Hotel Sales-and-Marketing Management

Abstract

This study of 200 hotels looked at eight areas of hotel sales-and-marketing management: advertising, department finances, franchise-affiliation benefit, human resources, revenue management, sales-contract terms, technology use, and third-party reservations. Approximately 60 percent of the hotels used both total revenue and room-nights sold as sales-performance measures, and 78 percent used room revenue to calculate bonuses. It seems that franchise-affiliated hotels receive greater benefit from the national reservation system than from the national sales offices. Close to 80 percent of the hotels use a yield-management system, about 75 percent are linked to a global distribution system, and many are represented on worldwideweb sites. At the local level, print media appear to be perceived by GMs and sales managers as offering the greatest reach for the fewest dollars.