Maximizing efficiency and productivity will always be a daily challenge for independent hoteliers, but there are solutions for improving the quality of daily workflows and getting more out of each day.
Here are a few tips to help:
Identify team members strengths and weaknesses
The great thing about having a team of ambitious multi-taskers is that they’re always ready and willing to help. While this is a great benefit for busy hoteliers, a pitfall of this strategy is mistakenly putting team members into roles that aren’t well suited for their skills. Multi-taking is critical to independent hotel operations, but to ensure efficiency and productivity, operators should work to identify each team member’s strengths and weaknesses before asking or allowing them to take on additional responsibilities.
Understanding where team members will likely excel versus where they need coaching will help you place team members in the right functional areas at the right times – maximizing their productivity and creating opportunities to develop new skills while maintaining efficiency.
Define functional departments and roles
Even though multi-tasking is a necessity, independent hotels should still clearly define the various functional departments and team member roles within their property. Over time, cross-functional multi-tasking can cause the lines defining department structures and team member responsibilities to blur – creating confusion around ownership of important work streams.
A viable solution for streamlining organization within independent hotels is developing departmental leadership roles and establishing an internal operating structure. The goal of this is to improve efficiency and productivity by defining which departments and which individuals are responsible for specific work streams.
We understand that independent hotels will always need their team members to fill-in when and where needed, but providing them with a defined structure will help keep them aligned with the hotel’s, as well as their personal, long-term goals.
Tools to help team members work more efficiently
The most important factor in driving efficiency and productivity across independent hotels is providing team members with the tools to effectively do their jobs.
For example, if your hotel’s booking strategy requires travelers to call or email front desk team members for availability and to complete bookings rather than through an online reservation system, your front desk team must manually handle each reservation inquiry, regardless if travelers book or not. Having to manually handle every inquiry limits the time they can spend with guests and, in cases where travelers do not book rooms, eliminates returns for their efforts.
Maximize your efficiency and productivity with innRoad
Without the proper tools, independent hotel team members will never have the flexibility to efficiently process bookings or effectively meet the needs of guests. However, this is where innRoad can help your team eliminate wasted effort and get more out of their workday.
Our cloud-based hotel management software provides independents with the tools and systems needed to maximize productivity across all areas of hotel operations. Our high-converting hotel booking engine and channel management system automatically funnel direct and 3rd party bookings into our property management system for easy, time-saving coordination. With innRoad, hundreds of independent hotels have taken back the time they previously spent inefficiently and now use it to continuously improve how they operate and take care of their guests.
Interested in learning more? Our Property Advisors would love to chat with you and learn more about your hotel goals. Book a call with our team below and be on your way to more streamlined hotel management.
