At your service: short-term bookings raise hotel service standards.

• Author: King, Heather L.
• Position: Focus

Timing is everything. It's a mantra that is repeated in boardrooms and break rooms, and is heard in stories ranging from sales pitches gone wrong to IPOs that made investors millionaires. And in the travel and tourism industry, timing has always been part of the best-pricing game. Airlines traditionally offered the best rates at least 21 days before travel and hotel reservations required cancellation notice of 24 hours before check-in to avoid cancellation fees. Until recent months, it usually paid to plan ahead.

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But times have definitely changed. In 2008, Utah's travel-related businesses were enjoying the best of times. Record numbers of visitors and dollars poured into all facets of the state. Large conventions and groups were already booking several years into the future. The Utah Office of Tourism had a large budget focused on bringing visitors to the state and a new marketing and advertising push for Utah was seen nationwide.

And then the recession arrived. "Our budget had a big hit last year at 37 percent," says Leigh von der Esch, managing director of the Utah Office of Tourism. Utah's hotels and resorts saw occupancy rates in 2009 dip to the lowest level recorded (57.8 percent) since the state started keeping track in 1990. And compared to 2008, hotel revenue dropped $164 million in 2009 to $836 million, according to the 2010 Economic Report to the Governor. Group bookings, conferences and conventions--long the mainstay of hotels and resorts in Utah--also fell off steeply.

Most of those in the industry agree that the last 18 months have been the worst of times.

THE NEW BOOKING REALITY

Perhaps most noticeable on the new travel and tourism landscape is that customers are more savvy and are wielding a bigger bargaining stick. They know that space is in abundance and lodging properties are fighting to fill their guest rooms and meeting facilities. Short-term bookings have lodging properties on edge, as visitors are delaying their reservations in hopes of scooping up discount deals at the very last minute.

Although it's true that last-minute deals have always been on the market, this economic downturn is making visitors believe that deals will surface if they just wait long enough. Interestingly, the trend of short-term bookings was...