The Front Desk Agent

Braidwood recognizes that the majority of revenue within small and medium sized hotels is generated through room sales therefore, the roll of hotel Front Desk Agents is important in that they can influence the financial performance of the hotel. We offer training to front desk agents, teaching them how to uncover customer needs and how to sell to those needs in the precious few minutes available during the check-in process. Agents must have outstanding product knowledge of every room type, possess the ability to communicate the benefits of each and know how to paint word pictures in the mind of the customer.

Improving guestroom revenue can be as simple as increasing rates or selling more rooms. Successful hoteliers understand this process actually starts with recruiting and selection of front desk agents that posses superior communication & people skills; training them in product knowledge, empowering them to make their own decisions instilling in them a sense of pride and ownership while acknowledging and rewarding their performance in meaningful ways.

At Braidwood we call this the rule of “human? economics and work with our clients to improve the selling skills of agents using a technique known as the Net Additional Sale (NAS) which is selling the customer more than they intended to buy when they walked through the door. We recognize that, whereas there is a fixed cost attached to selling a room; success lays in up-selling the customer at the front desk or on the phone and that every dollar generated above the original price of the room flows to the bottom line as profit!