How To Start A Hotel Business

The hotel business is another good business to get involved in.

You will need a great deal of organisational skills to pull this one though

A hotel business is a long-term investment, that will be paying you for years if you set it up in a right way.

Hotel business requires proper management and diligence.

Whether you’re providing hotel accommodation for business travelers or a bed-and-breakfast, you’ll want to spend fair amount of time researching and planning before taking the plunge.

WHAT IS A HOTEL BUSINESS?

Hotel business is providing services to people that involves temporary housing for a particular period of time, usually for a short period.

TYPES OF HOTEL BUSINESS

The very first thing you should take into consideration is if you want to establish your own hotel from the scratch or buy a franchise of an existing hotel.

Establishing your own hotel thereby building your own hotel name has its benefits, you can make your business enterprise as innovative as you want.

Since it’s a new hotel, you have all the power in your hands.

You can offer rates that can attract a group of interested clients.

You can make certain decisions and run your business to suit your preference.

You can furnished and have a procedures in place that are different from other establishements and are offering something special.

Your services can be personalized if you already have an idea in mind and you can also make promotions when and if you feel like your business needs it.

However with so much competition already on ground, if you are operating a new hotel;

You must make an impressionable mark in the industry as an unnoticeable hotel is almost a dead hotel.

You must be ready to fight your competitions.

Acquiring a franchise of an existing hotel also has its benefits particularly if the franchise you have chosen has a renowned name and years of experience to back it up.

A well-known name can assist you with all the fundamental ground work such as:

customer relations
staffing
security issues
promo packages, etc.

There will be no need for you to bother yourself as regards advertising because the hotel name will advertise itself.

If your chosen franchise is truly famous in the hotel industry, you can set your hotel rates consequently and make a neat profit within a year of your business.

However, you will be managed strictly by the standards of the hotel name and you wont be able to make your own decission if you want to change anything in a .

WHAT YOU NEED TO START A HOTEL BUSINESS

Whether you buy an existing franchise or build a hotel from scratch, or renovate a building into a hotel, you will need a large amount of capital to invest.

If you do not have this money then you will need to seek bank loans or investment in your hotel.

As you will be working with substantial assets, reliable and well qualified legal and accounting staff is a must to assist you in creating reasonable deals with investors.

The best point to start any business venture is to plan, plan, and plan some more.

The clearer your road to success becomes the more likely you are to go down it.

Any action without a place in a plan is a wasted action.

When it comes to starting a hotel business this cannot be truer, especially since it includes a large amount of investment.

Therefore you will need a business plan when starting your hotel business, as this will help you increase your focus and produce better results.

It will also help you to convince any investor or lender that you have the ability to do so.

No savvy investor will be fascinated by a lack of planning.

You have no excuse not create a plan with the wealth of information available on writing business plans and even business plan templates customized for the purpose of starting a hotel business.

If you have however decided to start your own ‘new’ hotel you will need to establish a good business name and register your business.

Resolve how your hotel will stand out among much other opposition.

Come up with policies to make your hotel exclusive in diverse categories such as:

amenities
atmosphere
themes and
services that you will offer

Research your competitions that are already excelling in the business, discover what makes them stand out and establish how you can become better than them.

A good point to start is by analysing reviews for hotels that have lofty ratings on websites or in magazines.

Check the competition, visit some local hotels to check what services and prices they offering, try to make sure your prices and standards are competitive.

BENEFITS OF STARTING A HOTEL BUSINESS

Starting your own hotel business will make you a boss of your own with flexible hours and room to make additional income.

It is a lucrative business and a long term investment which you will continue to make profit from till you are old if managed properly.

IMPORTANT FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN SETTING UP A HOTEL BUSINESS

LOCATION

Choosing a right location for your hotel goes a long way in determining how successful your business will be.

Situate your hotel in areas where competitors are unable to fulfil customers’ needs so that your hotel can thrive and touch the heights of success.

Choosing a location that is a walking distance and some kilometres away from a tourist attraction, it also gives you an edge.

Your hotel should never be located in an isolated area with no form of traffic; it should be easily accessible from the main roads.

Do not situate your hotel in a beautiful environment where heavy competition of existing hotels are already there.

If your hotel is located close to public places like airports, entertainment centre, shopping centres, railway or bus stations, you will most likely get your customer as people around these areas always need good hotels.

HOSPITALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Ensure you take into consideration the importance of hospitality and customer satisfaction.

You must have an inbuilt intellect of how you want your guests to be treated so that you can put this mindset in your top management and they can, in turn, teach this to the staff.

Hire only reliable individuals that you can effectively managed; ensure they are trained properly after recruiting so as to ensure that your customers remain loyal.

You will need to establish networks of vendors that will supply all the daily needs of your hotel form feeding to toiletries and try to get the discount from them as you will be buying from them often.

PUBLICITY

Publicize your hotel business.

Employ public relations and advertising representatives to help you support your business.

Notify your customers about how your hotel stands out from its oppositions and what makes your hotel the best choice in the market.

Continue to repeat the same message of what your hotel represents in various media, especially online.

Organise some free events where people will come and at the same time you can advertise to them your services.

Contact local businesses about your business facilites where they can organise conference or seminars etc.

ADDITIONAL TIP

Have reviews book ready for your customers about their opinion of your hotel and what you could do to improve your services.

Use your customers’ feedback as a way to regularly develop the quality of your hotel and in time, people will help you promote your hotel by telling others about it.