Motel Bathroom Planning FAIL

Econo-Motel

We see that Choice Hotels are planning to expand into the New Zealand motel market under its budget 3.5 star Econo Lodge brand. 

So far, Econo Lodge has signed up one property, Canterbury Court in Christchurch and hopes to have 20 properties operating  in New Zealand within three years. Currently the franchise has 13 properties in Australia.

Many moteliers are experiencing tough economic times and there will be an appeal aligning to a maternal marketing organisation that promises a new market of travellers through international advertising and marketing. 

In particular, some moteliers may be attracted to a marketing group that promises to tap into a seam of those lucrative Australian travellers that continue to be the rising stars of New Zealand's inbound tourism.

Although similar chains have a token domestic program, the focus has always been to clip the ticket in the wholesale accommodation market. The wholesale market in an area that the motel product has traditionally struggled in. There are good reasons for this.

Ideally, properties that are serious about participating the in wholesale market should be setting their published tariff at a level to sustain a 20-30% commission. Average motel tariff has stagnated for many years and continued industry low published tariff levels will make it difficult for moteliers to participate sustainably within the wholesale model.

Wholesale business can be a valid market for many accommodation providers, however in order to make it work, properties need to sustain high published rack rates, maintain a high volume of business and have the ability to upsell other services such as restaurant, bar sales etc. Hotels seem to thrive in this market, motels do not.

In the wholesale market, management costs and marketing are always much higher than operating in the domestic market. To add insult, the accommodation provider needs to carry the cost of credit and is always the last to be paid. To depend on this market takes a lot of dedication, hard work and time. 

Time will tell if Econo Lodge can give long term value to the motel industry that will need to bear the high cost of top heavy management, low net rates, little opportunity for reciprocal business and dependence on the volatile wholesale market.

Motels that join Econo Lodge should not hope for a quick fix. They should be keeping a close eye on the sustainability of their net rates and overall ROI as they trade out of a depressed economy.

Best Motel/Hotel Movie Scenes? Part 2

We have been a wee bit busy with the day-job and we note that we have not posted for a while.

We will start off with a bit of lazy blogging with the continuation of the countdown to the "Top 10 Best Motel/Hotel Movie Scenes" compiled by hotel company Travelodge from more than 3,000 respondents. 

We have added some movie footage for good measure and are counting down to the number 1 best scene over several posts: 


8. Ghostbusters - Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis trashing a dining room. This video has nothing to do with that scene, but we like it much better: 




7. The Godfather - Al Pacino told of his father’s shooting. Can't find that particualar scene either, however we love the opening scene to this movie with Marlon Brando at his haunting, intimidating best:

 

100% Wrong

A New Zealand Herald's opinion column by cloth capped whinging pom, Peter Bills titled: New Zealand - 100% Pure Rip-off claiming that Kiwis are price gouging visitors has caused some heated debate. 

With the exception of petrol, Bills claimed that local hotels, car hire, restaurant food, wine, clothes etc were massively overpriced. 

Cambell Live did an item this week comparing typical prices for visitors to Auckland, Sydney and London. We reckon they did a reasonable job, however the only item that was glaringly left off the comparative shopping list was accommodation.

As an indication of New Zealand's relative average hotel room rates on a world scale, a recent survey recently released by Hotels.com placed Auckland as one of the world's least expensive spots. Only Manila and Warsaw managed to have the dubious honour of achieving lower average tariff. 

Hopefully, the Campbell Live item has helped restore some reality to the debate by debunking the perceptions of a mean spirited columnist that used extreme one-off examples to try and prove a point.

Labour Law Trenches

Ideally the government should be opting out of interfering with arrangements between employers and and employees, however we have to concede that recent proposals to free up labour laws by the current government is a step in the right direction.

The 90-day probation period that is to be extended to cover all businesses,  the requirement of employer consent for union access to workplaces and the freedom of choice for workers to be able to trade one week's annual holiday for cash is all good stuff that should be supported by tourism industry leaders.

We note two letters to the editor in today's Dom that were strategically published together and typified the trenches that divide the politics of labour law opinion.

The first letter was by mean-spirited, mistrusting state worshiper Dr PETER SULLIVAN of Johnsonville:

Good employers don't exist
Andrew Shirtcliffe (Letters, July 30) is being wilfully obtuse. He knows well the outrage over the 90-day probation period is about the deliberate removal of an employee's right to appeal against unfair dismissal or treatment.

Employers, under this regime, will be able to enter into a bargain with a worker, then renege on it to an even greater extent than is even now the norm. There is no such beast as a "good employer" - all are exploiters of other people to a greater or lesser extent, and it is this extent that should be controlled by strong legislation.

I think it's high time, given the many bad and plainly inept employers who can't follow even simple fairness-dismissal procedures, that employers were licensed and overseen by the Labour Department, with random and regular checks, so those not up to scratch are banned from employing people. Any that do so without a licence should find themselves quickly in jail for a substantial period.

The licence fee levied to support the department in this role should be very high to discourage cowboys. Perhaps then we'll see some reasonable employment practices rather than something akin to Third World exploitation. 

MICHAEL ANDERSON of Trentham has another view on the widening of the 90-day probation period that many reasoned small business owners can relate to:

I wonder how long it will take?
Timothy Williams (Letters, July 29) wants me to believe that 60,000 people will be dismissed in 90 days under new legislation before Parliament. I think he might find that employers are too busy driving the truck, stocking the shelves, doing the books and fixing mistakes to find time to dismiss people.

Perhaps Mr Williams should set up a welfare programme (disguised as a business) for lazy, dishonest and inept employees . . . and see how long he goes before wanting to shoot someone out of a cannon.

Quite!

Hotel Kid-napping

We love this goat prank story reported in USA Today.

A couple staying at the Fairbridge Inn and Suites in Washington arrived back at their hotel early on Sunday morning expecting to bed down for the night. When they opened the door to their guest room they were shocked to find a bemused goat staring back at them.

Half an hour earlier, two men entered the hotel claiming that they had lost the key to their room. The hotel clerk gave them a spare key to a room that the men had chosen the room number at random and shortly after gaining access they were able to sneak a goat into the already occupied room.

The room's astonished occupants returned later and reported finding the goat to local police. 

An intoxicated 26-year-old man was later picked up by police and charged with suspicion of theft of livestock and second-degree burglary. 

The second suspect is still at large and the goat has been returned to its owners after its kid-napping none the worse for wear.

More Moteliers Go Wild

Moteliers are generally shy retiring folk, however once they manage to escape from captivity and gravitate away from the public gaze they tend to bond together and indulge in some unusual rituals

Thanks to specialist motel broker extraordinaire, Kathie Shepherd we have managed to get our hands on some secretly filmed footage taken at the recent Motel Association of NZ (MANZ) Conference held in Hamilton.

Stress Leave

Feeling a wee bit delicate? Just take 2-months off work courtesy of the hapless Kiwi taxpayer ...

It's Our Birthday!

Today is Monday the 2nd of August.

It's just another day in the world of motelling (hey, in our world every day is a Monday!) but it's also our birthday. Yep, today The "Motella" Blog is two years old and we will be celebrating in our own understated style.

We created "Motella" as a lone independent voice that challenges and offers a different view from the "Pollyanna" left-leaning mainstream tourism media.
 
"Motella" now has a life of its own. It has become its own identity that can say some things that we can never say ourselves.

Why do we do it?

For all sorts of reasons. Because we can, because no one else is doing it, ego, the passion we have for our industry, enjoyment and a bit of self-therapy...

"Motella" will continue to be a lone independent voice making pithy observations on news, views and politics of New Zealand's Motel Industry. 

We also intend to continue taking the p*ss and having some FUN along the way...

Motel Homework

It's been a busy week at the motel!

We began the week with our daughter's year-7 Maori Language Week workbook. After a bit of angst we decided that our family didn't really mystically align ourselves to any particular river, mountain or tribe however we thought our waka could be Te-Holden.

Google was able to quickly finish off the rest of workbook by translating various useful phrases from English to Maori and vice-versa.

Today we had a science fair project to complete. As parents, we obviously didn't do any of the project ourselves, however we assigned ourselves as creative directors and fetched various materials from around town.

Essentially the project was to compare the effectiveness of three different washing powders in removing wine and tomato sauce stains.

And here is the finished result:

 For the record, Persil came out on top. 

We are hoping that we our daughter gets a good grading;-)