Singapore is hot!

Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International’s annual ‘Asia Connect’ conference in Singapore this year was “thoroughly one of the most enjoyable seminars I’ve attended this year”, said one participant.

Patrick Fiat, General Manager for the Royal Plaza on Scotts hotel supported this philosophy with the comment “Asia Connect was an excellent opportunity to tackle critical issues currently facing the hospitality industry in Singapore. Hearing different points of view made it a great learning experience and can serve as a compelling impetus for change.”

Over 105 Sales and Marketing leaders from more than 28 hotels and hospitality brands based in Singapore came together recently to hear from international speakers about the health of Singapore’s hospitality industry and to discuss the most challenging issues that they are facing.

Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHA, President & CEO of HSMAI presented trends in the hospitality market, addressing the top challenges and issues affecting hospitality sales marketing professionals.

Gilbert challenged the conference goers that while business is buoyant today, they are in an extraordinary market phase and that they needed to think beyond that and prepare for possible worsening market conditions, perhaps lower rack and occupancy rates and greater competition from beyond the borders of Singapore.

The conference continued with a lively panel session about hospitality service ratings, led by Dr Judy Siguaw, Dean of the Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management, as moderator, and Shane O’Flaherty, Vice President, Quality Assurance of Mobil Travel Guide, and Gary Tan, Senior Consultant for LRA Worldwide, as panelists. Much talk ensued about whether ratings should be applied to the facility or to the service standard.

O’Flaherty mentioned the that fifty years ago Mobil Travel Guide had weighted the importance of facilities with sixty per cent of their score points, but these days the ratio of service to facility is seventy-five to twenty-five points.

In accordance with the standards of the Mobil Travel Guide, which is publishing a guide to hotels in Beijing in 2008, a five-star rating is achieved with a score of ninety per cent or above based on their point system. Mobil’s incognito hotel inspectors evaluate more than 550 criteria to determine a hotel’s star rating based on facility inspections and service evaluations. Less than one hundred hotels worldwide have earned the five-star rating.

The second session, led by Bonnie Buckhiester, Founder and Principal Consultant of Buckhiester Management, was enlightening to most of the participants who were challenged to think of revenue management in new ways. Buckhiester advocated new metrics for analysing performance and promoted the concept of ‘total’ revenue management where revenue from F&B, banqueting, function room rental and other auxiliary services are considered.

Klaus Kohlmayr, Director – Services for IDeaS said, “Measuring ROI per space is critical vs a traditional room-only environment”. Agreeing with Kohlmayr, Vivek Bhalla, Assistant Vice President – Revenue Management for Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels and Resorts added, “Today’s hotelier needs to be a business manager first, not just a hotel operator. And career-wise, revenue management is growing and revenue managers are now evolving into commercial managers”.

Victoria Edwards, Vice President, Strategic Development and co-founder of Buckhiester Management, addressed Travel 2.0 and its profound impact on revenue management. She described the impact of Web 2.0 as ‘weapons of mass collaboration’, and noted the impact of this new media technology on the generations of today.

As a result of Travel 2.0, hotels are matching the user to the product, thereby creating ‘inventories of satisfaction’ through psychographic segmentation within the hotel industry. She encouraged participants to use websites such as Yapta.com to gain visibility into how consumers are forecasting hotel rack rates. Participating in a panel discussion, Jens Thraenhart, Executive Director, Marketing Strategy & CRM for the Canadian Tourism Commission, spoke about the necessity to collaborate in an open forum with customers today.

Jeannette Ho, Vice President Marketing and Sales for Raffles Hotels & Resorts, mentioned that many thoughtful discussions resulted in their present marketing approach, which enables customers to interact with Raffles, provides content designed for mobile phones, and allows customers to send electronic postcards, for example.

Patrick Andres, Managing Director of SynXis Asia Pacific, also participated in the panel discussion, contributing his knowledge about online booking tools and the importance of websites for hotels.

Christine Toguchi, Managing Director for HSMAI Asia Pacific and MacroVision Network Pte Ltd, led a spirited session on talent management with insights into employee engagement and why employees leave.

Deborah Ong, Assurance and Human Capital Partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers, spoke about the differences of GenY employees and how they connect with their workplace, wanting to be mentored in their jobs.This view was endorsed by Odette Huang, Director of Marketing & Brand Development for the Royal Plaza on Scotts, who said “even their preference for learning is very sensitive”.

When asked about emerging trends in recruiting staff, Andrew Chan, General Manager for TMS Asia Pacific, said, “Job candidates are interested in more than the salary and title alone, they desire a career with companies who encourage a work-life balance”.

The final conference session was the stimulating ‘Singapore Sizzles’, featuring Catherine McNabb, Director, Strategic Clusters I, Business Travel & Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions Group with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB); Eric Bello, Vice President of Sales for The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel and the Marina Bay Sands; and Dr Martin Buck of Messe Berlin and ITB.

McNabb spoke about STB’s ‘robust and aggressive’ initiatives to recreate Singapore as a destination, not merely a stop-over. Singapore is positioning itself for global meetings, strengthening its offering to maintain its position in the top three destinations for meetings worldwide.

Bello stated “Singapore clearly was missing carpeted meeting space, so we are building the largest pillarless ballroom in Asia and more breakout rooms than fifty hotels combined”. The conference participants were delighted to hear that the integrated resorts slated to open in 2009 will bring meetings traffic to Singapore that will benefit all hotels in Singapore. The Marina Sands resort is anticipated to attract far more meeting attendees than it can lodge in its guest rooms, so the local hotels will be receiving the overflow crowds.As Bello pointed out “we may have the best boat but we are going to get you all up there”.

Buck, who is initiating ITB Asia, ITB Berlin’s Asian edition starting October 2008, commented that ITB chose Singapore for their Asian exhibition because it had the three “A’s”, that is, amenities, attraction and access.

The day concluded with announcements of future HSMAI events and initiatives for Singapore and the Asia Pacific region, including the launch of a certification program for Revenue Managers and the creation of a new HSMAI Chapter for Singapore with links to the HSMAI Asia Pacific Regional Centre, followed by a networking cocktail reception.

A Report by The Mole