Managing hotel operations is sort of like juggling knives while walking on a tightrope blind folded. Just when you get a handle on one thing, two more get tossed in the air. One misstep and everything spirals out of control quickly.
As an operations manager who oversees multiple hotels, you probably find it difficult to focus between managing so many different responsibilities like:
- Planning & executing new initiatives
- Collaborating with internal teams & stakeholders
- Reporting and analyzing data
Just to highlight a few. There are likely days when you go home wondering how you're still even functioning. The key to managing it all, however, lies in acquiring the right tools and services that help streamline routine processes.
Whether it's software to help you with project management or a collaboration tool to help you manage your team's performance, there's an abundance of tools at your disposal.
When it comes to the vending machine needs for the hotels under your supervision, a vending management program can be extremely useful. It helps save time and produces ancillary revenue for your hotels.
What is vending management?
Vending management is a single-source solution to providing vending services for businesses with multiple locations and consolidating them into a national account. Through an extensive network of vending companies and bottlers such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, a vending management company coordinates the installation and ongoing service of equipment at each hotel.
How Vending Management Helps Improve Hotel Operations Efficiency
Consolidating your vending needs into a national account takes small but time-consuming matters out of your hands while maintaining the integrity of providing a must-have guest service.
1. Helps with Revenue Management
One of the biggest challenges in hotel operations is revenue management. Having a clear strategy in place is essential to keep track of various revenue streams. A core element of a vending management program is to consolidate commissions accrued from all the vending machines at each hotel.
It provides clear insight into your vending revenue, taking the burden off hotel managers' hands and offering answers to questions like:
- Where are the commissions?
- How much does each machine make?
- Who’s managing them?
As revenue management is a key part of operations in the hospitality industry, using the proper tools and services that help keep hotel managers focused on core business increases efficiency and success.
2. Keeps Focus on the Needs of Employees
Building the right team of hotel staff takes a lot of time and effort. Equally as important is managing them. All the effort to build a successful team becomes an act of futility if hotel managers can't focus on helping employees. After all, happy and focused employees keep guests happy as well.
Vending management affords hotel managers the opportunity to focus on your most valuable asset: your employees. It might seem trivial, but add vending machine issues to the mix of other problems and responsibilities required to operate dozens or hundreds of hotels. It's not just a singular issue, is it?
3. A Streamlined Process with Consistent Service
As a hotel operations professional, streamlining processes should always be a priority. It helps reduce errors and saves valuable time by providing consistency. The same holds true when using a national vending program.
Instead of all your hotel managers and staff members calling separate entities for their vending needs, or having a stack of vending contracts to manage, a vending management program consolidates it all into one source:
- One point of contact
- One national contract
- One commission check
This consistency helps provide a framework for keeping hotel operations running smoothly.
4. Keeps Guests Happy
The more friction your employees encounter in daily operations the less focused they are on guests. Managing vending needs can be time-consuming. Vending management takes the hassle out of their hands so they can stay focused on keeping guests happy, which is your number one priority.
5. Supports New Construction & Acquisitions
Hotel management groups are constantly in search of expanding their portfolio, whether through new construction or acquisitions. Managing this expansion requires an agile and focused team that can meet grand opening dates fully prepared.
Vending machines are yet another factor among a list of many that go into preparing for a new hotel opening. A vending management company will oversee and coordinate vending services for the hotel in time for the grand opening.
