Texas Hotel Management  ·  Internal

HOUUS Sales: State of Play and the Fix

Holiday Inn Express Houston Westchase. What the email record shows, the accounts in play, and a plan to capture demand the hotel already has.
As of 2026-06-18  ·  Built from the IHG and HOUUS sales threads in ace@howdyhotels.com and ace@texashotelmgt.com. Every figure cites its source email.
4.35%
RFP conversion (group / meeting leads)
194b838b964ce013
10.14%
Lead response rate
194b838b964ce013
~61 hrs
Average response time to a lead
194b838b964ce013
$54,818
Definite revenue captured, 405 room nights from 69 opportunities
194b838b964ce013
6
Companies staying in volume with NO negotiated rate
19e949903251ebb9
Jun 30
IHG CRFP window closes, 6 business cases in flight
19e944bbad7bb713

1. Why sales is struggling

HOUUS has real corporate demand walking in the door, but no system to hold it, and the selling is spread across two or three parties at once.

What is happeningSource
No single place holds the work. The companies that actually stay live only inside email picture attachments (the quarterly fliers and a business-case screenshot), not in anything searchable.19c4eaf41b7cc300, 19e045b323eb733c, 19e949903251ebb9
The same job is done two or three times. IHG now runs rate strategy through its paid service, while the outside contractor Jose was still on an $800 per month rate role, and no email shows that old role was ever cancelled.19ea7e8af8ab1e95, 194c23202d8602e5
Sales was brought in-house, then slid back out. The Feb 2025 plan was to shrink Jose and hire a coordinator. By 2026-06-18 prospecting was handed right back to Jose, GM approved.194c23202d8602e5, 19edca787546fa7a, 19edcad2bea6441a
No dedicated salesperson. The on-property sales role is a split front-desk job, so leads sit. RFP submissions have silently failed (Compass Group, Nicholls volleyball).194cdb8acf199b82, 19582d8e0e8f028a, 19e743afe077b2d8
Plain English: LNR = a fixed nightly rate for one company. RFP / CRFP = the annual bid where big companies pick their hotels. Business Edge = IHG's free discount program for small companies. Corporate Gold = IHG's quarterly fliers mailed to guests from listed companies.

2. The pipeline

Already staying, but no negotiated rate (the fastest wins)

These firms already stay in volume. They just have no contract. IHG built a business-case list on 2026-06-04 to fix this. Room-night and dollar figures are read off a screenshot, so treat as rough. Source: 19e949903251ebb9.

CompanyProduction notedADR notedStatus
SLB (Schlumberger)75+ room-night rows, largest producer$92 to $132No rate, in CRFP
L3 Technologies61 room nights (note says 100)$105 / $97No rate, in CRFP
NOV (National Oilwell Varco)~57 room nights$97 to $102No rate, in CRFP
Bechtel Group~50 room nights (note says 100)$109No rate, in CRFP
Linde Group43 room nights$98 to $101No rate, in CRFP
Air Liquide26 room nights$98 to $105No rate, in CRFP
Max MidstreamSteady, Keith Taylor ~3 to 4 nights weeklyunclearIn-house, transient

Other companies seen staying (from the IHG fliers)

Recovered by reading the quarterly Corporate Gold and Business Edge flier images. The count column header was cut off, so the counts are rough and their period is unconfirmed. Sources: 19c4eaf41b7cc300, 19e045b323eb733c.

CompanyProgramCount seen
Fresenius Medical CareBusiness Edge14 (Q1)
Siemens (Corporate vs Energy, may be 2 accounts)Corporate Gold8 (Q4), 7 (Q1)
BASFCorporate Gold8 (Q4)
Altamira USBusiness Edge8 (Q1)
Humphrey and AssociatesBusiness Edge8 (Q1)
YPFBusiness Edge7 (Q4)

Targets and leads we are chasing

CompanyTypeWhere it standsSource
Harvey Cleary (Harvey Builders)Target10% off rate switched on Dec 2025. Contact Kathleen 713-783-8710, info@harveybuilders.com, not yet secured19b337551187b7ca
Kintetsu InternationalTargetTravel agency on Katy Fwy, prefers Home2, goal to add HOUUS1963a3dbcfbe1be3
ASGMT (gas-measurement training)GroupSept training, overflow from Marriott Westchase1963a34f418024b6
Delta H Con / Houston Arcade Expo / Military BallGroup2025 overflow events. GM said "we will do that", no follow-through seen in email1961b7a1431953c1
Worley Services / BioUrjaStale2023 rate set or verbal commit, no activity in last 12 months, reconfirm or close2023 threads

Open RFPs and dropped balls

ItemStatusSource
IHG CRFP (annual bid)Open to Jun 30 6 business cases in flight19e944bbad7bb713
Meeting-space RFPs (2)Responded $119 quoted, company names not shown19e6644dad8c4bb4, 19ecd024f8d71659
Nicholls University VolleyballOpen submission error, confirm BOTH leads were sent19e743afe077b2d8
Compass Group (past)Missed believed submitted, never registered, IHG stepped in19582d8e0e8f028a

3. The system, set up properly

One rule fixes most of this: every stage has exactly one accountable owner and one clean hand-off.

StageWhat it doesOne ownerHands off to
1. Capture the companyRecord the guest's company at check-in into one listOn-property coordinatorWeekly "stayed, no rate" list to Jose
2. Make a rate accountSteady company gets a fixed rate, small ones get the free program, events become blocksJose hunts and pitchesKareem approves, IHG loads the code
3. RFP seasonDefend big accounts and win new bids each fallIHG RFP Team writes itKareem signs the submit list
4. Monitor productionWatch signed accounts keep producing, catch cold leads earlyRevParPro shows the numbersJose re-engages any slipping account
Before launching: confirm who sits the on-property coordinator seat (Diana, or empty) and retire or fold in Jose's old $800 per month rate role now that IHG owns rate, so we are not paying twice.

4. The portfolio benefit: HOUZN and HOURP ride the same engine

RevParPro already scopes everything by hotel. Adding the two SpringHill Suites is adding two rows, not new software. Build it once for HOUUS, the SpringHills get it for almost nothing.

LayerShared across all 3 hotelsPer-property
Pipeline, lead scoring, guest-company capture, contact lookup, find-nearbyYes, one codebaseEach hotel uploads its own data and location
Loyalty program and RFP channel at the endNoIHG for HOUUS, Marriott for the SpringHills
On-property sales seatNoHOUZN has a sales director, HOURP and HOUUS do not

Rollout order: HOUUS first (build it here), then HOURP (same gap, biggest gain, build the Marriott branch once), then HOUZN (reuse it, supplements its existing director).

5. Build vs outsource

Recommendation: hybrid. Keep Jose at $800 per month through this RFP season, build the one missing piece into RevParPro so THM owns the system, then re-decide on Jose once the hotel no longer needs a person to copy guest names into a spreadsheet.

Honest gap: a clean "Jose costs X vs the build costs Y" comparison cannot be made yet. The IHG service fee and the coordinator salary are not in the mailboxes and need to be pulled. The build itself is roughly $0 in infrastructure, mostly engineering time.

6. Action plan

Next 7 days · time-critical

ActionOwnerDue
Lock the IHG CRFP: hand the 6 business cases to the IHG team, approve the submit listJose feeds, Kareem approvesBefore Jun 30
Email Kareem one question: is Diana still our sales coordinatorAceThis week
Confirm both Nicholls volleyball leads were actually submittedKareemThis week
Check the books: is Jose still billing $800 per monthAce / JunaidThis week
Authorize the one build: guest-company capture into RevParProAce approves, Woz buildsThis week

Next 30 to 90 days

ActionOwner
Build guest-company capture and account tracking, then harvest the trapped flier companies into RevParProWoz
Set the front-desk habit: fill the company field at every check-inKareem / coordinator
Pull the two missing cost numbers (IHG fee, coordinator salary) for a real build-vs-buy viewAce / Junaid
Port the contact-lookup tool from Mission Control, add the RFP-season target listWoz
Turn the engine on for HOURP, then HOUZNWoz
Re-decide Jose's role once capture is automatedAce