by Jana Johnson | Oct 20, 2026 | General Manager, Marketing, Sales
November shifts travel patterns for many hotels. Summer vacations are behind us, fall events are winding down, and holiday travel may leave gaps between busy dates.
For hotel owners, general managers, and sales managers, those gaps call for a focused sales strategy.
Filling rooms during slower periods starts with identifying who still needs accommodations, giving them a compelling reason to choose your property, and consistently pursuing that business. Here are six practical ways to keep your hotel’s sales efforts moving
Target Your Need Dates
Start with your occupancy forecast. Which weekdays, weekends, or stretches of the month need the most attention? Review historical production, reservations on the books, and local events to pinpoint opportunities.
Give your sales team specific dates to sell. A clear goal, such as securing two small groups for an otherwise quiet weekend, makes outreach more focused and results easier to measure.
Look Beyond Seasonal Leisure Travelers
When vacation demand slows, other travelers may still need rooms. Construction crews, healthcare professionals, visiting vendors, relocation guests, and employees attending training can offer opportunities worth exploring.
Contact nearby hospitals, manufacturers, universities, contractors, and businesses. Ask about upcoming projects, temporary assignments, and visiting personnel. Match your offer to their needs, whether that means weekly rates, convenient parking, breakfast, or flexible housekeeping arrangements.
Sell Value Before Lowering Rates
Broad discounts can fill rooms while leaving little room for profit. Before reducing rates, consider what you can package around the stay.
A shopping package might include a local retailer offer and late checkout. A remote-work stay could highlight reliable Wi-Fi, a comfortable workspace, and breakfast. For guests visiting family over Thanksgiving, emphasize the convenience of having their own space nearby.
Choose benefits your hotel can deliver efficiently, and make booking details clear.
Build Local Referral Relationships
Your next booking may come from a business just down the street. Event venues, wedding planners, apartment communities, real estate agents, and restoration companies may encounter people who need accommodations.
Introduce your hotel, explain which guests you serve best, and provide a direct contact for booking questions. Invite key partners to tour the property. Follow up periodically so your hotel stays top of mind when a lodging need arises.
Reconnect With Past Accounts and Small Groups
Review accounts that previously generated business but have gone quiet. Contact past corporate clients, group organizers, and travel planners with a personal message about their upcoming needs.
November also creates reasons to approach local organizations about year-end training, planning sessions, holiday gatherings, and visiting staff. Even a small room block can make a meaningful contribution on a soft night.
Keep proposals simple, respond promptly, and follow up with a clear next step.
Keep Sales Consistent
Low-demand business rarely appears after one email. Assign account ownership, schedule follow-ups, and review progress weekly. Track conversations, proposals, room nights, and revenue so your team can focus on the efforts that matter most.
For owners and GMs balancing daily operations, consistent prospecting can be difficult to maintain. That is where dedicated sales support can help.
At GRANT Hospitality, we help hotels build relationships, uncover opportunities, and stay proactive in sales. If your property needs support turning slower dates into new business, let’s talk about a sales strategy that fits your hotel.
by Jana Johnson | Sep 29, 2026 | General Manager, Marketing, Sales, Travel
Every hotel has a slow week or a disappointing month.
But when performance consistently falls short of expectations, the problem usually isn’t one bad salesperson, one soft market, or one aggressive competitor.
Underperformance often signals something deeper.
For hotel sales teams, general managers, and owners, the challenge is figuring out where the breakdown is happening and fixing it before a temporary slump becomes the new normal.
Start With the Right Diagnosis
It’s tempting to look at occupancy or revenue and immediately say, “We need more sales.” But more activity isn’t always the answer.
First, determine where the hotel is actually underperforming.
Are you losing occupancy while competitors are gaining it? Is ADR slipping because the hotel is relying too heavily on discounted business? Are certain days of the week consistently weak? Is your sales team producing plenty of leads but not enough profitable revenue?
Look beyond topline numbers. Examine market segments, booking windows, day-of-week performance, account production, conversion rates, pace, and competitive positioning.
You can’t fix underperformance until you know what’s causing it.
Reevaluate Your Business Mix
Sometimes a hotel isn’t short on business. It has the wrong business.
A property can appear busy while leaving money on the table because too much demand comes from lower-rated channels or segments. Conversely, pushing rate too aggressively can create occupancy gaps that become difficult to fill later.
Ask a more useful question than “How do we get more rooms occupied?”
Ask: What business does this hotel need, and when does it need it?
Your sales and revenue strategies should work together to target demand that fills need periods without unnecessarily displacing higher-value opportunities.
Get Your Sales Team Out of Reactive Mode
Underperforming hotels often develop reactive sales cultures. Salespeople spend their days answering inquiries, sending proposals, attending meetings, and handling administrative work.
They’re busy, but being busy and generating revenue aren’t the same thing.
Identify the accounts, industries, organizations, projects, events, and demand generators that could realistically produce business for your hotel. Then build prospecting time into the sales team’s schedule and protect it.
Salespeople need measurable goals around new conversations, qualified opportunities, account development, and conversion, not simply calls made or emails sent.
Look Outside Your Four Walls
Your hotel does not operate in isolation.
New companies move into the market. Construction projects begin. Businesses expand. Competitors renovate. Event patterns change. Travel budgets shift.
If your commercial strategy is based primarily on who stayed at the hotel last year, you may be chasing yesterday’s demand.
Strong hotel sales teams continuously study their market. They know what is being built, which organizations are growing, what events are coming, where competitors are vulnerable, and where new demand could originate.
Create Accountability Across the Hotel
Sales cannot fix an underperforming hotel alone.
Revenue strategy, operations, guest experience, digital presence, reputation, pricing, and sales execution all influence performance. Owners, GMs, revenue leaders, and sales teams need to agree on the problem, the priorities, and the metrics that will define improvement.
Then review progress consistently.
An underperforming hotel doesn’t need more random activity. It needs clarity, focus, accountability, and a commercial strategy built around the business the hotel actually needs.
The sooner leadership identifies the real gaps, the sooner the team can stop chasing symptoms and start improving performance.
by Jana Johnson | Aug 18, 2026 | General Manager, Marketing, Sales
Hotel Sales Have More Technology at its Fingertips than Ever Before
CRMs track activity, automated emails keep prospects in the pipeline, data platforms identify potential accounts, and AI is beginning to handle everything from prospect research to RFP responses.
All these tools can make a sales team more efficient. But they cannot replace one of the most valuable assets a hotel has: relationships.
For sales managers and hotel general managers, that distinction matters. Technology can help identify an opportunity, but relationships are often what turn that opportunity into room nights and repeat business.
Hotels Are Selling More Than Rooms
Corporate travel managers, meeting planners, sports teams, construction crews, and other business accounts have choices. Rates matter. Location matters. Amenities matter. But when several hotels can meet the basic requirements, the relationship with the hotel can become the deciding factor.
A client who knows their hotel contact will respond quickly, understand their needs, and help solve a problem has a reason to return.
That trust is built through consistent communication, not simply contacting an account when the hotel needs occupancy.
Relationships Create Repeat Business
The real value of a strong hotel account is rarely one booking.
A corporate traveler may return every month. A project account could produce rooms for several months. A meeting planner may book multiple events each year. Even when a client cannot use your hotel today, maintaining the relationship keeps the property positioned for future opportunities.
This is where hotel sales teams sometimes miss the bigger picture. When every sales activity is measured around immediate production, it becomes easy to focus on transactions rather than long-term account development.
Not every sales call needs to result in a booking. Sometimes the goal is simply to stay relevant.
Technology Should Support the Relationship
Hotel sales technology is valuable when it gives salespeople more time to sell, not when it removes the personal connection altogether.
Use your CRM to remember when to follow up. Use data to identify companies producing in your market. Use automation to organize prospecting. Then use that information to have a better conversation.
Instead of sending another generic email asking whether someone has upcoming hotel needs, reach out with something relevant. Ask about a project they mentioned previously. Check in before their annual meeting. Let them know about a renovation, new amenity, or rate strategy that actually applies to their travelers.
That is the difference between account management and simply working a contact list.
Make Relationship Building Part of the Sales Strategy
General managers also play an important role. Sales cannot operate in isolation. When a GM takes time to meet an important client, thank a repeat account, or help resolve an issue, it reinforces the relationship between the customer and the entire hotel.
The strongest hotel sales strategies combine technology, consistent prospecting, and genuine human connection.
Hotels will always compete on rate, location, product, and availability. But those things can often be matched by another property.
A trusted relationship is much harder to replace.
by Jana Johnson | Jul 30, 2026 | General Manager, Marketing, Sales, Travel
How the Rise of Remote Work Is Reshaping Hotel Guests and Their Stays
Not long ago, business travelers checked in on Monday and checked out on Thursday, while leisure travelers filled weekends and vacation seasons. Today, those lines have blurred.
Why Extended-Stay Travelers Are the Biggest Long-Term Opportunity for Hoteliers
The rise of remote and hybrid work has created a new type of traveler, one who isn’t tied to a traditional office and has the flexibility to stay for weeks instead of days. Whether they’re escaping colder weather, visiting family, testing a new city, or simply looking for a change of scenery, these guests are redefining what it means to travel.
For hoteliers, this shift represents one of the biggest long-term opportunities in hospitality.
Why Long-Stay Guests Matter
Long-stay travelers offer benefits that go well beyond increased occupancy. A guest staying 7+ nights generates consistent revenue while requiring fewer check-ins, check-outs, and room turnovers than multiple short-term stays.
The result? Lower housekeeping costs, reduced operational strain, steadier occupancy, and more predictable revenue throughout the month.
Today’s Remote Worker Has Different Expectations
The modern remote worker isn’t simply looking for a hotel room, they’re looking for a place where they can comfortably live and work.
While reliable high-speed Wi-Fi is essential, it’s only the beginning. Comfortable workspaces, accessible outlets, quiet areas for video calls, flexible food and beverage options, laundry facilities, and convenient grab-and-go offerings all enhance the guest experience. Even small touches like complimentary coffee throughout the day can encourage guests to extend their stay.
Lifestyle Is the New Location
Location still matters, but not always in the traditional sense.
Rather than choosing a hotel solely because it’s near a convention center or office park, many remote workers prioritize walkability, local restaurants, parks, fitness options, and authentic neighborhood experiences. They want the flexibility to work during the day while enjoying the destination after hours.
Hotels that showcase these local amenities can differentiate themselves from the competition.
Turn Slow Periods Into Revenue Opportunities
Extended-stay travelers can also help fill occupancy gaps during slower demand periods.
Instead of relying exclusively on transient business or weekend leisure guests, consider targeting digital professionals, relocating families, medical travelers, project-based workers, and “bleisure” guests who combine work with vacation.
Monthly stay packages, discounted weekly rates, workspace amenities, and flexible booking options can all help capture this growing audience.
Market for the Way People Travel Today
As traveler behavior changes, marketing should evolve as well.
Rather than focusing exclusively on weekend getaways or negotiated corporate rates, highlight the amenities that matter most to longer-stay guests: dedicated workspaces, fast Wi-Fi, kitchenettes (where available), pet-friendly accommodations, laundry facilities, and nearby dining and recreation.
These travelers often spend more time researching accommodations, making clear messaging and strong online visibility increasingly important.
The Opportunity Is Here
Remote work isn’t a passing trend, it’s reshaping how people travel.
Millions of professionals now have the flexibility to work from virtually anywhere, and many are choosing hotels that support both productivity and lifestyle. Properties that intentionally position themselves for long-stay travelers will be better equipped to diversify revenue, smooth occupancy fluctuations, and build stronger guest loyalty.
For hotels willing to adapt, the opportunity extends far beyond filling rooms. It’s about creating an experience that encourages guests to stay longer, spend more, and return again.
by Jana Johnson | May 22, 2026 | General Manager, Marketing, Sales
Group Business Remains One of the Most Valuable Revenue Drivers in Hospitality
Group business remains one of the most valuable revenue drivers in hospitality, but many hotels unknowingly lose group sales opportunities long before contracts are signed. For hotel sales managers and general managers, understanding why prospects walk away is critical to improving conversion rates and increasing revenue.
The good news is that most group sales losses are preventable with the right strategies, systems, and team mindset.
Slow Response Times Kill Momentum
One of the biggest reasons hotels lose group business is delayed responses to inquiries. Meeting planners and corporate buyers often contact multiple properties at once, and the first hotel to respond professionally gains a major competitive advantage.
A slow proposal process signals disorganization and lack of urgency.
How to Fix It
Create internal response standards for all leads. Many successful hotels aim to respond within one hour during business hours. Use templates, CRM automation, and clear sales workflows to speed up proposal delivery without sacrificing personalization.
Generic Proposals Fail to Stand Out
Many hotel proposals look identical. Standardized pricing sheets with little customization make it difficult for planners to see why your property is the better choice.
Group buyers want to feel understood, not processed.
How to Fix It
Tailor every proposal to the client’s specific needs. Reference their event goals, attendee demographics, and meeting priorities. Include personalized recommendations, relevant photos, and unique selling points that separate your property from competitors.
Sales Teams Focus Too Much on Price
Hotels frequently lose group business because negotiations become entirely rate-driven. While pricing matters, planners also evaluate value, experience, service quality, flexibility, and operational reliability.
Competing only on price creates a race to the bottom.
How to Fix It
Train sales teams to sell outcomes, not just rates. Highlight guest experience, event execution, location advantages, technology capabilities, food and beverage quality, and support services. Strong value positioning can often justify premium pricing.
Poor Communication Creates Doubt
Inconsistent follow-up, vague answers, or lack of communication can quickly erode trust during the sales process. Group planners need confidence that the hotel can execute their event successfully.
If communication feels difficult before the contract is signed, buyers assume operations will be worse during the event itself.
How to Fix It
Establish clear communication expectations with every lead. Assign ownership to one primary contact and maintain proactive follow-up throughout the decision-making process. Consistency builds trust and increases closing rates.
Hotels Ignore Relationship Building
Some sales teams focus only on immediate transactions instead of long-term partnerships. Group business is highly relationship-driven, and repeat clients often generate the most profitable revenue over time.
Hotels that fail to nurture relationships lose future opportunities.
How to Fix It
Invest time in building genuine connections with planners, corporate accounts, and event organizers. Follow up after events, request feedback, and stay engaged even when clients are not actively booking. Relationship management drives long-term loyalty.
Operational Problems Hurt Sales Performance
Sales teams can only sell confidently when operations consistently deliver quality experiences. Poor guest reviews, understaffing, slow banquet service, or maintenance issues often damage conversion rates during site visits and negotiations.
Sales and operations must work together.
How to Fix It
General managers should align operational teams with sales goals. Regular communication between departments helps ensure the guest experience matches what sales teams promise during the booking process.
Hotels Fail to Create Urgency
Many group leads go cold because there is no compelling reason for planners to move forward quickly. Without urgency, prospects continue shopping competitors.
How to Fix It
Use strategic urgency without sounding aggressive. Limited-time concessions, flexible booking incentives, bonus upgrades, or value-added packages can encourage faster decisions while protecting rate integrity.
Winning More Group Business Starts Internally
Hotels rarely lose group sales because of one single issue. More often, it is a combination of slow response times, weak communication, inconsistent operations, and lack of personalization.
For hotel sales managers and GMs, improving group conversion rates starts with creating a faster, more client-focused sales culture. The hotels that consistently win group business are the ones that make planners feel confident, valued, and supported from the very first interaction.
by Jana Johnson | Feb 3, 2026 | Marketing, Sales
The travel industry continues to evolve, shaped by shifting lifestyles, new technologies, and changing guest expectations.
For hotel general managers and sales teams, staying competitive means understanding these changes and adjusting strategies to meet travelers where they are, both literally and emotionally. Today’s travelers are driven by flexibility, personalization, and purpose, and hotels that align their sales approaches with these values will be best positioned for growth.
Recognize the New Traveler Mindset
Modern travelers no longer fit neatly into the categories of “business” or “leisure.” The rise of blended travel – where guests combine work, leisure, and extended stays – demands new approaches to sales and marketing. Guests are seeking spaces that allow them to live, work, and unwind seamlessly. For sales teams, this means showcasing features that appeal to both productivity and comfort: reliable Wi-Fi, spacious rooms, wellness amenities, and local experiences that make long stays more meaningful.
Understanding this mindset shift enables your team to move beyond selling “a room” to selling a lifestyle experience. Tailoring your message to show how your property enhances both productivity and relaxation can make your offer stand out.
Personalization as a Sales Advantage
In a crowded hospitality market, personalization is key. Sales professionals should use guest data and CRM tools to craft proposals that reflect past preferences and anticipate future needs. For example, if a guest previously booked a family suite with local excursions, highlight upcoming family-friendly packages or new amenities in your next outreach.
For group or corporate clients, personalization might involve offering custom meeting packages, flexible booking options, or sustainability-focused programs aligned with company values. Tailoring your pitch to the client’s goals demonstrates attentiveness and fosters long-term relationships.
Embrace Flexibility in Booking and Pricing
Flexibility has become one of the most influential factors in travel decision-making. Uncertain travel conditions, changing work schedules, and evolving priorities have made rigid policies less appealing. Sales strategies should emphasize flexible cancellation terms, loyalty rewards, and creative pricing models that accommodate longer stays or hybrid-use bookings.
Offering transparent, adaptable options can convert hesitation into commitment. Guests and planners want to know that your property understands their need for assurance without penalties.
Leverage Technology for Smarter Selling
Technology has transformed how travelers research and book stays, and how hotels sell. Virtual tours, AI-powered chat tools, and personalized email campaigns help sales teams connect with potential guests earlier in their decision-making journey. Integrating automation tools also allows teams to track leads more efficiently and spend more time nurturing high-value relationships.
Focus on Purpose and Sustainability
Travelers increasingly prioritize brands that align with their values. Incorporating your property’s sustainability initiatives, such as energy-efficient operations, local partnerships, or eco-friendly amenities, into sales pitches can strengthen its appeal. Demonstrating authenticity and measurable impact builds trust with both leisure and corporate clients.
In conclusion, adapting sales strategies for changing traveler preferences is about listening, anticipating, and responding with agility. The most successful hotels will be those that evolve beyond traditional sales tactics to create connections grounded in relevance, empathy, and value. By embracing flexibility, personalization, and purpose, sales teams can turn today’s traveler shifts into tomorrow’s growth opportunities.
