Running a hotel can be a costly endeavor, with operating expenses adding up quickly. While reducing expenses is essential for any business, finding creative ways to save money while maintaining quality service is as critical as it is a challenge for hotels. We compiled six out-of-the-box cost-saving strategies you can implement in your hotel to reduce their expenses and boost profitability.
Being green doesn’t have to be expensive
Sustainability is, as we all know, a trend in every industry. It is slowly but surely changing from a nice-to-have, niche aspect into a must-have component..
Adopting environment-friendly measures are not only economically beneficial, but they also help in building brand reputation by adding to the customer delight. A report by Skift shows, that guests are 67% more likely to choose a hotel that has implemented sustainable initiatives.
But contrary to common belief, implementing green initiatives at a hotel, doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive - plus, the ROI of such initiatives can be highly advantageous.
Keep an eye out for our next article, that is going to be all about how small changes, can have a big impact on the overall footprint of your hotel.
Here is an example: Installing timers on bathroom heat lamps or implementing smart windows in your hotel are some of the smartest things to embrace. Smart windows can adjust the cooling or heating required in the room by controlling the amount of light passing through it. This eventually helps in lowering your electricity costs of the air conditioners or room heaters.
Stay on top of maintenance
Don’t defer it! According to the US Department of Energy, clogged HVAC filters can increase energy consumption by 15%. Maintaining systems will minimize energy consumption, extend equipment life, and reduce the likelihood of a catastrophic breakdown. System breakdowns or other maintenance issues are costly to the hotel, inconvenient to guests, and give the hotel the aura of an undesirable, hassle-filled experience.
Develop and implement a preventative maintenance schedule for keeping your building’s equipment running flawlessly. Because the most expensive of all maintenance activities are the last minute ones.
With Hoxell’s Maintenance Quality Operations, you can automate, plan and monitor both daily and upcoming maintenance activities. By keeping track of your entire property on one platform, you can not only save last-minute repair costs, but also reduce labor costs, that are due to human errors or over-staffing, significantly.
Be creative and increase the ancillary revenues
Ideally, reducing operational cost and generating revenue go hand-in-hand. This presents an opportunity to repurpose your venue’s less utilised spaces to earn some side income. This might not necessarily require a permanent set-up. Therefore, this works as a revenue generation strategy as well as a perfectly practical hotel cost-saving idea.
One example is using your garden / rooftop for think tank events, company retreats or gardening courses or even children’s birthdays - whatever fits your strategy. It will contribute to delivering a great experience to guests who might even become future customers. If you have a hall, you can use it for conducting a yoga or dance classes.
Another off-season idea, is to use your kitchens to offer cooking classes - not only super trendy but also a great promotional tool for your F&B outlets. Who doesn’t want to learn how to make your hotel’s signature home-made pasta during their stay in Italy?
Another upcoming trend is utilising your hotel’s lobby to set up a workspace, a social hotspot or even a cool coffee shop. There are many other ways you can use these spaces and promote your hotel during the off-season. Put on your thinking cap and be creative!
With the reporting tools from Hoxell, you can to track the performance of alternative accommodations and make the right, data-based decisions for the further development of those alternative accommodation options.
Reduce Food Waste
Wasted food is not only unsustainable, but directly translates to financial losses, yet many hoteliers tend to overlook this issue. However, in certain instances, food waste could be a major contributor to monetary losses for your hotel, making it crucial to monitor and address.
Implement sustainable practices in your hotel today. One approach is for chefs to prioritize ingredients that can be used across multiple menu items. The biggest potential food waste contributor in hotels are, typically, breakfast buffets.
With the Hoxell breakfast module, you can set up the breakfast buffet according to your guests preferences. It not only allows your staff to seamlessly monitor the number of guests who already had breakfast and how many haven’t, which immensely contributes to guest satisfaction, but it also allows you to cut costs by not wasting food anymore. We call this a win-win!
Invest in Technology
We all know the saying: “You got to spend money, to make money”, right?
Well, the same counts for an investment into technology for your hotel - as long as it’s the right one. By investing in the right technology for your hotel, it is possible to increase return on investment and drive growth in the medium and long-term.
With Hoxell, you can for example facilitate the inventory management to track and optimize purchasing and storage, this not only reduces labor costs due to minimized manual counting but also results in large cost savings from projecting usage of inventory and avoiding rush orders with penalizing costs.
Now it’s your turn! Make those cost-saving strategies work for your hotel
All of the above cost-saving ideas for hotels may or may not be suitable for every property. Therefore, use them at your discretion and involve your staff in finding more creative ideas - team work, makes the dream work!
What are your out-of-the-box cost-saving strategies? We’d love to hear them!
What can Hoxell do for you?
Hoxell offers various tools to improve your team's productivity and communication. By providing a platform for each team member to send messages, create tasks, and assign them to others, it allows teams stay organized and on track. This reduces the rate of human error and work overload and makes it easier for team members to stay connected and collaborate on projects. Hoxell is completely cloud-native so that it can be accessed from any device at any time. Thanks to Hoxell, you can enhance your housekeeping services by improving your staff's productivity, reducing the time needed for inspection and quality monitoring, and eliminating unnecessary costs.
Moreover, Hoxell offers real-time monitoring of rooms' status. And that's just the tip of the iceberg! By automating, planning, and monitoring daily and planned maintenance tasks, Hoxell can ensure that tasks are completed on time, with minimal human error and loss. Hoxell is easy to use and intuitive, so your team can get up and running quickly without extensive training.
Get in touch today and request a demo, by clicking HERE.