Masterclass Seminar: Improving hotel service quality, ratings and…RevPAR

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The aim of this Masterclass seminar is to explain how to achieve the best possible service quality at each customer interaction and in each department of a hotel and how to avoid common mistakes affecting guest satisfaction and a hotel’s reputation, thus resulting on higher RevPAR and profitability.

TravelDailyNews Masterclass Seminars
"Improving hotel service quality, ratings and…RevPAR"

Thursday, 6th April 2017

Bucharest, Romania
Venue: Europa Royale Bucharest

Main speaker
Dr. Dimitris Koutoulas
Tourism Consultant

Guest speakers
Thomas Bangert
Director Display EU • TripAdvisor

Athanasios Tzakos
Founder • Iconik Hospitality

Kien Huynh
Business Development Manager, Eastern Europe • HQplus

Gabriel Efstathiou
Senior Accounts Manager • Zoottle

Language: English

The "Improving your hotel’s service quality, ratings and…RevPAR" Masterclass is a highly specialized seminar delivered by experienced hospitality industry experts to hotel owners and managerial staff, along with hotel Sales & Marketing and also Operations employees of any level.

The aim of this Masterclass is to explain in detail how to achieve the best possible service quality at each customer interaction and in each department of a hotel and how to avoid common mistakes affecting guest satisfaction and a hotel’s reputation.

Once your reviews and your hotel’s reputation, improves, it will create a higher demand and you will be able to achieve higher RevPAR’s by better handling the online channels for better RevPAR and ROI.

So this seminar focuses on both sides of the equation, offline and online, and provides hoteliers with an A to Z plan!

Aim of the Masterclass

The provision of high-quality services and facilities is the key for the profitable operation of hotels. Maintaining high standards allows hotel businesses to charge higher rates than other hotels belonging to the same category, to be less dependent on distribution channels, to establish a good reputation, to secure loyal and repeat customers and, thus, to grow their revenue.

On the contrary, hotels unable to sustain proper quality standards are under constant pressure to lower their room rates. Hoteliers tempted to save money by lowering their standards risk entering a vicious circle of discounted prices and declining income.

Hotel guests have become more demanding and more vocal, as millions use TripAdvisor and other online media to share their experiences with other travelers. This puts much pressure on hotel operators but also offers them a great incentive for improving quality.

The seminar aims at exploring the key issues affecting the satisfaction of hotel guests. Best practices and case studies of hotels from around the globe will be used to explain how to provide world-class service and how to improve online reputation in the process.

The perspective of a mystery guest inspector will be used – based on the long personal experience of Dr. Koutoulas – for explaining all quality specifications applying to each stage of the customer experience, from booking the room and checking into the hotel to ordering room service, making use of the spa etc.

Practical advice will also be provided in regard to managing online reputation and improving reviews and online reputation and the online tools that exist in order to monetize your efforts.

Who should attend the seminar

• Hotel owners
• Hotel managers and senior hotel staff
• Hotel employees from Sales, Marketing & Operations departments

Seminar topics

Dr Dimitris Koutoulas / Tourism Consultant
"The importance of quality for profitable hotel operations"

• Detailed analysis of quality specifications and common mistakes affecting the following guest experience parameters:
o Booking procedure
o Arrival and check-in
o Room
o Bathroom
o Suites
o Room Service – Laundry
o Restaurant
o Breakfast
o Spa
• Practical advice for hotel renovations

Thomas Bangert / TripAdvisor, Director Display EU
"TripAdvisor as an effective Sales & Marketing tool for your hotel"

• TripAdvisor reviews – how to deal with them
• Improve your TripAdvisor ranking
• Tools of TripAdvisor to get more direct bookings
– Business Listing
– Direct Connect
– Display solutions

Athanasios Tzakos / Iconik Hospitality, Founder
"Departamental Revenue Management…Make It Happen!"

• The five pillars of Revenue Management
• Rooms
• Restaurant
• Conference & Events
• Spa
• Tips & Tricks

Kien Huynh / HQ plus, Account Manager
"Cluster, divide, segment – The true understanding of your market"

• Use data to understand your customers
• Make pricing decisions based on data
• How to realise the potential of your market
• Turn insights into action

Gabriel Efstathiou / Zootle, Senior Accounts Manager
"Monetize your guest WiFi"

• How did Port Carras hotel acquire 15.000 client emails in one season?
• What is the secret of success in Santikos Group of hotels increase of their Tripadvisor reviews?
• How did Aquavista group of hotels target the friends of their customers?
• How did Astir Palace Hotel successfully roll out upselling campaigns delivered at their clients devices?

Dr. Dimitris Koutoulas, is highly experienced in hotel quality assessments and mystery guest inspections and a long-time expert of hotel management. Dimitris has inspected, evaluated and consulted hundreds of hotels and restaurants in eight countries and has trained a large number of hotel owners and managers in several aspects of hospitality operations and marketing. With an experience as a hotel industry practitioner spanning two decades, Dimitris approaches the topics he teaches in a very practicable way and focuses on easy-to-apply solutions for improving quality at hotels of different size and style.

Thomas Bangert has been with TripAdvisor for almost 6 years. He was previously responsible for Display Sales Team in Continental Europe. From 2013 he manages the Display Sales Team in Continental Europe (including Russia) and Northern Africa. He is working closely with both media agencies and clients directly to optimise campaign performance for both branding and ROI goals. Previously he was Supply Sales Director UK, Sales Director Germany and Media Director – Northern Europe at lastminute.com.

Athanasios Tzakos has over 15 years of hospitality experience. His hospitality passion finds its origins in his childhood, being influenced by a hotel-themed board game. Athanasios is the founder of Iconik Hospitality, a hotel management and consulting company. Holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Tourism Management from the University of Hertfordshire, UK.

Kien Huynh is a Revenue Management professional specialised in software solutions for market monitoring. HQ plus’ software solution enables hoteliers to analyse their own performance, observe the demand in their competitive environment and proactively set the market standard.

Gabriel Efstathiou studied Marketing and Management and specialized in New Technology Marketing while acquiring his MSc. He started his career in 2005 in advertising as a Creative copywriter, focused on digital campaigns. He worked in companies like Unexpected, Fuel, Euro RSCG etc and also as a freelancer in several advertising companies at the place of senior Digital Creative. In 2012 he joined the amazing world of startups. As of 2013, he works in Zoottle as a Senior Manager.