In Conversation with Projjwal Ghosh, Director of Sales & Marketing, Crowne Plaza Adyar Park, Chennai

As an experienced sales and marketing hospitality leader, how do you plan to take the advantage of the demand for Business driven properties?

Marketing and sales are important areas within the hospitality industry as they directly correlate to the profitability of a business. The growing demand for business driven properties should be capitalised on by the marketing and sales team which should run promotions that aim to increase foot traffic in the hotel. By employing marketing strategies such as hosting open-to-public events, themed food weeks at restaurants on the basis of the varying seasons of festivity, providing discounts and packages for regular patrons, and even providing all-inclusive stay packages which would all help to capitalise on this demand. These steps would help in both customer acquisition and customer retention.

Which amongst the four give the best property specific profitability insights?

Amongst the four, ROI and ROS provide the best property specific profitability insights for our hotel as it provides a holistic overview of our profitability margins based on how we achieve it. By understanding the specific return on investment and return on sales of a hotel business, you can better analyse the percentages you are currently at vs. the goal percentages for both of these that you would want to be at. After this, a plan can be charted out to get to the goal ROI and ROS percentages.

How can cracking this code help you understand your hotel’s fiscal health, which is essential for raising capital?

By cracking the code of profitability ratios, you can calculate the overall fiscal health of your hotel as these formulae provide numerical insights into the health of your business. It is highly important to keep track of the investments that have gone into the business vs the revenue of the business, the net sales of the business and the returns that you receive on sales, the overall revenue of the business after subtracting costs, as well as the net equity of the business. If you’re looking to raise further capital for your business, you should be tracking these numbers fervently.

How has your hotel leveraged the right ratio to maintain its profit margin and explore areas for improvement?

Our hotel has focused on achieving our goal percentages for these various profitability ratios by doing an in-depth analysis of the areas which aren’t contributing to revenue as much as they should be and placing focus and emphasis on bettering these areas to achieve the right profit margin for our business while still maintaining and improving the quality of our offerings.