Posted by Lucinda Hazen on Mon, Jan 11, 2010
This is the second part of my lean management for hospitality properties article. I kinda take a leap here from the previous musings as I was having fun with the whole skinny thing and thus we segue into ‘lean' management!
This week was a wakeup call in one of our hotels and I realized the need to ‘get skinny' in our operations. For many, reviewing your P&L's this time of year (especially this year) can really make you second guess your career choices.
I've dealt with Lean Management in manufacturing for years. But I find myself wondering, will it work in a service industry, where I now find myself? For anyone unfamiliar with the term, let me give you a very unromantic definition as it relates to hospitality. Anything that does not directly impact the guest in a positive way must go.
In lean management there are 4 goals:
- Improve Quality
- Eliminate Waste
- Reduce Time
- Reduce total costs
Positioning yourself as unique while owning or operating a mid-size hospitality property can sometimes feel like being a number 2 pencil and trying to stick out during an Iowa Basic Skills test! (Do they still have those? Perhaps I've dated myself!) Yet, you must constantly find ways to redefine yourself in order to garner you share of the business.
Improving quality, or more aptly, perceived quality, is one of the best ways to enhance your property's positioning. Recently we decided to start something as basic as ironing the pillowcases at one of our properties. It doesn't sound like much, but I know the guests appreciate it, and our positive feedback has increased, even though they do not directly mention the pillowcases. It's more subtle than that and sometimes the guests would be hard pressed (no pun intended - but I like it!) to realize it's the ironed pillowcases that tilted the feedback from them in our favor.
That's the point. Yes, you could include a bottle of Dom Pérignon in each room. (That would surely get my attention - and if you ever do that when I stay at your hotel - I promise you a great Guest Survey Card!) However; it's the practical, small, incremental steps, taken with consistency that WILL have an impact on your bottom line.
Eliminate Waste
Right now, most of us find ourselves moving headlong into the ‘off' season. The problem with that this year is that with the industry down (with some estimates as high as 36%!), we kinda missed the usual ‘up' - season. So what should we do? We have been cutting back on labor as much as possible, but still for the occupancy we are out of whack with where we need to be.
It's time to get creative and accomplish more with...well - less! Less people, less hours, and especially less dollars! Recently we implemented a few strategies to do just this.
- The Head Housekeeper now does the laundry, she inspects her rooms in between loads (this is for a 100 room property running a dismal 40% occupancy)
- Side work is implemented daily so that deep cleans can go on hold till spring.
- Each day the housekeepers are given the day's top priority. It's just one small task that will be their focus for the day as they are cleaning their rooms. i.e. vacuum the vents, or dust the top of the door jams.
- Making a ‘Daily Focus' list will help the rooms stay fresh and clean and you won't have to take a room down for deep cleans as often.
I spoke with one of our GM's and of course these changes are not always met with a lot of enthusiasm within our staff. No one likes to be told they have to swim with one hand and one leg tied behind their backs while holding a bowling ball with the free arm and wearing a lead lined boot on the free leg. Oh and by the way, we need you to swim faster and further than you ever have before!
However, now is a great time to retain the best of the best of your team(s) and tell them so! In this job climate you choose who to keep based on a forward positioning strategy. Develop an even leaner operations machine now and when the economy turns around you can begin to build on that core foundation.
Hopefully, we can return to SOP in our operations in the near future, but we should always keep in mind the lean processes that got us through the tough times. If we implement these same strategies, consistently throughout the year we can expect our profit margins to widen. Just like my hips if I don't get back to my diet soon! Good luck!
Lucinda Hazen
Marketing Director and Partner - MotelMan Management and Receivers, LLC.
LucindaHazen@gmail.com
Twitter: Infocus23
Lucinda, with over a 25year background in sales and marketing, consults with businesses looking to increase their market share through positioning. She also has extensive Project Management experience that lends itself to developing operating processes in service industries that yield results. The mother of three grown sons, she resides in Colorado with her husband.
Posted by Lucinda Hazen on Wed, Dec 02, 2009
Realization Hits
Today, I started a diet.
I decided it was time to get serious when I stumbled upon a notebook where I'd jotted down my previous diet plans. It was dated just about a year ago - to the day!
As I looked over the stats from last year, I was chagrined. Since that commitment I have actually gained 10lbs and am in worse shape than ever! Why? What have I done wrong?
Well, the answers were actually pretty obvious:
- I hadn't done the daily workouts as I had outlined
- I was still eating at least 50% of my meals out (I had planned to start cooking my own healthier meals)
- I still only drink water when I have to swallow an aspirin
Like I said, the answers were obvious and now I'm relieved that I didn't waste my time and money on that rocket science course! It kind of reminds me of the definition of insane - "Doing the same things you've always done and expecting different results".
Well, now it's crunch time! (My abs will thank me later, but for now, I'm glad the rest of my day will be spent writing!) In our hotels and motels it can be the same way. Looking at our year-end figures propels us to do something. We panic as we know we must do more...with less. As I said, "It's crunch time!"
So, we plan for the upcoming year, make profit projections, plan events and marketing strategies and then we take that plan and put it somewhere safe - because after all it took a lot of thought and time and it must be protected and preserved. We then go back to the work that demands our attentions on any given day.
About 12 months later as we are cleaning out our desks to avoid having to open and respond to our email (ok, yes, I do that occasionally!) we find that note pad with the detailed plan and wonder what happened? Slowly, painfully, the realization sinks in - the target we were aiming for, is now even further away.
A Working, Breathing Plan
What was wrong with my original plan? I outlined everything that I was going to do to win the battle of the bulge...eat less, move more, drink water. It wasn't the plan that was flawed. It was the fact that I had, over time not even thought about it!
This means a constant scheduled review of your plan is essential. Perhaps the 1st of every month will work for you. Write it on your calendar for the next 12 months. Each time you review, determine, where you are in relation to your projections? What's working? Do more of it! What isn't? Decide to ditch it or tweak it and check back in another month. Our plans must remain flexible to remain relevant!
Of course then comes the fun part, implementation. No matter how well thought out your plan may be, it will be discarded along with that moldy green cottage cheese if you don't implement it!(oh yeah - that's right, I remember now, I was going to eat cottage cheese on my diet!)
So, what am I going to do differently to ensure that another year doesn't find me with yet another 10lbs and atrophied to the point of being bed-ridden? Obviously, reviewing my plan on more than an annual basis will be a good start!
So I'm going to try putting some of these practices I already use in our hotel management programs to the test at home! I know these principles are universal and so I'm confident that I'll be reporting back to you soon that the pounds are dropping!
I'd love to hear some of your success stories using this method at home and work, as well!
In Part II, I'll go into the implementation part of the process and how you can take direct effective steps to pare down expenses and firm up your, umm, bottom line! (I'm having way too much fun with these puns!)
Lucinda Hazen
Marketing Director and Partner - MotelMan Management and Receivers, LLC.
LucindaHazen@gmail.com
Twitter: Infocus23
Lucinda, with over a 25year background in sales and marketing, consults with businesses looking to increase their market share through positioning. She also has extensive Project Management experience that lends itself to developing operating processes in service industries that yield results. The mother of three grown sons, she resides in Colorado with her husband.
Posted by Lucinda Hazen on Wed, Dec 02, 2009
Welcome!
It is our intent to offer you salient topics of our own - as well as refer to articles from the trending thought leaders in our industry. We will attempt to offer you "down to earth", "hit the ground running" tips and techniques honed from over 75 years (and counting) of combined hotel/motel management and field related experience.
Our emphasis is on mid-size properties, but the principles can be used across the hospitality spectrum.
As owners/operators, our outlook is as fresh as the coffee you shared with your guests this morning!
We look forward to an open dialogue with all who are involved in this business of hospitality. Upcoming topics will include some of the following and a whole lot more:
Hotel and Motel Management:
- Daily Operations - "Let's streamline this baby"
- HR - "What do these people expect from us?"
- Guest Relations - "What do THESE people expect from us?"
- Front Desk Protocol - "Umm...you need to Stand-Up when a guest enters!"
- Marketing - "Let's Understand, It's Everyone's Job!"
- Sales - "Nothing else matters if you don't have heads in your beds people!"
- Branding - "Why You?"
- Design - "It's Your Space - Work It Out - for Less!"
Financing Options and Forecasts
Franchises: Weighing the Pros and Cons
To Sell or Not to Sell/To Buy or Not to Buy - These are the two critical questions!
Distressed Hotel and Motel Property Options and Solutions for Lenders:
- Asset Preservation Techniques
- The Benefits of Receiverships
- Critical things to Consider Before you Foreclose
- Hiring a Management Company
MotelMan is comprised of a team of professionals with extensive experience in hotel/motel brokerage, management and operations, receiverships, customer relations, financing, sales, human resources, marketing, project management, design and branding.
It is our sincere desire to offer you timely information to help you navigate your property(ies) to success. Whether you own a hotel or motel or are in the market to enter the hospitality field, we will try to have 'fingertip' answers to your most pressing issues. If there is a topic you would like covered, please feel free to contact me!
Lucinda Hazen
Marketing Director and Partner - MotelMan Management and Receivers, LLC.
LucindaHazen@gmail.com
Twitter: Infocus23
Lucinda, with over a 25year background in sales and marketing, consults with businesses looking to increase their market share through positioning. She also has extensive Project Management experience that lends itself to developing operating processes in service industries that yield results. The mother of three grown sons, she resides in Colorado with her husband.