In the last number of years due to the abundance of hotels and guest houses in the market and with the impact of NAMA run hotels driving down prices to fulfil their remit of keep the doors open, we have reached a situation where prices have bottomed out for many operators. For many any further pressure on prices will mean offering room rate as lost leaders to get people into their premises. As the industry continues to sort itself out and as state owned hotels revert back to privately run business the situation should improve and an emphasis on value for money will return over the lowest market prices.

There has and will continue to be a divide in hotel occupancy between the popular tourist areas and the rural local hotels. Depending on where you are in the country you will need to adopt more of a "pull approach" to your hotels marketing activities to ensure that potential customers are reaching your shores. Specific areas that you can promote your hotel around include growth areas like: weddings, cultural tourism, festivals and events, food tourism, eco tourism, adventure tourism, short breaks, sports tourism, leisure pursuits, spa and wellness breaks, english language learning, developing markets (China), e tourism, business/corporate activity and the retirees market. Pick the targets that your hotel can cater the best for and be aggressive. Don't wait for your ship to come in, swim out to meet it!

In our experience there are a number of areas a hotel owner or manager must be competent at in order to run a successful business. These include: • Building & Leading a great team • Always be prepared to learn and improve • Greet your guests in person wherever possible • Be prepared for emergencies and learn to problem solve • Build strategic relations with other industry companies • Be good at Internet Marketing • Ensure the hotel is properly equipped and to modern standards • Set standards for all staff to follow • Accept if not always agreeing with the adage "the customer is always right" • Keep the hotel clean and tidy

Hotel managers have the task of ensuring customers are satisfied and overseeing all of the different activities and departments of a hotel: banquet hall, restaurant, conference center, tourist attraction, fitness center, spa/wellness center, and more. Here are the Top 10 Tips for Managing a Hotel

AIB Business Sector Head for Hotels outlines the importance of the hotel sector to the Irish economy, the issues facing hoteliers, and AIB's role in helping the sector.

Future of hotel industry in Ireland - key economic and customer trends affecting the hotels industry.

After meeting Avid Partners with a view to changing our accountants, we came away with a better deal financially and a feeling that we were in capable hands. We feel that Avid Partners has a personal interest in the welfare of our business. Avid Partners have given us great advice, help and support and respond to our day to day queries with speed and efficiency. We feel it was a great move for us to change to Avid Partners.

Yes Avid Partners offer a range of day to day financial booking keeping services including accounts payable, accounts receivable, taxation services, payroll and compliance issues. This frees up management to focus on their key tasks within the business and keep focusing on the core areas of growing the business and effectively managing the organisation. We are happy to remove the compliance burden from companies and allow entrepreneurs be entrepreneurs.

Avid Partners can do a strategic review of your business and put forward a strategic plan on how best to expand. All of our recommendations will be fully investigated and include built in in contingencies. We can point the way for you and help you implement the solutions if requested. We will work closely with you throughout your expansion programme to ensure it is undertaken correctly. Expansion means times are good so it is a positive development for the business and one we are happy to be a part of in achieving greater success.

Yes we work with a number of companies in the industry and have a range of clients operating in professional services. We can assist in a number of ways including accountancy services, consultancy and other soft supports. We are always delighted o be engaged by fellow professional services firms as we know the business very well and understand first hand how important clients successes are to our own. We are happy to discuss specific options we could offer in greater detail as every client is different and is treated as such.