Tegucigalpa, Oct 29 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).– The main challenges facing small hotels in Latin America and the Caribbean are access to technology and the global market, industry representatives said at a gathering in the Honduran capital.

The event, which is sponsored by the Inter-American and Caribbean Network of Small Hotels and has the backing of the Honduran government, brings together experts from Central and South America and the Caribbean.

Owners and representatives of small hotels are looking at strategies to remain competitive with the big international chains and how to improve their innovation and online marketing, Nicole Marrder, the network’s president, told EFE at the gathering, known as the 3rd Inter-American and Caribbean Small Hotels Conference.

Small hotels in the region face challenges related to their quality of services and human resources, including the areas of professional training, foreign language proficiency and customer service, she said.

“Training is something small hotels must do all the time,” Marrder said, adding that the improved promotion and marketing of small hotels in the Latin American region is a pending challenge.

The increased use of technology in small hotels will improve these businesses’ competitiveness and sustainability, Marrder said.

“Technology is indispensable for communication and a tool for reaching out to the rest of the world” and promoting the array of services offered by the hospitality industry, she said.

She advocated creating a system for online reservations in which technology leads the way in standardizing procedures in small hotels.

Dina Nuñez, representative of Honduras’ Association of Small Hotels, or Hopep, told EFE that another operational difficulty for this type of business is the lack of enough guestrooms due to credit restrictions or insufficient capital.

“Strategic alliances” among the different hotels also are necessary to improve the quality of the services they offer, Nuñez said.

“Our goal is to make small hotels the face of a country for visitors,” Nuñez said, adding that these businesses should strive to become “a tourism encyclopedia” in the region.

Roughly 70 hotels with between five and 50 guestrooms and employing between two and 10 people operate in Honduras, Hopep figures show.

In Costa Rica, hoteliers who operate small properties such as bed and breakfast inns and eco-lodges used to hope for travel writers to discover their places in the hopes of being listed in popular guides such as Lonely Planet. With a saturated tourism and hospitality market, this approach is no longer sufficient.

One recommended strategy for small hotels to adopt in Costa Rica is to find specialty online outlets for marketing and advertising. One such outlet that has been reported in The Costa Rica Star is Oveedia, a burgeoning online travel agency that specializes in promoting the Caribbean and Central America as the most attractive region for tourism in the world.

One of the neat features of Oveedia is listing niche hotels in Costa Rica that hold special appeal to guest segments such as musicians and eco-tourists. Another recommended strategy is to choose an online advertising partner with a strong social media presence that can also help with content or selling your hotel.

AmaTierra, a holistic relaxation retreat located in the mountains surrounding the Central Valley, has previously used The Costa Rica Star for advertising, press releases, promotions, and to distribute content related to topics such as nutrition, yoga and local events; this is a good choice insofar as reaching English-reading audiences who are interested in travel and tourism, two prominent sections of this publication.

The conference ends on Thursday when representatives of international cooperation agencies will participate in a panel discussion on projects for the development of the Inter-American and Caribbean Network of Small Hotels. EFE