29 Takeaways from Our Time at the 2023 ALP Conference

The Association of Lodging Professionals (ALP) held their 2023 conference and marketplace in Phonex AZ to kick start the year. We were privileged to have been selected for panel discussions and had several team members in attendance.  

The four days of networking with hospitality professionals lead to great conversations and we have a lot to catch you up on. Here are the top 29 takeaways from our time at the conference. We broke them down into the four buckets that best represented the message circulating the conference floor. 

Revenue management

1️. Change your rates often. Ditch the “set it and forget it” approach and pay attention to demand, area interests, and buy habits of travelers.

2️. Adjust your rates based on demand (up AND down) by evaluating historical property performance, popular events in the area, and monthly booking pace reports.

3. Invite guests to book with you before they leave by offering a small discount for being loyal and letting them know rates are only going to go up.

4. Think about hosting special events requiring the entire property to be booked. This will assist with revenue generation and allow you to increase rates for those exclusive experiences, i.e., a 20% increase in rates due to hosting an exclusive special event.

5. To assist with retaining housekeeping staff, think about setting occupancy goals and adjusting rates based on those occupancy goals. This will ensure enough bookings are coming through and will support consistent work for those employees.

6. Consider popular local events that bring in a lot of traffic. Tailor room offers and specials to those interested parties.

7. Gone are the days when you have one rate plan for every day of the week throughout the year.

8. You don’t need a fancy tool to begin doing this. Dedicate one hour each week looking at your booking pace reports to see how bookings are coming in and make rate adjustments around that.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

9. Set your GA4 account up before July 2023 to begin collecting data.

10. Work with your marketing and PMS vendor to ensure GA4 revenue tracking is supported so you can report on what your website and booking engine are providing in terms of results.

11. New metrics are available with GA4, including engagement rate (which is the inverse of bounce rate).

12. Enhanced measure events will allow properties to view reports associated with page scroll depth, page views, outbound link clicks and video engagement.

13. Leverage UTM tracking parameters to better report on things like email campaigns (assuming your platform doesn’t provide automated tracking), Google Business listing performance, and any other print advertising you might be taking advantage of including QR codes.

14. GA4 is powerful but does not come with as many standard reports compared to Universal so spend time looking at what you have and build out any additional reports needed.

15. We recommend you pull historical data as a safeguard, so work with your marketing vendor to ensure this is being handled before July 1st, 2023.

16. Changes are frequently being made to the Google platform so it’s understandable why it can seem overwhelming. Start by getting your GA4 account setup and poke around if you’re not working directly with a marketing vendor.

Google Business

17. Make sure you claim and optimize your Google Business listing as Google continues to give more real estate to their local listing platform.

18. Utilize unique imagery over stock as Google values this content more.

19. Experiment with posts on your Google Business listing to see if it assists with increasing engagement and website traffic.

20. If possible, provide a response to every review on your Google Business listing as it’s seen as a positive signal to Google.

21. User-generated photos carry more weight than images uploaded by the property. Encourage guests to submit photos and reviews.

22. Google generates property descriptions, so if there are errors, you need to work with Google Business Support to address this.

Google Hotel Ads

23. Google Hotel Ads can be a powerful ad campaign for increased direct bookings.

24. Confirm that your PMS provider offers Free Booking Links and Google Hotel Ads as an option.

25. Lean on the experts to manage these paid campaigns over attempting to do it yourself … It won’t be as effective.

26. Properties with higher ADR tend to see a greater return on their ad spend.

27. We encourage you to utilize Google Hotel Ads as well as Google search ad campaigns, if your budget allows for it.

28. Utilize your booking engine pace if you’re wanting to increase/decrease ad spend, but ideally, you should have ads running year-round to maximize exposure and reservations.

Association Conferences

29. Joining associations like Association of Lodging Professionals (ALP) and attending their conferences is extremely valuable to any independent hotel looking to gain a competitive edge and keep up with industry changes. Join national and state groups and be engaged!

You’re not in this alone!

If you couldn’t tell, the ALP conference and marketplace provided valuable insights into strategic distribution and pricing strategies, Google Analytics tracking, Google Business Profile optimization, and Google Hotel Ads. Implementing these tactics or refining your existing efforts can lead to increased revenue, better customer relationships, stronger brand reputation, and higher visibility on Google's platforms.

At rezStream, we can help you with everything outlined in this article and more. Contact us today to get started and take your hospitality business to the next level!