Walking around the Almo Pro A/V E4 Experience in Chicago last week attendees might have noticed a little extra focus on the hospitality market. If the prominent display of Cape Soleil Contract Collection of outdoor hospitality furniture wasn’t enough, the exhibit space dedicated to Almo’s hospitality solutions would have been a dead giveaway.
According to CI’s audience surveys, 46 percent conducted projects in hotels last year and 52 percent did business with restaurants and bars. Hospitality is far from the most targeted vertical among integration firms.
So why does Almo Pro A/V have Almo Hospitality Division?
In short, said director of business development for hospitality Apryl Lamberti, the market is good for integration firms’ business.
During E4 Experience, she described the market as being unique in its diversity. “What we’re offering is the ability for dealers to really expand relationships into a property and diversify in the products that they offer,” she said.
In other words, hotel clients have a lot of different reason to work with and integration firm and draw from several budgets to do so. Integration firms, therefore, can diversify their offerings with a single hospitality customers.
“So if somethings slows in one part of the hotel there still might be budget in other areas,” Lamberti says. “So it helps to maintain stability in their business for getting through the rough times.”
Integration firms are catching on. Since Almo Pro A/V launched its Almo Hospitality Division in 2017, it has achieved 60 percent year-over-year growth.
The Cape Soleil Contract Collection, made by leading outdoor furniture supplier Agio is an example of the distributor investing in the hospitality market opportunity. Lamberti calls the new furniture line a great opportunity for Almo dealers to further expand their offerings for the hospitality space – “not just concentrating on the in-room hotel opportunity but expanding that into other parts of the hotel.”
