No business runs entirely on its own and your hotel is no exception. While it’s possible to do most of the work in-house, it’s not always practical or efficient to do so. For example, you may need some additional marketing support for your hotel, but it’s probably not worth hiring a full time marketer to keep on staff. Instead, you can outsource this to a marketing company.
Outsourcing is a good way to provide your customers with what they need and give them a better experience than you could provide on your own. It also allows you to focus on making money in a more efficient way. There are many ways to go about this, but certain areas make more sense for hotels.
With this in mind, consider these five types of businesses that you should establish contact with.
1. Wholesale Food Suppliers or Bakeries
Most hotels provide some form of food for their customers, even if it’s just a small diner or a continental breakfast. If you’re offering food, you want the highest possible quality for the best price, which is why you should go for wholesale grocery options.
If you buy bread and juice at a regular store, you’ll pay quite the mark up. It’s almost always more useful to buy wholesale juice, bread, and any other items you plan to offer in your hotel. You’ll pay far less and you’ll get more, as well. Depending on the size of your hotel, you may wish to split an order with another hotel if there is too much food. However, most companies will adjust the size of the order to help you get just the right amount.
Once you have a regular bread supplier, you can expect your food to be delivered, so there is no need to go to the supermarket and try to find the best prices. You’ll save time and money, two very important factors when it comes to running your own business successfully.
Finding the Best Wholesale Bread
You may wish to test out a few different options when it comes to finding the right wholesale bread for your business. Test a few different companies to see if their food is good enough and also to check prices and delivery times. Once you have a good idea of how well the company performs, you can decide whether or not to continue using them.
It’s also a good idea to test which kinds of bread are most popular among your clients. They may prefer a certain type or request whole grain bread, for example. You will also need to provide drinks and juices are often appreciated as an alternative to fizzy drinks. And don’t forget the coffee. You definitely need to provide coffee and tea as hot drinks for your customers.
2. Cleaning Companies
Not all hotels hire their own cleaners. In fact, it may be more efficient for you to outsource this particular job. Even if you do have your own cleaners, there may be times when you need some extra help or wish to spring clean. If this is the case, you want to have that useful contact and make good use of it on a regular basis.
A good cleaning company can provide you with cleaners for specific days and a certain amount of hours or simply until the job is done. In a hotel, you’ll have days when you need very little work done and other days when you are full and require all the rooms cleaned in a short span of time to make sure the next guests can come in. If you don’t have the staff on hand to look after this type of volume, it can be quite difficult to balance.
To get the most from a cleaning company, you’ll want to have a list of everything they need to get done. If you’re using the cleaners in rooms, you should be sure they know exactly how the room needs to look and what items need to be replaced (soaps, towels, etc.), as well as how to arrange them.
3. Linen Hires
Every hotel needs linens and towels, but washing all of these on a daily basis can be overwhelming and a waste of resources if you aren’t careful. Many hotels prefer to outsource their linen and simply hire a company to provide the necessary items as needed. This can end up saving you money in the long run, as well as the extensive work of washing and pressing everything.
Doing laundry, when it involves dozens, or even hundreds of items, can use quite a bit of energy. It also requires paying someone to stay in the hotel laundry room and wash and dry and press everything.
In addition to this, you will need heavy duty laundry equipment, as regular washing machines and dryers will not be able to handle the sheer volume of linens and other types of laundry going through the laundry room. This can be a full time job on top of all the equipment costs.
For these reasons, many hotels find it more cost effective to hire their linens. It makes running the business that much simpler and you can focus on the things that make you more money.
4. Marketing Companies
Every business needs to market, but most business owners aren’t the best marketers. It takes time and education to become a good one and to understand the ins and outs of promoting a business. If you hire a marketing company to manage this side of things for you, not only can you relax and focus on the other areas of your business, you can also enjoy the benefits of professional services.
Marketing is a very important part of keeping your hotel full and it has many components. Advertising, getting reviews, promoting on social media, establishing an online presence – these are just a few of the things a marketing company can help you with.
When you invest in a tried and true marketing company, you’ll see results. You should also expect to see more people showing up and making reservations, thanks to what they’ve seen online or in a travel magazine. You want to focus on marketing services that are particularly well experienced by your target market.
5. Maintenance Companies
Throughout the hotel, there are many systems that need to be kept running. From boilers to laundry machines, you likely have dozens of machines and appliances that will require regular maintenance. Some people prefer to hire their own maintenance person, but it’s often more efficient and cost effective to hire a company to come in once every month or so to manage things and check out all the appliances that require repair or upgrades.
The maintenance service should also provide you with emergency services when needed. This is useful when a shower stops working in the middle of the night. You will want to ensure your service is available whenever you most need them.
Making Your Hotel More Profitable with Outsourcing
It rarely makes sense to do everything yourself in business. The main reason for this is that you have to build the expertise and get all the equipment. While investing in your business is a good idea, it’s also wise to take the time to determine which investments will move your hotel forward.
In many cases, you’ll find areas that can be outsourced. You certainly don’t have to outsource everything, but it can be helpful to go into the business with the idea that you don’t need to do everything. It will allow you to examine the various factors and needs for the business and you can then decide exactly what you want to hire other companies to do for you.
As with any business, you should plan ahead and make sure you know where your money is going to go. Are you spending too much during the slow season? Do you have a plan to make your hotel successful over the year? Five years? Ten years? If not, you need to put this into action now and figure out how you can use outsourcing to help you build your business faster.
There are many ways to build your business, but having some outside help can be particularly useful.
Are you ready to start outsourcing your wholesale food? Contact Freshways today to learn how we can help you grow your hospitality business.
