Should Entertainment Be Your Business Model?

Every business owner wants to attract the big spending consumers to their business to drop some serious cash, but most lack to think of how big spenders come. There are a range of opportunities, even in this economy, to make tons of money, you just have to cater to the right audience. A lot of businesses might not have the capital to roll around in luxury, but it is up to a business owner to justify spending a dollar, five dollars, or ten and it is up to them how they want to claim the ROI on that.

I'm going to give a scenario here about how my business partners and I use "entertainment" as our business model for one of our businesses. I have a stake in a high end hotel, where we attract a wide range of clientele. But sometimes "high end" clientele is hard to satisfy- or meet their needs. So we do something that very few hotels do, which is over-delivering to EVERY consumer. When a guest stays at our hotel, we make sure that everything they want; they get. By doing so- we have to have a lot of connections to a broad range of restaurants, connections to get last minute show tickets, among other things. One may ask the question: "How do you maintain profitability, if you are meeting every guests needs, and beyond?" The answer to that question is quite simple, we charge. Nobody said anything should be free. Think about it- all the free things companies offer its consumers, is just a start. The money is in what the consumer is attracted into buying after the free offering.

Back to the main point, offering more than what the consumer wants. We have guests that have stayed with us many times and they have proved to be LOYAL to our business. So we don't just thank them. We show them how thankful we are. What I mean by this is, we have a handful of guests that we shower with gifts. Gifts range from dinner on us to their favorite restaurant and we even rent exotic cars for them to drive while they are staying with us.

It is true that when we shower loyal guests with gifts, their stay is usually not profitable, but in the long run- it is more than profitable. Renting an exotic car costs anywhere from just under a grand to $2,000/night- sometimes more. So the beauty of the situation is, that we also don't pay for the rental; or at least the whole cost. Instead, we have worked out discounts and partnerships with area exotic car rental businesses. For example, if we are offering a complementary car to a guest for a night, lets say a Ferrari F430, we cover the cost of a couple hundred dollars for the guest to take to the restaurant and such. Since we don't use it for the whole day, the renter is not losing money on it. On the other hand, the incentive for the renter to give us the F430 at such a deep discount is that they get a referral the next time a hotel guest wants to rent an exotic car, and trust me, they make a pretty penny. If we are offering a "cheaper" car to the hotel guest, like a Bentley Continental Flying Spur, we usually don't pay a dime for the rental.

The bottom line is that the guest will remember the luxury we offer them and will continue to stay loyal to our hotel. In the end it is a win-win-win situation for all those involved. The company who rents the car, our hotel, and the guest.

The main lesson of this article is that you can offer luxury or entertainment to customers; and you don't always have to pay out of your company's pocket to offer those luxuries. Keeping loyal customers happy is one thing, but really pleasing their mind is going to ensure a life-long relationship. In our case, the "high-maintenance" guest, will also tell their high-maintenance friends, which will result in more business to our hotel.