“ IF I WENT OUT TO PUT THE BEST POINTS PROGRAM TOGETHER I COULDN ’ T DO IT WITH THE NUMBER OF HOTELS WE HAVE . WE HAVE TO GRAVITATE TOWARD DOING SOMETHING COMPELLING FROM THE EXPERIENTIAL SIDE FOR OUR CUSTOMERS .”
someone tells you that in a music city like Nashville , it is a story and makes the hotel more interesting .
Innovation and commitment to doing things differently and a focus on long-term sustainable revenue are what drive us .
H : How important is social media to your marketing efforts ?
MD : It is critical . Ultimately , consumers have choices in where they stay . I read a great white paper that explains about the moment of truth and when a consumer switches from a booking engine over to social media to see what customers who stay at a hotel are saying , and that number is growing dramatically . We believe there is a link you can see between social media rankings and online bookings .
It has become a core part of who we are . Our hotels are expected to be active to respond , and activity is monitored . As you think about our brand , it is the ultimate validation that humanizes us . We relish the feedback , as we think we win in our segment .
If you get a survey from Omni and complete it you are automatically given a link to TripAdvisor , and not just if you wrote a good survey . As you look at people , certainly on the leisure side
Omni ’ s new
800-room hotel in Nashville , Tennessee
and even in the corporate world , they see your hotel as one of three or four in the program they can choose from , and in most cases the differentiator is either experience , quality of hotel or points . Omni can ’ t win on points , and we don ’ t want to win on points . We put that extra cost associated with points programs into our service programs , and based on our recognition that
matters and is relevant to us . H : Everyone talks about focusing on the
Millennials . What is Omni doing ?
MD : We need to offer great bandwidth and accessibility for devices people carry in to hotels , but we are more focused on the human interaction component . We are not at all tech-averse as we look to embrace how people choose to gather in our spaces , but we could also spin our wheels a lot as we try to keep up with all of that .
H : What is the outlook for group business in 2014 ?
MD : I was just looking at some of our consolidated projections , and we are expecting on a same-store basis about 6.5 % RevPAR growth primarily coming from average rate . Advance bookings are up — not to the degree we ’ d hoped — but momentum is there in the shorter term . H : Are you considering a brand extension ? MD : We own most of our real estate , and as we have talked about different tiers there is the potential loss of focus on what we do best . The beautiful thing for us , although we all want to grow and it is a fairly young organization , is that we don ’ t have to grow . We are privately held . For one Omni Nashville it would take 20 limited-service hotels to make that kind of EBITDA . These
“ IF I WENT OUT TO PUT THE BEST POINTS PROGRAM TOGETHER I COULDN ’ T DO IT WITH THE NUMBER OF HOTELS WE HAVE . WE HAVE TO GRAVITATE TOWARD DOING SOMETHING COMPELLING FROM THE EXPERIENTIAL SIDE FOR OUR CUSTOMERS .”
– MIKE DEITEMEYER
46 HOTELS December 2013 www . hotelsmag . com