Hotel News Kenya: Happy Trends
As hotel consultants Kenya, we have had the opportunity to work and stay in several hotels. Although some hotels and resorts have done well the guest entertainment, many have missed easy opportunities to bring that spark of happiness to hotel guests during their stay. The selfie trend is one of such happy ‘spark’ that is now world phenomenon, President Barak Obama has his own selfie stick! Many Hotels in European countries, have taken advantage of this current happy moment trend, to Lure guests through competition’s, You could win a free night stay and or free food. All the Guest needs to do is; Simply pose, smile and tag the hotel. This in-turn greatly boosts their marketing and guest customer reviews; a smart way, turning their guests to brand ambassadors. Some hotels have taken the trend personally and have a selfie stick ready at check in, ready to Snap, not only do they get their guests smiling on Arrival but create that human interaction between their guests and staff, creating a cheerful mood. Some even have a special selfie corner section to Selfie pics. One hotel recently posted that they are “Apparently we are the first instagram hotel” Make your Guests happy, they want more than just a good room and great food”
Hotel & Restaurant News Kenya: Why Do Hotels & Restaurants Fail?
As Hotel Consultants in Kenya, we are passionate about meaningful, successful and sustainable hospitality, through our daily life, we come across hotels, restaurants and other such hospitality establishments, that close prematurely, on the fast lane to failure, or simply open but not just making it, and it certainly pains us to see the potential available and opportunity lost. Which leads us to why do hotels fail? Some Hotels & Restaurant establishment still open for business have actually retired, and some of these are known to you, think about it! when the hotel /restaurant doors opened, everyone seemed to notice it, and most likely you visited and experienced some services, or products and or you heard about it, but what happened, it no longer has the enticing feel in fact, now that you think of some of these former seemingly well to do establishments, it surprises you that you don’t even remember the last time someone mentioned to meet up there or spend the night. Your kids used to nag you to take them to that popular hotel or restaurant, today you all forgot about it, you can’t even go back there to refresh old sweet memories, This reminds you of some of those that opened and shut down, bought out or leased out, only memories remain. But why? Is it because the founding owner is absent? or operates behind the scene and unaware of the real issues? Did the competition swallow it? Did they stop marketing? Or did their standards just drop or did they have any standards to operate by? Was it because of a fire? Maybe it’s the economy? Or they couldn’t keep up with changing times? Someone said the staff drained it to the ground? The questions and theories are just many, the facts are real and surprisingly most of these hotels and restaurant failures were avoidable. The Hotel Industry in Kenya and as well in East Africa has been said to be highly profitable, to some however, it has been short lived or a dream waiting to come true, yet some under the same economic conditions have thrived through the years and still common household names. It’s astounding that a hotel is not making profits? The average cost to turn over a room, to keep it operational per day, is between 400/- and 2,000 Kes depending on Category and size. Let’s talk of the budget hotel scenario, If you’re paying 3,000 Kes a night, the approximate cost to turnover that room runs close to 400 Kes. That 400 Kes turnover cost includes cleaning supplies, electricity, and hourly wages for housekeepers, minibar attendants, front desk agents, and all other employees needed to operate a room as well as the cost of laundering the sheets.. Now compare that with an average room rate, and you can see why it’s a profitable business. The same applies to restaurants if you take the allowed % cost standards to revenue not making profits is unreal, so why do many fail anyway. To understand how to open a hotel or restaurant in Kenya / East Africa and keep it vibrant, with sustainable growth, it’s good research why many fail unreasonably. We have done this research for you taking one of the highest Hotel & Restaurant Population and leading in the highest tourism % in the world for this purpose ;- According to a post reference: Statistics by Wikipedia as quoted below “90% of new restaurants fail in their first year,”,[1] was an interesting statement made by Chef Rocco of a reality show called ‘The Restaurant.’ The number is very intimidating, yes, but hardly factual. “After the first year 27% of restaurant startups failed; after three years, 50% of those restaurants were no longer in business; and after five years 60% had gone south. It was reported by Dr. H.G. Parsa, Ohio State University. His research is titled “Why Restaurants Fail?” was published in the Cornell Quarterly (2005). At the end of 10 years, 70% of the restaurants that had opened for business a decade before had failed,”.[2] Although these numbers are still alarming, they are not as appalling as those stated by Rocco. The top six reasons why restaurants fail include no unique selling point, too large of a menu, all talent but no brains, poor pricing strategy, no marketing skill, and bad negotiation skills,.[3] This is where a Hospitality Consultant comes in to play. Another extract reads ; – American Express has estimated that 90% of restaurants fail in the first year. A study by Parsa, Self, King and Njite (2005) showed that the restaurant failures are in fact under 30% during the first year of operation, and although individual failure rates may rise by the third year of operation, they do not achieve the levels 3 reported by American Express. Other studies by Self (2004) using data from California have shown that restaurant failures are also less than 30%. The National Restaurant Association of US recognizes a 30% failure rate as the norm in the restaurant industry. Even the well established and commonly accepted 30% failure rate during the first year of operations is still unacceptable as it has significant economic impact. Restaurants are a significant part of American life. According to the National Restaurant Association (2009), total revenues for the restaurant industry exceed $580 billion with nearly 1,000,000 operating restaurants in the US; providing jobs for over 13 million people. The sizeable economic impact of the restaurant industry can be measured by the 4% contribution it makes to the Gross Domestic Product in the United States. In addition, the restaurant industry has been expanding at a steady rate of 2 to 4 % over the past three decade. In Kenya According to WTTC report on tourism in Kenya, The direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP was KES183.4bn (4.8% of total GDP) in 2013, and is forecast to rise by 2.9% in 2014, and to rise by 5.2% pa, from 2014-2024, to KES314.1bn (4.7% of total GDP) in 2024. The total contribution