Hospitality owners and managers need to look at maximising the income from an operational asset “from day one”, according to Ruslan Husry, CEO and owner, HR Group, speaking at the inaugural IHIF Asia in Hong Kong.
The tools to achieve this include everything from digital applications to examining the physical footprint of a space, delegates heard. Said Husry: “Digital services are key.” He explained that HR Group was able to “add on a service to track the digital journey of a guest… increasing our profitability and enabling us to offer the guest further services”.
The result of this had included solutions revolutionising the use of front office employees for check-ins, converting space into meeting rooms, and channelling food and beverage (F&B) provision through digital ordering and payment systems. Husry said that a “digital concierge” had been well received, while the application of artificial intelligence (AI) for cost management had also “improved profitability”.
Greater efficiencies
Huu Duc Phan, regional business development director Asia for Tui Blue Hotels & Resorts, said that his strategy for maximising income involved finding greater efficiencies across the Tui business in an “integrated approach”. “We offer hotel stays and F&B as part of a Tui package, so it’s not just about maximising the revenue for the individual hotel, but also for the other business segments of Tui,” he explained.
Phan currently oversees hotel development in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, The Philippines, and South Korea, and is aiming to lead the expansion of the Tui Blue, The Mora, and Tui Suneo brands within the Tui portfolio in the Asia region.
Lucia Grambalova, chief investment officer, head of asset management, Hotel Capital Partners, said that her firm took a “granular approach at the inception of the revenue thesis” to meet the goal of “achieving high teen returns as soon as possible”. One facet of this is spatial segmentation when analysing a property, which Grambalova said helped “match the product to the customer”. She added that a rigorous use of data equipped her firm’s asset management division with “real numbers to improve figures”. She also predicted that AI tools for maximising revenue would increase in the coming years.
Income tool kit
For Sanjog Modgil, head of overseas hotels, TCC Land International, Thailand, maximising asset income should involve a “longer term approach… I don’t look at individual transactions”. Modgil added that “he preferred to talk about efficiency rather than guest engagement” for areas such as maintenance, housekeeping and security. After starting his career in the F&B space, he said that he had strong views on creating “robust F&B management systems” to give hotel owners the confidence to “invest two to three million in new concepts”. He said: “New concepts have to make money, they have to be profitable, and they have to have a long-term gain. So that’s what I’m focusing on over the next three years.”
He underlined that looking beyond a three-year horizon wasn’t generally useful: “Five years is too long – that’s a wish list,” he said. “As an owner, you need to be focused on buy-in. You need the brand to buy-in, you need the manager and operator to buy-in – so that everyone feels they are on the same page.”
Husry affirmed that a pragmatic approach to space worked for him: “Our perspective is to look at each square metre as a revenue generator, from beds to public areas and other things, in order to work out which additional concept we can add to a place which is not being utilised well”. These might include coffee spaces, co-working facilities, or stores and pop-ups.
Concluded Phan: “We invest a lot in technology and blockchain is used across Tui to manage inventories. The Blue app helps us monitor how services are being used in different hotels in different countries. AI is also helpful for waste management, so we can see the levels of wastage and become more efficient.”