In the Trenches_

Welcome to the first edition of Larkspur’s National Sales Newsletter! Over the past several months we have been working on a number of items behind the scenes and are thrilled to now have this opportunity to share with you all the exciting announcements, activities, news, industry trends, and company wins on a monthly basis. Our intention is for this newsletter to communicate information from the national sales department to the rest of the Larkspur team so that you aware of what we are working on and we can together maximize the benefit for your hotel and department. On the other hand, we also expect this newsletter to be an interactive process, and welcome your feedback. Please let us know what would be helpful for you to learn about in next month’s issue or what you think the national sales team can do to get even greater wins for all of us.
As we navigate the S-Turn, we feel confident that the road ahead is full of amazing opportunities. Larkspur has designed a collaborative and fresh approach to National Sales that will keep us ahead of our competitors for years to come. These vast opportunities are right within our reach, and we can’t wait to share all of these future successes with you. Stay tuned…
Best regards,
Ed

Fast Facts_

261% = increase in Key Account revenue from Q1‘09 to Q1‘10

100% = increase in Intel transient revenue from Q1‘09 to Q1‘10

92% = increase in Genentech transient revenue from Q1‘09 to Q1‘10

90% = increase in Yahoo! transient revenue from Q1‘09 to Q1‘10

32 = number of overseas travel agencies contacted in Q1‘10 eBlast

Know Your Numbers_

One of the ways we are measuring our National Sales effectiveness is by tracking revenue in the Negotiated Corporate, Consortia, and Extended Stay Negotiated segments. Major wins from accounts like Genentech and Yahoo! are having a significant impact. In Q1 LH&R exceeded budget in each of the three segments by $756,380! This shows what can be accomplished when the hotel sales teams and national sales team combine their efforts to find and convert new revenue opportunities.

FedRooms_

The Fed Says, “I Want YOU to Report Your Revenue.”

Twenty-one Larkspur Hotels have chosen to participate in the FedRooms program in 2010. Recently, however, nearly a dozen of our hotels were removed by FedRooms for failing to submit the required monthly room night and revenue reporting. To prevent this from happening again, the National Sales Department has begun reporting the numbers on behalf of all Larkspur hotels. Removing this administrative burden from the hotel teams helps ensure that Larkspur salespeople are able to spend their time selling and not generating reports.

While National Sales has taken over the reporting, your hotel should continue to process the participation fees and commissions on each reservation as usual. Payment should be sent by mail to: FedRooms (CWT) Attn: Toni Marple PO BOX 59159, Minneapolis, MN 55459-8238 OR Wire Transfer in CTX format: US Bank Minneapolis, MN FedRooms (CWT). Please include your FEMA # and Report Month in the memo field. The FedRooms hotelier website has a wealth of information available for hotels to distribute to their teams and present to guests upon check in. FedRooms even offers a free webinar series available to anyone who would like to learn more. The next webinar tentatively planned for May, so please email Malinda Hammill for more details. Additionally, our consortia segment Key Account Manager (Cody Hoyer) and government segment Key Account Manager (Alvenia Jeter) are both excellent resources for guidance and assistance. Please contact either of them or visit the FedRooms website to learn more.

2010 RFP Season Wrap-Up

The 2010 RFP season was certainly a productive one! We centrally processed a greater volume of Corporate and Consortia RFP’s than in 2009. Not only did we submit more RFP’s, we were also accepted more often than in 2009. The National Sales Department is taking steps to improve our processes for 2011. The Nexus team is on board with some exciting new additions that will help improve these processes, cutting down on the time it takes for you to complete each RFP, and improving our communication through Nexus, narrowing the margin for error.

Nexus Tip of the Month: Spring Cleaning

Since we are now entering the RFP “offseason” there is no better time to take care of some items that may fall by the wayside throughout the year…

• HotelworX fields are copied over from season-to-season, so if there have been any changes to your hotel’s offerings, you can change them at any time through your hotel profile.

• Does your hotel have a new Director of Sales or General Manager? Update them under HotelworX Contacts, so that RFP contacts don’t miss out on any important messages.

• Add your 2010 local RFP’s to RFPworX: Corporate through the “Create RFP” function. When the 2011 RFP season rolls around, simply copy the RFP data from 2010. I think you will find this an excellent time saver!

• You are probably already eyeing those RFP’s you would love to be solicited for the 2011 season. Get a head start by completing (or updating) a Target Corporation profile via the RFPworX: Corporate module. Our Key Account Managers and National Sales Department routinely utilize this information when meeting with our clients.

• Both new users and those who would like to brush up on their Nexus system knowledge can find training slides via the Nexus website by selecting the ? icon in the upper right corner, once logged in. A more formal series of trainings will be scheduled as we gear up for the 2011 RFP season.

Key Accounts Spotlight: Yahoo!_

As a leading web portal, email provider, and online community, Yahoo! is a house-hold name in countries around the world. With five preferred Larkspur hotels, Silicon Valley-based Yahoo! continues to be one of our top producing accounts. In 2009, Yahoo! travelers generated over $494,196.00 in room revenue. We have seen a huge increase in production during just the first three months of 2010 with over $300,000.00 in revenue! This speaks to the skilled leadership and knowledge that Melissa Prince has brought to this account. It was an extraordinary win for Larkspur Landing Bellevue to be accepted in February after their business case was presented to the travel manager. Larkspur continues to maintain a preferred chain status among all of their hotel partners. Yahoo! has selected LH&R to do their travel seminar again this year (1 of 5 hotel companies in their entire global hotel program).
Larkspur has been selected as the only hotel company in their travel program to launch the opening of the London travel office. They will fly in all current global agents and have the agents and administrative assistants from their new office attending the travel seminar. It’s a distinctive opportunity for LH&R to have been selected to go with them on this tour and present our five preferred hotels: Larkspur Landing Sunnyvale, Larkspur Landing Bellevue, Larkspur Landing Hillsboro, Larkspur Hotel Union Square and Sainte Claire.