“Top Management”
Making change happen
One of the biggest challenges for the manager, in any industry, is change: from the vision that triggers it, escaping the myopia of day-to-day life, to the identification of its internal and external implications, and the planning and management of teams in an aligned way, until, finally, making it happen beyond intentions and paper. Throughout my career I’ve seen a little bit of everything, but today I’m going to talk about a change project that I got to know up close, in a large Portugese hotel group. I consider this project exemplary in its ability to overcome objections and gain the support of an entire organization.
How come there is no central reservations?
Having been head of the direct channels department of a large banking group, and with non-executive roles in one of the largest Portuguese contact centers, I had a good idea of the impact of such platforms on service quality and commercial effectiveness across industries. I was also sensitive to the complaints of the marketing team, who were unable to develop an adequate product promotion strategy without a centralized point of contact. It seemed incomprehensible to me that a hotel chain of our size did not have a reservations center. Obviously, the idea, so obvious and common among our competitors, had even come up more than once, but was quickly abandoned. It wouldn’t take me long to understand why…
Identify and overcome resistance
Since we announced the launch of the project, cultural resistance was enormous, and was fundamentally of two types: on the one hand, there was the perception that a team placed remotely, and without hotel experience, would be unable to incorporate the necessary product knowledge; on the other, there was fear of the loss of autonomy of the properties and the consequent transfer of power to the new structure.
The organization’s objections – some explicit, others less so – were incorporated from the beginning into the structuring of the project, through five pillars:
- Transparency – clearly measurable KPIs were agreed , reported to the entire organization, which reflected the aspects of service quality, conversion, up /cross-selling and reliability of data input. Measuring anything in this area was unprecedented and even a little against a culture somewhat accommodated to low accountability.
- Diversity – a team with a mixed profile was built – 50% came from the hotels’ former reservations departments, and ensured the specific know-how of the operation, while the remaining 50% were young people with no hotel experience, but with high energy, no vices, and pumped up to deliver.
- Integration – in the pre-pilot phase, a program was organized to rotate the new team through the hotel reservation departments, during which each agent passed through several different hotels, in order to gain sensitivity to different realities and absorb know-how. It was also a time to create bonds between teams, preventing the new structure from being seen as estranged and distant.
- Commercial culture – the center presented itself, first and foremost, as a sales structure, with strong commercial proactivity, which contrasted enormously with the deeply ingrained “order taker” culture coming from before.
- “Transversalization” – in a group in which all operational processes were organized according to the vertical logic of each property, a large part of the effort was invested in evolving structuring components, such as the quality of customer information, and the correct insertion of contracts and pricing in the PMS system, exerting pressure on hotel teams and adjacent central departments.
From threat to opportunity
The results were unequivocal at all levels. The booking error rate fell from an estimated value of around 20% to less than 2%. The conversion rate exceeded 60% in the third year. Revenue from upselling and outbound campaigns left many hotels competing for the attention and marketing campaigns of the Reservations Center. Hotels stopped fearing this new department as a threat and started seeing it as an opportunity instead.
In addition to the direct benefits, the project generated a set of side effects that contributed decisively to the cultural evolution of the organization. First of all, due to the culture of measurement and accountability that was, in some way, against current practice. Secondly, due to the pressure for continuous improvement – positioned at the sensitive point between sales and operations, the center was in a unique position to identify constraints and opportunities. Finally, because, by dragging with it the reorganization of the entire customer and contract database, it paved the way for the major stategic project that would follow – the construction of an organization centered on Revenue Management. But that’s a story for another day.
A CONTRIBUTION FROM…
Nuno Ferreira Pires | CEO of Sport TV, former Board Director of Pestana Hotel Group
What is the most urgent change in the hospitality sector?
The biggest and most urgent change is cultural – a “mind-shifting” within the sector towards empowering teams at all levels of management. Interestingly, this is something that has been obvious in other industries for a long time.
Can you share examples of accomplishments you are proud of from your time in tourism?
One example is the beginning of the commercial revitalization of the “Pousadas de Portugal” network, which was later followed by the team with great success. This included a focus and alignment of teams on key variables such as occupancy rate and price, leading to higher RevPARs and the correct ROE for the shareholder. Another achievement is the new strategic positioning and re-branding of the Pestana Hotel Group, which now conveys what the group is and what it delivers to society.
Is managing change in the hotel industry different from doing so in media, consumer goods, or banking?
In change management, the industry itself has the least impact. The greatest impact comes from the ability to strategically operate on the right management variables—which are similar across all sectors—and, above all, at the right time. Timing is a fundamental variable for achieving sustainable and maximized results.
What are the two or three key ideas for an effective change process?
I highlight three fundamental things: creating the right organizational culture for the desired change; having a management team with the right talent, motivation, and energy for the journey; and maintaining strong and continuous internal communication (about progress towards objectives) and external communication (advertising and PR) so that the society where the company operates knows why we are “improving their lives” with our products.
Written by Filipe Santiago
February, 2019
This article was published in Publituris Hotelaria as part of the “Top Management” series. You can access the printed version here and the online version here.

