Where Did the Money Go?
Episode notes
Episode Description
Many hotels see weaker business and immediately blame the property next door. But the guest may not have booked another hotel at all.
In this episode of The Hotel Business, Ludan starts with 7-Eleven’s store closures in North America and uses it as a warning for hotels: when an old advantage gets split apart by new formats, customer spending can move somewhere else.
We look at scene leakage, why family demand may move to camping, why long-stay demand may move to serviced apartments, and why local short-break demand may move to leisure venues.
The episode also explains why a low-volume OTA lead-in rate can damage the whole pricing structure, and why franchising may bring system power but not automatically property-level profit.
Timeline
00:00 Opening: 7-Eleven and shifting convenience
02:17 Three losses: booking, scene, and profit
04:04 Why cheaper rates cannot fix scene leakage
06:22 How to build a scene leakage table
08:37 Changed hotels, or changed formats?
11:19 Why the OTA lead-in rate can break pricing structure
14:54 How hotels can borrow demand scenes
17:04 Franchising: system power versus property profit
Written Version
If you prefer to read, search for Ludan Zhang on LinkedIn. I share selected written versions and practical notes there.