• Change in preference in lodging facilities

Travellers today tend to prefer staying in hotels than in the homes of friends and family when attending events like weddings, parties or business trips. This is usually for security reasons or just to have a sense of privacy. However, there are cases of the guests bringing back to the hotel these friends and family member so work you may want to work out how to manage that

• Fresh and Healthy Options

People are preferring freshly made drinks to the usual packaged drinks easily served in restaurant, bars or as room service. It would be wise to come up with recipes from our local fruits available in the markets and/or recipes that do not contain sugar or presevatives. Try to serve the recipes fresh and dispose of any that shows any sign of spoilage

• Hotel Shopping

Because of the increase in the number of new hotels, tourists now try out different to experience something different or just to find out what each hotel is all about, so make each visit a memorable one so they can come back

• Decision Making Process

Tourists tend to choose the easiest, sophisticated and most publicized hotel when trying to decide where to stay so make people aware of your hotel, your contact details readily accessible and good directions on how to get there

• All in One dishes

Consumers are tending to prefer small-size main dishes, but with more varieties as side dishes, starters, dessert if necessary. This could mean very little rice but with more smaller portions of salad,suya, spring rolls, croissant or interesting ice cream flavour or cake slices

• Food laboratory

Our restaurants could be likened to a food laboratory now as consumers are more willing to try out or experiment new cusines and dishes than in the past. If well presented, your unpopular dishes could be sold more than the traditional dishes usually chosen.Creativity in presentation is becoming more important.

• Knowledge is Marketing

Today’s consumers like it when the waiter or waitress can describe the aroma or taste of the dishes on the menu. Research shows that dishes with strange names are usually avoided by some consumers because they want to spend their money wisely

• Fast Service Delivery

Guests like to be attended to immediately so speed up your service delivery. It could be at checking in, room service, internet, at restaurants or when they are just trying to get a piece of information. This can improve your customer loyalty while  poor service delivery may lead to poor customer loyalty or no customers at all

• Value and Quality

Guests are looking for a balance between quality and value when choosing a hotel. So you may consider making your value of rooms and services equivalent to the prices you are charging. You may just need to touch them up a little this year  like brightening up bathrooms, improving on cleanliness, complimentary gifts like water,chocolates,sweets, more tv stations, internet,airport taxis,security etc

• Employee Management

The hotel industry is growing really fast so take care of your employees and they will not be in a hurry to leave. Give them some sense of ownership and responsibility in little decision making and always acknowledge their efforts. This way you reduce the cost of training and re-training and  also the cost of advertising for vacant positions

• Technology makes it cheaper

If you have a website, you can reduce your marketing cost but advertise to a bigger market. Being on online, anyone will find you easily and your rates and promos are readily accessible to the public. Technology has a way of captivating and keeping customers, so look at your booking and payment system, conference facilities, the finishings in your hotel and your internet faciltiies

• Benchmarking

Try to find out what your competitors are doing that can be introduced in your hotel but take and extra step and do it better. You could decide to be a guest in the other hotel or just go online to read reviews about the hotels.

• Update Websites Regularly

Updating your website regularly makes it more interesting for viewers and this way your can put more recent pictures of rooms, events and facilities available to your customers. Promotional offers or change in room rates are also made known to guests on or before arrival

• Fresh Food and Healthy Recipes

Customers are appreciating healthier options when choosing a meal as the world is tending towards healthy lifestyles. Include more of these in your menu and ensure these fruits and vegetables are properly washed and preserved to avoid food poisoning

• Advertise on tickets of coaches and airlines

Most hotel guests are travellers who come in either by air or by road. Make your hotel information available on the airline  ticket envelopes, their websites, at airports or coach stations.

• Wedding Market

This is one market that is sustainable. Partner with the Customary court or churches so intending married couples could easily reach you regarding catering, halls for reception or rooms for honeymoon. You could drop your brochure at these places with deatiled information about your hotel and its offers

• Update Customer Database

Update your customer database regularly and endeavour to preserve the relationship you have with your customers by sending them emails or text messages about recent development in your hotel

• Google, Twitter and Facebook

Let google find you and get connected with twitter or facebook encouraging your guests to visit your page and possibly drop comments of their memorable stay. This way people get to know you better

My Trip to Eko Tourist Resort

Although it was not planned, I found myself at the feet of nature and could not just leave immediately. I was a bit frustrated on my way there as there were no sign posts or directions on the road regarding how to get there, we just had to depend on other friends – the plan was to go drop off someone and hurry back home.

I couldn’t believe I was still in the Lagos after Ajah, the road was free of the renowned lagos traffic and it was smooth all the way. 45 minutes from Ajah crusing, 100box for the community so called gate pass and I was good to go. On getting there, I sensed so much peace and tranquility and walking down the beach just made me decide to spend the night there.

The chalet was not comfortable as I thought it should be but it was clean, the staff were nice and the food was good too. The ocean was actually blue, the air was fresh and the beach was clean. It was a good break from all the hustles and bustles of Lagos and I’ll do it again.

Is it just me and the people I know or is it everyone that experience anxiety over travelling overseas. Although the facade of our international airports are a lot better and they are also more equipped, the stress involved with customs is becoming an issue. The trauma and anxiety is not over whether you will arrive safely at your destination but rather it is over how your checking in process will go or how you will pass through our intimidating customs officers at the arrival wings of our international airport. For the travellers who do not know anyone to easily clear our luggage, we find this task overwhelming having packed. Even though we have detectors at the airports, we still have to open our suitcases to further inspection, in the process the officials start to make you feel guilty about travelling overseas and then ‘the now normal’ phrase comes- find us something.

On arrival, the number of officials at the nothing to declare area is so intimidating. It’s amazing that now we are asked to pay customs for our personal things and the two suitcases we are entitled to. It’s confusing what is banned and what isn’t. Some don’t even who the circumstances surrounding your trip and just incase you have no money to pay them, they make it very clear to you how kind they have been to you by letting you go. This should be home and one should be glad to be back not anxious.

Have you noticed it in the papers or do you see it glaring at you each time you go out? The number of hotels, restaurants and related outfits are popping up almost every other week. It’s great the our entrepreneurial skills are becoming more evident thanks to unemployment and a demand to meet the basic needs in life. That is the good thing about the industry; you don’t need long years of training to be able to cook or attend to guests with a smile- a reason why junior staff are not always paid so well generally even though the nature of their jobs may be physically demanding. But this BIG QUESTION is for the operators in the industry-is it business or pleasure. Sometimes we wonder why our outfits are not doing so well even when it seems like the customers are still around. Our culture encourages that we care for our relatives and friends and assist in any way we can. That is a beautiful thing, but it is important to be able to draw a line as to how far you can overlook some things in your organisation. If you are not careful, you will loose your customers and after a while you will be struggling to pay your employees- including the relatives and friends.

You need to:
Train your employees to be pleasant- whether you are related to them or not
Make them understand that they will face disciplinary actions if they abuse the relationship
Assume you work for someone else when you start feeling lazy about doing your work
Remember that how successful you become depends on how hard you work and how serious you are about the business
Be careful with habits like withdrawing money from the business to meet your personal needs

It’s not difficult to do, it’s all about discipline and setting your priorities right
Good Luck