Continue to Site

Hotel Marketing.

R

robozig

New member
We’re looking into giving the hotels in our area an incentive to recommend us to their guests by way of Free Pizza. To achieve this, we would leave a sign up sheet in their office. Each time a delivery was made, the driver would sign off on the sheet. Once fifteen signatures were collected, the hotel could redeem the completed sheet for a free pizza.
The main concern we have about going this route is the unlikely potential that a hotel employee might fill in some of the signature lines. We’ve thought about using a stamp instead of signatures or having a unique numeric code the driver could enter next to their signature.
We’d welcome any suggestions you may have for how we can overcome these concerns. If you’re marketing to hotels, what do you do in the way of incentives for the hotel and how do you keep track?

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
My two cents, I think 15 orders is a little high for 1 free pizza, I would consider making it slightly more lucrative. As far as a way to track, perhaps business cards with watermarking that your driver hands to the front counter with each delivery?
 
Last edited:
From the Devil’s Advocate…

Having worked in hotels, it’ll be a challenge…

If the hotel has a restaurant, they might not want you getting into their pockets at any time…

If they haven’t any food service, you’d be best off to be inside the rooms to be effective, and many properties have some ties to national or regional companies…you need to speak with he GM personally and develop a relationship for further success…

As a hotel GM I’d prefer you supply the staff a pizza party once/month, or feed my housekeepers or maintenance crew once a month, and/or a few pies for the front desk staff…

He key I developing an on-going relationship with the staff, but a presence in the room is the key…

Quotas are hard to handle…if you have a working relationship with the management staff, throwing out a few pies on a steady basis to the various departments is my preferred method of rewarding the hotel…
 
Last edited:
At the hotels I service, I tell them if I get 3 delivery orders at their hotel, I’m bringing them a free pizza with the 3rd delivery. Cost me about $3, but those hotel tickets are usually a little larger than average.

When we take the first one to a hotel that evening, I have the driver stop by the front desk with some menus or flyers, and tell them if they get me a couple more deliveries, they get a pizza. Sometimes it works, and when it don’t, I’m not out anything.
 
Last edited:
And when you don’t have. Working relationship with the GM it will only result in poor long term performance…

All I’m saying is, would you like your delivery drivers leaving hotel coupons with your product?

Business can complement each other, but never on the sly…poor business practices…
 
Last edited:
Your POS should be able to track the sales to the different hotels. This isn’t so different from the buy nine and get the tenth one free which is easily tracked by your POS.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
Last edited:
Operating in a resort community now for 14 years I have tried many things. Here is what I think works:
  1. Buy all the in-room advertising you can. Compare costs of in room options on a price per room basis.
  2. I go around personally to the front desk and concierge desks of EVERY property in my area twice a year. I do this during the day and always try to meet the manager. This takes an entire day to do each time. I introduce myself, chat with them, show them what publications our coupons are in for the guests etc. I also ask how many front desk, concierge, bellmen they have and I leave a business card coupon for $15 off any order for each employee. Generally I am leaving about 5-8 cards at a property, but in the bigger ones like the Sheraton resort it might be 25.
  3. We give a $5 discount on any order to a lodging property employee as long as it is delivered to work. We give $5 off per pizza to lodging when they buy for employee meetings.
So yes, I give away hundreds of cards and most of them get used.

My reasoning:
  1. I am interested in the employee wanting to recommend us because they have tried us and are confident we will deliver a good product.
  2. The freebie is a feel good thing. Even the properties with on site food have been happy to have the employees get this little benefit.
  3. By going around personally, I show that I am interested in them and reinforce that we are a local business. Having your driver throw something at the front desk during dinner time when they deliver is not even close to as effective.
Lodging is a huge part of our business. Reaching a guest who is only here for a night or two is expensive but worth it. You have to realize that your regular advertising targeted at your year round local population does not reach this audience at all and you need to make an investment if you want to talk to this customer. Your front desk, bellman, van driver etc can be your surrogate salesmen but they are not so simple that they want to monkey around with keeping track of orders to get a free pizza. They want to give thier guest a good experience and will recommend things based on whether they believe the guest will enjoy them.
 
Last edited:
I pay to advertise in the rooms, as do other pizza shops. What I do as an addition is with every delivery my driver makes he signs the sheet at the front desk, with 5 free signatures they get a free pizza. On top of that if they dont have the 5 signatures I give the front desk 20%off regular priced items. Keeps me top of mind when guests ask for a menu 😉
 
Last edited:
Patriot’sPizza,
I have 3 hotel’s I am currently going head over heals after
all three are a little high end,
about 2 years ago I was told that they can not put things in the rooms.
I am hoping there is SOMETHING I can do to change that…ie purchase room cards and stuff like that.
ANY IDEAS would be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Being one who travels more than my share, I can share some of the things I’ve seen done in recent years.
  1. A magazine rack like fixture that is designed to hold menus. This is very similar the the fixtures that hold information on the sights to see at a lot of the hotels in vacation spots.
  2. A clear plastic vertical holder for your menu, similar the ones you see at some of the big box restaurants usually promoting their dessert items. This is normally places at one end of the reception desk.
  3. A stack of menus to be stored at the front desk and given to guests when they ask where to go for a meal locally, or order out. I have experienced this first hand many times. I get to my room and shortly afterward I call the front desk asking if there is anyplace nearby that I can either go to or order out from. The response is always “We have some menus here at the front desk”
  4. When I was in Las Vegas for Pizza Expo, every night when I returned to my room there were always one or two menus slid under my door.
  5. On my last trip out my room key (card) had an advertisement for a major pizza chain on one side of it. I’m betting that they paid for the cards in return for that advertising, and in the end, the cards were free to the hotel.
  6. If the hotel has a shuttle, see if you can get your menus into the shuttle. As a late arriving guest I’ve grabbed one of these a number of times to call in for a pizza to be delivered to my room or the front desk.
  7. If the hotel has a guest pantry this might also be a good place to display your menus if you can. A number of times I’ve checked in late knowing that the express hotel I was checking in at didn’t have any restaurant service except for a continental breakfast the next morning so I will routinely grab a soft drink and a bag of chips from the pantry (at a cost), but when I see a menu holder, I will almost always take a menu from it to look at once I get into my room, then It’s just a matter of making a phone call.
    Those are the observations of a frequent traveler.
    Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
Last edited:
Rockstar…
It’s true, many hotels don’t want to junk up the rooms, as it a nightmare for the housekeepers to clean & organize as well as many franchise properties have corporate agreements with the big 3 for key cards etc…

YOU’LL need to make personal appearances to the GM, the front desk & the housekeeping manager…sample the $hit out of them, one department at a time, frequently & constantly…

If they use a complimentary in-room directories, get in it, even if its pricey…key cards are great too…

It won’t be easy…
 
Last edited:
OK A couple cracks to get my foot in the door.
anyone know a great place to get these?
http://hotelstands.com/
also where is the best place to get room key cards printed?
As far as the stands in the rooms is it better to go with something like the attachment or a direct print to the stand?
 
Last edited:
one down, I have the ok to do a 8.5 by 11 and key cards for one hotel (comfort suites) my next one up is going to be pulling teeth. It is a holiday inn express, they have no room guide and dominoes does the key cards.
will keep you informed.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top