Now ye're talking - to a Hotelier

Deleted User wrote: »

Hi Hotelier person- congratulations on a most excellent thread

Just a couple of Qs:

Do you think changes in technology will impact on hotel employment figures in the future? i.e. automation/self service taking certain jobs?

What's your attitude towards "pod" hotels- i.e. basically tiny room to sleep in- do you think they will catch on in ireland (like Japan?)

many thanks

We do have a few self check-in terminals in some of our hotels. They serve a purpose, especially for people that just want to get in, get to their room and get out again with a minimal amount of fuss. Hotels are still all about the people though so i dont foresee technology impacting on staffing levels to a large degree anytime soon

I personally love the pod design and also the compact room design. They opened a compact design hotel in Belfast last year called the easyhotel and that is proving very popular. Time will tell how well they fare but i do like the concept of them. The pods would be great in areas such as terminal 2 in dublin airport or city centre dublin where space is at a premium

irishgeo wrote: »

When an event/concert is on and the price of rooms go way up. Isn't that blatant profiteering as your making a a profit on your rooms at the standard rate?

No i would not agree with your statement. A few points to note:

1 - Profiteering implies that our pricing is not regulated and that hotels have a free reign to do what they like, when they like, in relation to pricing. This is not the case. All hotels have to submit their maximum rack rates each year to Failte Ireland and we cannot exceed these prices, no matter what the circumstances.

2 - The hotel industry is based on exactly what you are talking about - rate fluctuation. Hotels are operated using yield management techniques and we sell rooms using this method, which entails us selling block amounts of rooms at certain prices and then increasing prices where demand dictates the market. We are a business at the end of the day. We want to be profitable so that we can make money and also keep our staff employed. To criticise hotels for operating as they are supposed to is a bit unfair

3 - Taking another industry as an example, lets look at the shawn mendes concert in Dublin on the 14th April. He is charging up to 300 euro for a ticket that night. The gibson hotel across the road from the 3arena are charging half that price for a room that night - yet the hotels are the ones that get the bad publicity about the event, not the artist. Not having a go at shawn mendes, im sure he's a nice bloke and all, but the point im making is that hotels do seem to get all the bad press about stuff like this which i do believe is unfair

Damien360 wrote: »

Apologies if you answered this already. I'm on page 9 of 11 of this thread.

I travel for work a lot and am supposed to use the company booking tool which happens to be booking.com on the back end. But, I have never managed to get a better price direct. If anything it is often not available or over the booking.com price.

We have corporate agreed rate for very heavily used hotels around the country but anywhere else is never cheaper. I tend to book that day or maximum day before for most hotels if that makes any difference.

ok so lets go to booking.com and do a search for a room in the holiday inn express dublin city centre for tomorrow night, for 2 people. Booking.com will give you a price of 154 euro. If you go to the holiday inn express dublin city centre's own website, it will give you a price of 149.38. This is the typical standard price variation of either 5 or 10 euro or a percentage of the rate. Always cheaper to go direct

Cushtie wrote: »

Great AMA.

Do you intend to stay in the current type of role until retirement or do you dream of opening up your own small hotel somewhere?

if you had asked me that 15 years ago i probably would have said i would like my own place. Now though im very happy where i am and will gladly work my way up the ladder to being a company director of the hotel group ( fingers crossed LOL )

Stephen15 wrote: »

Do you find that the hotel industry is one that is somewhat stuck in the past and could do more to appeal to the younger generation as many are turning to other somewhat cheaper and more flexible options these days such as Air B+B, Booking.com etc. I just get the impression that hotels aren't appealing to the younger generation anymore and what challenges do believe the hotel industry is facing atm or could see facing in the future.

not at all. quite the opposite actually. When i was growing up i always had this thought that going into a hotel was one of the most posh things that a person could do. I think hotels are far more accessible and affordable and welcoming to the younger generation now than they were when i was growing up. Hotel design has changed a lot in the last 5 - 10yrs and you are now seeing the advent of funky hotels being built. There is a new hotel due to open in smithfield in may called the hendrick hotel. Check it out. It is a good example of how modern hotels are adapting to the market

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy wrote: »

https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/bonnington-hotel-resident-reveals-horrific-14670992

Here’s a more recent article showing that there are still issues. Especially where they mention the “homeless” section of the hotel. I get that it’s a matter for each individual hotel management though.

Yeah i think its fair to say in the case of this article there is little to no management of this place. As you rightly say, its how the management handle it

mickdw wrote: »

To suggest that booking direct is nearly always cheaper is far from the truth in my experience. Why would booking sites even exist if that were true.
I have often seen same price direct and with other party but when one is dearer, I would say 95 percent of the time it's the direct option.

I can only explain how our industry works and can tell you that you should always get the cheapest rate going direct. It makes sense as direct bookings carry no cost of commission for hotels so we can sell the room to the guest cheaper. you need to either ring the hotels directly or use their own website ( and make sure its their own website as customers can be easily fooled into thinking they are on a hotels official website but they arent )

I gave an example a few answers back on this thread about how to see what i was talking about so perhaps take a look at that later

Booking sites exist for convenience for the consumer. Booking sites such as booking.com spend excessive amounts of money each day on advertising, which is how they get bookings for hotel, which is why they charge hotels commission and how they make their money. thats why they exist

angelfire9 wrote: »

Have to say I’m loving this thread it never occurred to me that people would be so curious!!

I’m technically a hotelier �� graduated GMIT ‘98 worked in Germany and literally every corner of Ireland DM C&BM FOM moved into FC as the hours are so much better!! (So is the pay btw)

Love hotels but the work life balance is ****E
As a mammy I’d encourage my kids to get work experience in the industry because it’s literally life skills (bed making setting tables serving dinners or cooking them to say nothing of washup)

Done it all in 27 years of hotels would never want my kids to become “hoteliers” though it’s a hard life

So my questions are

if you had kids would you want them to follow you in to the industry
how many female GMs do you know? I’ve never worked under a female GM (deputy yes and lots of female HODs)
What do you think of weekly HOD meetings <<would love dearly to be able to present and run but always get stuck for the full hour &#55357;&#56875;

I have a teenager at home. I would have no problems with them having a part time job in a hotel to earn some money and to learn the exact skills that you listed. I do feel thats very important. Having said that - No i would probably not encourage them to go into the industry. I think there are much better career paths these days with better pay

I know quite a few and work with a good number of female GM's in the group.

Weekly meetings are important. Its good for team spirit and always useful to get the guys together and thrash things out. I wouldnt hold a meeting for an hour though. 20 mins tops. People lose interest after that