Q: For those who may be less familiar, how does Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI) fit into the broader hospitality industry?
A: ALHI is celebrating its 40th anniversary of supporting luxury and upper-upscale ownership and management teams as an extension of their on-property sales team. With more than 75 global sales executives and sales associates, ALHI has created a community of luxury meeting buyers that is engaged and loyal to ALHI hotel members. We have a global footprint and are a membership organization.
Q: What excites you most about ALHI’s position and its ability to help hotel owners and management groups?
A: There is no better time to be in the luxury and upper-upscale space than now as we have clients with needs that continue to grow and develop as our audience leans heavily in the financial, insurance, incentive and pharma industries. We can deliver a high-rated opportunity, which helps drive profit in a profit-challenging environment. We have shown our ability to support existing teams and drive group revenue that has assisted with broader hotel yield strategies.
Q: Group conversion continues to be a challenge. Where do you see the biggest gaps in turning opportunity into revenue?
A: The greatest resource for our collective teams and our clients is time. We have a challenge with time poverty today, and it requires intentionality and focus to ensure that our sales teams are spending their time on the right things, getting out from behind their desks and spending time with clients. Clients have so many opportunities that those teams that can solve for them the fastest will usually win the business.
Q: There are many companies in the meetings and luxury travel space. What truly differentiates ALHI’s approach?
A: We are membership-driven and membership-focused with monomaniacal attention to building deep and impactful relationships with our clients and our members. Due to the longevity of our team, we have built our community on this premise of respect and relationship building. What will never change in the high-touch luxury segment is that people do business with those who they know and trust. It is still the essence of what we have believed in hospitality since our beginning.
Q: What else is ALHI bringing to its members to help owners and management teams?
A: ALHI launched Destination Weddings by ALHI to help support the on-property teams with this highly active and profitable segment to their business. Although weddings are highly desired, the ability to spend payroll for an active seller in this space is challenging for the hotel, and we are always trying to “fill the gaps” for our members. We also have recently launched our Luxury Leisure & Business Travel GSO team to help support our owners and member hotels manage and position to move share within the luxury consortia, agent and business travel programs that they participate in annually. As margins are tight, our ability to help what is, in most cases, a single salesperson in this space is cost effective and helps to move share in these programs, which tend to be some of the hotel’s highest-rated segments.
