Almo Professional A/V is “reshaping the expectation of hospitality distribution” with record sales growth and by expanding the team of experts and reseller resources available through its Almo Hospitality Division.
According to analysts at Lodging Econometrics, the U.S. Construction Pipeline kicked off the first quarter of 2018 with 5,255 projects and 636,174 rooms, up four percent by projects and six percent by rooms as compared to this quarter last year. [related]
“Since the division formed in 2017, Almo Hospitality has achieved more than 60 percent year-over-year growth and we’ve more than doubled our team and product portfolio,” said Stephen McKay, senior VP of special markets for Almo Professional A/V.
“This is in line with the Lodging Econometrics data, which shows that now is an ideal time to be working in the hospitality industry. Our goal is to help both AV and hospitality-specific resellers take advantage of all the opportunities available in this thriving market.”
Since its launch last year, the Almo Hospitality team has increased from five to 12 professionals, in positions ranging from account management and inside sales to operations and management.
The Almo Hospitality division also launched a new website geared towards customers, to be used by resellers as a resource for sales efforts. The website features detailed information about the Almo Hospitality Division and the brands, products and services available.
Additionally, the site includes “a multitude of educational information, such as webinars, videos, brochures, case studies and news, all designed to help resellers succeed in the hospitality market space,” according to the Almo announcement.
AVIXA director of program design Rachel Bradshaw confirms Almo’s optimism about the hospitality vertical market and says there are plenty of opportunities to learn more during InfoComm 2018 next month in Las Vegas.
“If you are interested in learning about, for instance, how you can best serve hospitality customers,” says Bradshaw, “there is a series of courses on that subject that you can take in the InfoComm seminar and workshop package that will take you from understanding large-scale events where you’re iterating a room across thousands of rooms for a hospitality customer to understanding how to work with content creators in that space, understanding how to work with interior designers in that space, understanding case studies in that space.”
The opportunity to learn more about the hospitality market, she says, is there for InfoComm 2018 attendees to walk away from training that will significantly impact their ability to serve those customers.
“It’ll really take you from getting the general overview of this ecosystem to understanding what partners [need and] how the customer thinks,” says Bradshaw. “And if you don’t want to know those things, you’re crazy, because it is one of the fastest-growing vertical markets in AV right now.”
