RLJ Lodging Trust: From Waiting for Leads to Going Out and Getting the Business
Client: RLJ Lodging Trust, select-service hotel portfolio
Industry: Select-service hotels
The challenge
The hotels were well run and well located. But their sales teams were reactive. Most of the business came in through leads, third parties and the brand. Directors of Sales spent their days answering what showed up, not going after the accounts that mattered most.
The most profitable segments had no real plan behind them. There was plenty of activity, but no clear line between what the sales team did each week and the revenue the owners were counting on.
What we did
We ran a six-month Accelerating Revenue engagement across the portfolio, working hotel by hotel with each Director of Sales.
- Strategy by segment. For every hotel we built strategies and tactics inside each segment, starting with the ones that drive the most profit.
- Focus accounts. We picked the accounts worth going after and laid out how to develop each one, from the first call to the booked business.
- How to sell. We trained the sales teams in market on a consultative sales process, ran pre-call planning sessions before key calls, and helped write outreach to high-profile customers.
- Accountability. Every month we tracked progress with each Director of Sales, on results, not activity.
The results
Within months, the sales teams were getting into accounts they hadn’t touched in years, and it showed on the books:
- Booked business up 53% at one hotel in a single quarter, with special corporate revenue up 50% in January alone.
- First-quarter booked business up $125,000 over the year before at another hotel, with corporate negotiated and special corporate revenue both up and rates rising.
- Market share recovered. One hotel’s revenue index went from 5.3 points behind its competitors to even in three months.
- New accounts won from proactive selling, including a new group account and a new corporate account, and replacing lower-value group business with more profitable business.
In the words of one owner’s representative: “We are seeing [our Director of Sales] taking a hold of accounts and seeing development within accounts we haven’t in a long time.”