Industry estimates indicate that over 20% of local hotels (particularly five-star boutique establishments and remote country inns) are non-profitable and face closure.
The good news for beleaguered hotels, however, is that help is at hand. Guy Stehlik, co-founder and CEO of Bon Hotels – a recently launched hotel management and marketing group – hopes to drastically reduce this statistic. “Although the idea of managing and marketing hotels is by no means new, we want to take what’s historically worked well and improve on those practices and disciplines. We’ll dramatically overhaul what hasn’t worked and present fresh alternatives to the industry,” he says.
Central to the overhaul offering is a business rescue engagement package, which Stehlik says has been well received. However, he cautions that not all struggling hotels or guesthouses can be saved. “We’ve had to turn down several opportunities for business rescue at this point, either because the hotel owner’s unwilling to commit the capital required for refurbishment or because the establishment’s so poorly located that no ‘Immooft-clegree of marketing and sales efforts will stimulate demand for accommodation,” he says.
Deviating from traditional fee structuring, Stehlik says a large portion of his model is performance-based and fees will be reduced “if the returns aren’t satisfactory and targets aren’t achieved”.
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