What do Augusta Hotels want?
The Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau asked and they got many answers.
Bennish Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer of the CVB, announced the results on Tuesday morning at a meeting of the CVB’s Executive Committee.
“Over the past two weeks, maybe two and a half weeks, I’ve had some conversations with some of our hotel properties, the GMs, who represent about 10 active properties,” Brown said. “I did not present the total number of rooms represented by you, just a few open discussions about ‘What do you expect from the CVB? ‘ ‘What do you want?’ “What should we do that we don’t?”
On the feedback: hoteliers want the CVB to provide useful information that they don’t already have and that could help create new business opportunities.
When this information is shared, the CVB should close the loop by providing a reason why a particular trait was not selected to receive a lead.
“Only able to share, ‘Hey, here’s why your property didn’t get this deal,'” Brown said. “We all represent Augusta in competition, but of course each of these properties also has its own business that they have to generate. They just want us to share as best we can why they lost. Was it prices? Was it place? You got a head start for a reason, but the decision maker, the meeting planner, chose to go somewhere and we don’t share that. ”
Hotels don’t rely on the CVB to meet their monthly revenue goals, he said.
“They appreciate us sending them those stairs, but they have to keep spinning, and that’s just a fact,” Brown said.
To enhance the CVB’s offering, the hotel managers recommended focusing on recruiting city-wide meetings and events. Brown also said, “Have a presence where emerging markets are going and work to proactively bring new markets to Augusta.”
The CVB should also use its data, research and resources “to help hotels forecast business expectations,” he said.
In general, hoteliers said, the CVB should provide more information that is of business value to them, and keeping in touch is vital.
Brown pointed to Sue Parr, President and CEO of Augusta Metro’s Chamber of Commerce, who sits on the board of the CVB.
“Sue, I’ll tell you your ears should have been on fire for the past few days,” he said. “I welcome you that the Chamber is really in constant contact and exchanging information. Our stakeholders sometimes intersect with yours in some ways, but ours don’t always intersect. But we can do more, especially for our hotel and travel industries. ”
Hotels’ feedback is not being put on hold to collect dust, Brown said.
“We will figure out how to translate this information into action and execution,” he said.
