Festive Tours - worth the effort?
Experienced hotel contractor Jon Hartley says it's a fine line between profit and loss on a festive tour
Before 1999 everyone seemed to enjoy operating Christmas and New Year coach holidays with great success. Hotels were keen on the business, and clients were happy to pay a little more for a special package. That all changed of course when greed put prices up over the millennium, and both hoteliers and operators shot themselves in the foot, as clients refused to pay over the odds, and discovered they could have a good time at home with friends far cheaper. This led on to them going to a friend’s house the next year, and so on.
There has been slow recovery since, but still not at figures we were enjoying before 1999, although there are exceptions of course.
When working as a hotel contractor I was very wary of using large hotels, as whilst the accommodation would be great, the clients could hardly expect a large commercial hotel to be decked out like Santa’s Grotto, and the festive spirit could be hard to find. (Especially with high bar prices!)
I was also very fussy about where my clients ate, as some hotels fill bed space and have insufficient restaurant accommodation, and use (or in my case tried to use) conference or ancillary rooms as overflow areas. Not good. Clients en masse feel alienated and second class, however good the service, and it simply doesn’t work.
I do have sympathy with large hotels as they have to produce a profit over this period, and there is a very fine line between taking groups, or almost closing down and offering bed and breakfast only, but with a Christmas Lunch available at £50+ per person for a private guest and locals.
To fully staff a hotel over the Christmas and New Year period is frighteningly expensive and even charging a group £250 may not cover the cost.
Just to hold a Race or Casino Night can cost the hotel over £1,000, and to fully staff the kitchen, restaurant, bars, reception, and housekeeping departments on enhanced wages and lieu days makes one wonder why hotels bother at all.
Do the sums for yourself, 2 coaches paying £62.50 per night, say 90 pax (£5625), against 16 staff on say £10 per hour + lieu days + Festive food + breakfast + dinner + entertainment + transport to and from the hotel + extra NI etc etc..... Frightening is not the word!
What if only one coach turns up, or both are only half full!
The cancellation of festive tours by an operator is higher than the rest of the year, so hotels have to overbook to a certain extent to cover this downfall in numbers. Even then, as I am sure you are aware, there will be hotels contacting operators in November hoping for extra tours after being let down by others.
Entertainment, to a commercial hotel, is a real pain, as they try to come up with something different to attract groups, but they are not geared up for this, and sticking 100 people into a conference room to be ‘entertained’ by whatever is hardly conducive to the tour being a success.
Disco’s have to be geared towards the age group on the coach, quizzes have to be run by someone with a ‘presence’ – no, not a ghost alongside him, but someone who is used to public speaking and is entertaining. This could be one reason why some are opting to employ an ‘Entertainments Manager’ over the period to look after all the entertainment within a set budget.
With many commercial hotels not being in tourist hot spots, they have to try even harder to attract group clients – even more so during winter. Don’t get me wrong, as the Hilton’s, Marriott’s, Barcelo, IHG, Ramada, etc will all offer great accommodation, well heated areas, professional staff, a great breakfast, and other amenities, but it could be an idea to mention in your brochure the number of rooms the hotel has to give the client an idea of the size of the hotel before they book.
Every major chain has a wide selection of hotels, many of which are in the country as well as towns and cities, and you will be paying for what you will get! A four star in Bath could well be a little dearer than a four star in Bolton! It isn’t all location, location, location though, as the package itself can attract clients – wherever the hotel is situated.
Looking at entertainment, it is quite simple for the hotel to theme one or more evenings to the area, or a time in history, and local food or wine tasting could cover one afternoon quite easily. The quiz could be Christmas or Dickens themed, and is there anything better than a live band in place of the disco? Would the local AmDram mob come in and sing songs from the shows, or a local choir?
I have to include a plea to hoteliers, and indeed to contractors booking these hotels – do something about the bar prices! A commercial hotel with commercial bar prices is all well and good when a corporate guest is letting his company pay, but when it is your own money let’s see some common sense please. House wine at £18+ a bottle, beer at £4+ a pint? Would you pay it?
This is also a good time to get some extra single rooms at no supplement, and I urge you to go for it!
If you have Festive tours going out, I hope they all go without a hitch, and perhaps this will give you something to think about before booking 2010.
This is one time of year that I am glad not to be making the choices, either as an operator or hotelier, as the line is so fine for both of you (and the following few months are nothing to shout about either) and the wrong decision could be an expensive mistake. Good luck!
