Can HiRUM Connect You with Your Guests?

Did you know that Hirum Property Management Software allows property managers to access their database to create their own marketing campaign? The Hirum Property Management system provides tools to allow property managers to create personalised letters or emails to past, future and present guests. So how can property managers use these tools to connect with their database to manage their own marketing?

We all know keeping customers happy and well serviced is far easier and cheaper than finding or obtaining new customers. This is an essential part of any marketing campaign; service your present customer base, keep them happy and they’ll keep coming back.

Hirums Property Management Software makes this exceptionally easy by assisting property managers to keep their past, present and future customers in touch with special offers, discounts, features and special events. Each registration card or booking form completed by a new guest allows property managers to collate an extensive database. Using this database to promote and market the Resort or Hotel is a huge advantage to operators and property managers.

Mail outs are generalised media, but personalising marketing letters and emails allows property managers to connect with their clientele at a unique level. Not only will this give clients that feeling of ‘I’m special’, they will then recommend the business to others; this type of recommendation is highly regarded and has enabled so many businesses to find success in Social Media.

Ever thought of offering a special rate to a selection of past clients who stayed last year during the month of May? Setting up the property management system to create a unique list of past clients is the first step. Creating a simple letter, flyer or newsletter can then be sent to all on this list from within the property management system via email or printed out and mailed by post. Similarly this list can be exported to use in other online mailing software.

Hirum’s clever property management system allows you, the property manager, to build a unique marketing campaign targeting clients who have used and know your property, purely from the information obtained when the guest registers. Want to connect better with your clients by building marketing campaigns?

Contact Sylvia at sylvia@hirum.com.au or phone (07) 55744990

Thanks to FreeDigitalPhotos.net photography

Ever wondered why ‘Property Management software’ was created?

Property Management systems have been widely used for many types of businesses over the years – real estate, manufacturing, government and the hospitality accommodation management industry. Traditionally it was a paper-based system however with the growth in business, this manual system soon became highly inefficient and cumbersome. Through the growth of rental apartment ownership and property management rights, it became obvious to those in the Hospitality Industry that computer software programming was required to deal with high rise unit management.

Today Hospitality Property Management Software co-ordinates and manages property rental and holiday accommodation letting, management and guest accounts, housekeeping, maintenance, legalities, banking, debtors and personnel. Also known as a PMS, Property Management Software manages guest bookings, online reservations, point of sale, telephone charges, room service, daily and end of month banking and often trust accounting amongst many other things. The Property Management Software may also interface with central reservation systems, channel management software to control accommodation availability, revenue, online channels and yield management.

Hirum Property Management Software was created out of the need from property managers to have increased control over the management of the apartments they controlled within their letting pool. Over the years the software has grown to have an extremely high level of functionality in front and back office solutions, banking and reporting. It’s a far cry from a basic reservation tool to manage the letting of rooms on a day to day basis.

Contract Marketing …. Are you aware of all the facts?

With the growth in social media and the need to market your business using Blogs and Newsletters we have seen an increase in Marketing companies offering to undertake these services for you. Marketing companies can offer you excellent services which can give you time to concentrate on the day to day running of your property. For the Resort or Property owner however, there are specific areas of contracting a Marketing Company you should understand prior to entering into such contracts. Many Managers also aren’t aware that their HiRUM Property Management Software gives them unique hospitality marketing tools built into their business software.

In building our Property Management Software, HiRUM specifically integrated these unique Marketing tools to protect the Intellectual Property of a client’s’ business. The information pertaining to each past and present guest adds to the core value of an Accommodation business. The extensive list of past guests; their full name, email address, phone number etc allows the Resort owner/manager access to sensitive data generally worth hundreds of dollars to purchase as a mailing list. Each time a registration form is completed the guest is sharing their sensitive information with the Hotel or Resort owner and unless otherwise stated, this data is entrusted to that Hotel or Resort only.

To engage a Marketing Company requires thought and a duty of care to your past and present in-house guests. A Non-Disclosure agreement is crucial to both parties in protecting this sensitive information and preventing its abuse.  Similarly Marketing companies should encompass this NDA approach as part of their contract with any client. The Australian Data Protection Act “Privacy Acts” are data protection laws which regulate the collection, use and disclosure of personal information about individuals. By sharing this information with a third party you must also consider your guests’ legal right to not allow this information to be shared.

With HIRUM’s inbuilt marketing tools it is generally unnecessary to risk exposing yourself and your business data to third parties. Templates and written content can easily be purchased via Copywriters or contract Marketeers and modified each month to suit your requirements whilst the team at HiRUM are available to show you how to automate your marketing within the software and effectively market to your guest database, ensuring your business’ critical guest data remains secure.

Call HiRUM now to discuss how you can save money and create a marketing campaign with the simple tools already at your fingertips.

Contact Lisa@hirum.com.au for more information

Is the another Scam?

In recent times how often have you had clients walk in the door and request a month long accommodation booking? Brilliant! A month long holiday reservation in the present economy is quite a rarity and so you decide you just can’t let these customers walk out the door without registering and signing up to a good weekly rate.

Having decided you have to jump on the opportunity to fill the room and keep everyone happy you also need to be aware of the pitfalls of such a scenario. Generally visitors would research and review all available online reservation tools and websites before reserving for such an extended period. Online reservations websites offer competitive rates and sites like ‘TripAdvisor’ allow guests to review properties and research their possible holiday destination. So, are you having a ‘lucky day’ having customers walk through the door without even a phone call to enquire on rates or is this something to be more cautious of?

Although most customers would never consider ‘scamming’ a Resort or Hotel manager, some are using this technique to take advantage of the quieter times and gain a ‘cheap’ rate from managers who have reduced the rate based on an extended holiday period. This ‘scam’ then allows the guest to beat the normal nightly or weekly rate and stay for only a quarter of the time they were quoted, i.e. stay for 7 nights at a cheaper weekly rate instead of the full month.

A HiRUM client has alerted us of such a scam. After quoting a good weekly rate in order to gain the full month long booking her guests decided to depart after only 7 nights and refused to pay the additional charges to bring the rate up to a normal nightly rate. Unfortunately the guest may win in this experience but it may be a lesson to us all to be more aware of today’s environment, the current economic climate and the possible flaws or traps we could all fall into within this industry.

Sharing your experiences as owners will help others in the industry to learn and prepare themselves for ‘the general public’. We’re always happy to assist where possible with advice and recommendations for rates etc via our HiSITE Channel Management Software and connect you with other property management rights owners at our regular training seminars and functions.

Are Property Managers getting a ‘Raw Deal’?

HiRUM is always keeping an eye out for useful information to pass onto you, we’d even love to hear your thoughts and comments so feel free to comment below.

Are Property Managers getting a ‘Raw Deal’?

I noticed a recent article by a property manager in Far North Queensland as it raised the question about how to handle owners moving into their apartments for long term stays and who is responsible for dealing with this situation when it contravenes their purchase agreement.   Apparently a clause exists preventing an owner from occupying their apartment for longer than three months at a time but many owners seem to be ignoring this.  The question is then posed as to where the clause originated from and who should be ultimately responsible for ensuring it is upheld?

Managers pay large sums for the rights to manage apartments within a building but who is there to protect their investment when the apartment is sold to a purchaser who wishes to use it for their own purpose?  Units are not always lost from a letting pool because the owner is disgruntled with the manager, many are lost because they are sold to owner occupiers over which managers have little control.

So if a clause preventing owners from occupying the property for long periods does exist, then who should be responsible for enforcing it? It can’t be the police as I am sure it would be almost impossible to evict someone from a property they own.  The banks are unlikely to do so as they want their mortgages paid and a court of law would be unlikely to agree that someone should sleep on a park bench if they owned a property which would provide them with a roof over their head.  If the council enforced it, there could be dire consequences for the local property markets.  Many apartments are selling to first home buyers who simply cannot afford to buy a home with house prices and interest rates at their current levels. If the apartments can’t be sold to first home buyers or those downsizing, then who will buy them? This would limit the pool of purchasers dramatically and apartments would fall under the Supply and Demand dilemma which is facing the real estate industry in many parts of the country at present.  If supply is high and demand is low, then prices for apartments would surely fall, possibly impacting the managers own LVR with his bank. Does the Body Corporate have a part to play in all of this?

It seems this is a no win situation and the manager stands to lose most of all.  Is there a solution to this problem, possibly not.  Management Rights will always be subject to both ends of the spectrum. Some amazing opportunities to run a successful, profitable business, but forever exposed to the risks that go hand in hand it seems with anything that provides the potential to make a good profit.

It would be interesting to receive feedback as to whether anyone has any knowledge of this clause being tested in Australia and the relevant outcome.

See more details of our software products HiRUM Property Management Software and HiSITE Channel Management Software and keep an eye out for our regular blog posts on related articles.

Google brings the World to Travellers

How often have you heard the term ‘Google it’ ? meaning to search on the Internet browser ‘Google’ for just about anything. The verb ‘Google’ was officially added to the Oxford Dictionary back in June 2006 and yes, I Googled it! But have you heard of the amazing new FREE tools Google is delivering to Hotels and Travellers alike? It’s called Hotel Finder.

 

Hotel Finder allows you to locate the perfect Hotel / Motel / Resort by pinpointing on the Google map the exact location you wish to stay.

Let’s say you’re thinking of a trip to Darling Harbour Sydney. It looks like a fabulous city to explore but how can you find somewhere close to everything, for a long weekend? Finding every option available would normally take hours of tedious research.

Hotel Finder gives you the tools to do the research in no time at all. Using the pins on the Google map, mark out the area you are thinking would be the perfect location. Hotel Finder will then highlight all the possible Motels / Hotels / Resorts etc within this map giving you photos, rates and full details of each one.

Users can then decide on the Room Rate per night and define the Hotels/Motels/Resorts by star rating etc; adding the properties you prefer to a ‘wish list’ to examine and compare in more detail before placing a booking. The ‘Book’ button allows the traveller to then book directly with the property or by using Wotif, Booking.com or similar.

As a Property Owner there are some basic steps to undertake to ensure your Property is featured with full colour photos, reviews and general information. Get onto Google Places and start the process of claiming your Google Place Page – it’s free and it’s easy. Also think about adding Hisite to your website. Once the travellers’ search finds your property and visits your website for more photos and information you can then direct them to your ‘Book Now’ button and take the booking direct. Hisite gives the traveller options to check dates availability and see room details, term and conditions etc. By booking directly through Hisite the traveller saves on Booking fees etc but the Property also gains a direct booking which then drops into the Hirum system and saves both parties money and time. Contact Hirum today for more details on Google Hotel Finder and Hisite: e: sales@hirum.com.au or p: (07) 5574 4990

Other Interesting Facts from Google: Did you know?

• Dreaming: 68% of business travellers watch travel-related online videos. Among them, 68% are thinking about a trip.
• Planning: The average traveler visits ~22 travel related sites during 9.5 research sessions prior to booking.
• Booking: 37% of leisure travellers report that the internet prompted them to book; this figure is up from 28% two years ago.
• Experiencing: 70% of business travellers check into their flights/hotel with their mobile device. Almost 1 in 4 hotel queries come from a mobile phone.
• Sharing: About 1 in 3 business travellers have posted reviews online of places they’ve been.

Chinese Cultural Requirements

Further to our most recent Blogs on Tourism and the China market, Tourism Queensland published statistics and a full story on the rise in numbers from China:

’8 September 2010
China continues to be the shining light for Queensland’s tourism industry and for the first time has overtaken the USA as the state’s fourth-largest international market, Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor said today.’ extract from Tourism Queensland News.

PART A: Chinese Cultural Requirements:

When thinking about encouraging Chinese tourists to your door, you will need to assess any Cultural requirements, to enhance their holiday and encourage return visits. A good start is with ‘Yum Cha’;

Yum Cha, literally “drinking tea”, is an ancient tradition in Guangzhou. The morning tea ranks their first choice and has become one of the important parts of their daily lives.

When they meet in the morning, they usually greet each other with “Have you drunk tea?” The ‘teahouse’ is the most popular place for this practice. Here they drink morning tea, afternoon tea and night tea, and also eat pastries with breakfast, while spreading news, enhancing friendships and talking about business.

“Yum Cha” is a kind of social activity, and a distinct characteristic of Lingnan culture. And nowadays, you could have morning tea not only in teahouse but in restaurant or inside hotel.

Morning Tea is also important; in addition to having tea, they also have all kinds of dishes and dim sum, including shrimp dumplings, rice noodle rolls, lobag gow, maatai gow, phoenix talons, steamed meatballs, spare ribs, lotus leaf rice, congee, chien chang go, char siu sou, taro dumpling, egg tart and so on. Drinking tea is a mode of social exchange, which is an important and key factor for the long history of prosperous teahouses in Guangzhou through the centuries. (Chinese Editor: Xu Xinlei)

Stay tuned for more Cultural Requirements in the coming weeks.

Proudly presented to you by Hirum

The Benefits of Automation! Statistics proves it’s worth.

The Benefits of Automation!

Could your owners use an extra 8%?

Hirum users who have the Hirum booking form on their own web site along with direct integration into Hirum enjoyed almost $1million worth of direct bookings during the month of July.  This in turn resulted in an additional $80,000 increase in revenue for their owners as well as saving the managers a lot of money in both time and workload.

This is a true win win for all parties.

Unfortunately some property managers still believe it is more beneficial to only have an ENQUIRE button on their web site, believing their own skills in up selling to the client who contacts them via email are more beneficial than an automated system.  But is this true? In today’s internet savvy society, most likely not.

Research shows that more than 80% of people looking to book on 3^rd party channels, including the “last minute” sites, will swing over to the properties own website to check the property out further. If they’re happy with what they see and want to book, they are likely to do so there and then rather than returning back to the third party site.

A couple of things must come into play at this point in time to encourage the visitor to book on your site.  The price must be the same as they were able to book on the originating site and the booking form must be simple to use with the booking able to be made there and then.  Hirum ticks all these boxes. Long gone are the days when people would email you to discuss the accommodation first, lack of time simply does not afford for this luxury any longer.

The benefit to the client in booking direct is peace of mind, lower cost as there is no booking fee and time saving in not having to return to the original site.  The benefit to you is twofold.  The first being the dollars you will save in commission that the third party would have charged, the second is the security of knowing that this guest now belongs solely to you.

Many properties underestimate the value in this direct “ownership” of the client.  If the client books via a third party, then you are sharing this person with someone else.  This provider will be marketing to this client continuously, sometimes more than once a day; throwing them any specials they have via email.  They will not only be marketing your property to them, they will send them anything they can to encourage them to book via their site.  After all, it doesn’t make much difference to the provider which property they book at as they earn roughly the same amount wherever the guest stays.

However, if they book direct with you, they are likely to never receive any information from the third party providers as they are not aware of their existence. This provides you with an immense opportunity to retain this client long term, you just need to ensure you keep in constant contact with them after their stay, by emailing them every few weeks with any specials you may have or providing information for upcoming events.

These clients are the Intellectual property of your business and form the basis of your goodwill when the time comes to sell. This opportunity alone is worth much more than the agent commission benefit and should be grabbed where ever possible.

So whilst you may be able to up sell to the 1 in 50 people that do bother to send you an enquiry, the money and intellectual property you are losing to third party agents along the way by not having direct integration for your pricing and inventory far outweighs this.

School holidays are almost upon us again, followed by Schoolies and Christmas, as well as several local events in between.  Whilst you may not want the actual schoolies, you have a prime opportunity to capitalize on being some of the only available apartments on the Gold Coast during this time.  People still travel and business still goes on despite the Schoolies festival, so display your availability at every opportunity. Now is the time to ensure that you have a direct link to your Hirum PMS from your website and give your owners the 8% increase that this simple addition will bring with it.

S JOHNSTON

International Tourism – increasing?

TQ or Tourism Queensland reported this week, ‘International visitor arrivals to Australia increased 3% over the year ended June 2010, with arrivals from Asia continuing to underpin Australia’s growth.

Statistics to June 2010

(download pdf of Statistics)

International Arrivals into Queensland:

The growth in arrivals from China to Queensland remained the highest nationally. China was the fifth largest source market toQueensland over the year. Similar to the nation, Queensland continued to record solid growth from Malaysia, driven by air capacity increases to the Gold Coast.’

Are you seeing this increase in your occupancy?

What do you think of these statistics?

Is your Channel Manager giving you the exposure to this Market?

Have your say and tell me what you think.

Just my thoughts…

H Nicholls

HiRUM

Cultural requirements – Is your Property ready for the Chinese Tourist?

中国游人欢迎了

中國遊人被歡迎

Should this be important to you? Why would you ever consider needing Chinese script?

The China-based HNA Group is to acquire properties in Australia. Adam Tan, HNA Group’s executive chairman said, “We are coming to Australia where we want to lift our presence.” HNA’s core business is its Hainan Airlines, which is seeking landing rights in Sydney and Melbourne. (taken from Accom News this week)

My last blog touched on the subject of the forecast increase in Chinese visitors, but I’m starting to think its going to be huge – are you ready for it?

Should we start looking into offering some translation on our tariff brochures? Would it be worth adding some ‘welcoming’ Chinese characters onto our websites? Should you sign up to the Channels which feed this market into Australia. Hisite can help you with that. Hirum can build you a new website to allow for future requirements of offering certain content to this market.

There is so much we can be doing and preparing now, from taking on some Feng Shui and its most important concept of Bagua, the tool used to evaluate each living or working space and the nine main areas of life; to knowing if Tai Chi 太极拳 is offered in the local park as an early morning class and how much it costs to join in; its worth taking some time now while its quieter, to find out how you can start to build on to the features or services you can offer this market.

Want to add your thoughts? Add you comment now and subscribe to my Blog.

Just my thoughts!

Helen Nicholls