Buenos Aires is paradise for design aficionados. Travelers are spoiled by the quality and personality of small hotels opened over the past decade.

If you were opening a new hotel in this market, how would you position it?

That’s the question I’ve been examining with Martin Rosberg, Managing Director and co-founder of Fierro Hotel – a new hotel opening in Buenos Aires this September. Fierro is an Insider’s Circle partner: a very design-focused hotel with all the best amenities. iPads in the lobby and suites. Double-glazed windows to ensure a silent, relaxing environment. The sort of place where you would love to spend a week or two.

But we both know having the best product is just the first step. We need to help travelers visualize the guest experience through our communications. So as we prepare for opening, Martin and I have been thinking:

“How can we communicate the Fierro Hotel difference, and separate the property from all the other boutique design hotels in Buenos Aires?”

It may help to have a little background.

The building will include the Hernán Gipponi Restaurante. From HotelChatter…

Chef Gipponi, by the way, is a local lad done good, having spent time in Michelin-starred kitchens in Spain before returning home to Argentina. We hear that the restaurant promises to become a local hotspot, but be warned that this does not mean it will be classic meat-haven parilla.

We’d happily eat steak day after day in BA, but if you’re a vegetarian or simply need something other than beef in your diet, you will be pleased to know that Gipponi will be serving up dishes such as Foamy Yogurt with caramelised pumpkin seedsm and Grilled Scallops with bok choy, pineapple and ginger juice, and pine nuts.

Additionally, the hotel’s wine cellar is run by Martin’s brother, Andres Rosberg – president of the Argentine Sommelier Association.

So here we have this beautiful design hotel, paired with some of the best food and wine in the city. Now, the brand position is obvious.

Fierro Hotel is the place to stay for the gourmand visiting Buenos Aires

Or, “The best lifestyle hotel for foodies.” If you’re a bon vivant, you need to be here.

We’re still finalizing the wording, but the difference is clear: If you’re serious about experiencing some of the best food and wine that Buenos Aires has to offer, Fierro Hotel is the logical place to stay. Not only do you have these great options on-site, but you have some world-class experts to recommend other establishments in the city.

The positioning lesson for you

Examine your story to find what position your brand can occupy exclusively in the market. Fierro Hotel has this strong emphasis on food and wine, but you will have something else. Whatever that is, define that…and then repeat it over and over in your communications.

Want to work together on branding for your hotel? That’s just one of the areas we cover in my Insider’s Circle program. See details on the special end-of-season offer available now.

Josiah’s note: Mihir Nayak, owner of the Mitaroy Goa Hotel, has been a big supporter of this blog, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know him over the past few months. For the next few weeks, he will be posting a few guest posts on lessons he learned from running his hotel. Today, he discusses the ‘power of one.‘

Although it is a term that is thrown about a lot these days, the USP or Unique Selling Proposition is the most important weapon in any hotelier’s arsenal.

Last week I was sitting with a hotelier friend of mine while he and his team were designing their latest advertising brochure.

It was really amazing to see how his team of hotel marketers, who had surely studied the concept of the USP, were throwing everything and the kitchen sink onto their brochure.

Talk about our comfortable rooms, said one. Talk about our French chef, said another. Don’t forget our spa area, said the third. And on it went for the next hour or so.

They ended up with 4 slogans, 1 long title, 3 subtitles, 14 unique selling propositions and 8 different photos. As a result, the size of the hotel name had to be reduced so that it was barely visible and the website was in a font too small and tucked away in the right hand corner to be visible at all. Oh, and there was absolutely no call to action whatsoever!

At the end of it all, I was totally confused.

Research shows that guests are bombarded with so much advertising they find it hard to concentrate. If they want to even concentrate on advertisements at all. And in the hotel industry, the case is the same.

As I said earlier, the solution is to have a USP (there shouldn’t even be a plural) that sticks in peoples minds.

A wonderful book called the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing dips into this concept. The authors say that as a hotelier, you should try and own one attribute in your customer’s mind. And that one attribute should have great importance for your guests.

Four Seasons is associated with luxury. Marriott is associated with standards. And W Hotel is associated with design.

I sat down and did the same exercise myself. What single word was special to my Goa Hotel? What attribute could I own?

And then it hit me.

Space.

Unlike other hotels in Goa or indeed the rest of the world that offered guests rooms of only 20 sq mts, my Suites at the Mitaroy Goa Hotel were a spacious 100 sq mts or 5 times the size of my competitors.

That was what was unique about my Goa Hotel and why guests would choose my Goa Hotel over the other hotels in Goa.

And I went about telling changing all my marketing to bring the point home.

• My website said “Stay at our spacious Suites!”
• My advertising said “Stay at our spacious Suites!”
• And my business card said “Stay at our spacious Suites!”

(See what I am trying to do here?)

I also stripped away all my other attributes from my marketing materials, concentrating on my spacious Suites – how they are 5 times larger than my competitors and why space is so important.

When concentrating on one attribute, you will be forced to sacrifice all the other attributes you may want to be associated with. But this has its advantages. Not only do you own an attribute in your guests’ minds but your advertising also becomes much clearer. And the best thing is that research shows that if your guests rate you highly on one attribute, they also rate you highly on all the other attributes that are important to them.

So, as a hotelier, you need to sit down and ask yourself what one attribute do you want to own. What is the single reason why guests should choose your hotel and not your competitors. In short, what is your USP?

Let me know what you come up with…

The Dubai Mall is the largest shopping mall in the world. Among its 1,200 stores, you can find pretty much anything from anywhere.  It’s possible to spend all day shopping and only be scratching the surface. (I speak from experience – I’m writing this from a cafe here to rest my feet.)

The choice at this mall is overwhelming. But there’s one store – The White Company – that narrows the selection by selling in one color only.

It doesn’t matter if they find a really cool product in green. It doesn’t matter if the customer wants a widget in blue. Even if yellow is the next big thing, they won’t stock it.

They only sell products colored white.

Limits are essential for building a brand. Constraints make the buying decision easier, and define what you stand for.

Do you clearly state what you offer and who your customer is?

Do you make it clear what you do NOT offer and who your customer is NOT?

Blurring this line in an attempt to add revenue will confuse how people see you among the competition.

(Josiah’s note: This is the fourth and final part of Alicia’s outsourcing for hotels series. You can also read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3)

Having explored the benefits and potential pitfalls of outsourcing in prior posts, it is important to use these criteria for assessing when it makes sense to outsource a particular task and when a hotel is best served by keeping it in house.

Front-of-House responsibilities require the ability to react quickly to guest demands; therefore, it is crucial that staff be empowered by the management’s support to do so. Communication needs to be instantaneous with as few hurdles as possible – not always the case with outsourced services managed by others. In order to maintain control over the quality of the face-to-face interactions guests have with staff, it’s a good idea to manage in-house employees who provide the hotel’s core services, i.e. front desk clerks, doormen, car valets, bellhop, concierge, etc…

Tangential functions of the hotel can be grey areas when assessing the suitability of outsourcing. Since increasingly more restaurants, clubs, spas, and fitness centers are co-branded, the hotel’s responsibility for these services are diminished. But when they are in fact brand extensions of the hotel, it again necessitates in-house management to maintain quality-control. Conference Facilities are an aspect where some, but not all, of the duties could be contracted out. While staff which interface with meeting inquiries and scheduling should remain under direct hotel management, outsourcing on an as-needed basis the supply, maintenance and support of the associated technologies could be best satisfied by an outside specialist.

Some Back-of-House and Administration functions are more likely candidates for successful outsourcing, Housekeeping and Facilities Management are examples where an outside contractor could either be cost-effective if the workforce remains consistent and knows the physical nuances of the property – or a financial loss if money is spent reeducating a quick turnover of staff.

Sales and Marketing roles are also instances where outsourcing makes sense for many, but not all, of the job responsibilities. Having an onsite Sales Director is of course crucial, but the majority of marketing duties can be successfully performed by an outside expert. Hotel marketing efforts are shifting exponentially towards online strategies as research and bookings are increasingly web-dominated. Remaining competitive requires a team of professionals with specialized knowledge of online interfacing. Partnering with the right marketing consultants is a terrific example of how outsourcing can make and save money.

Hotels certainly do come in all shapes and sizes. While yes, the trend is to create brands and designs geared towards more specific target markets, some of the global hotels on Unusual Hotels of the World really take this to the extreme.

Properties are ranked from being merely “Different” to somewhat “Wacky” to an outright “WOW”. In addition they are categorized by some truly Unique Selling Propositions: igloos, underground caves, underwater submarines, prisons, lighthouses and tree houses are just a small portion of the imaginative variety of experiences.

Interior of the Jumbo Hostel

Take for example the newly opened Jumbo Hostel near Stockholm, in which guests not only spend the night (on the ground) of this retrofitted 747 jet, but plane aficionados also have the chance to climb around the engines.

Another off-the-charts hotel is Kokopelli’s Cave in Farmington, New Mexico.

Photo credit: Entrepreneur

This one-guestroom luxury hotel is located in a 65 million year old sandstone formation with a sweeping view high above the La Plata Rivera.

Today’s adventurous travelers are craving the added value that comes with the one-of-a-kind experiences offered by these hotels – and they’re not likely to be replicated by Starwood any time soon. While perhaps not going to the extremes seen here, could these hotels inspire you to add elements of surprise to your property?

Part I of our look at outsourcing in the hotel industry explored some potential pitfalls that could reduce a property’s overall strength. This second segment focuses on communicating your hotel’s priorities to service providers while reducing the likelihood of errors. When considering the option of outsourcing, it’s essential to select suppliers that understand and support your business goals. Specifying these objectives within their contracts may help a property avoid potential conflicts.

Following are some aspects to consider when evaluating the suitability of outsourced service providers, along with some practical ideas for minimizing risk:

A. Does your outsourced provider juggle many clients? How much time can they devote to your property? One idea: insist upon regularly scheduled check-in meetings.

B. Will your service provider’s bigger clients be more important than you, leading to your loss of control and quick reaction time to problems? One idea: set monetary incentives for promptly and sufficiently resolved problems as well as penalties for slower responses.

C. Are confidentiality agreements enough? Could your outsourced supplier leak proprietary information? One idea: password protection and strict monitoring of the access of sensitive data and documents.

D. Can your outsourcers adequately evaluate the levels of risk that are acceptable for your hotel? One idea: include in the contract a comprehensive database of potential scenarios and your hotel’s desired outcomes.

E. Is there consistency with the proficiency of those employed by your outsourced provider? Surging demand for less expensive skilled labor could lead to hiring insufficiently trained staff, which decreases quality and speed levels while defeating the cost savings intended by outsourcing; i.e. a booking engine maintained in an emerging technological region such as Bangalore. One idea: verify the employment and education credentials of your outsourcer’s team leaders.

G. Are the outsourced provider’s corporate ethics aligned with yours? Do they have unfair labor practices or irresponsible environmental/waste policies? It’s not just the matter of being unprincipled; could their actions harm your brand’s reputation? One idea: stipulate as a qualifying factor for awarding the contract your first-hand observation of the company’s actual work environments/factories, not just the corporate headquarters.

Successful outsourcing is all about due diligence to make sure your hotel is put into good hands without giving away your knowledge base. In the process you may decide it is not the most fruitful path to strengthen your brand. Part III explores this scenario with some ideas of how insourcing can make better use of your current staff resources.

With the majority of reservations being made online, a hotel’s look-to-book ratio has some mighty slim margins for making a lasting impression. Within seconds guests form an opinion about a property and how it fits into their lifestyle or the one to which they aspire. It’s essential that a hotel brand’s core DNA can be quickly perceived and is consistent throughout its marketing.

The nexus of a hotel’s identity lies within the messages conveyed by its logo. Strong symbols and fonts evoke instantaneous, emotional responses from their viewers. As hotel brands evolve in response to social, environmental and technological guest preferences, so must their logo in order to ensure it speaks to their target market.

Take a look at the following multi-industry examples that show how revisiting a logo as well as an entire product or webpage can breathe new life into a brand. Holiday Inn’s former insignia conveyed an old-fashioned family environment and really hadn’t changed since today’s parents were children themselves – planting the notion that perhaps the hotel’s facilities hadn’t either. The updated logo is designed to attract modern, casual families and implies a relaxed, welcoming spirit.

An updated visual identity that retains elements of its former logo will reposition a property in the guest’s mind. In such a competitive economy, this shift in focus can be a strategic tool for capturing additional revenue.

What do your hotel’s marketing materials say about your brand image– and is it the message that draws in your target market? Will refreshing your brand’s identity give you an added edge?

During tough economic times, it’s understandable that a hotelier’s initial inclination would be to adopt practices that generate the quickest increase in RevPAR and occupancy rates. The growing trend towards outsourcing appears beneficial as it introduces competitive bidding among suppliers while alleviating some of the hotel owner’s risk.

Nearly every aspect of running a hotel can be parceled out, from the property management and reservations system to front desk and housekeeping staff to conference, gift shop, spa and restaurant administration. As The Economist recently reported, flags such as InterContinental are moving towards an “asset-light” business model where only 16 of its 4,186 hotels are actually owned by the brand, with the remaining operated as licensed franchises. Will this strategy weaken the longevity and quality of InterContinental’s brand value?

We’ll be taking a three-part look at when outsourcing makes sense – and when it jeopardizes a hotel’s service delivery promise. While the immediate financial benefits are well-known, making an informed choice that addresses the potential pitfalls might allow outsourcing to be a robust solution.

Critics argue that outsourcing is short-sighted as it sacrifices long-term success for short-term growth. Following are some red flags to consider as to how uninformed outsourcing might reduce a hotel’s overall strength:

A. Lessens a hotel’s flexibility to respond to unique tasks & surges in workloads

B. Lessens consistency in the property’s message and customer service quality control

C. Reduces creativity in management decisions, as the key players must stick to their defined roles

D. Reduces personal pride and ownership among staff

E. As noncore services become noncritical they tend to be neglected or left behind

Clearly it is essential that a hotel selects outsourcing partners that share similar brand values while promoting open channels of communication. In Part II of our look at outsourcing we’ll explore the potential conflicts in priorities between owners and outsourced providers, as well as provide some strategies for avoiding these risks before they have the chance to occur.

Despite the tumbling economy, consumer desire continues to grow for services that in past days were considered a luxury – those that are highly customized to individual preferences while offering out-of-the ordinary experiences.

In recent times, hotel groups have rose to the challenge by creating more segmented brands – earlier examples being Starwood’s Aloft and Element. But as funding sources have become scarce the introduction of new microbrands is a riskier investment. The brakes have been put on some brands, either slowing them down or putting them on hold completely, such as with Baccarat, Crillon and 1Hote1. Perhaps once Starwood Capital’s newly announced SH Group finds it feet, financial lending will have loosened up a bit and these brands can move forward. But as travelers are tighter than ever with their disposable income, is it a smart time to introduce the over-the-top luxury of Baccarat and Crillon? Or will there always be a market for super premium lodging?

Hilton’s announcement of their new microbrand Home2Suites seems to take a more practical response to guest requests by targeting tech-savvy extended-stay travelers who also would like “sensuous retreat services.” This concept has a theme also seen in our earlier post about women-only hotel floors: the desire of travelers to be pampered during off-work hours.

Is now the time to increase the promotion of spa services to your extended-stay business guests for added revenue? How can your hotel capitalize on this trend?

One of the earlier forays into lifestyle automobile and hotel cross-branding came with Volkswagen’s venture into the hospitality business.  Each of the 21 rooms of the Hotel Fox in Copenhagen was designed by a different international artist in commemoration of Volkswagen’s release of the Fox automobile.  Great idea that photographs well when it’s new, but here’s some food for thought – what happens when the inevitable carpet stains set in or housekeeping slips below par?  Would a disgruntled guest’s experience (and subsequent word-of-mouse) lead to a negative impression of the Volkswagen brand?

Hotel loyalty programs that offer rental car discounts to its members are nothing new; but the concept of giving prestige car owners perks at lifestyle hotels provides an interesting reversal of marketing roles to this profitable relationship.   Mercedes’ launch of its Destinations program not only provides room upgrades and gifts, but also allows members to drive different models while staying at select luxury resorts.  It’s the perfect opportunity for a genteel up-sell, baiting guests with short-term use of the latest models while creating desire for its associated prestige.

Reversing the dynamics of the hotel and auto industry cross-branding relationship looks to be a smart move.  What other marketing relationships could be reexamined from new angles to strengthen your brand’s identity?