Hotel Bookings Performance

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Hotel performance pretty much depends on booking procedure. If booking is easy and comprehensive, people will be eager to book suites in advance. It would be quite reasonable to measure bookings efficiency with Balanced Scorecard. Check additional information about hotel bookings performance.

What do you usually do when you are looking for a hotel to spend a night there or your entire vacation? Yes, you go online or use the phone. It is almost always reasonable to book hotel rooms in advance since many hotels offer special prices and discounts for you. It is profitable for a hotel to get an early payment from you. This will improve cash flow. Besides, hotel management will be sure that rooms will be occupied and the hotel earns money. Of course, there are cancelled bookings. However, it is possible to optimize hotel performance, booking procedure in particular, with Balanced Scorecard. In fact, booking and reservations are part of the hotel performance that can and must be improved. In this article we will talk about what exactly in hotel bookings should be measured and how BSC can benefit hotel owners, top management and ordinary employees.

Balanced Scorecard consists of 4 categories that were first introduced by Norton and Kaplan who paid due attention to non-financial indicators. These categories include financial, customer, internal business processes, learning and growth groups of indicators. As to key performance indicators, they are specifically selected for each individual company. In our case, all indicators should concern bookings procedure and its various aspects.

Financial category includes indicators related to expenses in connection with booking. Here we can use such KPIs as bookings costs vs. total expenses, bookings costs vs. revenue from early bookings, web site maintenance costs etc. Logically, a hotel should spend certain amount of money to maintain web site, booking form, payment processing system, pay salary to personnel in charge of bookings confirmation. There are also expenses related to discounts and special prices for early bookers. These expenses must be correlated to revenue generated by new customers. Sure, these expenses have to be justified. In other words, this is kind of investment that comes back with profits.

Customer perspective may cover such KPIs as customer satisfaction with bookings procedures, number of failed bookings because of system breakdowns etc. If customers find bookings system easy to use and comprehensive, they will be eager to book rooms in advance. Besides, introduction of discounts and special prices/offers can also improve customer satisfaction. We all run into ads like "Book a room for 3 nights and get the 4th for free" or "Book a room in advance (1 month) and get free romantic dinner in our restaurant." Such advertising and promotion campaigns increase the number of customers.

Learning and growth perspective evaluates efficiency of bookings. It would be reasonable to measure such KPIs as Internet bookings rate, failed and cancelled bookings, new features in the Internet booking forms, new accepted payment methods. Use of the latest technologies can decrease booking costs for the hotel owners as well as simplify procedure for potential guests. For example, a simple sentence "We accept Pay Pal" may boost growth of customer database and increase revenue.

Learning and growth perspective measures efficiency and skills of personnel. Number of training sessions per employee or new skills acquired by one employee are typical examples of learning and growth KPIs for bookings evaluation.

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