The “Suite” Spot - Increase your Suite ADR

During my experience managing hotels and resorts where the majority of the inventory are suites from 1 bedroom up to 4 bedroom, I was able to experience and try out different strategies to increase the paid occupancy and ADR on these very specific large units.

Despite the fact that on the overall bottom line performance these kind of large units take a big impact on the overall cost structure if not sold properly, this can and should be used as a positioning advantage and must be included in the overall rooms strategy.

Though, while working with different RMS Hotel Chain Systems, I have encountered some challenges and limitations that should be looked after in order to develop further enhancements in the future. The rate price reccommendations and system overall thinking alghorythm, does not take this type of units into account and they should have a completely different kind of approach, separate from the standard room types. As a standard, suite pricing is priced as an additional supplement from the standard room, though this is not usually the case. The only workaround is amending supplements on a daily basis manually which is very time consuming and delays the reaction in pricing, making you loose money.

We can discuss a lot of strategies, promotions and added values, though it is critical to understand your system limitations (specially when working at international hotel chains) and make the system work for you and adapt it to your needs with all the possible workarounds. Without this, you will never be able to take the best out of your premium inventory.

Nonetheless, below I share some tips and things to consider in order to push sales on your premium and suite inventory according to my experience:

• Revisit the inventory and walk through guest rooms to find unique features that could be incorporated into the Room Type Naming or Description. This is an important trigger method and value for money for the guest. Take special attention to automated translations which sometimes are not correct and should be revised.
• Re-visit the Room Type Differentials, benchmark with the market, adopt a yieldable differential based on occupancy and demand and avoid static differentials. Behaviour and demand on Premium Rooms and Suites are complete different from the rest of the hotel inventory and rate yield can be completely opposite from the rest of the standard inventory.
• Revisit maximum occupancy in the Premium and Suite Inventory. Allowing more guests or larger families into this inventory will increase the rate elasticity and the guest willingness to pay more. Larger families tend to book early and this will also increase your leadtime and base business on the longer run. This will also have a direct impact on incidentals and incremental revenue (F&B and SPA) as higher Guest Count equals higher Capture Ratio Opportunity. If necessary, consider not allowing a 3rd Person in the Standard Rooms in order to push larger parties to book larger rooms and suites.
• Implement an Upsell Strategy at Check In: the check in is the last opportunity to charge more and fill in any possible premium/suite inventory that otherwise would be given as a free upgrade or remain vacant. By upselling arrivals will empty out standard room availability that can be sold on other market segments with lastminute pickup (chain hotels could also yield on the Loyalty Member Reservation and work on Premium Compensation Reimbursements from the brand). Upsell strategy should be part of an incentive employee program to enhance front desk commitment and increase their work satisfaction.
• Increase rate difference from Flexible Rates versus Non-Refundable Rates or possibly find intermediate levels of Non-Refundable. Nowadays guests are more likely to book flexible rates due to the uncertainty experienced over the past couple of years. In general they are willing to pay more and be rested assured that are protected by a shorter cancellation period.
• Sell the Room/Suite to Children and not the Parents: work on exclusive child offering and experience as they will be the ones choosing the hotel that parents will stay. Normally having a kids club, babysitting included in the room or giving the younger guests a special place to sleep (like a Tent or thematic bed and perks), will make children happy and subsequently parents will be happier too.
• Offer discounts for longer stays: yielding premium/suite rooms by LOS (Lenght of Stay), will give you further opportunity to charge more for shorter stays and to add more restrictions (non refundable conditions) to the offering and work on your future business on the books pace and ease rate pressure on the long run.
• Views are the feature that sell the most in all segments and making sure that all room types have the correct view assigned, will allow you to yield more and better. Find unique and creative naming for your view (i.e. Panoramic View)
• Families when travelling nowadays are looking for kitchen facilities in the room/suite. Find large suites and create a “small kitchenette” in order to add extra value to those units. Having some items on request can also be an option to overcome some limitations (like a small “plug and play” kitchenette cart with a few items – microwave, stove top, cutlery, silverware, glassware and other small items).
• Exclusivity Deals or Perks: like exclusive access to a certain areas of the hotel or exclusive events happening in the hotel or city.
• Value Add Package Rates: F&B Credit or % Discount on Consumption. This will increase the value for money propositon and increase your overall topline performance in your outlets. These kind of packages can also be used as a limited time offering to increase your reservations lead time.

Something adittional to be considered is to keep trying and adjusting your strategy at all times. Be humble and experiment as market is in constant changing and not all market segments behave the same.

There are a lot more things than can be said and explained, but the best part you should keep for yourself????because?“Secret is the key to success in your business!”???