Case Study

digging deeper

“pretend that every single person you meet is wearing a sign around his or her neck that says ‘make me feel important.’ not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.”

~Mary Kay Ash, Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

Intro

how we grew sustained sales by over 500% in an imploding market

During the Great Recession of 2008, the proverbial “bottom” dropped out on previously predictable and stable group sales products in the entire hotel industry. Through thorough analysis, innovative thinking and accelerated implementation, we not only uncovered unique solutions, but also grew sales for our client at an impressive and unprecedented rate.

Details

conquering economic downturn

challenge

With traditionally strong corporate and association markets suffering from dramatic attendance loss and complete cancellations due to national economic conditions, we sought to uncover new or underdeveloped market opportunities to mitigate these financial losses, creating a long-term “recession proof” model.

The biggest hurdle would prove to be transitioning the mindsets of heavily traditional management, sales and operations team members to accommodate these underserved markets. We also needed to prove prior to execution that these markets could be effectively developed and made highly profitable while still leaving the flexibility for corporate and association bookings when overall market conditions recovered.

solution

Building on the hotel’s long history in the social and wedding market, as well as its proximity to dense South Asian and Jewish communities, we embarked on a campaign of growth in these underserved markets.

With meager budgets for any advertising or marketing, we leveraged and expanded relationships with the third party wedding planners in the Kosher function market, South Asian wedding planners, and catering focused restaurants already serving the communities events in other locations.

Through these efforts and continual market research and education in the subtleties of the cultural and religious practices of these market groups, we were able to grow these markets by over 500% in food and beverage sales, add thousands of previously unrealized room nights per year and increase the overall profitability of these events by over 30%.

overall market increase

500%

Hotel cost Savings per event

30%

F&B Annual Event Revenue Increase

$1.25M

Ongoing Market Success

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Testimonial

“the hospitarian™ team helped us to identify our opportunities in underperforming market segments and roadmap a way to grow them by over 500% in just 12 months. we would absolutely work with them again!”

SVP Sales & Operations, Westin Hotels & Resorts

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