REPORT FROM THE U.S.—According to Statistic Brain, 35 million people aged 5 to 18 play organized sports each year. And many of those players are on travel leagues. That means they buy hotel nights on their way to the next victory. As the market continues to grow, hoteliers near sporting venues have an opportunity to score revenue from these families.
“There’s a stigma in the industry that it’s not a good group to take,” said Ravi Patel, president of Hawkeye Hotels. Hawkeye owns and operates 40 properties and has partnerships with another 30 properties.
Patel and others dispute the stigma.
“The majority of our hotels work with youth sports teams,” Patel said. “It seems like there’s more tournaments than there used to be, and we’re getting more business from them.”
“We need to play in that arena to improve our numbers on the shoulder nights and through the weekend. If you handle the market the way it should be handled, it can be profitable,” said Brian Gilchrist, executive VP of Good Hospitality Services.
The timing of games makes youth team business desirable because sporting events usually fall on weekends and holidays when business travel is slow, Patel said. This helps to fill an occupancy gap, he said. Additionally, youth sports don’t have a slow season; events are year-round.
Hawkeye attracts players through a variety of channels. The company calls on event coordinators, contacts convention and visitors bureaus, works with youth groups and asks for referrals.
Serving the segment
“Value is especially important to these groups versus the business traveler because many families are paying out of pocket,” Patel said. “We have to serve them a little differently and cater to their specific needs.”
Those needs often include free Wi-Fi and building breakfast into a package. Special treatment might include early check-in and late check-out to accommodate game schedules.
As with any crowd, serving the segment is all about awareness and trying to understand the group, said Ashley Mayo, sales manager for the Holiday Inn Orlando - Lake Buena Vista, which is located in the Walt Disney World Resort.
“If you had a group of businessmen, you wouldn’t wing it. You’d know their pattern, contacts, activities,” she said.
The same goes for youth sports teams. Hoteliers should know when they’ll descend for breakfast and be certain the area is stocked. Hoteliers also should know game times to help plan staffing.
Tweaking processes eases operations. Some hoteliers get more creative in welcoming and serving teams.
“Sometimes staff wears team-color ribbons. We’ve hung banners or held a special reception with popcorn and cookies. We’ve prepared breakfast bags for early games,” Patel said.
Food is a common way of showing appreciation.
“We had one team where it was their third year coming back,” Mayo said. “We wanted to show them that we appreciated them. So, upon their arrival we had cookies and milk waiting. Then, we had a special party with a cake that said, ‘Thank you for the business.’
“In Orlando, there are so many options to choose from that we have to do things differently to make us stick out from the crowd. We have to make it affordable, but bring in value-add,” she said. That doesn’t always mean the lowest budget, but creating a perfect package from rooms to meals to entertainment.
Think outside the box
Sometimes, thinking differently saves frustration and money. Gilchrist said too many bath towels had been ruined by teens cleaning muddy cleats after a game.
“If you’re able to offer a bag for them to put their dirty things in, it may help you to prevent them from using a bath towel to clean them. And then, you’ve confined the dirt and mess,” he said.
Managing youth behavior, from small teams of baseball and hockey to large groups of cheerleaders and dancers, can be yet another challenge. After all, a wild bunch of kids can quickly alienate regular hotel guests.
Again, planning makes all the difference. Confining the team to one area of the hotel could be a logical approach. The next step is to have the organizers sign a code of conduct.
“That way we know who the main contact is, and they know the rules to be our hotel guests,” Gilchrist said. “They know that they could be asked to leave. That is never our goal, but we do have other guests at the hotel and we have an asset to protect from balls being thrown against walls and from horseplay.”
A meeting room can help manage a group, he said.
“People will congregate wherever they’re able,” Gilchrist said. That might mean crowding the lobby and interfering with normal traffic flow. “If you assist them with gathering, it helps. We don’t charge extra for a meeting room. We tie it into the overall rate. They can have popcorn, TV, movies. Parents can come together.”
Offering an alternative entrance, such as a back door, instead of the lobby also can help with a crowd. Even opening a stairwell to ease elevator usage can help, Mayo said. She’s seen clauses for certain number of chaperons or curfews.
Mayo gets calls from sales managers at other hotels asking how she handles groups. For starters, she recommends taking teams even if the hotel is already busy.
“The initial reaction shouldn’t be, ‘We’re busy and we can’t work with you.’ You have to build a relationship with the individual team. Then, they’ll start bringing in additional teams and referrals,” she said.
“Don’t forget you’ll have to customize. Some want the cheapest deal, some don’t. Don’t think every team fits into that box,” she added.