PROPERTY LOCATION:

MANHATTAN BEACH

In January of 2019, I was contracted to serve as a task force Gm for two 44 room hotels (Hotel A and Hotel B) located next to each other, in the beach cities area of Los Angeles.

I was asked to oversee the day to day operations of these two hotels and assist in the recruitment of a permanent General Manager.

I arrive on January 7 and found the hotels in a state of major neglect. The staff was largely unsupervised and were provided very little direction. It appeared that no manager or leadership was present and that the employees were left to figure out the operation on their own. Employees expressed that they would not see the owners for weeks at a time, and that they, as employees just tried to do what they thought necessary to get through the day. Granted, there were a few employees that stepped up to provide some oversight, but none were trained or developed as leaders or hoteliers. Nonetheless, most of the staff was untrained and unsupervised but trying to do the best they could.

Physically, the hotels were filthy. I was checked into a room at the Hotel A and immediately went to the local market to purchase cleaning supplies for my room.  Cleanliness was an issue. Dirt, old food items, forgotten guest items, scuffed and dirty walls, unfinished repairs were all visible in my room alone.  Inspection of guest rooms would later detail the gravity of the situation. Every room inspected showed signs of massive dust build up, unfinished repairs (unpainted patch work were evident in several rooms).  Visible mouse traps were found in a few rent-able rooms. Significant dust had collected in all rooms. Carpets were un-vacuumed, furniture was unpolished/un-wiped and dirty.

Storage spaces fared far worse. Storage rooms were unorganized, and stock piled with literal garbage and dead stock. Rodent feces were evident in every storage closet or area.  The parking lots were also used to store refuge.  This was the case at both hotels.

Hotel B did not fare much much better. Although nicer from an aesthetic view point (more natural light, no carpets in guest rooms, and a bigger, brighter lobby) the hotel and its rooms were also neglected and dirty. Major scuff marks littered every guest room wall. Old and stained furniture (old refrigerators, broken lampshades, dirty air conditioners) highlighted the lack of cleanliness.

The Public areas were also neglected. The guest laundry washers and dryers were broken, the breakfast room at the Hotel A seemed on the brink on a health inspection failure (food placement was not sanitary), major water leaks in the lobby (in various locations), broken door handles, and the list goes on.

RATE AND INVENTORY

It was apparent that no rate strategy was in place. Both hotels had a flat rate of $99.00 (Hotel A) and $109.00 (Hotel B) for the entire year. Seasonality or demand were not a factor.

The hotels did not have functioning websites and the ONLY way to reserve a room was via Expedia or Booking.com. As these are commissioned based, the hotel was netting very low rates.

It was apparent that a major shift in the market had occurred for these hotels. Both were severely underperforming from both a rate and occupancy perspective.  This will be discussed in more detail in this report.  As it stood, the hotels were performing at approximately 50% or LESS than the previous year.  A negative trend had developed.

Guest reviews were very inconsistent. However, cleanliness and value for price paid were consistently scored very low.

As revenues were off compared to previous years, it was made clear that money was tight, and expenses had to be kept at a minimum.

WHAT WE DID

The first week was spent simply observing. The lack of procedures, policies, checklists was apparent and glaring. 

After observations were complete, we created daily checklists for all positions and trained the staff on the new expectations.  Small things (ordering uniforms and nametags, purchasing of basic supplies, cross training of staff) were completed in order to build a stronger team bond.

Housekeepers were retained and the number of rooms they clean were limited to a more realistic number of no more than 16 per day.  Daily inspections of ALL rooms were implemented.

Every guest room was repainted and deep cleaned. Amenity placement in the room was reexamined and items rearranged in order to create a more positive guest/user experience.

Every store room and closet was emptied, garbage thrown away (three completely filled dumpsters were the result of the purging process) and closets were re-organized for greater proficiency.

Growing enthusiasm among staff was very evident. It was apparent that the staff welcomed the new organization and leadership. As one employee said, “we finally have a boss”.

Once we tackled the issues effecting and impacting employee productivity and moral, we moved on to the subject of increasing revenue.

As mentioned, the hotel was under performing in the market and compared to the previous year.

We made slight alterations to their website and turned them on (hotel’s websites were not “live” when we took over. They did not have a web presence at all)

We contracted with new third-party providers and tour operators in order to better distribute and better showcase the hotels. We examined the third party players and selected those that would target the core demographic of the hotel (leisure traveler vs. corporate traveler).

Immediately, the sites began producing. The mixture a new listing coupled with strategic rooms promotions, resulted in a positive uptick in both revenue and occupancy. Within three short months, we had reversed the negative trend and ended March with revenue near the previous year. April outperformed the previous year in occupancy, ADR and REVPAR.

Guest reviews greatly improved.

In March a new General Manager was hired. As we transitioned, we created action plans and a long-term plan on revenue growth and property enhancements. The General Manager and I remain in contact and the hotel in regained its operational profitability.