all, is the ability to provide superior customer service and an unsurpassed experience. Hoteliers who are not only prepared for their guests, but also any curve balls that may come their way, have the leg up during the holiday season.

What is the Holiday Rush?

Shortly before Christmas 2017, motor advocacy group AAA forecasted that an estimated 107.3 million Americans would travel at least 50 miles from their homes during the period from Dec. 23 through Jan. 1, representing a 3.1 increase from the prior holiday season. That estimate was the highest ever anticipated and the sixth consecutive record high for the holiday season, according to AAA. Discounted airfares and a growing economy were credited for the high number of travelers, though rising gas prices weren’t deterring drivers. Some 97.3 million Americans were expected to hit the road last December, representing the seventh consecutive annual increase.

How the Holiday Rush Affects Hotels

With that increased travel comes increased demand for hotels, who are expected to accommodate more travelers even if it exceeds their average guest numbers. Hotels who are prepared and who can successfully manage more guests stand to gain income as well as reputational boost. In an age in which online peer reviews are everything, the potential rewards are great.

The holiday rush also brings with it an increased responsibility to know where all of your assets are located and their current condition. Equipment may need servicing and/or maintenance prior to the holidays. Inventories must be taken so that if there are shortages, they may be addressed beforehand. The last thing any hotel wants is to suffer reduced productivity, frustration or revenue loss due to either nonfunctioning or lost equipment.

Tips For Your Hotel During the Holidays

Here are a few pointers for hoteliers to consider long before the holiday rush:

Stay informed of trends. Examine data from your previous holiday seasons – or take a look at third-party industry research -- and determine if there any patterns about which you should be aware.

Adjust your staffing for seasonal needs. You’re going to need more staff – it’s as simple as that. So begin talking to your employees now to determine their availability and recruit seasonal help as early as possible. Your front desk must be staffed at all times,  and you should have enough staff on hand, including cleaning staff who can turn over rooms at an efficient pace.

Take hotel inventory before the holiday season begins. While other types of businesses may delay their inventory until the end of the year, hoteliers can’t wait. Complete your inventory before the busy season begins. Your best tool for inventory tracking is a hotel inventory system – an asset tracking platform -- that enables you to “outsource” the details to powerful, reliable and accurate software. Attempting to track your assets manually is a recipe for error. Typos are extremely common when you’re working with Excel spreadsheets. Those spreadsheets also are challenging to maintain and keep current. With a good asset tracking system, you can breathe easier knowing that all of your necessary items are accounted for – before, during and after the holiday rush.

Get started now with a preventative maintenance plan powered by Asset Panda, and determine the best time to schedule maintenance on all of your vital assets. With Asset Panda’s simple yet powerful app that syncs with the cloud, you and your staff have 24/7 access to real-time asset data. Your smartphone or tablet is all you’ll need to track and monitor the complete lifecycle of every one of your hotel assets while you save time, money and frustration – and keep your customers happy this holiday season.