How do I create a commission structure to reduce cancellations in the hotel business?

Commercial real estate is completely different animal than residential. Loop.net is a popular site where you can review commercial deals. Outside of that you need to find pocket listings and build relationships with brokers and Realtors that list commercial properties. You can also go to http://www.Listsource.com and pull criteria to send out a mailer to a very targeted list of owners.

Good question. I wouldn't be worried about litigation. Your (normal) worst case might be penalties from the OTA, a difficult ongoing relationship with their Market Manager and perhaps listing removals. All independents can find ways to reward their most loyal clientele, without market visibility. Happy to discuss this briefly over a call to share the tricks.

One of the best incentives for employees is recognition, reward them by communicating face-to-face about how great of a job they are doing. They will continue trying to please you. Another great incentive is to give them flexible hours. Other incentives that worked were giving employees prime parking, pizza parties, flip flop/jeans day, day off work pass and new office chair. Just be creative how you reward your employees and they will work hard. An incentive I don't recommend is cold hard cash.

Absolutely. And it is easy as your imagination.You can create it to fit your culture. That said, I believe that the biggest incentive is to tie compensation to the profitability of the unit. 1) Be sure to include everyone who touches outcomes. 2) Create a profit share by deciding how much you want to land in the hands of your employees. Be sure to use a net profit and be sure to account for future capitalization and cash flow. (Typically between 5-25%) 3) Divide the profit share by salaries or some other very obvious criteria. In other words, don't make it arbitrary or people will be dis-incentivized. 4) The profit share is always paid to the group, not the individual. 4) Be very involved in teaching net profit creation. They will need business acumen. Lastly, 5) While stock options and employee ownership may be a future goal, a profit share let's people hit the ground running, creates excitement right now, teaches needed business and finance skills and adds a fabulous team culture. Work with your unit to create the options or ownership they want later when they understand the principles and can help design the rules and criteria. I practiced this for over 20 years and the results were phenomenal. People grew the business, put cash in everyone's pocket, created an exciting environment and was in real time, not future time. It is magic. This is a quick answer. Let me know if you need more. I'm happy to discuss. Ruth Schwartz High Performance Advocates 530 802-2075

My family is in the hotel business. I can tell that we would have absolutely no interest in doing this. We make sure out employees look after our property and provide great customer service. We do not have down time for them. We run a tight ship. The liability and other headaches that come with what you propose is incredible. The only thing we would consider doing is using one of our banquet facility rooms as a senior day-care center from 9am to 2pm Mon-Friday because a company would be paying us for the space and food. Everything else is on them.