Corporate Housing Providers Blog » Miscellaneous

Hire Another Corporate Housing Salesperson– Right Now!

Lisa Brown — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:28:10 +0000

With many people out of work right now, and with the new tax incentive that has been passed, there has never been a better time to hire.

The recently passed Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act gives a payroll tax holiday and up-to-$1,000 tax credit for employers who hire unemployed workers. The tax benefit is immediate, because the tax is simply never collected in the first place. The tax benefit generally applies only to private-sector employment. There is no minimum weekly number of hours that the new employee must work for the employer to be eligible, and there is no limit on the dollar amount of payroll taxes per employer that may be forgiven. For workers that would otherwise be eligible for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, the employer must select one benefit or the other for 2010. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, employers will need to fill out a W-11 with the IRS.

Bonus: check out this blog in the Harvard Business Review about good hiring practices.

Hire Another Corporate Housing Salesperson– Right Now! is a post originally from the Corporate Housing Providers Blog, a source of advice, news, and more for those in the corporate housing industry.

Corporate Housing- Hotel Industry Price Comparison

Lisa Brown — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:51:15 +0000

The New York Times recently reported that Manhattan hoteliers are slashing their room rates by as much as a third in a desperate attempt to fill vacancies. How can corporate housing providers keep pace? Well, price is only one of the 4 P’s of Marketing (product, price, place, promotion). Perceived value is so much more powerful than price alone, and many factors combine to create this perception.

Product. Any simple hotel-corporate housing comparison will easily prove to your client that you have a far superior product to offer. After all, on average corporate housing offers at least double the square footage of a hotel room, separate living/sleeping areas, free local telephone, and more. Take the space on your website to lay out a comparison, and ask your salesperson to repeat key points verbally to the client, to remind them that they’re getting the best value for their money.

Price. According to the Corporate Housing Industry Report put out by CHPA, “The overall average daily rate for corporate housing in the United States was $117 in 2008, up 1.2% from $ 116 in 2007. In comparison, the overall lodging industry gained 2.4% in average daily rate according to Smith Travel Research.” This statement is incongruous with what The New York Times reports above, which is that hotels are slashing rates in order to fulfill their mortgages. Still slower growth in price in the corporate housing market than in the hotel market would imply that despite the slow economy, corporate housing still offers better value at less expensive rates.

Place (Distribution). Establishing inventory in cities and neighborhoods with a strong presence in the cityscape, as well as decent access to public transportation and major highways is key. But the provider can take it one step further by becoming involved in their neighborhood. What’s going on with your building? Especially if it’s a condo association, you may want to keep an eye on the decisions that are being made.

Promotion. Recessions are not the time to cut back on your advertising budget. Period. Robert Sharp Associated posted a wonderful blog on this subject, and there’s a concise ezine article as well. The NBTA, or National Business Travel Association, used to have a guide on their website called “How to Develop a Hotel Program” that I had previously blogged about. The guide has since been removed from NBTA’s website, but basically the steps were this: 1.) Organize Solicitation List, 2.) Select Hotel Partners, 3.) Create RFP Package, 4.) Analyze Completed RFPs, 5.) Negotiate with Hotels, and 6.) Select and Notify Hotels. Thrown in there were also some basics like defining goals, and assessing company culture. Anyway the same material can be reverse-engineered when you approach corporations with your cost-benefit analysis of why corporate housing is the better value over placing employees in hotels.

Corporate Housing- Hotel Industry Price Comparison is a post originally from the Corporate Housing Providers Blog, a source of advice, news, and more for those in the corporate housing industry.

Providing Health Insurance for Your Employees

Lisa Brown — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:21:27 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk about providing healthcare for employees these days. One of the many versions of the new healthcare reform bill creates a tax credit for small businesses that provide their employees with health insurance. But it’s hard to weigh the cost-benefit analysis of providing that health insurance. After all, SHRM recently reported that health care costs are rising faster than wage costs. Nearly two thirds of employers are shifting more health costs to employees in 2010. The question is, will the tax credit cover even a fraction of your costs for providing health insurance to your employees? And what’s more, if the costs are being shifted to employees anyway, what really is being provided?

There’s no doubt that providing health insurance to your employees will help you to hire and retain better candidates for the job. CHPA offers health insurance for its members to purchase through Benefit Resourcing. Benefit Resourcing, Inc. offers the following plans: Group Health Insurance, Group Life Insurance, Short and Long Term Disability, Dental and Vision Coverage, Individual Health Insurance, 401(k), Liability Insurance, Business Personal Property Damage, Workers Compensation, and Travel Insurance. You can call them at 1-888-258-6820.

Providing Health Insurance for Your Employees is a post originally from the Corporate Housing Providers Blog, a source of advice, news, and more for those in the corporate housing industry.

Corporate Housing’s Edge in a Down Economy

Lisa Brown — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:25:32 +0000

NBTA has a great article about How to Develop a Hotel Program for corporations. The same material can be adapted for corporate housing. In the article, NBTA writes, “Lodging as a percent of total ‘travel and entertainment’ expenditures, or ‘T & E,’ averages approximately 17% for companies with more than $5M in annual spend per the American Express Survey of Business Travel Management.”

On their website, CHPA states that corporate housing can save companies up to half the cost of hotel accommodations. One of the key components to advancing the corporate housing industry is educating corporations about the savings and advantages that furnished apartments can offer over a hotel.

Corporate Housing’s Edge in a Down Economy is a post originally from the Corporate Housing Providers Blog, a source of advice, news, and more for those in the corporate housing industry.

“It’s Easy Being Green”

Lisa Brown — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:25:26 +0000

Corporate Housing Providers like Compass on the East Coast and apartment complexes like Las Mananitas in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are turning to environmentally friendly methods like Seventh Generation cleaning products and compact fluorescent light bulbs to reduce their impact on the environment. Element, a hotel outside of Boston, seeks to be the most environmentally friendly hotel on the planet. The cutting-edge sophisticates who populate upper management these days are looking to lessen their impact on the environment. What’s more, CHPA has newly created a Go Green! Award for the most-environmentally-friendly provider.

Here’s how to get in on the trend:

Use environmentally friendly cleaning products- trust me, they work just as well to clean up tough messes. Seventh Generation can be found in almost any grocery store.
Use compact fluorescent light bulbs- Energy Star estimates that if one American home replaced their old standard softlight with one of these little buggers we would save more than $600 million a year in energy costs.
Work with apartment complexes and property owners who offer recycling in addition to trash pick-up.
And then there are the basics–which will reduce your bottom line anyway. Turn off your computer at night, use Skype rather than drive to meetings, email vs snail mail, print on both sides of the paper, and wear layers in the winter rather than turn your heat up.
This is my absolute favorite: organize a environmental charity fundraiser with your staff. This not only improves team morale but it promotes community within your community. Here are some fun ideas for fundraisers: organize a yard sale, a walk-a-thon, or a golf outing where each participant pays a fee for attending. You could also do a silent auction, or a raffle.

“It’s Easy Being Green” is a post originally from the Corporate Housing Providers Blog, a source of advice, news, and more for those in the corporate housing industry.