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Simple ways to start saving costs (without cutting corners)...
With energy and food prices soaring, changes to the workforce and with other macro environmental influences at play, it seems to get harder before it gets easier for the UK hospitality sector.
The London Rock Partners team have rounded up a few initiatives designed to get both energy and other core costs under control. Some may be obvious reminders and others may be bottom-line transformers that you can start implementing today…
Turn the elevators off
If you’re facing low occupancy levels, reduce the energy that you use accordingly.
Can you allocate guests to certain floors and close off other floors, therefore switching off lights and heating in this unused space?
For a high rise building with multiple elevators, can you turn off just one or two elevators without affecting foot flow?
Involve your guests
If you’re undertaking energy or cost saving initiatives, involve your guests. Give them an opportunity to contribute to your green efforts by including them in it.
You can do this by a instruction upon check-in, an email sent to them in advance of their arrival, in-room communication via TV or flyers.
Many guests appreciate it when a hotel is actively promoting green initiatives and in fact, there’s an entire market dedicated to eco-tourism so involving them and reminding them to switch off lights and heating, to close windows and to embrace alternative day laundering can really help support the wider hotel goals.
Train and incentivise staff
Don’t expect an email memo to be a sufficient form of communication in getting everybody on board.
Take the time to train all staff members – not just on induction but at all stages of their career journey and from all departments. Show them where the light sources are, how they can contribute to the initiative and what to look out for. Make them an active part of the plight and they will feel more responsible.
You could even go as far as to offer a benefit or small financial incentive if the hotel achieves its green goals.
Invest in maintenance and upgrades
The structure and age of many buildings in the UK mean that many systems for lighting, heating and water are out of date. Old systems usually lack the energy efficiency of new ones and until now, they haven’t been a priority.
Now that the energy prices are skyrocketing with uncertainty for the future of energy costs, now is a better time than ever to invest. Use a specialist company that protects your existing investment and aims to keep investment costs low.
Monitor food waste
One of the key areas you can save money today is with food. Prices have rocketed and yet with income levels remaining unchanged, it’s hard for hotels and restaurants to add an actual reflective price increase to their menus without affecting demand.
Are plates often coming back with food on? Maybe your portion sizes are too big and can be reduced without complaint.
Are you getting the best price from the best suppliers? When was the last time you negotiated your contracts or went through a procurement review?
Can the menu be designed more efficiently? Can you offer daily ‘off the menu’ specials to use up leftover food? Can the portions be controlled or mixed with less expensive items to ensure quality and savings?
Do an expense audit and renegotiate your contracts
When looking to reduce the overall costs, perhaps an expense audit is required. Going line by line through the costs to see where you can make savings, or reduce unnecessary spending is a good place to start.
Can contracts be renegotiated, or can new and more cost-efficient suppliers be found? Is it time to look at the processes and procedures to find ways of saving costs?
Review your marketing spend
If you’re doing the same marketing activities that you were doing at the beginning of March 2020, it’s highly likely that you need to update your marketing strategy. Not just for cost savings, but to embrace the major changes that have taken place in the market since the pandemic began.
Where are you advertising and is that where your guests are still hanging out? 1.2 million people a day joined social media during the pandemic. Are you showing up where they are? Are you making it easy for them to book the hotel online?
Can you use unbranded items for some parts of the guest journey? For example, does the soap have to have the hotel name on or can a much cheaper generic version of the same product be used? What about key cards? Envelopes? Guests these days are likely to be just as impressed with an eco version as they are a branded one.
Water bottles in rooms? Branded and plastic or a refillable glass jug with filtered water? Real sheet-staining rose petals on the bed, or quality faux petals that can be used again and again?
Cross train and develop staff
The chances are that many of the frontline service staff in hotels have much greater ambitions for their careers. They seek roles in management, administration and commercial departments and when given the chance, training and development – they make incredibly loyal senior members of the team.
Instead of always spending the time and money onboarding new team members and putting them through orientation, spend that time and money on external training, courses and skills development for existing staff that want to progress. Tying this arrangement into a contract can be a lot more rewarding than financial incentives and breeds a level of loyalty rarely found in the hospitality sector.
Improve customer service
If you find that you’re often refunding or reducing the rates of your hotel or restaurant bills, perhaps it’s a customer service overhaul that’s required.
Unhappy customers are not only complaining, but they are also telling their friends about their experience, and they are potentially sharing negative content online that you’re not even aware of. None of this helps drive custom.
If you’re currently facing this, it’s worth hiring a mystery shopper or do some in depth analysis on your feedback and put a plan in place to elevate each step of the customer journey.
Hire a hotel management consultancy
One of the most cost-efficient ways to run a hotel is to hire a hotel management consultancy like London Rock Partners. It’s a team of experienced professionals from every area of expertise in hospitality and beyond. They strategise and implement the industry’s best initiatives into your property to ensure that it performs to its optimum best – operationally, financially and with guest satisfaction front of mind at all times.
They come in with fresh eyes and state-of-the-art industry know-how and work with your team under flexible terms and conditions – designed to make hotel management simple, impactful and flexible for hotel owners.
About London Rock Partners
Born in a post-pandemic hospitality landscape, London Rock Partners is a new approach to hotel management. They go beyond the tried and tested to deliver a standard of innovation to which the industry aspires.
Guided by their innate understanding of hospitality, they draw inspiration from the prospect of ‘what if?’ and 'what next?' to ensure consistent over delivery to clients.
London Rock Partners provides a full range of service hospitality solutions including:
For more information:
Website: https://www.londonrockpartners.com
Email: info@londonrockpartners.com
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