Skip to main content

What hotel industry issues keep global hoteliers awake at night?

  Posted in Direct Bookings  Last updated 1/12/2023

There are many issues facing our industry as a collective. And new research from SiteMinder has revealed the issues that are perceived to be the most challenging by hoteliers all around the world.

SiteMinder asked hoteliers, both independents and groups, to rank priorities, challenges, and issues from high to low on everything from financial plans to focus areas, and of course, the future.

Chapter four inside ‘SiteMinder’s Global Hotel Business Index 2017: A visual look at financial plans, focus points, and future predictions’ takes a look at the big issues facing the sector and hoteliers could choose from a matrix of priorities –

  • Dominance of online travel agents (OTAs)
  • Economic performance and its impact on local tourism
  • Competition from the sharing economy including Airbnb
  • Global security threats and concerns
  • Unpredictable natural and environmental disasters

The perceived dominance of OTAs came out as the top challenge that hoteliers think the industry is facing – ranked at 54%.

Least challenging was unpredictable natural and environmental disasters ranked at a comparative 20%.

What did hoteliers tell SiteMinder about their issues?

Hoteliers were keen to provide more detail when it came to the topic of the biggest industry issues.

More than 120 insights made the final report and here are some of the highlights from this section of the research:

“Maintaining a good standard and quality of guest and not chasing volume. It is not how many guests you have it’s how they treat the property and how much they spend in the hotel’s bar and restaurants.”

“OTAs investing heavily into retargeting, UX and UI – hotel groups and individual properties are unable to compete.”

“High taxation and overregulation of the industry, making it harder to compete with the sharing economy.”

What’s the SiteMinder perspective on the findings?

Chapter four’s results demonstrated the broad range of issues that our industry faces, as well as the challenges that impact hoteliers the most.

A top ranking of 54% for the dominance of online travel agents represents the second-lowest top answer of the entire research – likely evidence that hoteliers understand the need for a diversified distribution strategy.

Interestingly, the local tourism economy, global security threats, and unpredictable environmental disasters were all ranked equally as ‘somewhat challenging’ suggesting these issues are always in the back of hoteliers’ minds.

Other chapters in the report include –

  • Achieving Your Hotel’s Business Goals
    What are your biggest business focuses at your hotel in 2017?
  • Planning Your Hotel’s Finances
    Which areas are you likely to distribute the largest proportion of budget in the next 12 months?
  • Tackling Your Hotel’s Biggest Rocks
    What are the biggest challenges currently facing your hotel business?
  • Recognising Your Motivations
    As a hotelier, what are you most passionate about during the day-to-day?
  • Predicting Your Hotel’s Future Technology
    What developments do you think will accelerate in our industry over the next 10 years?

Download SiteMinder's Global Hotel Business Index

Sign up to the SiteMinder Newsletter to get free hotel industry insights

By Shine Colcol

Shine is the SEO and Content Manager of SiteMinder, the only software platform that unlocks the full revenue potential of hotels. With 5+ years of experience in content strategy, Shine has produced informational content across various industry topics, mostly about operations management and continuous improvement. She aims to share well-researched articles for hoteliers to discover how to optimize their time and increase room revenue.

 

Thanks for sharing

Sign up to our blog and receive regular updates on the content you're into

Send this to a friend