In this world, it’s impossible to find an idle business owner. Everyone is so busy managing their daily operations just to land a step closer to finding more revenue sources. The same is true for hoteliers and hotel managers.
To be an effective hotelier, you must be able master the art of multitasking,
from monitoring competition to making sure everything in the business is well coordinated. However, nowadays, a successful hospitality management business requires being able to compete online especially now that internet is here to stay. While it is possible to attend to various tasks on your own, you cannot expect to give each area your best since your attention and time are obviously limited. This is why a lot of professionals are slowly appreciating the advantages of hiring a virtual assistant.
How Can Virtual Assistants Help?
Hiring a VA is known to be one of the cheapest yet most effective ways to lighten one’s work load. Typically, a VA does work not physically but through the web. Nonetheless, this does not affect their capacity to perform optimally. In fact, they are able to market your hotel
’s website alongside improving your hotel’s online content.
Below are the best reasons why you should get yourself a virtual assistant:
- You will save a lot of your precious time. A typical business owner usually engages him/herself in high level strategising that directly puts weight on revenues. It would not be wise of you if you spend a huge portion of your day doing administrative and mechanical tasks. That is something your virtual assistant carries out best.
- You will have someone to respond to guest reviews and inquiries immediately. As long as they know the hotel’s basics, you can expect them to give accurate and proper responses and approval to reviews but it is still up to you if you want to give them direct access to it or whether you want every response personally approved first. Being able to maintain timely responding behaviour actually matters a lot since more than 50% of travellers tend to rely on reviews before they have their hotel bookings
finalised. - Your virtual assistant will strengthen and maintain your blog site the way you want it. Virtual assistants are good content marketers/writers, exceptional not just in writing but also in researching. What they usually do is to write or do things that strengthen your hotel’s presence online. Hence, if you plan on hiring one, consider having someone that is exceptional at writing and researching.
- You have the freedom to decide whether you want a part-time or full-time Virtual Assistant. This is one of the best things about outsourcing. It does not always put financial pressure on you. Rather, it will give you the benefit to decide and hire (or hire more) only when the need arises.
- Your hotel business will be advertised on social media. Your VA can help optimise your website for you but in the absence of any website, he can always put up and maintain social media accounts which are just as effective of a platform to reach wider audiences. VAs usually know social media marketing while carrying out customer service tasks. This way, you can be sure every inquiry gets the attention it deserves to have.
- Your virtual assistant will keep an eye on competition. The only way to be on the top is to know what you can do better. This means you have to keep an eye on what your competition is doing and unless you have a lot of time to do so, hiring a VA will help you perform this critical role all the time. More than that, they can provide you with a detailed summary of what your competitors are doing in terms of marketing and sales.
- Your virtual assistant can help build and maintain your business’ reputation. Dark propagandas are everywhere, sometimes in the form of negative write-ups and reviews. They can spread like wildfire and if not detected quickly, it can bring serious threats to your business. Your VA will serve as your eyes and ears on the web, regularly checking out reviews to your advantage.
- Hiring a virtual assistant is cheaper than contracting a personal assistant wherein you will need to buy a new set of equipment (i.e. computers). This is because VAs work at home using their own equipment and electricity. The only thing you will need to do is hire them and then they can be set to start right at that moment.
