Atlanta Hotel Uncovers $75K in Group Business Opportunities

The Challenge

Before the world shut down, the Whitley Hotel enjoyed a profitable group sales pipeline and the sales team was involved in active prospecting, using Knowland to pull in top producers. Over the past 18 months, like many in the industry, hotel staff was furloughed, including sales staff. The lack of meetings and events meant that outgoing, active sales strategies were severely curbed. Fast forward to the second half of 2021, the Atlanta market is now very busy with upwards of 30-plus smaller events a month. But while demand is picking up, much of its group business wasn’t up to the caliber of the past. In fact, much has been short-term demand in 30-day increments. Still faced with limited staff, the sales team and the management company HEI Hotels & Resorts decided that finding qualified leads and getting a better understanding of the current market in order to identify larger meeting and event opportunities was more important than ever before.

The Solution

Heather Farnam, VP of Sales for the Whitely Hotel, knew that they would need to increase their insight into the current market to increase the profitability of the hotel as it moves through recovery. She also knew that she would need to manage not only the smaller, daily requests, but also keep up with ongoing demand and identify leads that were right for her hotel. While she initially began working with Knowland to gain access to top producers in her market, she looked to their own sales system and other data sources to gather a solid list of qualified leads. Heather and her small staff looked to Knowland to better understand the number of historical events in her market, where they were pre-viously held and then compare that data to her own sales software to determine if they had bid on those events in the past. This insight allowed her to establish a targeted list, as well as historical information to better understand new opportunities. “Knowland is a great resource tool, not just to uncover opportunities but to uncover trends that are going on in your market,” said Farnam.

Using Knowland makes complete sense! It helped us better identify the top producers in our market, build relationships and create success for our hotel.”

HEATHER FARNAM, VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES, HEI HOTELS & RESORTS FOR THE WHITLEY

The Results

Armed with the historical knowledge from Knowland, they were able to uncover two hidden gem opportunities with a total value of approximately $75k. This included uncovering a gala for 375 people for 2022 for a major university in the area, one the hotel had never done before, in addition to a multitude of upcoming events. Another opportunity was with a large hospital and while they had worked with the hospital in the past, their previous contact was no longer there. The team’s proactive approach allowed them to connect with a new contact at the hospital and re-book their conference for 2022. “If we had not reached out to them proactively, we likely would not have gotten the business,” said Farnam.

As the team continues to move ahead, they now have a solid plan in place for proactive outreach, including a better understand of past booking behaviors and the assurance that armed with this data they can connect with the right people at the right time, even with the smaller staff.