TAMPA, Fla. — Dramatic changes are starting to take place in the hospitality industry, as hotels begin to recover from the long recession that plagued the industry and so many others. These changes, says Glen Phillips, owner of international consulting and engineering firm Phillips & Associates, can mean new opportunities for hotel laundries to gain business in unexpected ways.
Phillips spoke on Developing New Business in the Hospitality Industry at the ALM educational conference earlier this year, detailing recent shifts that point to increased growth in this area, and highlighting ways that laundries can take advantage of that growth.
“There was a lot of money spent on hotel laundries and a lot of over-capacity in that area,” Phillips says. To make use of production capacities that are more than needed for their own facilities, hotel laundries are beginning to form business relationships that allow them to take on outside work. On the flip side, some properties are looking for ways to outsource laundry services and reduce their overall operational burden.
So how can operators begin to profit from these changes? For Phillips, it’s all about careful planning and projecting. He explains that a solid business plan can help hotels identify potential new markets and seek a steady stream of new customers. Commercial laundries, too, can use a business plan to get a piece of the newly available business.
A CHANGING MARKET
Phillips points out that while linen usage per guest is dropping each year, overall poundage of textiles processed has increased between 3% and 5% each year since 2008.
“By all estimates, room poundage will continue to increase in the future, consistent with the rise in population,” he says.
New hotels are sprouting up in major metropolitan areas all over the world, but an increase in construction of new hotels doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in on-premises laundry facilities.
“Outsourcing is changing,” he adds. “We’re not going to see a lot of hotels investing money in laundry. They’re going to outsource those [services]wherever they can find a usable and quality provider. And that’s one of the things that we need to stay in tune with.”
PLANNING IT OUT
No matter how you envision your laundry taking advantage of the new changes in the market, be sure your approaches are based on a solid framework—specifically, a thorough and well-researched business plan.
“A business plan can do so much for you and your management team,” says Phillips. It helps determine the feasibility of a project, outlines what the procedures will be for operating the business, and can even be a tool for securing financing for new ventures. Additionally, a good business plan will identify who potential new customers are, as well as who the competitors are and what their current market share is.
Phillips advises operators to put together a business plan whenever there’s “a kernel of thought about expanding your business to do outsourced work,” or when you’ll need such a document to present to a lending institution, either for funding a new business or for a merger or acquisition.
Check back Thursday for the conclusion!
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