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been involved in some US $ 4 billion in hotel acquisitions over the past six months as it is bullish on a comeback that will not see a dramatic paradigm shift in guest habits as many suggest . “ But we have to be more careful about how we do what we do , and operate from different business model , especially for larger hotels ,” Millard said . “ We can ’ t afford big administrative teams in hotels and technology will play a larger role .”
Millard agreed with his fellow panelists that is hard to find line employees in many markets and how hotels now have to compete with other industries for the same people . “ We will have to do things for those people we haven ’ t done before – and it is more than payroll ,” he added .
NO GOING BACK Dean said Remington won ’ t go back to how it operated before the pandemic , citing , for example , how it has redeployed business transient sales managers .
Remington is also placing graband-go F & B stations next to front desks , instituting more mobile F & B order and pay systems , and even offering mixed cocktails with Dean & Deluca-style deliver , according to Dean . “ We are reinventing F & B to be more like this and have the lobby bar as a supplement with skinny menu ,” Dean said , adding that F & B contribution has tripled per occupied room , admittedly partially because restaurants are not open . Remington is also moving to mobile key check-in at its hotels and marketing contactless service . Dean said resorts are selling out on weekends , yet Remington is staffing with fewer people at the front desk because of mobile check-in . “ We will get back to normal occupancies , but never normal employment levels ,” he added . “ When we had 100 associates , we now will have maybe 80 .”
Dean also talked about how it has cut the number of shuttle buses it uses from 60 to 20 as a result of a new , lower-cost partnership with Lyft . “ We must reinvent the business to be NOI break even at lower occupancy levels ,” he added . “ We have lowered our break even by 1,000 basis points – that is what ’ s going to make the business stronger long term . It ’ s not about going back to the same way of doing business … There are assumptions that show profitability not coming back to 2019 levels until 2024 , but that under-assumes some of the technology uses and efficiencies that we have learned over the past 12 months .”
Zeidan pointed to the transient leisure business booking windows tightening up . “ So , dynamic pricing models are important , as is being ok with empty hotels until three days before arrival dates . We are also seeing lower cost per click on metasearch channels . So , as we find lower CPCs we can still bid to high ROI on metasearch channels and still get 70 % direct bookings across our portfolio .”
Life House , which has been a tech-enabled concept from its inception , has automated tasks in accounting , finance , revenue management and pricing , according to Zeidan . “ A lot of hotel groups are now focusing on doing same ,” he said . “ Anything that doesn ’ t add value to guest experience can be automated . It ’ s been working .”
The first HOTELS Opportunities Conference concluded with a cocktail mixer on the sand at The Mandarin Oriental , Miami .
60 hotelsmag . com May / June 2021