If you are familiar with Game of Thrones, you’ll understand what “Winter Is Coming” means.  For those that aren’t familiar, it is a similar catchphrase to any world ending movie/show. (i.e. Stranger Things-The Flayer, Walking Dead-Zombies, Terminator- Cyborg Assassin, etc.)

For the hotel industry, our fight with the beast starts when signs of the recession begin.

The recession is a seven to ten year recurrence. Most of the population is unprepared and shocked when it happens. Then people start to panic, prices drop and everything becomes a *commodity.
(*The equivalent of a bad word in our company! )

What we’ve learned by going through this before and watching any ‘world ending’ film is that every daunting beast can be defeated. How?  Proactive measures and strategic planning ahead of time! 

All references aside, the US market is seeing some familiar downward trends in the economy/hotel industry. Though our industry is not alone, we can say confidently properties are going to start feeling this pain point.

Here’s an excerpt from an article written by Deloitte on 2019 US Travel and Hospitality Outlook;

“From 2009 to 2017, US hotel gross bookings grew from $116 billion to $185 billion…  At some point, all expansion cycles come to an end. With the hospitality industry reaching almost 10 years of consecutive growth, and the potential of broader economic slowdown looming, brands must prepare for the possibility of softening demand.” 

When our economy went through a recession in 2008, we were a trusted partner for many hotels. In fact, GitGo increased a leading hotel brand’s incremental revenue by $2.5 million with just one of our programs. We helped link key decision makers face-to-face with hotel sales teams.

Many sales professionals seem to be frightened of the real life conversations now, instead of being able to send everything through electronics. It is convenient to send clients communication electronically! Utilizing technology has been ingrained within business development and digital marketing has had significant increase in the past decade. Yet, face-to-face interactions are still the most effective when building relationships with B2B clients.  This is the best way to stand-out as a hotel partner and make it through the difficult time!

Regardless, if the recession prediction comes true within the next year or beyond, hotel leaders adequate preparation and planning can be exponentially beneficial! Proactive measures and strategic planning ahead of time can help your business and team get through the upcoming predicted recession.

Here are a few suggestions on how best to prepare for the upcoming prediction:

1) Start NOW to build a proactive sales pipeline! At least 97% of the “leads” you will discover today, will not be ready to buy right now. GitGo’s proactive lead generation approach gives line of site to a sales pipeline approximately 18 months out…This time frame is predicted to be in the midst of the next recession. 

2) Upgrade your organizations sales skills for proper follow-up and nurture tactics during new business development. At GitGo, we train ALL of our partners on the three myths and mistakes sellers are making with their new business development processes. But, we also give them tools & strategies to actually CONVERT new business to revenue.

3) Start a program designed to WIN in the fastest growing market in hospitality space.  *Hint: The Small- and- Medium-sized Businesses that are untapped by global and national sales teams.

All of the above happened in a recent co-creation strategy session between our CEO and an International partner. The program starts THIS YEAR and will save them over $100K to operate and increase their revenues by over 50%. 

Want to collaboratively build a program design to ‘fight the beast?’ Comment below or reach out to our Business Development Manager, Julia Smith – julias(at)gitgogroup.com.